Er Mu - Release that Witch

“There were no traces of demonic beasts,” replied Iron Axe, “Your Highness, according to past experiences, we will still have a relatively stable time period after the first snowfall. During this period, the number of normal animals is still be larger than the number of demonic beasts, and if there are demonic beasts they will be of the weaker species. “

Roland nodded, “You still have to continue to be vigilant.”

The regional rear walls had been transformed into barracks, so if there was no danger, most people could stay in the camp to rest and save energy. Roland implemented a rotation system, taking into account the low winter temperatures. Each team would only need to perform two hours of patrolling before they would be replaced.

All these measures were set by Roland. He had asked Brian how it was in Longsong Stronghold and learned that they had no rotation system against the demonic beasts. The new recruits would be assigned to watch the movements of the demonic beasts and had to stay on watch the whole day. So consequently they would slack off, to the point that situations where soldiers deserted would occur. During the winter there were twenty to thirty people who were hanged because of dereliction of duty or violation of military orders.

If they found traces of demonic beasts, it would become a mess because they didn’t assign people to their own defense sectors. Thinking of the level of the art of war during this time, Roland already had a clear understanding of it. They paid extreme attention to personal honor and valor, and even emphasized plundering. Even knights would be in the front lines when charging into a city, nevertheless they didn’t need to plunder too much.

Roland once more patrolled along the wall and saw that everything seemed to be going smoothly, but Roland found out that he had ignored a problem.

That was the roadblocks.

These obstructions were currently still clearly visible and would lead the demonic beasts towards the right section of the wall, but if what Brian said was true and the snow would fall for two to three months without any interruption, it could come to the point that the demonic beasts wouldn’t see any obstructions and would attack all of the six-hundred yard long wall. His militia force was clearly too small to attend to such a large battlefield.

Sending soldiers down to clear the snow was a bad idea, because a few species like the demonic wolves were extremely agile, so he would definitely lose soldiers.

Perhaps he would have to rely on the power of the witches.

For example, he could let Nightingale take Anna out of the city to melt the snow with her fire and then sneak back — just like how she had brought Nana in and out of the Pine Family’s home.

At this point, he heard a call from an observer on his left side.

“Look in front!”

Roland and Carter both looked towards the position the observer had referred to. There, a group of small shadows crawled out from the snow, moving slowly in the direction of the wall.

The hunter who was in control of this defense section turned to Roland and asked, “Your Highness, you say whether or not…”

“Handle the situation according to the former drills, so judge the situation for yourself to determine whether you should blow the horn,” Roland ordered, “at this point, you are more experienced than me.”

The soldier hesitated, but he eventually pulled the string off his crossbow, and stood further down the wall to observe.

Roland nodded his head in satisfaction. For now, when the number of demonic beasts that would attack Border Town was still unknown, it would be most important to maintain order on the wall. After all, they could quickly organize their defense according to the steps drilled into them from before.

Gradually, the shadows came closer to the wall. When they were 50 yards away from the wall, Roland was finally able to clearly make out their appearances.

Probably a variant of foxes?

Their fur was grayish black and their eyes were red. When they were at the walls they were panting heavily.

“It looks like it wasn’t long ago that they were turned into demonic beasts. They aren’t a threat,” said Iron Axe while aiming with his bow.

“You mean they were infected by the Breath of Hell which was broken out in the West?”

“It doesn’t happen only in the West,” Carter came over and answered, “the Gates of Hell can open anywhere in the mountains, there is no place safe from it in the mountains. In the North, there is an especially large path which is often under the attack of the demonic beasts. There, it seems that a part of the never ending Impassible Mountain range was cut off. For more than a decade, this path was the main direction of attack from demonic beasts.”

The maniac monsters only lingered for a short moment at the base of the wall before they raised their heads and released grim growls towards the crowd on the wall while preparing to leap. However, Iron Axe released his bowstring, and his sharp arrow accurately penetrated the neck of one of the demonic beasts, firmly nailing it to the ground.

Roland noted that the blood which flowed out from the beast was black.

It was the same kind of erosion for the demonic beasts and witches, but why could the witches still save their consciousness and be saved after their awakenings, when the animals would always turn into maniacs while their bodies mutated? If I have the opportunity, I need to go and take a look behind the Mountain of Despair, thought Roland. In the Prince’s memory, it was a place where no human being could set foot, it was the place where the Gates of Hell opened. However, because no one had ever visited it, most of the knowledge of it came from ancient books, and he had no way to verify the rumors, so he had some doubts about the Gates of Hell.

“What happens when a demonic beast bites a human?” Roland asked. “Will they become the same like the demonic beast?”

Roland hoped it wouldn’t turn into a medieval version of Resident Evil. After all, with their current level of technology they had no way to extract the virus and produce the required antigens.

“Of course not,” Iron Axe gave Roland a kind ‘How can you ask such a question?’ look, “They would turn into a corpse.”

“What about their meat, can we eat it?”

Carter exclaimed loudly, “Your Highness! How can you think about eating the meat of demonic beasts, they are contaminated with the Breath of Hell, ah!!”

Roland looked at Iron Axe, who nodded and said, “Your chief knight is right, I have cut off meat from some demonic beasts to feed to my dogs. The result was that my dogs died shortly after eating the meat.”

“That happened? That’s really a shame.” Roland sighed, during this time, the food sources were scarce. If they were able to eat the demonic beasts the winter months would turn into months of simple harvest. Think about it, the whole forest of animals would turn mad and run in the direction of Border Town, so the militia would even be able to save hunting gear!

After he walked along the whole wall, he decided to pay a visit to Nana.

Roland had requisitioned the residence of a noble who recently left Border Town and used it as a field hospital. Of course, he claimed it as a school for foreign medicine. But just in case, it was near the city walls and was one of the best guarded places in Border Town.

When the former owner of the residence returned to Longsong Stronghold he had taken all his property with him, and the other inhabitants of Border Town were always ready to give up their homes. So, the housing was quite large, but they couldn’t have many murals, carpets, porcelain vases, or other kinds of decorations. If it wasn’t fairly clean, it would just look like a house that was vacant for a long time.

Roland turned the first floor into one big room. Only the stairs to the upper floor and a small hallway were left. Then, he put ten beds into the room. With this, his hospital was finished. It was quite a simple shape, there were no nurses and no doctors, even the ten beds were unlikely to be used at all — after Nana’s treatment the patients weren’t required to lay in the beds, her treatment immediately bore fruits.

During the day, Nana would normally stay on the second floor of the hospital and Anna would come by when she herself had nothing to do. Sir Pine and Brian were responsible for the first floor, and two guards were stationed at the entrance.

However, Roland did not expect that the first patient of the field hospital would be a worker from the Northern Slope Mine instead of a soldier from the militia which defended the walls.

***

Nils felt his hands trembling.

When he heard the hoarse scream of iron again, he tried to pick up his pace once more, but even with his fastest speed he couldn’t fly.

This was all because of his negligence, he thought. Damn, how could he forget the repetitive warnings of his senior knight?

If he had known earlier, he wouldn’t have grasped his chance to work with the big guy!

Since the big guy was installed at the mine gate during the night, the miners’ work became a lot easier.

Originally, the most tiring part of the job was to drag the ore out of the mine when the mining basket was filled with stones. Generally, two people would push from the back and the rest would pull from the front. After years of usage, the originally uneven tunnel ground became flat due to the transporting of the baskets. The pad at the bottom of the iron ore basket also required frequent replacement.

A week ago, the chief knight commanded that the senior knight and his men to transport a lot of strange-shaped parts made out of metal up to the mine, and then in the next few days they assembled them into a furnace. Nils had absolutely not foreseen that this furnace could move by itself when fueled with fire. It could not only move, but it also had extraordinary strength.

The senior knight had said that it was His Royal Highness’ invention and was seemingly called the steam engine.

First, a basket had to be fastened with a rope to the steam engine, then a fire had to be lit before the big machine would begin to hum. Then, the winch began to turn and the basket was quickly hauled towards the mine entrance.

Incredible!

The senior knight had selected a person responsible for the steam engine after several test runs. When Nils was selected, he was very pleased with himself, since he had waited a long time for such a good opportunity. After all, he just had to stand in front of the machine! He would no longer have to dig out stones or minerals, and he would never ever need to push a basket. That last mine collapse still left him spooked.

The words the senior knight told him were still in his head.

He said it wasn’t a difficult task.The big guy would do all the work, all he had to do was to pull the green lever first and then the red lever second. The senior knight also said that the green lever was linked to the intake valve, while an exhaust valve was linked with the red lever so that the steam would pass through the pipe into the cylinder. After the basket was pulled to the mine entrance, he would have to do the reverse if he wanted to stop the machine. First, he had to lift the red lever and then the green lever. With, this the steam would be discharged from the side of the boiler. After each cycle, the oven needed be supplemented with water until it was full — although he didn’t understand what a valve and a cylinder were, Nils still promised to do everything step by step.

However, the senior knight stressed two points that were most important. First, the order could not be wrong. To start the engine, the green lever was first before the red lever. To stop, the green had to be closed after the red. If he made a mistake, it could lead to the destruction of the machine. The second point was that when he was discharging the steam he had to constantly remind the miners to step back until the red lever was completely lifted.

The first point Nils had engraved into his head, even with closed eyes he wouldn’t make a mistake. But with the second point he had some problems.

Today, he was shutting down the machine as usual. He noticed that other miners were no longer around. He felt that he would be a fool if he shouted a warning when no one was around, so he was totally absorbed in pulling the red lever. The red lever was a bit hard to pull, and out of exhaustion he had to bare his teeth during the pull.