Er Mu - Release that Witch

Just like those chemistry formulas that are adjusted to a uniform system, he thought, this is a beauty brought forth by order.

Nowadays, Kyle had a lot of reputation in Border Town. The passersby who were coming and going all greeted him with a nod and respectfully addressed him as Sage. However, compared with the title of a Sage, he still preferred the title of the Master of Chemistry. It was just a pity that His Highness had made it clear, that he had to understand “Intermediate Chemistry”, before he could receive this special glory.

Walking away from the central district, Kyle could see the Redwater River flowing along the western edge of Border Town. The laboratory that were situated at the riverside had already increased to four buildings, however because of their lack of workforce, the last two were temporarily idle.

Kyle was prepared to immediately call for his apprentice to complete His Highness’ mission but was stopped by a soldier wearing the uniform of the First Army.

“Your Excellency Sichi, a sailboat arrived at the docks with more than fifty… civilians,” the soldiers said after giving a salute, “Due to the number of people being too large and because they also aren’t merchants, a squadron of the garrison decided to stop them at the docks. Among them there was one who said that he wanted to see you, he claimed to be an alchemist from Redwater City, named — ”

“Chavez!” Kyle shouted, simultaneously grabbing the soldier’s shoulder, “Take me to see him!”

…

Together with the soldier he went over to the dock district, there he saw a familiar silhouette come into his view — Chavez had indeed arrived.

“Honored Mentor!” The moment the other side saw Kyle, Chavez immediately waved his hand to get his attention.

“These are the alchemists and the alchemy apprentices I have invited,” Kyle turned toward the garrison captain and explained the situation, “Have every person you’re holding come over, I will take them to the City Hall so that they can register.”

“Yes, Your esteemed Self. But please allow me to send a squad to escort them.”

“No harm.”

In reality, the so-called escort was dispatched to control and keep a close watch over them, to avoid someone separating from the group and sneaking into Border Town’s central district. But this was also an established rule set in place by His Highness the Prince. Therefore, Kyle also didn’t have any intention of interfering with it.

“Honored Teacher, in the end, what is going on? Why would they especially dispatch someone to look after the docks in an out-of-the-way Border Town like this?” Chavez walked over the moment he was released and started complaining, sounding somewhat unhappy, “Moreover they were even stricter than the guards protecting the city walls of a major city. They asked for my name, surname, and origin. Even when I attempted to change their mind with silver royals it proved entirely useless.”

“Silver royals?” Kyle asked with interest, “How many?”

“Of course, just one,” Chavez answered, looking somewhat perplexed.

“Ha ha ha,” hearing his response, Kyle stroked his beard and started to chuckle, “It is only natural that it hadn’t worked. You have to understand, their salary is already set at fifteen silver royals each month.”

“Fif-fifteen?”

“Yes, compared to those city patrols who rely on the blackmail of merchants and traveler to make a living, the living standard of the First Army is much more comfortable. But this is also the reason why extortion, looting or accepting bribes are so strictly prohibited. Once discovered, they will immediately be expelled from the army, and at the same time they will be put into the dungeon to await trial.” Although, Kyle wasn’t an official minister of the City Hall, as the temporary substitute for the Minister of Chemistry he had still attended several conferences. Thus, he came to have a precise understanding of these upper layers of policy.

“Don’t tell me that they are really able to restrain their hands?” Chavez asked slightly suspicious.

“There still exist some who are unable to control themselves, but all of them have been sent to the mine to serve out their sentence,” Kyle twitched his lips then asked, “Didn’t you noticed any unique aspects about Border Town when you arrived?”

“Uh… there were a lot,” the young alchemist scratched his head, “For example, along the river channel there were many people who were chopping wood and repairing a road. However, they were already so far away from Border Town, in the end, where does the road they are repairing lead to? Furthermore, what purpose do those iron towers along the river shore serve? Do they store drinking water?” He paused, “Oh, that’s right! Before our arrival at the pier… I actually saw an iron bridge which was still under construction! It wasn’t made out of wood or stone, I’m sure it was made out of iron!”

“Also, didn’t the bridge seem much longer than any you have ever seen in your life before?” Chief Alchemist asked smilingly. “Therefore, since you’ve arrived here you shouldn’t keep hold of your life experience from Redwater City. This is an entirely different kind of city, of course… At present, it is only a town, but it is already amazing enough. It is the same with ‘Elementary Chemistry’, before you have seen it, you would never be able to believe that something like it would be ‘possible’.”

He didn’t know why, but as he said these words to his apprentice, he felt indescribably carefree and joyful within his heart. Unknowingly he had already came to regarded himself as a citizen of Border Town, which meant he was only taking some pleasure in showing off his new home to a visitor.

…

After the completion of the registration, the City Hall’s officials arranged the residences for the apprentice, while Kyle Sichi immediately pulled Chavez along and returned to his house.

“Though I knew that you would accept my invitation, I still didn’t expect you to come so soon.”

“I…” Chaves looking somewhat embarrassed as he bowed and confessed, “I should have agreed from the beginning.”

Hearing this, the Chief Alchemist smiled. Even though he was engrossed in alchemy, but that didn’t mean he didn’t understand a word about the affairs of life. The reason why Chavez didn’t choose to leave from the beginning, was that due to his discovery of the two acids method, he had hoped that Redwater City’s Lord would give him the position of the Chief Alchemist. Only after Capola, who’d already held some prejudice towards him, became the new chief did he decide to leave Redwater City.

But Kyle didn’t really care about such small matters, longing for the position of the chief alchemist of the workshop had always been the ultimate goal pursued by alchemists.

“Do not cherish your previous work, alchemy is meaningless here. All your past achievements in the field of alchemy are not even worth mentioning. In this place only one thing is worth pursuing: Chemistry.”

Chavez took a deep breath and then said, “I understand.”

“Even though you may get your own house assigned to you, but sleep here for tonight… since we haven’t talked for a long time.”

Back when he had taught Chavez his alchemy skills, he had pulled his young disciple along and talked with him all through the night, and if they became too sleepy, they ended up squeezing into the same bed.

The other party apparently understood his meaning and immediately answered in an excited tone, “yes, mentor!”

After eating dinner, the two went to the study, where Kyle Sichi carefully handed Chavez the “Elementary Chemistry”.

“Is this the praised ancient book?”

Chavez solemnly opened the first page and earnestly started to read. Kyle stood to the side, he was there in case Chavez came across some points he couldn’t understand. Looking at this scene, it seemed as if they had stepped back some years, the other party was being taught by him once again.

Now with the addition of Chavez and the fifty new apprentices, I finally have more than enough people to test the large-scale production of sulfuric acid, while at the same time, the other two laboratories can also begin their work. But the most important part of this is that I have fulfilled His Highness’ task, and now it’s now up to him to fulfill his promise and to give me the book on “Intermediate Chemistry”, Kyle proudly thought.

Lightning, in charge of her own “adventure equipment”, checked it over once more.

Flint and tinder, bandages, daggers, maps, as well as a bag full of rations stuffed with dried beef.

“What about you?” She looked at Maggie, “Check it again.”

“Goo!”

Maggie put her hand into her bag — this cloth was usually hidden in her fluffy hair, in the end, it was hard to determine just how many things she could actually put into it. Since the moment she turned into a bird, all her clothes and bags seemed to disappear without a trace. Even though Lightning’s ability to fly was restricted by a weight limit, Maggie, however, didn’t seem to be affected in the least. The best proof of this was that she pulled far more out of her bag than Lightning.

Jerky, shredded dried pork, drumsticks, fish, eggs, all were piled up in front of Lightning.

“Oh, my God,” Lightning shouted in disbelief, “We are going on an adventure, and not on a barbecue in the wilderness. At least take some weapons along with you.”

“Googoo!” Macey pointed at her mouth.

“Do you want to say that your beak is your weapon?” Lightning sighed, “If you encounter a judge dressed like a can, it’d be a wonder if you could ever peck open his armor! Hey, forget it!.. It’s only a one-day trip anyway, we shouldn’t encounter any danger, so let’s get started.”

“I see! Goo!” Maggie immediately turned into a pigeon, ran two steps, and started flying close above the ground before slowly rising.

Uh, maybe the weight did have an impact on her.

Lightning pulled her windproof glasses down, gently leaped into the air and then flew to the front.

I can still clearly remember when I had seen Maggie for the first time. It was just south of here, in the woods that we started our air chase. Even though she couldn’t escape my hands in the end, but I still had to spend a lot of effort before I was able to jump on her. Nowadays, I’m afraid I would be able to catch her in the blink of an eye.

This cannot go on, it’s already so rare to find a partner to fly. In the future, I have to bear the responsibility for the adventure equipment alone, the little girl thought, but it does seem she is in need of a good exercise.

“Goo, goo?”

Lightning reduced her speed and flew over to Maggie’s side, “Alright let’s speak!”

“I want to ask, what area are we going to explore, goo?” The pigeon’s mouth opened and closed repeatedly.

“The western end of the Concealing Forest. I want to see how big the forest actually is in the end,” Lightning said, she pulled out a map from her bag and spread it out in front of them. Pointing at a blank space on the western side and said, “We will also be able to fill out this missing piece as we pass by, and maybe we can also see where the Redwater River comes from.”

When Maggie had returned from her mission to the Fjords, Lightning immediately began preparing for the expedition. Whenever they had free practice, His Highness never cared where they flew off to. Furthermore, the little girl also had a secret in her heart which she couldn’t tell her counterpart — she was afraid of exploring the forest alone.

This was simply an extraordinary shame and humiliation for an explorer.

But she could not deceive herself, ever since her trip to the stone tower she had a developed a fear of the deep forest. At the thought that the horrible monster might be hidden in the woods, she could not help but want to escape as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, she was still the daughter of the greatest explorer.

Thunder had once mentioned to her a method of overcoming fear. Which was by approaching it a bit, then observe it, and coming to understand it, ultimately, you will discover that your “fear” is not so terrible.

Because the roots of these obstacles are all planted in your own heart.

This time the adventure was exactly Lightning’s attempt to get rid of her fear and together with Maggie as a companion, she felt that at least her heart was a little more emboldened. The route she chose was also very secure, flying westwards along the Redwater River, never going deep into the forest, which she presumed would make it very unlikely for her to encounter any Devils. After they’ve taken the route once, Lightning would try it alone next time. She totally believed that one day, she would be able to go out alone to draw a complete map of the Western Territory, visit the stone tower again, and also uncover the truth about the Holy City Taqila.