Release that Witch

Three days later, Roland received an affirmative answer from the eldest son of the Honeysuckle Family.

”I’m willing to continue serving you, and so is the Honeysuckle Family,” he said, bowing his head. ”I’ll convince my father—he’s a little... different from the other families.”

”Is that so.” Roland suddenly felt quite cheerful. ”That’s great to hear.”

”In the past few days, I’ve witnessed all the extraordinary changes that have taken place in your town, and I realized that this was the city I wished for all long,” Petrov confessed. ”If the Honeysuckle Family can flourish like this, Father won’t mind merging with the new city.”

This struck a chord in the Prince’s heart. He originally only had two reasons for bringing Petrov here: The first was that it was more sincere to share such momentous news with Petrov in person, and the other was to observe his attitude towards the decree. Roland never imagined that Petrov would react this well. Roland nodded and said, ”Of course. In time, every inch of land in the Kingdom of Graycastle will be home to the people.”

”Then I must return to Stronghold as quickly as possible and relay this news to my father.”

”Don’t forget the other four noble families and all the nobilites of the Western Region.” Roland added, ”Any family who wishes to accept my terms will be welcomed unconditionally into the new city, regardless of past conflicts. You can hold a banquet in the Stronghold to spread the word.”

”You mean you want me to tell them?” Petrov asked, stunned.

”Yes,” the prince said, smiling. ”This time... you can act as my ambassador.”

”Yes, Your Highness,” the eldest of the Honeysuckles raised a hand to his chest and said.

Just as he was about to leave, Roland stopped him and said, ”By the way, you did a great job with the witch incident. There’ll be no more hiding from now on. After all this universal education, if anyone is still blindly hanging onto the church’s teachings, they should be removed from the Western Region. You can decide how exactly you want to do it.”

”Yes, Your Highness.”

After Petrov Hull left, Roland stretched and yawned, and then continued flipping through the data that the City Hall had compiled on various construction projects.

Due to the heavy snowfall, the construction of the Kingdom Main Street had to be halted, and the construction of houses had been slowed down as well, so there were only a few indoor maintenance projects underway. Fortunately Lotus had constructed a series of cave dwellings to shelter the refugees before she left. Even if more refugees came, they could be distributed among the current caves—this was the advantage of using heated brick beds.

According to the Ministry of Construction, at least more than 60% of the workers were currently employed, so any last-minute recruitments from the City Hall were always snatched up quickly, such as clearing the snow off the streets, transporting goods in the Blast Furnace Zone and so on. If this were in any other city, having this many eager workers during the Months of Demons would be unbelievable. Winter was already the most difficult season for civilians, so most people usually shut themselves in their homes and survived by their fall harvest. However, Roland felt dissatisfied with seeing all this manpower being idle, so he racked his brain trying to think of something that could utilize it all.

After all, Margerie’s Chamber of Commerce had bought the last batch of steam engines manufactured this year, and the City Hall had more than enough money and grains, so that he could carry out many of his plans.

At this thought, Roland had his guard summon Karl Van Bate, the Minister of Construction.

After he explained his ideas, Karl couldn’t help but stare. ”You want the masons and clay artisans to build ships for you?”

He nodded and said seriously, ”Yes, right by the harbor. Build a temporary workshop out of wood and keep a brazier burning inside to maintain the temperature. When the ships are completed, they can go straight into the water.”

”But, Your Highness, how can they ever know how to build such a thing?”

”Of course they can. It’s just like building the witches’ tower,” Roland said as he took out a piece of paper and drew a diagram. ”Just set up a frame, lay down steel bars, and fill it in with concrete. I’ll instruct you in building the first ship, and then you’ll be solely in charge of supervision, so all the workers can be utilized as well.”

Karl looked at the blueprint skeptically. ”Is this... a bowl?”

Roland couldn’t help but smile. ”Yes, it’s a giant concrete bowl.”

Karl had not participated in the construction of the Littletown, so it was natural that he did not understand it. In fact, ships were constantly changing their shapes over time, with those of the next era barely inheriting those of the previous one. Roland had no idea how to design an ancient wooden ship with keels, but building a concrete ship was essentially no different from making a clay model—all it had to do was to float. It was the same for steel ships. With the improvements in welding technology, most modern ships abandoned the keeling method and were instead pieced together with steel plates so that the entire floor sustained its weight. There was no need to bother with wooden ships.

He had already considered building a new fleet of concrete ships for a long time. Both the coal mining excavations in the nearby mountains and the transportation of refugees required large riverboats, so a flat-bottom design with a low draught was the best option. Compared to the conservative design of the Littletown, the new ships should have longer hulls to ensure a larger load, better stability, and higher speed. In order to also reduce construction difficulty, Roland decided to use paddle wheels to propel the ships. This had already been tested on wooden ships and was easier for the masons to achieve.

”Your Highness, how many men do you plan to employ to build these... concrete ships?” Karl asked awkwardly.

”Round up all the idle workers and build multiple ships at a time, just like when you were building houses.”

This way, even if no one bought the newly produced steam engines, there was something for people to do. The Furnace Area could continue producing cement, which would kill two birds with one stone. In the coming years, if he could command a large fleet of cement ships, the First Army would always have reliable logistic fallback wherever it attacked.

After dealing with this matter, Roland decided to check out the castle backyard.

The olive trees and grape vines that Leaf planted provided a shelter against the snow. If they weren’t working, the witches would usually practice in the backyard, including the newcomer Paper.

According to Wendy, her abilities weren’t temperature control, but they weren’t material restoration either, and they had little effect on any substance other than water. This intrigued Roland to no end. After three days, the little girl shouldn’t be as timid as she was when she first arrived, so he wanted to see her for himself.

As soon as he entered the garden, Roland felt that there was something off.

All he could see was lush greenery, as if he was in a different world from the snow outside—the olive trees were evergreen and had vines winding around their branches. Although it wasn’t surprising that the trees blocked out the snow, all the plants here were still a little too vibrant. What made it different from a forest was that although there was no wind, the grass and trees swayed rhythmically in unison.

He thought it was an illusion, but as he walked deeper into the garden, he saw the olive branches bend over as if they were greeting him, and the grass around his feet fell to the side as if to welcome him.

This made Roland a little uneasy, and goosebumps began to appear on his back. He felt as if he was not walking in a garden, but inside the body of a giant creature.

The whole garden seemed to be breathing.