Release That Witch - Chapter 658
Chapter 658: Dreams and Steel
s the liquid iron rolled over and over in the converter, the silicon and manganese in it were oxidized first after which it was the turn of the carbon in the pig iron.
At a temperature of nearly 1,500 degrees, the carbon reacted with the oxygen in the air, producing carbon monoxide and a lot of heat which made the liquid boil in the furnace. The flames gushing out of the furnace mouth almost enveloped the blowing pipe and the grate. That was why Roland made them coated with heat resistance coating.
A large amount of hot carbon monoxide were forced outward. It mixed with the air outside and burnt violently, looking as if the furnace were set afire. The noises caused by gas expansion even downed the booming sounds of the steam engine. As this scene easily evoked an image of an erupting volcano, all the people moved backward simultaneously in fright, except Roland who still stood in the place, with both of his hands behind his back. He faced the strong hot winds, totally besotted with the awe-inspiring roars of the surging steel liquid.
He thought it was a pity that he could not use pure oxygen in this process at present due to technological limitations. Otherwise, the flames would shine even more brightly.
When oxides of phosphorus and sulfur, which were the last elements that were oxidized, reacted with limestone and became furnace slags, the flames began to dim and the liquid iron became molten steel. As the furnace slags were lighter, they were floating on it. The workers could pour the liquid steel out through the steel-tapping hole by tilting the furnace as easily as pouring a cup of tea.
To prevent the slags from entering into the steel ladle, a modern steel mill would use a slag-stopping ball, a slag-stopping spear or infrared detection, which was beyond Neverwinter’s technical capacity. Given that, Roland came up with a simple solution which was not pouring out all the liquid. He instructed the workers to erect the furnace when there were still some liquid steel in it, and then he asked them to dump all the left liquid steel together with the furnace slags. As he was not pursuing productivity efficiency, he did not care about such a little waste. Besides, when he collected enough wasted liquid steel, he could put them back into the furnace to make steel again.
To ensure the quality of the steel, the last step was to eliminate excess oxygen in the liquid steel.
The alumina poured in Neverwinter from Longsong Stronghold could make excellent deoxidizers. A bucket of pure aluminum extracted by Lucia was added to the liquid steel, and soon aluminum oxide furnace slags and excess liquid aluminum started to float to the surface. At this moment, the whole steelmaking process was accomplished.
Seeing the bright molten steel being poured into the mold and turning into steel ingots, all the officials of City Hall were too stunned to utter a word.
In this era, people usually relied on blacksmiths to hit on the hot iron repeatedly for a long time to produce steel, and a whole set of steel armors would be treasured as a family heirloom. No one had seen that steel could be made this way. “Star of Steel” had been able to produce lots of steel, but it was run by magic powers. They all knew that without Anna and Lucia, it could hardly produce anything.
However, this time was different, as converter steelmaking required no magic power but common workers. They realized something after witnessing this whole manual operation.
They were clear that they could not create another “Star of Steel”, but they could certainly build more converters and train countless workers.
Given that, steel was no longer a rare material. A huge amount of this solid metal would be produced at the foot of the North Slope Mountain to replace those soft and fragile materials, such as wood and bronze.
Roland was happy to see the surprise and excitement on the officials’ faces. He believed that they would not be excellent leaders if they were not thrilled by this brand new steelmaking process. Common workers might only be amazed by the steel ingots in front of them, but the officials should see the changes and the future brought by this new technology.
By now, Neverwinter’s coal & iron compound manufacturing industry had been formed. Mining, ironmaking, steelmaking and steel-casting processes could all be completed by common people. With a fast-growing population and a rapidly expanding education, Roland now felt that he could hear the steel wheels rolling over the ground, ushering in a new era.
As to the quality of this first batch of rolled steel, he decided to let Lucia check it. After that, he could base on her results to adjust the air blowing time and to improve the slags removing methods. He felt good seeing this achievement.
…
However, he did not want to have a rest after that, as he still had lots of work to do with the memories he retrieved in the Dream World.
As he had completed all the primary textbooks, he planned to search for some professional books on machinery. He needed high-performance processing equipment as Neverwinter would soon be able to produce a large amount of steel. Those simple machine tools he had made previously could hardly process some high-end products, such as Longsong Cannons, heavy machine guns, and grenade fuze.
Where could he find those books?
He believed that the library of the school was the place he should go. It had been said to be a place full of romantic encounters, but he had had none during all his visits to that place when he had been a student. Despite that, he had really read lots of books there, including many on mechanical design.
After dinner, he went to bed early.
As traveling in the Dream World could not count as a rest, he would be very tired for the first day in that world. Besides, it was impossible for him to take an afternoon nap in his apartment there without an air conditioner in hot weather. Under such circumstances, he had to sleep early and save energy for his activities in the Dream World.
Waking up in that world, it was still a clear sunny morning in the midsummer.
He looked at his mobile phone at the bedside and saw a dozen missed calls. He touched the screen and found that all of them were from secondhand goods dealers. They had also sent him many text messages.
“Hey, bro, do you have any more armors? One of my friends wants to buy some to shoot a film. If you do, call me.”
“I can offer you a higher price this time, 700 yuan. How’s it?”
“The price for the swords will also be increased by 200 yuan. I’m a true pal, right? But don’t sharpen the blades. Otherwise, that’s way too scary.”
“If you’re unsatisfied with the prices, we can talk about it.”
“Come on, bro. Could you give me an answer?”
Roland slid to the last message. It was from his bank, telling him that the remaining balance of his account was 3,600 yuan and 1,500 yuan of it was remitted by Zero’s parents as her living expenses.
The money could support him for quite a long time.
He tapped with his finger to delete all the messages and put on his T-shirt and shorts before going into the living room.
At this moment, Zero was still in bed.
Not wanting to wait for the little girl to wake up and make breakfast, he directly walked downstairs and found a small rice noodle restaurant in the lane.
He sat in it and said, “a big bowl of rice noodle with shredded meat, please.”
“Yes!”
He thought that as he had money now, he must give himself a treat which was not available even in the king’s city of Graycastle. After all, the kingdom had no rice at all.
Soon, a steaming bowl of rice noodles fresh from the pot was served for him. While eating the breakfast, he looked at the apartment building.
By now, he had only visited the secondhand bookstore and the small Internet Cafe two blocks away, busy with making money and memorizing books. This was the first time for him to have leisure to sit down and observe the residents of the Apartment of Souls.
Chapter 659: Rules of the Dream World
pparently, the Dream World had accepted all the losers in the Soul Battlefield, as no one in this world found it strange seeing their various hair colors and different facial features.
For example, Roland himself had long gray hair, light gray eyes and a straight nose with a high nose bridge, which would attract all the attention when he walked in the streets of the community where he had lived in modern times.
However, in this world, all these strange looking people lived just like the common ones. On their way to catch buses, young men were rushing about with their newspapers and briefcases under their arms, while chewing deep-fried dough sticks. Elderly people gathered in twos and threes on the open space in front of the apartment building. Some were moving their limbs and doing their morning exercises. Some laid out Chinese chess boards, ready to play with their friends.
The chirping of cicadas, the city noises and the sounds of morning reading, babies crying and hucksters shouting were all wafted to his ears by the morning breeze, creating a characteristic symphony of the tube-shaped apartment building.
Roland cherished the scene which was full of life.
Right at this moment, a woman running along the lane was getting near to him.
Seeing this woman, Roland nearly dropped his chopsticks involuntarily. To his great surprise, she was Garcia Wimbledon.
She tied her hair up and wore light sportswear, baring her white thighs and hanging a towel around her neck. Her sweat had soaked her collar and pinpricks of sweat covered her arms. She must have been running for quite a long time.
He was more surprised seeing all the people in the lane fixing their eyes on her and some even whistling at her. These people looked so excited as if they were looking at a star.
However, Garcia did not give a fig to the crowd. She continued running through the lane as fast as the wind and disappeared into the corridor entrance of the apartment building.
“That’s Garcia!” someone in the rice noodle restaurant exclaimed.
“Now you believe what I told you. If you get up early, you’ll get the chance to see her. As long as the weather is good, she’ll run for an hour here.”
“It’s the first time for me to meet a TV star.”
“She looks much better than on TV.”
“Oh yeah, Garcia will have an important match very soon.”
“I’ll support her anyway. I hope that she’ll win the final.”
“Of course, she will. She’s such a genius!”
Everybody was talking about her, leaving Roland dumbfounded. He wondered why all the residents here were so familiar with Garcia and what the match they were talking about was. He thought, “is she a rising sports star or something?”
To confirm his guess, he took out his wallet after drinking all the remaining soup in his bowl and asked the owner when he came over to clean the table, “what was going on? Is that woman famous?”
The owner looked at him in disbelief, saying, “you’re not living here, right? Who in this Tongzi Street doesn’t know Miss Garcia?”
Hearing this, he became even more curious and said to the owner, “I’ve just moved in recently. What does she do?”
“She’s a martial fighter!”
“Pfft.” Roland nearly spat in the owner’s face. “Ahem… what?”
“Come on, go to watch TV by yourself. She’s the most famous person in this area, and it’s because of her that we can continue to live here.”
“Why?”
The owner pointed somewhere behind Roland and said, “look there.”
He turned around and noticed something he had missed when he had come here. On the wall opposite to this restaurant, there was a big word saying “Removal”.
“House removal?”
“Yes, some development company has long wanted to pull down the whole Tongzi Street to build a new skyscraper here. That company said that this block was too old and unsightly for a downtown zone. Bullshit, it’s clearly a cultural relic building!” The owner sighed while searching his bag for Roland’s change. “Those guys want to relocate us all to the suburbs. If Garcia didn’t expose their plot on TV and gain wide support for us, the developer would start to drive us away at this moment.”
Roland’s mouth twisted. “That’s really… an outrage.”
“That’s why all of us support Miss Garcia.” The owner smiled and tamped the change into his hand. “Since you’re now a member of the Tongzi Street, you’ll become her fan soon!”
…
Roland understood that the Dream World might use some incredible methods to piece together irrelevant memory fragments, but what had happened just now was too bizarre to believe.
What’s a martial fighter? Some new Olympic event?
And demolition of Apartment of Souls? No kidding! All the doors connected to the memory fragments are here in the building, and so is the creator of this world!
And I have to thank my elder sister for making it possible for me to live here?
With complicated feelings, he returned to his No. 0825 apartment, and Zero happened to get out of her bedroom with sleepy eyes.
Her hair was in a mess and her dress was wrinkled. One side of the dress’s neckline dropped down, revealing half of her shoulder. She said, “uncle, you get up? I’ll go to make breakfast right now.”
“No, I’ve had breakfast and I brought you something to eat.”
He put the omelet, steamed pork dumplings and milk he bought on the table and then turned on the television.
With a puzzled expression on her face, she sat by the table and asked, “why do you get up so early recently?”
“I told you that I got a job, so I can’t sleep late in the morning anymore. Your parents remitted your living expenses to me, and my company paid me my first month’s salary. We don’t have to worry about money for now.”
“Use your money wisely. Who knows how long will it last. Besides, we haven’t finished the food stored in the refrigerator yet.” Having said that, Zero still quickly devoured her breakfast.
Roland asked her, “by the way, do you know Garcia?”
She twitched her mouth and said, “of course, sister Garcia is such a talent. She joined Martialist Association at the age of 20, and I heard that she held an unbeaten record in the preliminaries. All my classmates regard her as an idol, but I think it’s boring to watch this kind of fighting matches on the stage. ”
Though he was a little bothered by the fact that he was called uncle while Garcia was called sister, he still put this aside and focused on what he wanted to investigate. Based on what the little girl had said just now, the martial fighters in this world even formed their own organization.
He asked, “are there… many martial fighters?”
“There are only a few.” Zero darted a look of disapproval at him. “Uncle, please stop thinking about it. Not everyone has such a talent. Only those awakening with Force of Nature will get the chance to become martial fighters, and awakening is just the basic requirement. Without determination and perseverance, even an awakened talent will become a puppet of some great power and bring troubles to the people. ”
“Uhm… how do you know so much about them?”
“Our teacher told us. He also said that as compared to imagining ourselves becoming martial fighters, we’d better do more exercises and try to become useful people for the community.” She went to the bathroom to get washed and then walked to the door carrying her schoolbag. “I’ve got a full day today, bye.”
When Zero left, Roland opened his hand, feeling the strange power in it.
Is this Force of Nature?
His interest in the Dream World increased dramatically. The “puppet of great power” somehow reminded him of a magic power bite. He wondered how this world integrated all the devoured memories and what the rules behind it were.
He had planned to go to the library of the school.
However, now he had a new idea.
Chapter 660: Manifestation of Power
p>Roland spent the whole day searching every TV channel.
He watched several martial arts fighting programs. Different from the traditional fighting matches, this kind of competition was held in an arena as large as half of a football field. With no judge in the arena, the fighting was extremely intense. It was not a rare thing to see the fighters break the floor in the heat of a match, and loud sounds like muffled thunders could be heard when the fighters exchanged blows, which were like special effects added to this match.
In terms of competitiveness and charm, it was indeed better than boxing and freestyle fighting. All the martial fighters fought in a literal sense, with no rounds being counted for them and no half-time intervals interrupting the competition. No wonder the audience would get so excited watching this kind of fighting. Roland could not help but knit his eyebrows whenever he saw a martial fighter spit out blood or get massively injured, thinking, “these martial fighters really go too far. Aren’t they worried that they’ll die before they get the chance to spend their competition bonuses?”
Those matches aside, what he was most interested in was still the martial fighters themselves.
They obviously had much greater physical strength than the common people, and the Force of Nature seemed to give them some special abilities other than just improving their power or speed.
Each of such abilities would be given a special title which would be promoted as the martial fighter’s nickname. For example, in the show Roland was watching, there was a man named Hurricane. His nickname was Mighty Storm, as he could punch numerous times at a super high speed in a second.
Roland was surprised by this propaganda method which would clearly show the trump card of a fighter to his or her opponent before the match began.
He was even more surprised when he saw a demon in this fighting match.
It was a typical Mad Demon which was tall and had big arms. As it wore no mask nor iron gloves, all the audience could see its fangs and three-fingered hands, which were obviously not human features. However, no one seemed to be scared and the commentator referred to him as a foreign martialist.
Roland was amazed by this weird and powerful Dream World again.
To rationalize the existence of the demon devoured by Zero, this world even made it a racial minority. Roland could not help but wonder what would the hybrid demonic beast become in this world, and then quickly thought of Lifts-her-tail who was full of vigor.
When he heard his own stomach growling, he suddenly noticed that the sun was setting.
He could not help frowning.
Zero usually came back long before this hour.
He had read her diary and knew her school was located at Zhongshan Road. It was only three kilometers from this apartment building. If she took a bus, she could get home in 10 minutes. Her cram school was over at 5:30 pm, but now it was 6:15 already. He got a little worried, “anything happened in her school?”
After a thought, he decided to get out to buy something to eat first.
He thought she might be hanging out with her friends right now. As in a summer day, it was not going to get dark until 8:00 pm, she probably went to a park or some game room to play with her friends.
Given that, even if he came to her school right now, he would probably not meet her there. As her landlord not her nanny, he did not want to be nosy.
She’s just a little girl. No matter how hardworking she usually is, sometimes she may also want to relax.
So I’ll cook… no, I’ll buy today’s dinner for us.
Right at this moment, the image on the TV flickered and the martial fighting broadcasting was changed into The News Studio.
“Good evening, viewers. Now, we interrupt our programs for a newsflash.”
Holding a stack of papers in hand and with a worried look on face, the host said, “a No. 29 bus was hijacked at Zhongshan Road. The hijacker had a knife. Now traffic police have sealed the road. We warn all the city residents living in that area to avoid going out for now. We’ll broadcast follow-up reports on the most recent progress of the case.”
After that, it was swiftly switched to the crime scene on the TV. Roland saw a big crowd gathered outside the police cordon, who showed no inclination to leave.
Wait, isn’t this Zero’s regular route?
At this thought, his heart suddenly sank. Is she abducted?
That was not good news to him. He was worried what would happen after the death of a key figure of the Dream World like Zero. Based on his other dream experiences, when subconscious failed to rationalize a thing, it would stop working. To avoid causing any disruption to the subconscious, he was even reluctant to delve into Zero’s family background.
He was afraid that when the subconscious stopped working, he would wake up and forget everything happened in the dream.
He did not want to finish this dream before he dug out all the information in his deep memory.
More importantly, he would be able to know more about the real world if all the residents of the Apartment of Souls had doors connected to their memory fragments as he guessed.
It was also possible that Zero’s death would not change the Dream World, but he did not want to take this risk.
Now that he had this strange power surging inside his body, he decided to go to the crime scene to help.
After he left the Tongzi Street, he ran all the way through the busy roads, feeling a warm flow circulating inside his body. Surprisingly, he did not feel tired and could easily control every part of his body while running at a high speed. He dodged all the pedestrians with agility and arrived at the spot in merely eight minutes. He felt this three-mile long-distance running was like a 100m Sprint.
Out of his expectation, when he finally squeezed himself into the crowd, he found that the hijacker was already captured. In a flood of tears, he was telling the reporter that he just did this on the spur of the moment. The crowd responded with boos and catcalls and then quickly left. Traffic police began to clean up roadblocks, getting ready to restore the traffic.
With his mouth corner twisted, he complained in his heart, “who says that policemen always come after the problem is solved.”
Besides, he did not see Zero in the hijacked bus. He sighed inwardly, “it looks like I’ve run all this way for nothing.”
When he was about to leave, he heard a vague call for help coming out of a narrow lane on the side of the road.
He was startled and looked into the lane. At this moment, the sun did not completely fall behind the mountains, but the lofty buildings on both sides of the lane blocked all the light. It was dark inside. He saw nothing in it.
Was that an illusion?
After several minutes, when he slowly walked past the entrance of the lane, he heard the weak voice again.
There must be someone inside!
I should ask the police for help.
He turned around, only to find that all the policemen had got into their cars with the hijacker and were driving away. It was too late to stop them now.
Should I pretend that I’ve heard nothing?
However, he clearly felt something inside the lane was attracting him.
The moment he had got near to the entrance of the lane, the warm flow in the body had started to surge. It felt like an uproar or an excitement, which urged him to get in.
He stepped into the narrow lane.
After his eyes quickly adjusted to the very weak light inside, he saw nothing but a man who stood with his back toward him.
“Are you calling for help?” Roland asked, frowning.
The man did not answer or turn around. Instead, he rotated his head 180 degrees to look at Roland. Seeing this movement, he sucked in a breath of cold air.
He was even more shocked seeing the man’s face.
With black skin and lots of blisters, it seemed as if it were burnt. A dark red cyclone shining in the dim light was twirling on his forehead.
Chapter 661: The Star Cyclone
Is this… magic power?”
The twirling cyclone on the man’s forehead immediately reminded Roland of Nightingale’s description about the form of magic power, but seeing it now for himself, he thought it was more like a galaxy. Several spiral arms were revolving around the nexus, the brightest point which was located in the center. Despite that it was only about a palm size, when he carefully looked at it, he could notice numerous details and felt some surging power in it.
“Are you a martial fighter?” The man suddenly opened his mouth to ask in a hoarse voice.
“No, I’m not.” Roland was fully alerted.
“Yeah, I guess so.” The burnt-face man turned his body toward Roland without moving his head at all. “You taste sweeter.”
Roland looked for weakness in the man’s body while saying, “if you were a girl, I might be a bit interested in hearing these words. Are you a man bit by the magic power… no, Force of Nature?”
“Force of Nature?” The burnt-face man snorted contemptuously. “They’ve no idea where this power came from and knew nothing about its essence.”
“Don’t talk as if you know everything.” Roland retorted. thinking, “come on, this is my dream!”
The man opened his mouth which was full of bleeding blisters to say, “I can’t tell, but I can feel it. It doesn’t belong to this world. It’s a gift from the deities. I thought the hijacker could attract at least one or two martial fighters to come here, but he surrendered too fast. Fortunately, my efforts finally paid off, as you came here…”
“Crack!”
Roland struck first to gain the initiative before the burnt-face man finished his sentence. This was a trick he had learned from his fighting experience in childhood. He could tell from the way the man acted and talked that he was a dangerous guy. Given that, it was not a wise choice to act after he finished talking.
He straightly punched the man on his forehead, as fast as a flash of lightning. As he found his strength had increased sharply, he did not punch with all his power. However, he still clearly felt the man’s bones cracking under his fist.
His strike sent the burnt-face man up into the air.
Meanwhile, the warm flow inside his body began to surge, dancing with joy for such a good start.
The man landed and rolled on the ground until hitting a wall. When he staggered to his feet, Roland came up to launch another attack without any hesitation.
He believed his own judgement, as this was his Dream World.
Moreover, his opponent was obviously not a human being.
When his face bones were broken, he seemed to feel no pain and did not beg for mercy at all. No human being suffering such a sharp pain could react this way.
Roland felt that his mind was clearer than ever before.
The violent warm flow filled his body, but did not make him woozy.
He knew that at this moment, he should beat up the underdog, which was another trick he learned from his childhood fighting.
This time, he hit the man with all his strength.
He punched with no skills as if he was hitting a sandbag, keeping the burnt-face man constantly moving to defend. Apparently, the man did not expect this at all and started flailing as Roland’s blows were raining down upon him. Roland soon started to feel that hitting the man was like hitting tofu, as his muscles were torn loose after his arms, sternum and ribs broke. If he were a normal man, he would be dead at this moment.
Roland scolded while giving the man a good thrashing, “You asshole! Turn your head 180 degrees. You thought you were making a horror movie?”
He was very upset by the fact that as the creator of this world, he had been scared by the burnt-face man when he had seen him in this alley.
“This… is… impossible… Why… I can’t use it…” The man’s voice changed completely and soon Roland could hardly hear anything he was saying.
“Use what?” Roland noticed that the cyclone on the man’s forehead was twirling slower. He tried to reach out his hand to touch it and found that it became somewhat tangible. “You mean this cyclone of magic power?”
“No, don’t touch it…”
Roland knew that he must do what his enemy did not want him to do. He held his head down and grabbed the cyclone. When the warm flow in his body began to boil, he tore it down.
Suddenly, the burnt-face man quieted down and collapsed to the ground, paralyzed and lifeless.
The cyclone turned from dark red to a bright color when it fell into Roland’s palm. Now it was white in the center and blue on the outside, more resembling a galaxy.
It began to twirl again and quickly left his palm, turning in to a beam of dazzling light. It shot up into the sky, leaving a trail like a silver wire and disappeared after several seconds.
Meanwhile, the warm flow inside his body calmed down, giving him great satisfaction. He felt good from head to toe.
He had completely lost his mind.
He thought that this world might be more complicated than he imagined.
Looking at the dead burnt-face man on the ground, his mouth corner twisted and then he turned away heading for the exit of the alley.
It was dark when he returned to the towering tube-shaped apartment building. A swarm of flying insects attracted by the light in it were buzzing noisily in the corridor.
He fumbled to take out his key and inserted it into keyhole. Before he turned the key to open the door, he heard a burst of rapid footsteps behind it.
Zero opened the door with a frown, but he still saw some worry in her eyes.
“Where have you been?”
“Where have you been?”
They asked simultaneously.
“The cram school added classes today. We’ll get a day off tomorrow as some teachers will come to check.”
“I had gone to look for you.”
“Look for me?” the little girl asked doubtingly.
“Yeah, you didn’t come back on time.” Roland laughed while rubbing her head and then walked into the apartment.
Three dishes and some soup were already placed on the table, but all the bowls and chopsticks remained neat and clean. Obviously, Zero had been waiting for him to come back.
That was why she had run to the door as soon as she had heard the sound at the door.
Roland sat at the table and said, “Let’s have dinner. I’m starving.”
Zero stared at him, asking, “Were you worried that I was cheated by some stranger? I’m not a kid anymore. Next time, you can just wait for me at home.”
Roland could not help but roll his eyes at this, thinking, “Nowadays, junior high school students are so mature? I remember myself at this age, I was terribly naughty. When I still had some allowance, I would go to the game hall and when I didn’t, I would go into the mountains to catch chafers. I would never come home until it was dark. How come this little girl behaves so well?”
He somehow felt a little embarrassed for himself at this thought.
“Oh, you’ve got a day off tomorrow?”
“Uhm, what?” Zero still seemed a bit annoyed but looked relaxed.
Roland said while eating, “Come to the library with me, I’ll buy something for you on the way.”
“Buy… What?”
“Well, I bought you some clothes last time, so this time, let’s buy some dresses, shoes and pajamas… you have to get something new to replace what you are wearing now.” He smiled. “I’ll buy you a cellphone. We need to stay in touch in case something like this happens again.”
Chapter 662: The Defensive Line
aving stayed in the Dream World for two days, Roland saw the grey slated roof of his castle again.
He stretched out his hands, repeatedly bending and stretching his fingers. Except for the strange heat current, he had the same feeling as he had in the Dream World. Luckily, he could take advantage of falling down to get rid of the Dream World, otherwise he could not even tell the difference between reality and fantasy.
“Could the brain simulate such a realistic world?”
Roland could not help feeling confused about that.
Especially the cluster of stars which was particularly like the Magic Cyclone. Even though he had never seen the real look of magic power, if the Force of Nature was shaped based on the magic power, everything in the Dream World should be fuzzy.
Plus the eccentric burnt-face man and the heat current that resonated with the cluster of stars… He suddenly was not sure about his previous presumptions.
He felt like his small brain could not contain such a complex and huge Dream World.
But if the Dream World did not exist in his subconsciousness, where was it?
After thinking hard for a long while, Roland could not find a satisfactory answer.
He shook his head and made up his mind to temporarily put these things aside.
Since he could not figure it out, he thought that he should focus on the more important things.
After he took Zero to the library, he learned a lot of useful design knowledge. Even if he just looked through a book, he could precisely reproduce its content.
One of the books also covered the proportioning and property of some alloys, which could greatly save the test time for Anna and Lucia.
Under such circumstances, it would be less difficult to create the third-generation machine tools used to forge higher precision parts.
Of course, he had to personally instruct the first operational workers.
People in different domains in Graycastle were continuously gathering together in the western region. Some people who had settled down here passed the universal education test and got jobs. Upon thinking of this, Roland felt extremely heartened.
This was a gradual process, but he had paved the way. When Graycastle was unified next year, Neverwinter might have an opportunity to be on the threshold of the industrialization age.
Once they entered the industrialization age, the domain would certainly undergo a tremendous change.
In the afternoon, Karl Van Bate, Minister of Construction, brought the news that Route 67 had been accomplished in less time than that of the Kingdom Main Street. Apart from a shorter distance, the workers had become more proficient in construction.
As they promised before, the batch of workers who had been developed by the Ministry of Construction had been affiliated with the border area.
“Your Majesty, if you don’t have any other road-building plans, I’m planning to send them all to construct residential quarters.” Karl said, “Though there will be extra salary expenditure, Neverwinter is in urgent need of residential quarters.”
Roland also knew this condition. There were altogether about 5,000 people in the construction team, half of whom were busy building new residential communities in order to accommodate the large population which had been persuaded by City Hall to come to Neverwinter from the other cities. Over just one year, the town had been enlarged at least over three times, which did not include the new farming land to the south of Redwater River.
“The road-building can wait.” He spread out the map of Border Area and pointed to North Slope Mountain, saying, “I’m planning to build a railway directly connecting the mine and the pier so as to load the coal which comes from the west.”
“There is already a road…” Karl suddenly stopped and continued to say, “Are you saying a railway?”
“Yes, a railway or railway track.” Roland nodded and said, “It’s similar to the orbital transportation system of the mine, but it’s made up of steel.”
“I see,” after a while of thinking, Karl said, “but a railway doesn’t need many workers, either.”
“It doesn’t indeed need many workers to construct a narrowly hardened pavement.” Roland smiled but did not point it out. Honestly speaking, he knew that Karl did not understand what he had said at all. In the mine, the coal depended on simple ropes, steam engines and horses to carry the loads outside. But that was not what he thought and it was for more than carrying coal.
What he wanted was trains.
Since its invention, the train had caused tremendous changes for land transport.
And this short-distance railway was an attempt.
It was not difficult to understand the principles of steamed trains, but a railway system was gigantic and complex. Even if Roland did not know how many years it took to test and improve before the train and its supporting facilities were put into practice, he thought that it must be a long process.
“Luckily, I can find the knowledge in the Dream World.”
He had been so obsessed with the gigantic trains which stood for industrialization.
No matter how heavily they were loaded, the trains steadily travelled through forests and mountains as they puffed white gas. Black connecting rods drive many wheels to rotate, giving out a rhythmical clang and shortening the vast land to an acceptable distance. Afterwards, no matter what changes had taken place in the driving force, the nature of trains has never changed.
Apart from the hardware facilities, a train also needed driving by a batch of railway workers who should be responsible for their own duties. So it was much more complex than simple steam engines and machine tools.
According to Roland’s plan, the railway connecting with the North Slope Mountain and the pier was not only a technological test but a training base for developing the first-generation of railway workers.
“Send 200 people to pave the roadbed towards Misty Forest to the outside of the second city wall.” Roland decided.
Karl was anxious, “Your Majesty, but the railway will be exposed to the attack of demonic beasts.”
Roland carelessly explained to him, “they have no interest in steel. The railway won’t be finished before the Months of Demons. Besides, we won’t hide behind the short mud wall next year. Don’t you feel that the border area is becoming more and more crowded?”
“You mean…”
Roland pointed to the vast area to the northwest of the Impassable Mountain Range and explained to him, “we should expand the border area to the Barbarian Land where the resources are no less than Graycastle. A thin mud wall is far from enough to defend against the demons.”
If the Battle of Divine Will broke out and the demons build the third Obelisk in Tuqaila, the outpost would approach the foot of the Impassable Mountain Range. Hence, it was doomed to fail if they just set defensive lines in the breaches of the western region. If the Witch Cooperation Association could follow a mountain path to the Barbarian Land before, so would the demons to enter Graycastle.
Even though the demons gave up the mountain path, his troops would struggle to deal with a group of flying Devilbeasts who flew through mountains to harass them each day.
“Only if the Impassable Mountain Range became the city wall, would Graycastle be safe.”
If the Longsong Cannon were set up on each of the mountain tops, the area covered within the shooting range would be his new town.
There were no rivers in this area connecting to the inner land. If resources such as coal needed quickly transporting to the Barbarian Land, they could only rely on a railway.
“The defense plan of the future is a big project but I believe that you can do it.”
It sounded fascinating for any mason to bring the Impassable Mountain Range into the territory of Graycastle. If a mason could build such a city, he would certainly be remembered by history.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Karl said with an excited look.
Chapter 663: The Spectacle
In addition, I intend to build a landmark in the city of Neverwinter,” Roland continued to say.
“Landmark?” Karl quickly composed himself after the excitement. “Do you mean an eye-catching architecture such as a monument or a clock tower?”
“You could also call it a spectacle.” Karl was without a doubt a top figure in the Mason Guild of the king’s city, judging by his quick response to such a new terminology. Roland nodded at first, then shook his head and said, “But I’m not going to build any useless landmark.”
After the battle with the church, the First Army suffered serious losses. Although Iron Ax reported that the army’s morale was still high, the casualties caused huge grief to the families.
In order to strengthen the confidence of the subjects, especially those who came from out-of-town, he came up with this amazing idea of the spectacle. Some spectacles in history were built entirely to satisfy the lust of the rulers without having any benefit to the builders. Even if this could highlight the power of the state, Roland would not build such a white elephant.
“I plan to build a residential building on the south bank of Redwater River, behind the industrial park.”
Karl did not reply as he must have realized that this was no ordinary building.
Roland was very satisfied with Karl’s calmness. “It’ll have about 15 floors, with a height of three and a half meters per floor and an overall building height of more than 50 meters. In other words, it’s close to the height of the four old city walls of the king’s city—was that the biggest project you’ve ever been involved in?”
Karl gasped. “Your Majesty, this would be the Tower of Babel!”
“I wouldn’t consider it the Tower of Babel. It’s just an ordinary high-rise building.” Roland said laughingly, “It just happens to be suitable as a landmark in this era.”
The 15-floor height meant that it would tower over the castle. It would be visible as soon as one entered the city of Neverwinter. It would not only symbolize the power of Neverwinter but also make up for the shortage of housing now. After all, high-rise residential buildings had a higher plot ratio than cottages. This explained why more and more skyscrapers were built in the future.
“Could residential buildings really be built so high?” Karl seemed a bit skeptical.
“This is still far from the limitations of concrete.” Roland thought for a moment and said, “I’ll personally guide you through it.”
Although a change of profession often meant a different field of knowledge, mechanics and structural principles were still interchangeable. Before coming up with this idea, he already considered many factors: the height might seem alarming, but in fact, it was not. For example, the Pyramid of Khufu which was constructed in 2,000 BC possessed a height of over 140 meters and relied only on the pilling up of stones. China also had wooden pagodas with a height of more than 130 meters—as long as the foundation was sturdy enough, the height would not be an issue.
Provided stability would not be affected, future generations minimized the volume of the pillars and walls to reduce the cost of materials. Neverwinter already had a surplus of cement production, hence using it to build a concrete building was a good choice.
It would also be advisable to use a multi-podium and towering building design for the structure. Although that would mean occupying more land, it would also greatly enhance the structural stability and reduce the difficulty of construction.
More columns could be added if stability was an issue. Reinforced steel bars could also help with its quality. As long as the foundation was solid, it would be almost uncollapsible.
The last issue was the casting of the concrete—Roland had already considered it and decided that Maggie and Hummingbird would rise into the sky, while Hummingbird would carry iron cans and pour concrete from the air. This would almost be as efficient as using the pump.
Karl already had experience from building the Witch Building which had the same concrete structure, and this time it was just on a slightly larger scale. The bamboo tendons and the steel wires would also be replaced by reinforced steel. He was highly confident about this project since he also had the Witch Union as technical support.
“Time’s up. Everyone, please put your pens down.” Scroll knocked on the table.
“Phew…” Evelyn let out a deep breath. This meant that the second semester at Border Town… no, the city of Neverwinter, had finally ended. She ultimately managed to catch up with everyone else this year and participate in the final exam.
She kept her charcoal pen and looked around—Anna was still nowhere to be found. According to Wendy, Anna had already reached a mysterious realm. Ordinary people who read her books would only feel dizzy and fall into a deep sleep as if they had depleted all their magic powers.
Candle was also looking at her. When their eyes met, Candle even gave a thumbs up, to signify that she did well at the exam.
Nightingale, who was sitting at the back, still looked dejected. Since the reading and writing tests were scrapped, her scores fell drastically, which made Evelyn quite puzzled. As far as she knew, Nightingale came from a noble background and received her education much earlier than other people. She should have an easier time when it came to learning. Perhaps Nightingale’s ability was too important, hence she was kept busy all day handling tasks for His Majesty, and this, in turn, affected her studies.
After all, Nightingale even fought alongside Lady Ashes as a combat witch. In Sleeping Island, she would be someone that Evelyn could only admire from a distance.
The others seemed both happy and sad. For example, Agatha, Lucia and Lily from the first tier always obtained high marks easily. Learning seemed to come naturally to them. Especially, Miss Agatha was already getting closer to Anna and Tilly. She was also a combat witch, thus making Evelyn extremely envious.
For the remaining few, one could guess from the expression on their faces that Honey, Hummingbird and Echo would come last if there were no mishaps.
Of course, this did not include the new members of the alliance, Paper and Summer—they were still not up to speed, and at the moment they were taught by Teacher Scroll alone.
But Evelyn was most excited about Maggie—looking at the guileless little girl, she could not help but want to laugh out aloud.
There are no multiple choice questions in the test!
Since the previous final exam results, Evelyn remained heartbroken. She thought she was already very close to her goal and did not expect to lose by one point to Maggie.
She even looked for Scroll to check if the results were wrong. In the end, she discovered that Maggie did very well for the multiple choice questions, which proved she failed miserably.
In the coming year, Evelyn spent most of her time on learning.
She was able to display her ability quite quickly. She only needed to go the winery two or three times per week, and it took her less than 10 minutes before she could cast all her magic power. Even when the bar was open later on, it still did not affect her performance.
She never once had a match with the poker trio. When she had spare time while working at the bar, she would always flip open her exercise book to consolidate what she had learned that night. She did not let even her favorite perfume collection affect her learning. Evelyn would go shopping with Candle at Convenience Market only when the new flavor of perfume started selling on the shelves. She did all this in order to achieve the goal she set for herself.
And this time, she was confident about winning!
Chapter 664: The Mystery Moon Detective Squad
p>Three days later, Evelyn got her grades for the final exam.
She scored an amazing 113 points out of 150. This was a very high score, judging from her usual standards.
Since Scroll accompanied His Majesty Roland to the Longsong Area for inspection work, Sister Wendy was the one who told her about the results. She even patted Evelyn on her shoulder and said encouragingly, “Good work. Her Highness Tilly will be very happy when she gets to know about this. Keep up the great work.”
“I’ll continue to work hard!” Evelyn nodded firmly and turned round to look for Candle. “How many points did you get?”
“91 points, which is still a pass,” Candle answered, “Looking at your happy expression, you must have done very well on the test.”
“Um!” Evelyn blurted. “113!”
“Really? This score is probably close to Lucia’s!” Candle said excitedly, “Would you like me to find out?”
“I don’t think so. They must have done better.” Evelyn waved her hand. “I only want to know Maggie’s result.”
“Perhaps my next goal could be replaced by Lily or Lucia,” she thought. She was aware her ability was indeed very bad, but she was born like that which was unchangeable. Learning, however, was something that could improve with efforts. Even ordinary people could excel in learning, and hence she did not want to lose to anyone.
She also wanted to be a learned and talented person like His Majesty Roland.
After class, Evelyn found Maggie, but Maggie’s reply was unbelievable. “Cuckoo—I scored 117!”
How could this be possible?
She stood there motionlessly for a long time, feeling incredulous even after Maggie left.
“How could this be? Scroll must have made a mistake in her results.” For a moment, Evelyn thought she heard her own voice. She blinked, only to realize that the one who had spoken was Mystery Moon. She happened to hear the conversation and had a similar puzzled look on her face.
“What’s so strange about that?” Lily stared at Mystery Moon. “Don’t doubt the ability of others, just because you fared poorly.”
“But I was sitting right in front of her.” Mystery Moon tried to justify herself. “When I collected the test, I saw that she drew honey jerky all over the blank paper.”
“Are you sure?” Lily frowned.
“I swear on my electromagnetic force!”
“Hah… that’s not in the least bit convincing at all.” Lily shrugged and prepared to leave, but was pulled back by Mystery Moon.
“Wait a minute, what I said was all true! Maybe we should investigate.”
“I’m not interested.” Lily snarled. “If you have any doubts, you can check with Scroll when she comes back.”
“That would defeat the whole purpose of exploring, ah,” said Mystery Moon with an expression of mischief. “Evelyn, let’s help you to find out the truth!”
“Don’t count me in!”
“What happened?” Candle called out.
Evelyn hesitated and then revealed her confused thoughts.
“Hmm… what would you do if you wanted to investigate?” Candle touched Evelyn’s head and said, “It takes a few days for Teacher Scroll to return, right?”
“Now that both His Majesty and Nightingale are away, don’t think that I’ll allow you to sneak into the office.” Lily glared at Mystery Moon. “Don’t think I’m unaware of what you plan to do.”
“Steal the tests? I’m not that stupid.” Mystery Moon shook her fingers. “I just want to find out where Scroll marks the tests.”
“You mean…” Candle’s eyes lit up.
“We just need to call Summer.” She smirked.
Evelyn instantly understood Mystery Moon’s plan. Summer could replay the illusion where Scroll was scoring the test for Maggie, and the mystery would be solved. “But… Teacher Scroll usually does so at City Hall. Won’t it be inappropriate for us to be there?”
“What’s wrong with that? In the city of Neverwinter, everyone can easily access City Hall, so there’s no reason why we can’t go.” Mystery Moon shouted. “It’s not His Majesty’s office, so I think some people should stop worrying unnecessarily.”
“I have to remind you,” said Lily, “Most people only have access to the lobby of City Hall. The office of the Ministry of Education is on the second floor. Do you think those officials will let us enter?”
“Well, this…” Mystery Moon was at a loss for words.
“In that case, let’s forget about it,” Evelyn said. She did not want to bother the others. “I’ll wait for a few more days.”
“No, I have a way around it.” Candle pondered as she touched her chin.
…
Candle’s method was very simple, which was to involve Nana. According to her plan, since Summer would already be involved, it would not matter if they called another person as well.
And as it turned out, this method did work.
Evelyn was amazed by Nana Pine’s popularity. As soon as Nana entered City Hall the next day, she was greeted warmly and stopped by no one. This was probably due to the popular image of the little angel, or the fact that her father was a well-known noble in the Border Area who had been personally praised by His Majesty. Anyway, she entered the office of the Ministry of Education effortlessly.
There was no one in the room.
Few teachers would come here unless there was a meeting.
“We’re in!” Mystery Moon said excitedly, “Let’s start backtracking!”
“Are you sure… this is alright?” Summer was a little hesitant. “Only officials are allowed to be here.”
“Officials are no different from us. Hummingbird is even the vice minister of the Ministry of Construction,” Mystery Moon patted her chest and said, “Don’t worry, as long as we don’t say anything, Scroll would certainly not mind that we visited her office.”
“If I find out that you’re lying, I promise I’ll tell Scroll,” Lily said coldly.
“I thought you said you weren’t coming?”
“Hmm… I, I’m here to supervise you and prevent you from making a big mistake, got it?”
Looking at the both of them arguing, Evelyn suddenly felt that her decision might be a mistake.
Finally, Candle managed to persuade Summer. When the illusion appeared in the office, everyone held their breath.
It was pretty clear that the exact time when Scroll marked the papers had to be the day after the exam and before she left for Longsong Stronghold. Summer quickly found the exact scene with a quick flashback.
Everyone quickly squeezed behind “Scroll”.
As long as the time had not lapsed for too long, Summer would be able to maintain the illusion for 30 minutes. Soon after, Evelyn saw Maggie’s paper.
“Look, I wasn’t lying!” Mystery Moon shouted.
“…” Lily could not help but frown.
There was indeed a large amount of blank space on the paper. Other than the easier fill-in-the-blank questions plus the question-and-answer type of questions in front, almost no words were included in the calculation section. Some of the items even had drawings of roasted meat underneath them. Even “Scroll” was shaking her head unwittingly.
It was very clear that this test could not have attained a score of 117.
“Could it be possible that Maggie was lying?” Evelyn thought.
Chapter 665: Chaos
Scroll” quickly scanned through the entire examination paper, then wrote down at the front of the paper the total score of the three subjects: 17.
The result was missing an entire 100 points.
“Well… so the problem lay with Maggie?” Nana tilted her head.
“So, that’s the result?” Mystery Moon was greatly disappointed. “So it wasn’t Scroll who purposely gave a high score to Maggie in exchange for honey grilled meat—oh!”
Lily slapped the back of Mystery Moon’s head, “Shut up!”
“Should we continue to watch?” Summer asked timidly. “We should leave as soon as possible so that we won’t get ourselves found out.”
“Let’s wait for a second,” said Candle. “Perhaps something went wrong when it was copied.”
“There’s no need. I already know the result so it’s fine…” Evelyn shook her head. If it were the original method of writing, it would indeed be possible to confuse the figures in a compact arrangement. However, in the universal education popularized by His Majesty Roland, the figures were replaced by simple, easy-to-remember single strokes, so the chances of committing mistakes were very slim.
“I think it was Maggie who flew in from the window, making the jerky—stop!” Mystery Moon covered her head, “Don’t do it. I will stop talking.”
They saw “Scroll” check all the papers and begin to copy the scores onto a form. Maggie’s column still reflected a score of 17 points.
“The problem really didn’t lie with Teacher Scroll,” said Candle relievedly.
“Can we go now?” Summer said anxiously.
Evelyn was about to reply, but “Scroll” suddenly stood up and looked toward the doorway. Six people immediately followed her gaze, then they noticed that the door was opened and a town hall apprentice appeared in the doorway.
“What are they talking about?” asked Mystery Moon.
There was no sound in the illusion, so they could only judge the conversation between the two by lip reading.
“It appeared to be Lord Scroll… His Excellency Barov… is sending for you?”
Then “Scroll” nodded, and followed the apprentice out of the office.
The moment the door closed, perhaps because of the air current, a cold wind suddenly picked up within the room. All the papers were blown and scattered messily all over the floor.
“Ah… the window,” Lily mumbled.
Evelyn saw it too—the window that was previously closed was now open with a small gap. Scroll did not shut the window tight, and hence the open door generated an air current that forced the window to open. The autumn wind outdoors caused the window to swing back and forth, and open wider and wider. It was not long before a strong wind severely smashed it back to the window frame. Although the sound could not be heard, one could imagine the strong impact from the glass tremor.
Something unexpected happened.
An air current swept through the office again and caused the pen holder to fall on the desktop. The quill that was in the ink bottle suddenly flew up and landed exactly on that exam sheet.
After crossing an arc in mid-air, the tip of the pen dropped on the table, leaving a stroke on Maggie’s column and turning the original 17 into a three-digit 117.
Probably someone heard the loud noise coming out of the office, so the door was pushed open again. That apprentice reappeared to have a quick look around, and then came in astonishedly.
She went to the window, shut all the windows tight, and then crouched to clean up the office for Scroll.
She did not leave until she was satisfied that all the documents had been re-organized and neatly placed on the desk.
“Was this what had happened?” Evelyn and Candle looked at each other.
It was neither Scroll’s error in copying the marks nor Maggie’s intention to lie but an accident caused by the unexpected wind?
Evelyn was then able to guess what happened next. Scroll received the order of His Majesty to make a trip to Longsong, so she passed the score sheet to Wendy. Wendy was not the person in charge of marking the exams, and even if she was puzzled by Maggie’s performance, she would not question Scroll’s judgment.
“Ha, under the insistence of Mystery Moon, the truth has finally been revealed,” Mystery Moon looked up and said, “the culprit was… Teacher Scroll!”
“It was the wind!” Lily gritted her teeth.
“But if Scroll had closed the window tightly, the wind would not have been able to blow the tests, nor the quill, right?”
“How could you say this!”
“No,” Nana said thoughtfully, “in that case, it would have been His Majesty Roland’s fault. He built the City Hall here, and not only did he expand it, he also built two more stories. Without this additional second story, Scroll would not be able to mark the papers here.”
“Uh… you’re right, so the culprit was—His Majesty Roland?”
“Enough, all of you!”
“Excuse me… can I stop now?” Summer seemed like she was about to burst into tears.
“Sorry, that’s enough,” said Evelyn patting her shoulder. “Thank you, let’s go.”
“Hey, should we just leave like that? Maybe we can find the next quiz in the office?” Mystery Moon stood in front of everyone to stop them.
“This was the real reason you wanted to come here!” Lily rushed forward, “I will never let you make trouble!”
“I, I was just kidding!”
…
The investigation ended in a farce. After bidding farewell to Candle, Evelyn returned to the Witch Building alone.
Although the truth had come to light, her mood was not calm at all.
Somehow, the flying paper and the falling quill continued to emerge in her mind—both actions were erratic and yet at the last minute formed ingenious and perfect results.
The paper, the pen, the airflow caused by the door, and the time when the apprentice went in and out, all led to this result. Without any one of these conditions, the change of the score could not be achieved.
However, these conditions were unconscious and chaotic.
In that case, this could also be applied to mixing cocktails.
A variety of ingredients are added to the alcohol, but you can’t taste each and every ingredient. They are fused in the liquid and affect each other, creating a new taste that can be accepted by people after numerous attempts. Sometimes, a rare combination that happens by chance could also create those unique tastes.
Evelyn could not help but think of the microscopic balls that His Majesty Roland mentioned —they continually make disorderly disturbances, each of which seemed irrelevant yet could portray marvelous traits.
She closed her eyes and felt that something in her heart was ready to burst out.
The world was full of chaos.
But the results were hidden in the chaos.
As if it were all meant to be.
Evelyn forced her eyes open and reached for the cup on the table.
Ripples appeared in the cold water, and then the color changed as if a drop of paint fell on them. The water gradually turned into a reddish orange, and a fragrance she had never smelled before drifted into her nose.
She hesitated for a moment, then started licking the liquid.
An indescribable sweetness suddenly covered her tongue—slightly bitter, with a strong mellow flavor, that was unmatched by any type of drink.
It was not only like a mixture of fruit juice and milk but also like a mixture of tea and honey. Evelyn could not accurately describe the flavor, but she was sure of one thing.
This was definitely not wine.
Chapter 666: The Good and Bad News
week later, Roland returned to the Border Area from Longsong Stronghold.
As soon as he entered the castle, he received two pieces of good news. The first was brought by Barov. “Your Majesty, the astrologers of the old king’s city arrived in Neverwinter three days ago. A total of 312 people came including artisans, apprentices, and their families. I’ve arranged nine astrologers to stay in the Foreign Affairs Building, while the others have been temporarily arranged to stay at the reception area.
“This group of people is finally here,” Roland thought for a moment, and then commanded. “Let’s hold a welcome party in the square this evening. I want the subjects of Neverwinter to know that there’s now another school in the town.”
As with alchemy, astrology had a high reputation among the general population. Usually, only the king’s city would possess both schools of thought. Now that the Astrology Association was approaching the Western Region, Neverwinter would become more accepted as the new king’s city.
However, Roland did not need this school of astrology divination. Instead, he really attached more importance to the astrologer’s computing power. For this era, they were absolutely regarded as the forefront of the mathematicians. Both analyzing the calendars and estimating the orbit of the stars needed a lot of calculations. If they had relevant knowledge of middle and advanced mathematics, they could undoubtedly be better on the previous foundation.
He intended to set up a School of Mathematics to allow these people to devote most of their time to calculating, apart from the occasional observation of the Star of Extinction—in this era where there was no computer, many scholars working together to complete some complex operations was the most efficient choice. Whether it was for laying of railways in the future, constructing large ships, installing Longsong Cannon in the mountains or writing shooting manuals, these all required their help.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Barov nodded, and then asked, “I don’t know if your trip to Longsong…”
“I encountered a lot of problems.” Roland did not need to conceal anything in front of Barov, the City Hall Director. “The secondary City Hall of Longsong Stronghold has already started to show signs of dereliction of duty and corruption. Scroll has found many fake accounts, and two corrupt men were even arrested from the batch of officials from the Border Area.”
At this sentence, Barov could not help but swallow his spittle. “Are they my disciples?”
Roland was amused by the cautious look on Barov’s face. He shook his head reluctantly. “Even if they’re your disciples, I wouldn’t put the blame on you, so you can rest assured.”
“Your Majesty is wise,” Barov said hurriedly, “So are they the original people from the town?”
“Well, they were the second batch of graduates. After passing the assessment, they entered City Hall and then they were transferred to the Longsong Area with the entire team.” Roland sighed. “As of today, it has only been less than a year.”
At the moment, City Hall had cultivated a group of semi-leaders. One group came from the Longsong area, which followed the exact model of Border Town. Together with the locals Honeysuckle Petrov, Elk Rene and some minor nobility, they were a well-equipped group, just slightly smaller in numbers.
The other half was a small batch that went to Fallen Dragon Ridge. In addition to assisting Countess Spear to maintain the political situation, their secondary task was to establish a framework for the secondary City Hall.
There were also scholars from the Northern Region that came back with Edith Kant to learn about the management of City Hall. Together with these scholars, Roland could probably make up the other half in a short period of time.
He had already allocated these people to the Southernmost Region.
It was undoubtedly the local officials who could carry out Roland’s will who were the rarest of talents.
Without them as the foundation, even if Roland conquered the entire Kingdom of Graycastle, he would not be able to centralize the kingdom’s resources quickly—local governments were an important part of the centralization of authority. He could use the witches to promote science and technology, but he could not create a bunch of grass-roots officials from thin air.
The sub-aristocrats would never obey his orders willingly. In the eyes of the feudalists, the only important thing was the small acreage that they occupied.
Therefore, every person who had administrative experience was a rare treasure. After losing a few of them, Roland naturally felt depressed. Despite the inevitable corruption of the organization, he thought that they could persevere for more than a decade. He really did not expect to encounter such a problem in less than a year. The fact that the two corrupt people were born civilians also proved in some ways that once they had the power, they might be more likely to lose their way than the noble.
“Those who violate the law…”
“All have been dealt with severely.” Roland conceded. “To set an example for everyone else.”
This should help to maintain everything for a few years—Nightingale and Scroll’s ability temporarily preserved the integrity of the organization. But he also knew that the situation should be resolved in an alternative method, otherwise, the witches could easily be at risk again. And this time the enemy would come from the internal departments.
“Summon every one of City Hall to gather in the castle hall tomorrow. I’ll personally give them a briefing to talk about the importance of discipline and responsibility.”
Of course, there were also rewards and punishments—they should know how to choose when faced with the pressures and prospects of the Battle of Divine Will.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Barov bowed.
Looking at the old director’s back as he left, Roland was satisfied and had a sip of his tea.
He knew the reason for Barov’s loyalty—Barov enjoyed the satisfaction that the power brought whilst chasing power, and also made good use of his power at the same time. Barov was undoubtedly a very suitable person for the new regime. Perhaps in the future of City Hall, only he could contend with Edith.
The second good news came from Wendy.
“Evelyn’s ability has been evolved?” Roland was a little surprised when he heard the news.
As far as he could remember, Evelyn’s magic indicators were very balanced and did not seem prominent. He was quite surprised that she actually became the first witch on Sleeping Island to evolve.
“Yes… Agatha has confirmed this, but…” Wendy bitterly smiled. “The evolved ability is so weird that I don’t know how to describe it.”
“Take her to my office,” he said excitedly.
…
Evelyn went to the third floor of the castle, together with several glass bottles.
Roland noticed that each bottle was filled with different colors of liquid.
“Her magic power looks like a gray ball…” Nightingale whispered in his ear, “but the shape isn’t fixed.”
“What’s the total amount of magic power?”
“The level of improvement is good. At the moment, she’s between Soraya and Maggie.”
Roland nodded and looked at Evelyn. “What’s inside the bottles?”
“The drinks that I’ve made with my ability in these days.” She seemed a bit dejected. “They taste different, and I absolutely lose control of the last result… The only thing in common is that they all can be drunk.”
“Drinks?”
Roland’s curiosity grew immense.
He found a few cups and poured himself a glass from each bottle.
When he first tasted the light blue drink, it was indescribably delicious, like a fruit juice mix, but also with a hint of refreshing coldness.
Just drinkable? This is way too good a drink!