Er Mu - Release that Witch

Roland shook his head. “I want to build a road that can accommodate at least two carriages side by side. A road that is flat and straight, and won’t be covered with water during rain, exactly like the road in Border Town.”

“You mean a macadam road?” the Acting Duke looked a little surprised, “The costs of such a road isn’t low, it requires the mason to cut the stones and then they have to pick out the stones with the right sizes which can be used together. A gravel road to Border Town would at least cost five thousand gold royals, and with all due respect Your Highness, we will never get so much money without a tax increase.”

“The stronghold only needs to provide the workforce.” The Prince stated bluntly, “You will issue a recruitment notice throughout the whole Western Territory, not just Longsong Stronghold, including all of the other noble’s territories. The monthly salary will be six silver royals, with that sum, I believe there should be plenty of applicants.”

“For laborer, six silver royals are quite a high salary,” Petrov nodded, “may you tell me how many people you want to recruit?”

“At least two thousand people,” Roland replied.

The monthly cost for such an amount of handymen wasn’t a small sum, together with masons and gravel workers, in the eyes of others, it would definitely regard as a ridiculously high costs. Very few Lords would be willing to put their money into building something which seemingly wouldn’t provide and return. This thought process could also be seen in Petrov’s expression. But now, with Border Town being able to sell steam engines, and to maintain the balance between income and expenditure, putting the remaining money into upgrading the infrastructure was undoubtedly the best choice to make. After all, Roland never intended to store all the gold royals in a vault, which was often the desire of many of the newly rich.

The construction of a high-quality road connecting the stronghold and Border Town was of the highest importance, not only to facilitate the trade between both places, but was also a prerequisite for the rapid deployment of the armed forces. If the trip is an inconvenience, even if I receive the news of an attack on the stronghold at the earliest possible moment, I would only be able to reach the stronghold in three days, I am afraid that by that time, the enemy’s banner will already be flying over the highest tower.

“I understand,” Petrov said.

“Now that you have so much to do, I will soon return to Border Town. Do a good job, ‘Mr. Ambassador’, don’t let me down.”

“What do you plan to do with the people held in jail, Your Highness?” Petrov asked, after a moment’s pause.

For the first time, Roland didn’t know what to answer, and after a moment of silence he spoke, “Contain them, they won’t be able to live for long anyway.”

…

Climbing onto Little Town, the Prince embarked on his homeward journey.

“You do not seem to be in a good mood?” said Nightingale after appearing next to him. “Is it because of the civilians?”

“They were all forced by Timothy,” Roland sighed. “If they hadn’t taken those pills, they would not act like his minions at all and wouldn’t have to die on an unfamiliar land.”

“This is not your fault.” The Nightingale reached out and held his arm.

“Of course not,” Roland said without hesitation, “If I hadn’t stopped them, Border Town would have become the victim of Timothy’s desire for power. And of course, the Church that made those pills is also one of the culprits.”

“That’s the reason why you will wreck the Church, to end the dispute, so that people no longer have to kill each other for such senseless reasons, right?” Nightingale asked with a smile, “No matter if they are ordinary people or witches, under your rule, they will all live a happy life. ”

“…” Roland looked into Nightingale’s shiny eyes and gently nodded, “Ah, that’s a promise.”

The sea was like a blue earth, only more flat.

If Maggie had been here, she would be constantly chirping and she could also ask her about how far it still was to the island, nowadays, the only sound she heard were the sea’s waves crashing against the sides of the ship. Although hearing that for a long time became tedious, for the crew, it was actually a lucky beat, it meant that today was a day good for sailing.

Oh, now there is another one, Ashes thought. Under the pressure of a foot, the old teak board issued a slight squeak sound, telling her that someone was coming.

“I did not expect that you actually lived in a place like the Sleeping Island,” a white-haired old man stepped to her side, his hands resting on the railing, “That place, although it looks great, once the tide comes, most of the land will be flooded by the sea, it’s not suitable for a settlement. Why not live in Crescent Moon Bay? It is the second largest Island of the Fjords, there are still many uninhabited spaces there.

One Eye Jack, the Captain of ‘The Charming Beauty’, as his name suggested, he had a blindfold on his face which completely concealed his left eye. He was also one of the few Captains that were willing to transport goods for the witches, even though the people in the Fjords didn’t hate witches, unlike the inhabitants on the mainland, but they also didn’t love dealing with outsiders.

“Not everyone is willing to deal with witches like you are,” Ashes smiled, “The sea will indeed flood sleeping Island, but it is precisely because of this, that as the third largest island of the Fjords, is still a deserted island.

“The third largest island doesn’t mean that it also offers the third largest amount of living area,” Captain Jack just shrugged his shoulders. “If you cannot live on it, its size doesn’t matter, for example, the Searing Flame Island.”

“What the witches are best at, is altering nature,” she said earnestly, “Moreover, now where the island has became our home. As long as we don’t have to face the suppression of the Church, we can create an entirely different world there, a… ‘New World’.” She paused for a moment. ”How long has it been since the last time you were on Sleeping Island?”

The Captain took off his hat and scratched the back of his head, “It’s been almost a month now. Last time I had to deliver a batch of witches and a warehouse full of pearl rice. To tell you the truth, when they saw the group of young women frolicking on the ship, the expression on the faces of my sailors was only too foolish. You know how difficult it is for a stripeling to sail over the sea, they are similar to a volcano that can erupt at any time, but fortunately I stopped them from drinking. Otherwise, my beloved ship may have met with a disaster.”

Ashes automatically ignored the latter half of his words, “A month is enough time to make radical changes, Captain. I bet that when you see Sleeping Island again, it will be quite differently than from the Island you remember.”

“Is that so?” Jack whistled. “Then I will look forward to it… Wait a minute, what’s that?” He leaned over the side of the ship, trying to look ahead, “Monkey! There is something in front of the mast!”

The sailor, known as Monkey, used his hands and feet to nimbly climbed to the crow’s nest at the top of the mast, and then lifted the observation mirror, “Captain, that should be an island!

“Island? What nonsense are you speaking, “Captain took out his compass and glanced at it,” We still aren’t near Sleeping Island, but except for it, what other island could it be?”

“But it really is an island, Captain, I swear!”

“To me your vow is as useful as a fart, let me take a look,” Jack said, taking off his hat.

“No, no, Captain, do not you come up here, up here, the wind is very strong,” after observing for a while, Monkey continued, “By the Three Gods!” He shouted, incredulously, “I know what it is, it really is Sleeping Island! It’s become taller!”

…

The Charming Beauty slowly approached the pier of the Sleeping Island, and the boatman could scarcely believe his eyes.

The towering island was similar to a small mountain which stood out above the sea level. The mountain wall was perfectly straight and precipitous, distancing the top of it by at least several feet from the sea level.

Ashes, who arrived at the island for the first time showed a much calmer reaction than most of the other people, which was in the eyes of Captain Jack were the very symbol of calm and self-confidence.

“You win,” he sighed. “I never expected that you would be able to make an island rise. It is not surprising that the bunch of madmen in the Church hate your witches after all, your abilities make you almost comparable to the gods.”

“Uncle Jack, it’s not like you said, that the island has risen up,” a young girl that stood at the pier to welcome them laughingly said,” we just built a ‘wall’ around Sleeping Island, if you wait for a moment, you can come with us and take a look to understand it.” Finished speaking, she turned to Ashes and bowed her head in salute, “You have finally come back, Lady Tilly has been talking about you for a long time.”

Ashes touched her head, “You don’t need to be so polite, Molly. I will have to trouble you with carrying my stuff.”

“Leave it to me,” said the girl, patting her chest.

After the sailors had moved the grain from the cargo hold to the pier, Molly summoned her magic servant, a light blue sphere with two arms that could be transformed at will. It took hold of a dozen bags of grain with its arm. Soon after, the arm turned into a net, and was firmly grabbed by the other arm while the sphere floated in the air. Then she proudly said, “Let’s go.”

“Oh, that’s truly a convenient ability,” the captain slapped his fist in his palm. “Men, have you seen it? A work for which so many of you are needed, was done by a little girl.”

The constructed pier of the Island reached to the half the wall’s height, if they ever wanted to step on the top and enter the island, the entire group of people would have to climb the flight of steps which circled along the wall. Ashes instantly understood the idea behind “building a wall circling the island.”

Instead of raising the island, they had rather raised the outline of the island, turning the entire Sleeping Island into a basin surrounded by a thick edge. And this edge, which circled the island, was the so-called wall Molly had spoken off. At the inner side of the wall, there were many stairs leading down it and nestled below them laid Sleeping Island.

“This… is incredible,” Captain Jack smacked his lips. “You have turned this island into a city, just imagine how it would look like at high tide, my God, you would be living below sea level!”

“It’s indeed as you have said,” Molly was unable to mask her grin, “Because of this, we also have two docks, one at the bottom of the ocean, and one at sea level. Of course, you can also say that one is at sea level and the other is in midair.”

Coming to the center of the island, they came across of all kinds of houses. Unlike those traditional wood or brick houses, these buildings seemed like the wall as if they had just grown out of the ground, fusing the body of the house together with the ground.

There is no doubt that, together with the wall, they count as a Lotus masterpieces.

“Sister Ashes, the house at the most northern end is Lady Tilly’s palace, I will take the Captain with me to complete the delivery, you don’t need to come along for this, it would be for the best if you first went to go see the Lady,” the little girl waved in the direction of the path.

Ashes nodded, and said goodbye to the two, quickly following the path to the North. Along the way she saw a lot of familiar faces, they all either bowed in greeting or waved at her with a smile. The homeland of the witches, the word grew brighter and brighter within Ashes’ heart, filling her whole body with strength.

The founder of the homeland was Tilly Wimbledon, the Queen of Witches.

And contrary to the Royal Palace, her spacious house had no guards in it, and there were also no locks on the doors. Allowing Ashes to walk through the vestibule, and directly step into the hall, only to see a familiar back in front of her.

She quietly walked on tiptoe to behind her counterpart and blindfolding the gray-haired woman’s eyes with her hands.

“I perceived you as soon as you reached the door,” the other laughed. “Do not forget how I picked you out of the crowd to begin with.”