Er Mu - Release that Witch

After placing the novelty goods she’d bought from the convention market one by one on the table, there was in addition to the four perfumed soaps along with a bottle of wine.

This bottle of wine and the common wine found in pubs were different. It had almost no color and was instead pure and transparent with no difference to water. She remembered that according to the products description it was called White Liquor, having a higher concentration of alcohol, it wasn’t suitable to be ingested in larger amounts.

‘White Liquor’, she smiled, looking at it from its outer appearance, it really suited its name.

Pulling out the wooden cork, May poured herself a cup. Raising the cup, a burst of flavor hit her face and entered her nose directly, making her frown. However, after the first strong scent, a bouquet of delicious flavors entered her nose, they were sweet and mellow, not like the inferior watered wine from the taverns.

As a result of devoting herself to acting and the high amount of attention that gathered, May seldom went to the pubs. When a play became a great success, and the theater collective went to celebrate, only then would she follow them to go drink two cups of wine. Making sure that she never reached the state of becoming drunk where she’d be unable to speak as she had witnessed numerous actors who got so drunk that they forgot all sense of self-control. Instead, she was always controlling her drinking so that it would never affect her mind.

However, today May had a strong impulse to want to get drunk. Otherwise, she would have never bought such expensive Liquor against Carter’s advice. Wanting to try the story she had heard from other actors, that when they got drunk, they would be able to shield of all distraction and concerns, seeing the true answer that lay at the bottom of their heart.

May closed his eyes, raised the cup to her head and poured the drink into her mouth. Immediately a hot spicy sensation exploded in her throat, causing her to directly spurt out the liquor again, and to cough out until tears arose.

Hell, is this thing really wine?

Waiting until the burning sensation had completely faded, she bit her lip and tried once more — this round; she only dared to take a sip of the liquor. Once again, a spicy flavor appeared, but this time it was followed by an intense richness and mellowness when those two flavors mixed together, she actually couldn’t say if it was a good drink, but it brought a kind of strange sensation with it.

Around a quarter of an hour later, May felt a dizzy feeling overlaying her mind.

She took a fist-sized box from her pocket and opened its lid, and saw herself in a bright mirror. This mirror was different from her previous bronze mirrors or the thin silver mirrors, its surface was smooth without a scratch and her reflection was was very clear, presumably making it very valuable. Within this mirror, May could see her flushed cheeks and her confused eyes.

It was a gift given by the Knight as they parted, she’d wanted to refuse, but the other side had turned away so fast that he hadn’t given her the opportunity to give it back. As he walked away, he once more turned around and waved goodbye to her.

Speaking earnestly, when Carter Lannis shut his mouth, his appearance can absolutely be regarded as being impeccable. But if he wasn’t such a chatterbox, I might not have stayed behind.

So, should she really take root here? Far away from the bustling city, starting once more in this remote town, where beside the few people in the crew, no one else knew her identity… The fear of the unknown only made it harder for her to make up her mind.

May put the letter on the table she had received several days ago, and spread it out — it had been forwarded to her by the Prince and Irene, the writer was Longsong Manager Petrov. From the letter, she learned that the stronghold theater had announced that her current whereabouts were unknown and that Petrov hoped that she would soon return to Longsong Stronghold to continue her performance.

His Highness the Prince hadn’t concealed this news and instead given her the right to choose.

After draining the rest of the cup, May’s vision gradually became dizzy.

She staggered to the desk, spread out a piece of paper and began writing a reply.

Within her overlapping surging train of thoughts, she saw the stronghold theater, Irene, Ferlin Eltek, the thundering cheer of the crowd in the town square, and those third-rate actors who lost their self-control after performing together with her. Eventually, these images all slowly faded, leaving only the memory of Carter Lannis behind, as he invited her with a grin.

“Hello, Miss May, may I have a drink with you?”

…

Roland sat at his desk and was reading with great interest through the recent report of the First Army from his Chief Knight.

Compared to his meticulous appearance from several months ago, nowadays Carter’s iceberg like face often carried some other emotions, letting him appear much less calm, and instead giving him an aura of expectation and eagerness.

Most probably this has something to do with the Star of the West, Roland thought.

About the event of Carter’s and May’s recent stroll, Roland had also heard about it. After all, as one of the top members of the First Army, he also represented the Army, so every movement would naturally be noticed. Not to mention May, the woman walking at his side, belonged to the kind that would draw the attention of all men to herself.

When they had appeared side by side on the streets of Border Town for the first time, his guards had immediately passed along the news to his ears.

Regarding this kind of matter, Roland didn’t really mind it. Carter was roughly two to three years older than he was. So it was reasonable to say that it was a strange that he still wasn’t married. And if he could actually find his other half in the Western Territory it wasn’t that bad, as long as it didn’t interfere with his work.

According to the Knight’s report, the First Army had been equipped with about 200 revolving rifles, adding almost a dozen with every day — in fact, if the raw materials were sufficient, Anna’s production capacity could be increased by several times. But at the same time she was also in charge of the refining pig iron into steel and manufacturing the steam engine, which was slowing her down.

However, this speed was still acceptable. After all, the First Army was only 600 people strong, so another one and a half month would be enough to entirely replace all their weapons. Furthermore, before the next expansion of the population, the military’s size couldn’t be further expanded anyway.

Another point of the report was the formation of the Second Army.

In order to make the training convenient as well as maintain their secrecy, Roland had the people recruited from Longsong Stronghold all incorporated into the second army. Currently, they were all undergoing disciplinary training, which followed the same pattern as the military’s training. Then it would be time for ideological education in the evening, in the attempt to let these people as soon as possible think of themselves at the protector of the Western Territory, implanting in them the believe that their loved ones’ safety needed to be protected by them.

“At present, the training of the Second Army is progressing well; the current estimation is that they should be ready to start with the shooting practice in a week. By that time, enough weapons should have been replaced making it possible to have a flintlock to match every hand.” Carter concluded.

This was the advantage of guns, to train a cold weapon soldier, at least one year’s time was needed; to teach a knight, five or six years had to be spent on training; while soldiers equipped with guns could already be dispatched on military missions after only a month of training. Furthermore, the longer a battle lasted, the bigger advantage of firearms became — after all, pulling a trigger was much safer than fighting with a sword.

“During the shooting practice, the supervisors have to pay attention to the number of guns, how many have been given away and how many of them come back. The same applied to the gunpowder, when it was distributed for the training, the veterans of the First Arm would be responsible for its supervision.

“Yes,” he nodded.

“Very well,” Roland dismissed him with a wave. “That was all; you must be busy now as well.”

“Uh, Your Highness…” Carter hesitated. “Last time you said that the perfume mixed with the soap was made out of sugar cane, was that true?”

“Yes,” the Prince said, sitting up in his chair. “What’s the matter?

“That sugarcane, is it expensive?”

“No… they are just some common crops.”

“I’ve heard people say that a thumb-sized bottle of perfume could be sold for five gold royals in King’s City,” Carter scratched his head, “If this is the case, shouldn’t manufacturing the sugarcane perfume bring a huge income to the town?”

“Five gold royals?” Roland got startled; he had never considered this point. Recalling the previous life in the palace, the 4th Prince had never cared about the price of commodities, it was even more the case with perfume, something with which he had less contact?only women would prefer a trinket that only delivered a nice fragrance.

His initial motivation to make perfume was his wish for fine perfumed soap. Otherwise, by only having running water and no bathroom soap, it felt like there was something that was missing. Ah, the sensation of having his whole body covered with bubbles.

If a small bottle of perfume could be sold for several gold royals, it was indeed a pretty good business idea. Unlike coated mirrors, the raw material of sugar cane and flowers were much cheaper than crystal glass was.

Thinking it through, Roland laughed, “This idea isn’t bad, I will consider it.”

“His Royal Highness, the… sugar cane, can I take one out of the castle with me?” asked the Knight with a look full of expectation.

“It won’t hurt,” hearing him speak in this manner, Roland could immediately guessed as to what he wanted to do with it. After all, this was the Western Border, unlike the Port of Clearwater, the crops of the Fjord’s relatively rare here. So it was a good choice as a gift when asking a lady from the West out, “They are growing on a wall in the backyard, just pick some for yourself.”

“Thank you, Your Highness!” Carter saluted.

Afterward, Roland called for Barov — still calling him assistant minister wasn’t quite appropriate anymore. As City Hall’s number one figure, he was already regarded as Border Town’s Premier Minister.

After Barov took his place, Roland roughly described the perfume business plan, “Do you think this could be something we can earn large sums of gold with?”

He did not reply immediately, but later asked with wide open eyes, “Your Highness, are you sure that perfume is produced out of the sweet crops?”

“Don’t you also use the perfumed soap? The reason for it fragrance is that I had mixed the perfume inside,” Roland spread his hands out, “It is indeed true that these raw materials are of little value. But I never knew that the perfume in King’s City was so expensive until Carter brought it up.”

“Far more than that, your Highness!” Barov said excitedly, “Perfume is King’s City Alchemist Workshop’s top-secret product, every year there are approximately one thousand bottles, only a small part of it is sold in King’s City. The rest is sold to the others cities in Graycastle, there they can raise the price by twenty to thirty percent, but in case they sell it to the Fjords or other Kingdoms, the price would almost be doubled. To prevent the merchants from making a profit out of the difference in prices, the association not only firmly controls the perfume prices in other places; they even assign all the merchants by themselves. So in case you can could produce perfume, even if you only sold it to Redwater City or Fallen Dragon Ridge, you would definitely obtain a generous payback.”

“So, that’s how it was.”

Your twenty years serving as an assistant of the Finance Minister wasn’t for nothing, Roland thought, regarding the commodity prices and current market situation, Barov is indeed magnificent. With this information, Roland formed a preliminary plan in his mind.