Er Mu - Release that Witch

At the other end of the “observation mirror” a vast piece of land appeared. The edge of the land looked like an overhanging cliff of which the end couldn’t be seen. But erected within the center of the cliff was a gigantic and incomparable arched stone door which internal seemed deep and dark, as if it was an enormous mouth which was choosing the next person it would be devouring.

Roland opened the letter while simultaneously handing a piece of jerky over to Maggie.

“Googoo!” The latter opened her beak and grasped the meat with it and delivered it with two to three swallows into her belly. Then obediently placed her belly on the edge of the table, and embedding her head into her feathers.

“I hope this letter finds you well, my dear older brother, or should I say Your Royal Highness, Roland Wimbledon.

“I have received your letter, I agree with your opinion, and whole heartily approve of it. Even though I do not understand why you have suddenly changed your temper and corrected your previous dandy lifestyle. Even going so far as to be willing to help the witches, but now that you’ve done it, the Church has become our common enemy.

“Maybe you already know this, I have become a witch, this is also the reason why everyone is willing to believe me. However, you, in fact, are a Prince, a noble to the core, and yet you were also able to obtain the trust of numerous witches, it is indeed inconceivable. Ever since I received your message, I often wonder how you managed to do that? If you were simply like the other nobles, who regarded witches as tools and nothing more, then it would have been impossible for you to obtain Ashes’ approval, and she also never would have chosen to let Maggie stay in Border Town.

“Apart from this, Maggie also mentioned a steam engine, as well as the theory that knowledge could boost a witch’s possibility to evolve her magic, which also sounds fascinating to me. Especially the latter, which I would like to have the opportunity to discuss with you in detail.

“As for your invitation, after pondering it over and over again, at present, I have no reason to refuse it. The establishment of an alliance needs trust and gives trust in turn, and in the event that we act both indecisively and cowardly, we would only be helping the Church in the end. So I will attach a list to this letter which contains most of the abilities of the witches’ living on Sleeping Island, like this you can pick those abilities you need the most for yourself and inform me through Maggie about your decision. If everything goes well, they will be able to leave for your territory by next month. But for safety reasons, it is better to only send five at the first time.

“Furthermore, please specify a reliable transfer procedure, and send some people out in advance who will act to protect them. Each witch lost, regardless of whether she lives in Border Town or on Sleeping Island, would be great loss and also cast a shadow over our cooperation. I hope you will take care of them as well as you take care of your own witches. And if you will, please also allow them to participate in the evening basic knowledge lessons. I believe that every witch that is able to evolve her ability will be good news for us.

“As you have said, the Church has already shown their plan to backstab us, and it is only a matter of time until the Four Kingdoms will be annexed. I hope when that day comes, you will be ready to deal with them. But in case you will be unable to resist, Sleeping Island will always act as a safe harbor for you. Of course, I will give you as much help as possible in your fight to repel the Church’s invasion.

“Finally, may we end the Church’s oppression and build a new order — a kingdom in which not merely witches, but rather no one has to suffer under groundless persecution.

“Your sister, Tilly Wimbledon.”

Putting the letter down, he felt an unspeakable pleasure coming from his heart. After he smilingly put the letter away, he took another piece of jerky and held it in front of Maggie.

Who immediately stretched out her head, to peck away the food. “Goo, cuckoo!”

As he gently stroked the smooth feathers at her neck, she narrowed her eyes in satisfaction.

“It must have been tough on you, but currently Lightning has followed the fleet to King’s City, and it will still be a few more days before she comes back,” Roland said with a smile. “However, you can go look for Nana or Leaves to play with, or go to the bathroom to take a bath, or just lie down and sleep.”

“Goo… goo!” Maggie spread out her wings, jumped off the table, and then flew out of the window, soon disappearing.

The cries she had just issued should mean something like ‘I’m not tired, I want to find them and play,’ Roland suddenly discovered, that now, even when she was speaking in her pigeon form he could still understand her general meaning.

Is this the power of habit?

Beside that, he also never imagined, that Tilly would actually agree to his invitation, furthermore even attach a list of their witch’s abilities, this was simply a big treasure house, ah! Although the letter never specified how long they would stay for, in case they wanted to attend the complete Primary Education Curriculum, they would at least need to spent half a year in Border Town. Furthermore, if he added additional content to the course, expanding the length to a full year, how much change could the witches bring to Border Town in that time?

Moreover, in case they were able to evolve, his benefits would be much greater than his losses — if they stayed in Border Town, they could help him improve this place further, but even if the witches went back to Sleeping Island, they would still be a living symbol of propaganda for him. With word of mouth to mouth publicity, the number of witches who would want to go to Border Town would only become more, and Tilly wouldn’t be able to prevent this development from occurring. Roland believes that compared with coercing them with promises or intimidation, waiting and showing sincerity was the right long-term strategy to use.

General speaking, this reply brought him a nice surprise far greater than anything he had expected. Her open and positive attitude made him feel like she was a perfect teammate sent by destiny. This way, he no longer needed to fight the Church by himself. As for a safe shuttle route, Roland had been thinking about this for a long time — to avoid the Port of Clearwater and the Seawind Region; he had thought of directly crossing through the uninhabited land south of Border Town. After arriving at the mountains, he thought about taking a hot air balloon tour to cross the mountains, gaining direct access to the town’s hinterland. That way, he would from the beginning to the end not have to pay any attention to the Church, Timothy or Garcia’s forces.

The more Roland thought about it, the more excited he became. He suppressed his urge to immediately skim over the appendix and chose the witches and instead turned his attention to the present urgent matters that needed to be solved — after all, which kind of witches Sleeping Island sent was an issue for next month, but Border Town’s currently most significant problem was the housing construction.

Since the First Army had sailed to King’s City, an endless stream of refugees had arrived in Border Town. In order to prevent the disease from spreading, Roland had arranged an area west of the city wall all for them — there he had organised for long rows of wooden sheds to be built, providing a temporary place for the refugees to live in. Together with the serfs living on the other side of the Redwater River, their number already surpassed 8’000 people. In case the number of refugees will stay at the level of the last days, this number of people will most likely break through 10’000 in total.

Guaranteeing a supply of food for these people was not a problem. After all, since the end of the Months of Demons, Border Town had continuously imported food without interruption, but the accommodation issue was clearly a big problem. During the summer, it was no problem to live in a wooden shed, and besides shielding them from the sun and rain, it also offered an excellent ventilation, even though their number of mosquito bites might be higher. But once winter arrived, there would nearly be no difference between living in the sheds and under open air, the temperature outside would be the temperature inside of the wooden shed. If he was unable to let them stay in brick houses, Roland was afraid that most of the people wouldn’t survive past the long winter. In other words, Border Town had to build houses and dormitories for 10’000 people within the next six months.

Roland spread out a new piece of paper and picked up the pen.

He intended to take a part of the workers currently construction the Kingdom Avenue and put them to work building the houses. After all, it wasn’t a big problem if the road construction got delayed by ten days or half a month, but if the people froze to death within his territory, it would leave a stain on his achievements. Even when he had only recently crossed over and had no money, and none of the nobles wanted to help him, he was still able to insure that not one person died during the Months of Demons because from hunger or cold. So, now with the Witch Union and the steam engine, as well as substantial income and workforce, he naturally couldn’t allow such a situation to occur.

But at this moment, Carter suddenly walked into the office.

“Your Royal Highness, I have bad news,” Carter said with a serious face, “The chemical laboratory just exploded.”

Roland immediately rushed towards the laboratory next to the Redwater River. Arriving at the scene, Roland discovered that the damage wasn’t as severe as he had imagined. At least the main building for refining acid completely lacked any damage, while the windows at the side building had shattered into pieces.

“My Lord, please save our teacher! He is so badly hurt, almost on the point of death.”

Seeing that Roland had appeared, the group of disciples immediately gathered around him but were soon stopped by his personal guards. Roland waved his hand, indicating that they don’t need to be so anxious, “Where are the others? Let me have a look at them first.” Then he turned Carter and whispered, “Where’s Nana?”

“I’ve already sent someone, so I estimate that she will be here soon.”

“Alright.”

Roland nodded and then entered the laboratory, under protection of his guards.

Kyle Sichi was lying on the ground, leaving a bloodstain on the ground, which extended from him to the side room, giving the general idea that the accident must have happened in the side room and that he had been dragged to the main room after. His face was only an indistinct mass, with blood and other liquids mixed together, which should have been caused by the strong acid which had splashed on him during the explosion. He was also missing several fingers on his hands, and within the flesh he could see the white finger phalanges.

The apprentices had already provided him with emergency treatment, letting Roland see that they had also met similar situations in Redwater City. Dragging the people away from the danger, binding the wound to stop the bleeding, then seek help… these measures were all done quite well. However, receiving this kind of injury, and only having herbal medicine and the body’s own healing ability as treatment, would lead to ten out of ten people dying.

Roland ordered his guards to wait at the door not letting anyone enter. Waiting for Nana’s arrival, Carter and he went into the side room, trying to find the alchemist’s fingers. Otherwise, even if the little girl healed his injuries, he would no longer be able to carry out his chemical experiments — which definitely would be a great loss for Border Town.

“It looks like a violent wind had swept through here,” Carter said and then pointed at his nose, “Furthermore, there is an unpleasant odor here.”

“That is the smell of nitrogen dioxide.” Roland carefully swept his eyes all over the room. Seeing that the all the windows were open, he concluded that the possibility of poisoning wasn’t large, at most, there were merely some leftover fumes which hadn’t yet vanished. On the test stage, one bottle laid broken on the table, its acid had flown over the table’s surface, gathered on the floor and left behind a damp patch.