Er Mu - Release that Witch

Supposing that the Bird Beak Mushrooms was naturally so rich and juicy in flavor, they would be the perfect material for extract MSG. They were just growing on top of the trees, making them hard to pick and thus weren’t widespread? For Roland, something like this wasn’t a problem at all.

“This type of mushrooms, do you know how many of them are there?”

“I am not sure… but I presume there should be a lot of them,” Anna said, taking another small bite. “Maggie said that she only circled along the edge of the forest, but she was still able to help me pick a huge bag full of them.”

“That is great to hear,” Roland already cleanly finished all the mushrooms Anna had roasted. Thus he stretched out his chopsticks to the second plate, “I was worried that there was nothing besides meat dipped in honey or pepper here, I was almost getting tired of eating — pff.”

“What’s wrong?”

“No-nothing.” His heart burst into tears, for goodness sage, this piece is salted too much, did Nightingale accidently drop it into the salt jar? Even though this were his thoughts, he still swallowed the mushroom. Afterward, Roland discovered that other mushroom pieces weren’t completely pasted or cooked, there were also other which were scorched on one side while the other side was left uncooked. Fortunately, the Bird Beak Mushroom were delicious in itself, in this way it covered up her bad cooking to a large degree.

“I… ate my fill,” Roland said putting his chopsticks down, with great difficulty he had finished eating the second plate, and then he even had drunk the complete soup, until his belly already began to bulge up. “Thank you.”

“Thanks, but there was also Nightingale,” Anna said with a laugh, letting her look so incredibly adorable, that Roland couldn’t help but reach out and pinch her nose. The latter whimpered a small cry and then kissed the prince’s cheek. “Then I’ll now go and wash the dishes, don’t forget to go to bed early.”

After the witch had left, Roland lightly sighed.

Although I don’t want to ignore Anna’s thoughts… but there are some matters which aren’t easy to speak about. He helplessly thought, probably this has also something to do with my former identity as a mechanical dog, after all, during my entire academic period, I rarely had any dealings with the opposite sex. And even after graduating and successfully entering a large-scale design and research institute, and having a considerable salary, my situation still hadn’t changed much.

Luckily, there is still a long way to go before the Church is completely destroyed, so I have enough time to slowly consider what I need to do next. As for now, it is better to concentrate on completing the work in front of me.

…

On the next morning, Roland stepped onto a temporary erected wooden platform in the town’s square, which was surrounded by a sea of??people.

Comparing the current Border Town with the former impoverished and desolated town, it seemed as heaven and earth had been turned upside down, saying that it looked completely new wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

The town’s sparse old houses had been completely torn down. Instead they had been replaced by construction sites and the already finished brick houses scattered all over the place. Furthermore, the latter were constructed in accordance with the development plan of the whole district, giving it a neat and tidy appearance — although they only occupied one-third of the former town’s land, they still offered enough space to accommodate the original two thousand indigenous citizens.

By the time they began building three or four layered houses, as well as opening the follow-up district, the number of people living on the same piece of land would only become more and more. By now still calling it Border Town was no longer consistent with the actual situation, no town had a population of nearly twenty thousand people and a professional army of about six hundred people. However, Roland intended to wait until spring next year before officially promoting Border Town to a real city.

With the support of Echo’s ability, Roland’s voice quickly quieted the crowd down.

“Today, is the day of Border Town’s award and honor ceremony, we will use this time to reward and encourage those people who had made a major contribution to all of us. More than half a year has passed since I have arrived here, since then we have defeated the demonic beasts, beat the Duke, and given this town its current appearance. To achieve all this, many people had to sacrifice a lot, among these, there are several outstanding people, they are not nobles, nor are they wealthy merchants, before they served me they were merely ordinary folk, just like you are!

He let his view wander over the people, and then loudly exclaimed, “But now they will be rewarded handsomely! Including a medal personally crafted by me, one hundred gold royals, and five acres of land!”

This news immediately stirred up the masses, sending waves of cheers through the crowd, not to mention the medal and the land, just the one hundred gold royals, was a sum to cause envy in the others.

“This isn’t a one-time ceremony — from now on we will hold this kind of ceremony each year, regardless of your birth, irrespective of your wealth, as long as you have achieved extraordinary merits you can all obtain this highest of honors!”

The moment Roland’s voice fell, Echo’s imitation of a gun salute suddenly resounded through the whole audience, and within the unceasing explosion, Iron Axe, Kyle Sichi, and Nana Pine arrived, escorted by the First Army, and entered the wooden stage.

At the moment, there were undoubtedly 2000 or more people gathered in the public square, yet their excitement didn’t differ much to that of a large gatherings of more than 10’000 people of the later eras. Roland inwardly sighed, Echo’s ability was indeed extremely handy.

The reason why he had chosen these three people was mainly in order to set an example for the masses — of the three of them not one was a noble, Iron Axe belonged to the Sandpeople and had came from the other side of the Southern Border; even though Kyle was an alchemist, he had been born in a common family and reached his rank after starting as an apprentice and climbing up the ladder step by step; while Nana, was a witch.

They were an alien, a civilian, and a witch; putting it in a way that modern civilization would have, this choice had been inspired by an impeccable sense of of ‘political correctness’.

Roland hoped that through this ceremony he would be able to impart his concept to all of his people — Border Town only focuses on your merits, it doesn’t pay any attention to where you might have come from.

The first person to come forward and receive his medal was Iron Axe, Roland had personally engraved the gold medal with an insignia of Graycastle’s tower surrounded by wheat ears and with an edge of pinions. The moment Iron Axe took the medal the members of the First Army in the audience, raised their hands in applause and many other people began to whistling.

“His name should already be known to all of you, Commander of the First Army’s Firearm Team, Iron Axe!” Roland turned to face everyone, “Before the arrival of the Months of Demons, he was just one of the many hunters in the town. But whenever there was a fight endangering Border Town, Iron Axe would never be absent, and in the previous month, he has also led the First Army soldiers to King’s City, saving those refugees besieged by the demonic plague from the Eastern Region! The recent 6000 people temporarily living outside of the city wall had all been brought back by him!”

Most people on the square were either Border Town’s natives or member of the First Army, while the number of serfs and refugees only accounted for a few hundred people, but under Echo’s sound transmission, the mood of the crowd didn’t become awkwardly silent. The moment Roland paused his speech, the fugitives at the scene all immediately began to cheering out loudly, and their intensity wasn’t the least bit weaker compared to the First Army’s.

Iron Axe also appeared to be very excited, most probably, with his identity as a member of the Mojin Clan living in another kingdom he would never have thought that he would ever obtain the Prince’s favor. He first presented Roland with the First Army’s military salute and then went down on one knee in Graycastle’s knight ceremony. In case Roland hadn’t stopped him with his hand, he would most likely also have gone through with the ceremony of the Sandpeople.

“Get up, as a soldier, just using a military salute is already enough,” Roland laughingly stated.

“Thank you… Your Highness,” he answered with a slightly trembling voice as if was making supreme effort to suppress his emotions.

The Prince patted Iron Axe’s shoulder in a consoling manner, placed a bag with 100 gold royals into his hand then signaled Kyle Sichi to come over.

“This one, you may be seeing for the first time, he came to Border Town from the kingdom’s Central Region, the former chief alchemist of Redwater City’s Alchemical Workshop, Mr. Kyle Sichi!”

Hearing his words, let the people exclaim in wonder.

“A chief Alchemist? Aren’t they people who even the king has to treat with respect and courtesy?”

“You mean just like royal astrologers?”

“No, the position of an alchemist is even higher than that of an astrologer, after all, no one can guarantee that the latter’s prophecy will become true, while the alchemist at least does something that is tangible.”

“Furthermore, he even came from Redwater City’s Alchemical Workshop; I heard that only the Alchemical Workshop in King’s City is comparable to it!”

“…”

In the Four Kingdoms, alchemists and astrologer all had a lofty status, and within the ranks of the civilian population they were also called sages, and were the only people worthy of lecturing the powerful nobles and lords. When he saw the reaction of the crowd, Roland was very satisfied, he stretched his hand out to calm the crowd then said: “Even though Mr. Sichi didn’t personally participate in the battles, but with the continuous improvement of the firearms, from single shot to salvo, it would never have been possible without his chemical laboratory, which was also an important factor in guaranteeing the First Army’s victories. Without these alchemical and chemical products, Border Town would not be able to win and obtain true peace.”

After taking a short pause, the Prince then continued, “Incidentally, the chemical laboratory is currently enrolling trainee alchemist, they will accept people who have completed the Primary Education course and also went through Border Town’s citizen inspection. After being accepted, you won’t only receive a generous salary, but you will also receive the chance to become an outstanding just like Master Alchemist as Mr. Sichi!”

The moment his voice fell, the masses once more began to loudly clamor, yet Sichi himself wore a face covered in impatience, when he took the medal he ill-humored said, “You called me over because for such a matter? This was indeed a waste of time; I might just as well have done a few more experiments instead.”

“This is a great opportunity for publicity, didn’t you complain that you were short-handed,” Roland shrugged his shoulders, “By the time when the number of apprentices are doubled, I intend on writing the book on ‘Intermediate Chemistry’ and teaching it to you.”

“Advanced… Chemistry?” Hearing this, Sichi immediately bowed, “Thank you a lot, Your Highness!”

Although it was quite important to focus on one matter, fostering a successor was equally important and also demanded immediate action. And the wider the foundation, the easier it would be to achieve results, the same as was true for scientific research. Roland never planned to put all of his eggs in one basket, so whenever there was a perfect advertising opportunity like this, he certainly wouldn’t just let it go.

The final one was Nana.

The girl seemed a bit nervous as she came to his side, Roland couldn’t help but sigh in sorrow.

Compared with the time during the Months of Demons, when he didn’t wish others to see them, today, he finally intended to announce the witches presence to everyone — after nearly six months of preparation, Border Town has now reached the perfect moment to welcome them. Furthermore, choosing Nana as their representative was also the result of careful deliberations. All the soldiers of the First Army called her an angel, and within their ranks she even held an higher rank than Iron Axe, second only to his own reputation. While there were also many town residents who had already received her treatment. No matter if it were mine accidents or injuries caused by machines, the injured had already developed the habit of looking for their angel for treatment.