Release that Witch

Later that evening, Roland sat in his office and began to think about new equipment.

The fact that the Church’s pills had also appeared in the Port of Clearwater brought him a strong sense of crisis. He could even feel his scalp tingling all the time, regardless if it was the fact that the Church was supporting both him and Garcia in their fight for the throne, or the thought of Garcia’s thousands of additional men she got from her alliance.

Thinking of the thousands of soldiers who are wrapped in iron armor and able to run at speeds equal to a full-on cavalry charge, it was hard not to become overwhelmed by such an image. Stopping such a massive charge with his thin rows of gunners would be a tough task for him. As soon as one person was able to reach his ranks, his First Army would come to receive heavy losses.

Fortunately, this pill didn’t make someone immune to injuries, even with the medication the consumer’s body was still made of flesh and blood.

He had to create weapons that had a higher firing rate and precision, which would also be able to fire over a longer distance.

But without mercury fulminate as the primer, Roland had to find another way to bypass this hurdle, and until then he had to produce some alternative equipment to deal with any possible crises.

And with Anna’s new ability he had the confidence in achieving this. Now as long as he could draw the design, Anna would be able to process the object he wanted to create accurately. But also, her efficiency has reached an extraordinary level compared with all the prior tasks where the blacksmith had to create each part of the flintlock carefully; she could now stack several pieces together and form and cut them all at the same time.

With a universal education system and a unified measuring system, he had prepared all the steps he needed for starting a large-scale industrialized production work. But that doesn’t mean that he can take a shortcut each time he comes across one. Anna’s new capacity was simply a treasure house; carrying an endless potential with it that he could tap into. Every afternoon Roland was now at the testing area at the North Slope Mountain, studying and exploring together with Anna on the usage of her new ability. And in case he didn’t have any time to spare, he would let her practice her control by carving some small items such as little witch dolls.

However, at the moment, it seemed that her carving skill was still at the stage of immaturity, but Roland believed firmly that one day his whole bookcase would be filled with colorful witch dolls… probably, right?

He picked up a steel ruler and placed it on the parchment, using it to draw two straight lines, at this moment he heard someone knocking at his door.

As long as a guard didn’t shoot some information, then nine out of ten times it was a witch at his door. At this moment, most of the witches were in the living room on the first floor, undergoing Scroll’s writing and reading lessons. So, the person at the door could only be someone who didn’t have to participate in primary teaching, and there was only one witch who didn’t need them.

“Come in.”

Sure, enough, when the door was opened, Anna came stepping into the room.

She gently closed the door and then went to Roland’s side at the table, holding the phantom image of a book in her arms.

Since the beginning of the lessons he could daily see her with a copy of his book, he had to say, even though Anna wasn’t very talkative, her popularity within the group of witches was unexpectedly good. Thinking about the past, it was the same with Nana, who was attached to her like she was her tail. Perhaps she was born with a natural charm to attract other witches?

“How can I help you?”

“Well,” she nodded in greeting and then laid the book she was holding open in front of Roland. “Here… you said that everything in the world was made up of tiny balls, which are all different from one another, but later on you also wrote that they could be turned into… waves?”

“What are waves? Anna asked.

“When you throw a stone into the water, the rising ripples are waves,” the Prince coughed twice, “This is just a concept, but this good enough, you don’t need to get to the bottom of it.”

“Why?”

Because I don’t know it myself, Roland cried out silently; Quantum mechanics is a mysterious and unexplored subject, and as long as I don’t know something I won’t write about it. Even if that might be the truth, I can’t say it aloud,

“Because the balls have the characteristics of waves but they also possess the characteristics of matter. We are the same as those tiny balls, only that our mass is too big, making it difficult for us to observe the fluctuation as they happen. As for a deeper understanding, it will still take several generations of research.”

He thought for a moment and then added, “Because this phenomenon is opposite to our common sense it is tough for us to understand. For us, it’s hard to imagine a four-dimensional space inside of the three-dimensional world. So, you don’t need to put it into your heart.”

Anna curled up her lips, clearly showing that she wasn’t satisfied with Roland’s explanation, but she quickly asked, “What is a four-dimensional space?”

“…”

When she finally no longer asked any further questions, the Prince’s had already become thirsty from all the talking. He had really underestimated Anna’s thirst for knowledge, if it went on like this, it wouldn’t be long before he didn’t have anything left that he could teach her.

Especially when Roland had asked her about her progress in math, she just replied, “Until now it was quite simple, and now that I’ve come to the topic of equations and matrices, they seem to be fascinating.

Simple and fascinating… Roland suddenly felt that the gap between person-to-person was too great, how long has it been? One week from learning simple elementary math until she came to equations and matrices and next it would be differentiation and integration. Back at his school, Anna would definitely have been an intimidating top student.

Moreover… a beautiful bookworm.

Roland looked at the woman who was reading the book, getting spellbound by what he saw. She had carefully arranged her hair over her forehead, but other hair strands had fallen over her cheek. Seeing this Roland could not stop himself from stretching out his index finger, gently stroking the hair behind her ear.

Feeling his finger, Anna turned her head, looking at Roland, with a smile all over her face. Her lake like pupils had no longer their peaceful expression. Instead, they were full of ripples. Staying so close to each other, until Anna opened her mouth trying to say something, but she was only able to move her lips, no sound could be heard. But Roland was still able to read her lips.

“Right now Nightingale isn’t here.”

The meaning of the sentence was very clear and Roland thought that it was stupid to pretend that he didn’t understand her. The whole room was silent, letting him faintly hear her breathing and the speeding up of her heartbeat.

Roland could no longer stop himself, he got became drawn towards her lips, Anna instead closed her eyes, and her cheeks gained a rosy touch. Being so near to her, Roland could smell the fragrance of her body and then finally their lips gently kissed.

Getting lost in the soft touch, the time seemed to stand still, making it impossible for him to tell how long it was until they separated.

Not giving him a chance to say anything, Anna stood on her tiptoe, joining their lips once more.

*

“Hey, hey!” Mystery Moon sat cross-legged on her bed, deep in meditation with her eyes clothed, her hands held high, forming a circle with her thumb and index finger.

“Have you turned mad?” Lily who was wrapping a towel around her wet hairs asked as she frowned.

“I’m thinking of myself as a particle,” she said, opening her eyes. “I’m a particle,” and she then pointed at Lily. “You’re a particle!”

The latter gave her a supercilious look and got into the soft bed.

“Oh, no again,” Mystery Moon sighed, “I truly think of everything as a particle, so why can’t I evolve like Anna?”

“But you don’t believe it,” Lily explained.

“I do believe it!”

“You do not believe,” she shook her head, “you can deceive others, but you can’t fool yourself… even so it isn’t an excellent reason, but I think that regardless of what the Prince says Anna believes everything he says, without questioning it. Of course, there is also the point that she is much smarter than you. This is the main reason why she was able to evolve her magic and gain access to new abilities.”

“…”

“In other words, don’t think any further about it, instead give your mind some peace and quiet.” Lily said and patting the place beside herself.

“Don’t you want to get stronger powers?” Mystery Moon asked disbelievingly, “Furthermore, I also want to do something for the Prince, ah.”

“I should evolve my magic so that I can let my food preservation last longer?” She yawned, “No, thank you. Besides, why do you want to do more work for him? Men are fickle and ruthless people; you only have to take Echo as an example.”

“Even so you say you aren’t interested, but with the exception of Leaves, you are the most attentive and serious one during class,” Mystery Moon muttered.

Lily took her pillow and threw it against Mystery Moon’s face, “Let, me, sleep!”