Er Mu - Release that Witch

“That being the case, I request that after the next round of examination, you will take the lead for the City Hall and recruit a batch of female apprentice, in that way gradually expanding the proportion of women posts,” Roland commanded.

“Your Highness, this… there is no precedent for it,” Barov complained. “If they only have to be careful, my apprentice aren’t worse than any woman.”

“If there is no precedent we have to create one,” Roland bluntly said. “This is also the easiest and quickest way to increase the labor force without expanding the total population. If all woman can take on a small task in building Border Town, my available staff will double. The only thing I’m asking you to do is to lead people to change their view. As long as the pay is attractive, I think they should come over on their own one by one.”

After Barov retired, Roland heard Nightingale’s laughter next to his ear, followed by her asking a question, “What kind of delicious thing are you planning to make this time?”

“Starch? It’s not something you can eat,” Roland said, after taking a mouthful of tea, “Even though you can indeed get some pretty good food from the leftover materials after processing.”

First soak fine wheat flour in water, then rub and scrub it until the water had entirely blanched, then move on to another water basin and continue. In the end, it will become a sticky mass known as gluten. The gluten can be used for deep-fry or stir-fry and has a texture which is both pliable and tough. When smeared with honey or sprinkled with flavoring after leaving the pot, all in all, it made for a very delicious meal.

But Roland’s focus was not on food.

By sifting and afterward letting the milky white water stand still, it would form a precipitation which was precisely the starch he was looking for, and was also a main ingredient used in manufacturing explosives.

Since the experiments with nitroglycerin hadn’t started yet, there was no possibility that he would have access to TNT, so nitrostarch was his most immediate opportunity for making powerful explosives, it also shared the same manufacturing process as nitrocellulose. The finished product had a low sensitivity, and couldn’t be ignited by an open fire, instead, one needed to use a fuse for it to detonate. Furthermore, it was more powerful than TNT and had thus been widely used as a substitute for it during the two world wars.

With highly pure starch, the alchemic apprentices who already knew the manufacturing process for nitrocellulose by heart should also be able to quickly prepare a batch of nitrostarch.

After lunch, just as Roland was planning to go back to his room to take a nap, he suddenly heard someone knocking on his door.

Nine out of ten times it was Anna who would come to find him at this hour. So when he heard the knocking sound, his heartbeat immediately began to dance. Can it be, after falling asleep last time because of her exhausted, she decided to come over at noon?

“Come in.”

However, the door creaked as it was pushed open, and Roland started when he saw Evelyn standing outside.

This… now, isn’t what I’ve been expecting at all. He coughed twice, then showed a reassuring smile as he asked, “What’s the matter?”

Hearing his question, Evelyn entered the room, and walked over to the edge of the table and bowed down in salute, all in all she seemed a bit nervous, “Your Highness, I would like to ask you a question.”

Don’t tell me it is going to be the same question again, ‘Why are you so kind to us witches’? However, in accordance with treating them like comrades, it was important to be as warm as the spring wind, so he smiled and said, “What question do you want to ask?”

“You… why did you want me to come to Border Town?”

For a moment Roland was slightly surprised, can it be that she doesn’t like the taste of the wine?

“My kind of ability isn’t only inferior to Sylvie’s; it is practically at the same level as Lotus and Honey’s,” she whispered. “It’s just wine tasting. However, a monthly salary of one gold royals is already enough for you to hire a specialized Wine Brewer from King’s City.”

“What are your thoughts about those… wines?”

“At first I thought they burned too much, only by slowly drinking them was I able to accept them. As for those three wines mixed with ice cubes, fruit juice, and syrup, their taste is richer. But that is merely my personal opinion,” Evelyn replied cautiously. “My family’s pub only sold cheaply-priced wines and diluted ales, the aristocracy’s tendencies …I do not know anything about that.”

As it turns out she isn’t questioning the wine, the Prince breathed out in relief. He got up and opened the bookcase, then took out a jar of ale from the top and put it in front of Evelyn with the question, “Can you turn this jar of ale into the wine I brewed?”

“I think… that shouldn’t be a problem.” She stretched out her hand, and held it above the jar, a moment later the yellow ale began to change. In the wake of the rising bubbles, the ale became more and more clear, until it finally turned as crystal clear as plain boiled water; yet Roland could already smell its strong alcoholic fragrance. Unable to stop himself, he dipped his finger in a little, then put it into his mouth. It tasted bitter and burning at the same time, this was the taste of highly purified alcohol.

Roland couldn’t help but begin to laugh, while saying, “That’s the reason I picked you.”

Looking at the puzzled Evelyn, he patted her hand and explained, “I’m going to set up an alcohol factory… No, a brewery. Would you like to be the chief winemaker?”

At the palace in the Kingdom of Eternal Winter, flames were raging within the fireplace.

Compared to Graycastle with its four seasons, here the summers were especially short, and the autumn was only like an advance notice for the impending arrival of a severe winter. There wasn’t even enough time to change into shorter garments before the cold wind came back once again.

Garcia Wimbledon, sat on the throne with a fox fur coat draped over her shoulders, listening to the complaints and demands of the nobility.

She didn’t like the palace. The pillars, walls, and floors were all built out of snow white stones, each piece polished until it was smooth and shining, just like ice in general. Despite the fact that she already had two additional layers of cushion on her seat, she could still feel the bitter chill of the cold iron chair.

This damned castle is like an iceberg, absolutely frustrating! I’ll wait for the situation to stabilize, and the first thing I’m going to do after that is to smash all of the walls and floors to bits then re-lay it with dark brown granite slabs afterward.

“Your Majesty, I hope you can bring justice for me,” a noble said, looking at her with a scowling expression.

Prior to this, he had used a lot of words, where in fact, a few would have been sufficient. At the time when the Church was occupying the Kingdom of Endless Winter, some nobles who had done many evils deeds had been put on a public trial which had been presided over by Archbishop Heather. Most of the nobles had been sent to the gallows. However, this guy was among the lucky ones and had only been punished with the confiscation of his assets, which had then been equally divided among the victims.

“I can understand your request; private property shouldn’t be plundered,” Garcia pondered for a moment and then slowly said, “But the specific amount is hard to define. Well, if you can provide me with the testaments of the last five years of financial income and expenditure, I can evaluate an average value and give you a part of the of the seizures as compensation.”

“But the mob has looted my house, and I’m afraid the records are…”

“Then I can only follow the published announcement and compensate you according to your title.” Garcia interrupted, “Take a look around you, they are all nobles who have suffered from looting, if I give you more, some of them would end up getting less.”

“That’s right! Only God would know if the number you reported is the truth or not!”

“Why are you so troublesome, Knight Halon, these gold royals aren’t yours.”

“You have it already quite good, just take a look at your associates, they can only go to heaven and find God to demand compensation.”

Seeing all of the surrounding nobles glare at him, he was forced to shrink back, bow deep in salute and say, “In that case, please compensate me according to the standard. Thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty.”

“Excellent,” Garcia smiled and then ordered, “Next.”

“My regards to you, Your Majesty,” a white-haired old man stepped out of the crowd and caressed the glittering silver heron family emblem on his chest reverently.

“Marquis Bodø, I remember that the Church’s thugs didn’t attack your territory.”

“Yes, that’s right,” he nodded, “Not that they didn’t want to, rather that they couldn’t… the Inundated Snow Ridge is difficult to attack. So, my Knights were able to block all of the invading bandits. However, my child wasn’t as fortunate. On the day of the riots, he was on duty within the imperial palace, and for the purpose of protecting the Queen, not only was he killed by the believers, but his body was also hung above the city gate. It was not until you arrived in the Kingdom of Eternal Winter, that he could be freed from his humiliation.”

“That’s truly a tragic story,” Garcia assumed a grieving expression and sighed, before asking, “So, what is your request?”

“The name of the man who killed him is ‘The Butcher’, nowadays he is the leader of the remaining rebels. That group of people are hiding within the Impassable Mountain Range north of us. I want revenge for my child.” The Marquis calmly declared.

“From the beginning, I didn’t have that many troops under my control. The are already keeping the peace during the day, patrol, guard the city wall as well as the granary; it would be quite difficult to split my men and dispatch the troop to the barren mountains and wild hills just to go find a group of one hundred exiled thugs.” She shook her head and said in regret, “Furthermore, when the winter comes, the heavy snowfall will also close off the mountains, thus, making it impossible for them to get any supplies. So, they will freeze to death sooner or later; there is no need for you to be so impatient.”

“Your Majesty, I’ll only be able to find peace if it’s me wielding the sword that kills my child’s murderer. I also don’t need you to send any warriors to search for the thugs. There are many natural caves at the foot of the mountain; they surely will be hidden within one of them. But most of the cave’s entrances are very narrow, and if they used stones to block the entrance, it would even be difficult for the Knights to attack them. I hope you can provide me with the alchemical creation that had been able to blow up the city gates; I’ll do the rest by myself.”

Does he want to get his hands on the snow powder? Garcia frowned, that stuff has a large power, and its strong enough to be the trump card in a hopeless war and alter the outcome, it absolutely cannot be allowed to spread out.

At the time, she was about to declare her refusal, the other opened his mouth again, “If you grant me this request, I am willing to return to court and serve you. The silver heron family will fully support your ruling over the Kingdom of Eternal Winter.”

This sentence then made Garcia swallow her words. At the time, the Church executed the Queen; they also killed some chief ministers. Here, the Marquis of Bodø has a lot of prestige, if he were to serve as my Prime Minister, all the remaining nobles would follow along. To some degree, it can also make up for the deficient administration and also turn around this awkward situation.

“This request is not too much,” she thought for a while, then after finally coming to a decision she said, “But I cannot put the alchemy powder directly into your hands. When you require it, I will send a special alchemist who will provide you with assistance to blow open the hole.”

…

After the end of the court session, Garcia returned to the back room, where Ryan was already waiting for her with a cup of warmed fruit wine, “Thanks for your trouble, Your Majesty. As expected, those nobles were all taken over by you. In this way, even if we don’t depend on the Wolf King, you can still swallow the entire Kingdom of Eternal Winter slowly.”