Er Mu - Release that Witch

“Certainly,” Roland smiled. “But unfortunately, you will be facing off against a unique type of witch who won’t be affected by it, her method of fighting is also similar to that of a knight- she will even be using a greatsword.”

“You mean to tell me, she’s a witch that is a master at melee fighting?” Carter glanced at Nightingale who was standing beside Roland.

“More or less. But because her ability is of the self-strengthening type, regardless of whether it is her strength or her speed, they will all be far beyond that of an ordinary human.” Roland continued.

“You have to be mentally prepared. Her control over her body and her power is several times greater than that of that death-row criminal after he took those pills.”

“Several times greater… Your Royal Highness, do you know what this means?” Carter was shocked.

“I will most probably be unable to keep up with her reaction speed, even if I’m carefully observing her movements. If she is as powerful as you say she is, I am afraid I won’t be able to beat her.”

“Theoretically speaking, your chance of winning is actually zero,” the Prince confirmed, but he then handed him a strange firearm, “but by using this weapon, your chances of winning should increase dramatically.”

“This is… the new gun?” Carter grabbed the weapon with both hands. Because the trigger and the barrel parts were very similar to that of a flintlock, the knight was also able to determine that it should belong to the same type of weapon. Even though its size wasn’t as big as the former, after he held it in his hand it was still heavier than the former flintlock. Particularly noteworthy to him was that, with the exception of the handle, which was made out of wood, all the rest of the weapon was made out of metal. With its smooth lines and its sharp corners, as well as its light white metallic luster, the weapon was a thing of unspeakable beauty.

It was the first time he saw such a weapon, and he immediately fell in love with it.

“It is called a revolver,” Roland pulled out another weapon with the same shape, and let the beehive-like-wheel pop out to its left, “Now let me instruct you on how to use it.”

Carter soon found out that its operation was simpler than that of the flintlock gun. The projectile and gunpowder had already been integrated into one unit, and as long as the cylinder was loaded it would be ready to fire. There were five holes in the cylinder, which meant that each cylinder could be filled with up to five rounds of ammunition. This was probably also the reason why it was classed as a revolver.

There was a hole where the revolver’s hammer met the cylinder, if the hammer hit the hole, a spark would be created and a loud friction sound would then be heard. Maybe there is flint hidden inside it, he thought. But this bullet’s design really is much too incredible, this light-yellow shell is made out of a thin copper plate, and the body appears to be perfectly round but also totally smooth at the same time. I can’t even see any cracks or gaps in the outer shell. The bullet’s front is slender while its rear is as thick as my index finger. It fits very accurately into the holes in the cylinder. How were they able to produce this?

“The ammunition still isn’t finished yet, so you have to always pay attention to the opening at the bottom of the bullet,” Roland performed a shooting motion, “like me, you have to always keep pointing the muzzle downwards. Don’t let the powder leak out from the opening. After each shot, you have to clean up the revolver’s bullet nest, or else the scattered gunpowder will start to accumulate inside the hole.”

“Unfinished goods?”

“Yeah,” the Prince shrugged, “There is an important part that still needs to be resolved, but if everything goes well, we can finish it before the start of the duel. The hole at the bottom will then be sealed so that you will no longer need to worry about losing gunpowder.”

When the bottom becomes sealed, how will be the gunpowder inside the bullet be ignited? Carter thought this, but soon decided not to think any further about this seemingly impossible problem. After all, he was not as knowledgeable as His Royal Highness, who knew so much.

That’s right, he is erudite and multi-talented. At present, Carter already admired the 4th Prince and prostrated himself in admiration. No matter if it were a master alchemist or an astrologer who held a high position at court, none of them had invented as many strange things in addition, all of Roland’s products had a great value. His inventions were unlike Snow powder, which was the kind of invention that could only be used as a toy for the nobility.

The steam engine invented by His Royal Highness was currently being used for mining and pumping operations, and his guns and cannons helped repel the demonic beast and also the Duke’s coalition. Now, Carter was already convinced that as long as he had enough time, the throne of the Kingdom of Graycastle would definitely end up in the hands of Roland Wimbledon — the great Lord of Border Town.

The distance to the target was ten meters, but apart from the issue with the distance, there was also the problem that the human- mark was only the size of one’s hand. Carter took on a shooting stance in accordance with the teachings of His Highness. He then held the gun in both hands, leaned his body slightly forwards, aligned the barrel in line with the center of the target, and then pulled the trigger.

Sparks and gas were ejected from both sides of the wheel, and a loud noise hurt his ears. It felt like someone had shoved him backward, and his arms were also unconsciously pushed upwards. When the smoke finally cleared, the target still seemed to be intact.

“Go on,” said Roland.

Carter took a deep breath, and then fired the remaining four bullets. However, the result was still the same, no bullet had hit the target.

“This…” Carter was shaken, but when he looked to His Royal Highness, he discovered that the latter didn’t seem to care.

“With its shorter barrel, the pistol’s accuracy and range aren’t as good as the rifle’s, so it’s entirely reasonable for you to miss. Plus, the bullet’s diameter is close to twelve millimeters. With the diameter to be nearly twelve millimeters, the recoil also has to be much larger than from the flintlock.” The Prince began to explain, but Carter couldn’t understand what he wanted to say to him. “All in all, you only have to follow my instructions and keep on practice a lot. If one day, before the duel, you are able to hit the target with all the five bullets, you will really a chance to win. Oh, and that’s right… don’t forget to collect the bullet casings, they can be reloaded and used more than once.”

Ashes sat at the top of the castle, waiting for the arrival of the day of the competition.

During the past few days, her attempts at persuading the other witches had not shown any progress. The stubbornness of the witches had greatly exceeded her expectations, whether it was the older women like Scrolls or the minors such as like Lily. They all refused her invitation. The only difference between them was their manner and reason in rejecting her.

Some chose to stay because of Roland, while others didn’t want to leave the Witch Cooperation Association, but in the end the ten witches had all gathered together into turned into one unbreakable piece of iron. As for Anna and Nana, both of whom had originally come from Border Town, Ashes wasn’t in the mood to even try to lure them away. In particular, when Ashes stood in front of the Anna, the magic she could feel coming from her was completely different to anything else she had ever felt before. Her magic felt like it was as hard as steel, but at the same time it also had a smooth and dense feeling to it. It felt as if she was separated from Ashes by a wall of iron.

Among the many witches that Tilly had been able to gather, none of them had ever given her that feeling. After inquiring the other witches on this topic, she learned that Anna’s way of controlling her flame was actually quite unique. However, how could it be, that even though her flame was invisible, it still felt as if there was a real barrier present? Ashes simply couldn’t understand this.

As for Border Town, in comparison to the other towns and villages that Ashes had seen before, it was quite different. If she were to put it into words, Ashes would have to say that felt as if the town was full of vitality, and that the people here all seemed to be holding on to a purpose for each and every day.

From her position high up on top of the castle, she had a perfect panoramic view over the whole town. It seemed that at this moment, the most intense flow of people was in the area for the new houses. They had separated a square site as the new district, and within that area, every house looked similar to the next.

There was an endless stream of carriages continually bringing in new batches of bricks from the North of the town while the masons were starting to dig out the foundations for a dozen new similarly shaped houses. Soon after, they could start to raise the walls, which was all done surprisingly quickly. Within a day, the walls had already reached around the height of a child.

Looking into the Northeastern direction, she could see smoke constantly rising up into the sky. The smoke wasn’t caused by a mountain fire, but rather was the workings of the brick kilns. In particularly, there were several thick brick towers that had been erected, all of which at first glance, like a forest of colossal red tree trunks from the distance.

Looking in the direction of the river, she could see some of the several sailboats that were arriving at Border Town every day since she had been here. Most of these sailboats came from Longsong Stronghold and were all loaded with so many items that the unloaded goods would almost fill up the entire shipyard.

A group of guards were always patrolling around the yard while keeping those strange wooden pikes in their hands. Unlike the guards from some of the other cities’ garrisons, they weren’t walking around languidly for a short time before disappearing to find a place to hide and take a nap. No, they always marched in a straight line, moving between the terminal and the yard, and sometimes would even take the initiative to come forward and help to unload the ships, all of which Ashes had no memory of ever witnessing such a scene ever before.

What kind of spell had Roland Wimbledon used that had given these people so much enthusiasm for constructing this new town in such a barren and desolated land?

Just at that moment, from overheard, Ashes heard a burst of gugu sounds from a flock of birds. She raised her head and saw how a large fat pigeon dropped down from the sky and landed on her shoulder.

“Finally, I have found you,” said the dove beside her cheek.

“Has Tilly sent you?” Ashes pulled some wheat corns from her pocket and threw them on the roof.

The Pigeon swooped right over, before suddenly realizing, “I’m not a bird, gurr!”

“After you turn back into a human we can speak again.”

“Okay. goo,” when the voice faded, the pigeon’s feathers suddenly expanded, and released a white light from the gaps between its feathers. Its head moved up, followed by the rapid expansion of its body. Simultaneously, its feathers began to shrink and were turned into a bundle of long white hair.

No matter how many times she saw this happen, Ashes would always be amazed. Maggie’s ability as a witch, which allowed her to change into a variety of birds, besides the problem that she was quite fat in her bird form, was wonderful and charming ability. She would even sometimes long to have Maggie’s ability, rather than being an extraordinary who didn’t have to be afraid of the power of God’s Stone of Retaliation. She was much more eager to have the ability to travel from one place to another. With this ability, as long as she wanted to see Tilly, she could immediately go to her, no matter where Tilly was at the time.

“Even with the trace I could follow, it still wasn’t that easy to locate your position, ah,” Maggie’s entire body trembled as if she was drying her feathers, “The distance was so far that my magical stone statue couldn’t even sense the magical fluctuation coming from your mark. Fortunately, Shadow could still tell me your approximate whereabouts. When I flew over the Fallen Dragon Ridge, the magical stone finally showed some reaction.”