Er Mu - Release that Witch

But, the aristocracy will certainly protest, Ferlin thought disapprovingly, and with that, the theater will then be placed under pressure from the nobility. Which will finally lead to the dissolution of the crew… Hang on, he suddenly realized that there lived no other noble in Border Town beside Sir Pine and His Royal Highness, while the latter was even the one who formed the crew.

In other words, does His Royal Highness actually intend to only show the dramas to the civilian population? It will be impossible to even earn a few copper royals from their hand, ah. But the actor’s payment will also be the same as it was in the Longsong Stronghold, from the start it was given that this business would turn over a loss. Does His Royal Highness plan to show the dramas just for the entertainment?

“But dear,” Irene said, not noticing the changes in Ferlin’s expression, “Although the first two stories were already totally exciting, compared with the third one ‘The Diary of a Witch’, those two are nothing! I dare bet that even in Redwater City, King’s City or any other of those big cities, if they read this the theaters would start immediately recruiting a crew for it, even with special rehearsal and advance advertising! I have to say, Scrolls really is a genius writer. The book ‘The Diary of a Witch’, no matter if it is in the story’s content or its style of narrating, they are all far more advanced than any of today’s dramas.”

“Are you sure?” When Ferlin saw her solemn expression he had to fight hard not to laugh, “In Longsong Stronghold even I could often hear Mister Kadin Faso famous name, his “Delicate Rose” and “Prince seeking for Love” are works which were praised by all, even outside of our kingdom’s borders. I’ve even heard that other kingdoms have sent their own troupes to observe and learn from him, do you think that this drama could be better than any of these classic plays?”

“Of course, I’m sure. Or do you doubt my vision, dear!” She began to roughly tell him the story, “Not to mention the plot, even its narrative technique is something you have never seen before. Compared to the dramas of the past, where you listened to the story in the third party, this story focuses firmly on the perspective of the three witches for the whole time. Even though the decisions of the three of them all have a far-reaching impact on each other, they have no knowledge about this.

“But near the middle of the story, their seemingly unrelated strings finally gather together in the same place, and from then on the three witches form one inseparable whole. I have to say, this new narrative style of developing several storylines at the same time will certainly cause a sensation without a doubt. Of course, this won’t only be restricted to Border Town, I even wonder how many people can understand what level it had reached.”

She excitedly got a pen and paper, to immerse herself into writing the letters, “That’s out of the question, I have to quickly call my theater’s partner to come over, I really want to see the surprised looks on their faces!”

Ferlin however, stepped forward to grasp her hand, “Hold on, Irene, don’t you feel… that the story is too contrary to common sense?”

After listening to his wife’s repetition, he also felt that the whole story was very exciting. Showing both the good and the evil side in humanity’s nature, that the good and evil, were both overlapping each other, but its description of the witches and the church’s interpretation were fully opposed with each other.

Moreover, its content was also too delicate. For example, the third witch due to the concern and care of her family, could release and develop her ability freely, ultimately discover that the story of the demonic bite was nothing more than a lie.

Now with the exception of their ability to control magic there was no longer any difference between the witches and the ordinary people. They also only want to laugh, cry, meet their loved ones and grieve brokenheartedly when their loved ones pass away. Is His Highness, Lord Roland not afraid that news of this will spread, is he not afraid that the Church will come?

“Violate common sense? No … Ferlin, before they become a witch, they are ordinary girls, right?”

“Well, that’s right.”

“Then what if it was me?” Irene looked with wide open eyes at Ferlin, “If I became a witch, would you think that I am evil?”

“No, of course not,” Ferlin quickly answered. “You’ll always be the good girl I know.”

“Then if we give birth to a daughter, and she became a witch?”

“Of course that would be even more impossible.” He quickly closed his mouth, suddenly understanding in his heart what his wife wanted to say to him. Evaluating an unknown witch, and one relative with whom one has lived together from morning to the night as evil, were completely different.

“Yes,” Irene nodded with satisfaction, “If we really got a witch…”

He knelt down on one knee, taking the position used when swearing allegiance and said: “In that case, I would be just like the father of the third witch within the story, like him, I would do my best to take good care of her.”

“That’s a qualified answer,” She put the quill down and laughingly said. “I think… we can try it now.”

“As you bid, my dear,” he whispered softly into her ear, only to then pick her up and walk directly into the bedroom.

Two days after Ashes departed, beyond all expectation Maggie returned to Border Town, once more appearing in front of everyone.

After understanding the reason, her return then turned into a warm welcome for a new member of the Witch Alliance.

She was greatly moved by the banquet which was a celebration in her honor and was also being held in the castle’s back garden. The top of a long iron shelf had been covered with all kind of meat which was free for anyone to take and barbecue.

The range of seasoning was also very rich, there were salt, oil, chilies, peppers, as well as Roland personally created barbeque sauce. Which was made from cooking a stew made out of all kinds of different mushrooms from the Concealing Forest together with a whole chicken. He also added a mixture out of salt, sugar and wheat flour, which let him forget the non-existent Monosodium Glutamate(MSG). Maggie almost ate to the point of bursting her stomach before she stopped.

On the afternoon of the same day Roland also tested her ability.

According to Nightingale’s judgment, her magical capacity when compared with all the other witches could be described as among the medium level. Furthermore, her ability to freely change any kind of bird was only possible on the premise that she had seen it before. Changing her form used up a comparatively large amount of magic, and during one day she could change her form around 4 to 5 times, while maintaining her shape only consumed very small amount of magic. Her ability could be classified as belonging to the summon type and was also suppressed by the God’s Stone of Retaliation. Her favorite bird to change into was the pigeon, but Roland noted that she would always be a lot bigger than the regular bird no matter in what kind of bird she changed into. For example, if she turned into a sparrow, in Roland’s view, her sized would equivalent to a common pigeon, while if she was to change into a pigeon, she had almost at the same size as a sea eagle.

This point left Roland feeling quite sad that Maggie was incapable of changing into any of the fantasy creatures he had painted for her such as a Phoenix, Griffin, or a Kunpeng.

In addition, to Ashes original intention there was still something else he had to pay attention to, that was the question of, what kind of abilities did the witches gathered by Tilly poses? In case she had many auxiliary witches who could significantly increase the efficiency of farming, he didn’t mind to exchange for them with his technology.

For this reason, Roland decided to write a long letter addressed to Tilly. He started with showing her that they were in a natural alliance, and then warned her about the Church’s intention to unify the continent, and lastly he handed her an olive branch, expressing his desire that they could help each other and in so doing that they could progress together. Now he only had to wait until Maggie went to the Fjords next month, and permit her to deliver the letter without having to go through an extra effort.

The next day, the Prince was welcomed by another piece of good news.

The factory for the production of the steam engines has finally been completed. It was located on the opposite shore of the Redwater River, on the western side, next to Leaves’ experimental field. The entire site was surrounded by a wooden fence, there was also had a smooth and simple road leading to the pontoon bridge. In Roland’s plan, this area would in the future be turned into an industrial park.

As a result of his wish to expand the building space to far out as was possible, the factory was built using a comparatively easy to use wood material, covering an area of??about 1000 square meters. Anna’s self-built machines had also already been shipped in. There were two steam-driven boring machines, two manual milling machines, a manual grinding machine as well as a manual lathe.

Although the machines were quite simple, at least in theory, its workmanship was nonetheless of the best quality. Apart from the pedals and the other similar parts which were made out of wood, all the other parts were made out of wrought iron or cut out of steel. It could be said that it had been processed from the best materials currently in existence and with the highest possible precision.

Roland feared that he currently would only have ten workers that could come to work in the factory. They were the former town blacksmiths and their apprentices who had seen his presentation in the castle backyard and were now recruited by Roland with a fixed monthly salary of fifty silver royals so that they could learn how to operate the high-end machines. The blacksmiths, together with their forging tools, would all move into the brick house that stood outside the factory. Yet with the exception of some unimportant parts, the steam engine would soon be produced by using only these machines.

To celebrate the opening of the factory and to strengthen morale, Roland decided to gather all the City Hall officials and held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and together with a short speech in front of the factory building. With Echo’s simulation of a gun salute, Graycastle Industrial Company had formally announced its establishment.

During the next few days, as the company’s executive Roland came to visit the factory several times. Demonstrating the uses of the machines in person as well as an overall of the steam manufacturing process in general.

The best way Roland could think of to let the illiterate blacksmith grasp the processing and assembling of a steam engine was to map the whole process out. Following the usual process of creating a simple manual, he labeled every part with a name, number and size. Afterward, he used a diagram to show the installation order and the connection pattern. With this task, Soraya had also helped him tremendously in making sure that he could finish this task quickly.

The first few days of production went exactly as he had expected, almost no part that they had made had met the requirements, not even to speak of trying to piece together a whole steam engine.

However, Roland didn’t care about the scrapping rate, in the hands of Anna, in just the blink of an eye, these formerly defective products were soon remade into a new plate. And he believed that with repeated practice, it was only a matter of time before these blacksmiths mastered the production methods to be used in the new era.

In addition to the industrial factory, the Prince also changed the backyard at the North Slope Mine into his own military factory and was now mainly using it for the production of revolver rifles and bullets. Since by now, Karl’s recommended “furnace expert” Lesya had also arrived at Border Town, a new batch of airbags had been installed, substantially increasing the temperature of the furnaces, even making it possible to independently calcining cement powder, making the former calcination room obsolete.

But limited by the current crafting ability, the revolver rifles and bullets production was still completely in Anna’s hands. At this moment, Roland was still busy designing a bullet stamping sheet for a stamping press, although its cutting efficiency wouldn’t be as good as Anna’s direct forming, it could at least reduce her burden.