Release that Witch

Barov said, ”Your Majesty, City Hall has no problem with this program, but... we don’t need that many secondary teachers, do we?” Knowing that Edith would soon become an official member of City Hall, Barov looked a little unhappy but still focused on the subject of the discussion. Roland was pleased to see this mature reaction.

The prince ticked off the other jobs those students could do, saying, ”they don’t have to become secondary teachers. With better education background, they can choose to become researchers and managers in the plants. They should understand the principles behind the machines instead of simply knowing how to operate them. They should know how to train workers, how to maintain or, perhaps, improve equipment. The Ministry of Education must make efforts to turn our people into industrial personnel. Otherwise, it’ll be meaningless to have a large population.”

”Industrial Personnel?” Scroll repeated Roland’s words in a low voice and then asked, ”does it refer to the people engaged in industrial production?”

”Almost.” Roland confirmed and continued to explain his idea. ”the people who have finished universal education can become ordinary workers, namely, junior industrial personnel. By having more of them, we could scale up our industrial production, but industrialization isn’t just about scale... City Hall won’t be able to take care of everything, so I want to see two to three out of a hundred people get secondary or even higher education level. They can be placed on both production and management positions, so did the secondary teachers. By doing so, we’ll see that the plants will become independent organizations who can develop themselves following the instruction of City Hall.”

Without education, Neverwinter could not enjoy its population dividend no matter how many people it had. Due to the limited education resources, he could not make secondary and higher education universal right now. To quench his thirst for talents, he decided to use this scholarship scheme to quickly select and foster a batch of capable people for the city. As to the other people, in his plan, as long as they finished primary education and became literate, they would fill ordinary production positions, like a cog in a machine.

”I see,” Scroll said.

Roland tapped on the table and added, ”There’s another thing. Add ideological education to the universal primary education. I’ll give you a detailed teaching plan later.” He could not help but recall the contents of the textbook of ideological and moral education he had read in Dream World. In this era, strengthening ideological and moral construction was as important as adapting steam engines.

Seeing Scroll nodded, he stood up and glanced at everyone in the hall, saying, ”to sum up, this year and the next, City Hall should focus on expanding the population, enhancing education and upgrading industrial production, especially the first two tasks. They’ll determine how far we can go. I hope that all of you will do your best before the arrival of more dreadful and powerful enemies!”

”We’ll do our best for Your Majesty!”

All the officials stood up and said simultaneously.

”And it’s also for yourselves.” Roland heaved a sigh of relief and continued. ”That’s all for today’s meeting, and... Kyle Sichi, come to my office.”

...

Chief Alchemist followed Roland to the office. As soon as he closed the door, he asked straightforwardly, ”Your Majesty, do you have any new idea or new product to make? If not, I hope I can go back to my lab earlier.”

Roland could not help but smile, saying, ”You’re still so impatient. Come on, sit down. I’ve something important to give you.”

After Kyle took a seat with incredulity on his face, Roland slowly picked up his cup to sip some tea and asked, ”How are the alchemists from the king’s city?”

Chief Alchemist replied with a frown, ”I guess they’re just fine. I don’t talk with them very much, except about the chemical experiments. If you want to know, you can ask them directly.”

Roland could tell from Kyle’s reaction that alchemists of Alchemist Workshop of the king’s city seemed to have formed a little clan of their own. They had brought many students here, which was helpful for the chemical industry production but at the same time put pressure on Kyle and his students.

Keeping this thought to himself, Roland changed a subject. ”Now that the two acid liquids and smokeless gunpowder have gone into mass production, I plan to set up an independent department to meet with ever-growing demands for these products.” He paused a while and continued. ”Do you want to work as Minister of Chemical Industry?”

Kyle answered without any hesitation, ”I remember you’ve mentioned it before, but... I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I just can’t give up my experiments in the labs for some trivial management work, so my answer is still the same.”

”Do not hurry to refuse me.” Roland shrugged. ”I know that you don’t want to waste your time on this kind of things, as you devote yourself to chemistry and want to explore its mystery... But what if I can directly show you what you want to know? ”

”What?” Kyle Sichi was startled.

Roland took something out from his drawer and slowly spread it in front of Kyle. It was a white paper with many squared on it — the periodic table of elements, which he had written last night.

”Th-This is...” The old alchemist’s eyes went straight to it. Stretching out his trembling hands, he wanted to snatch it from the king but meanwhile was so afraid to tear it.

”Didn’t you say... you forgot the contents in the blanks?”

”I’ve remembered lots of details recently, including some about the book ”Intermediate Chemistry”. This time it’ll be completed.” Roland pulled the table back a little so that Kyle could only stare at it.

”Your Majesty, I...” Kyle stopped here and closed his mouth, since he had already got what the king meant.

Roland smiled and said, ”That’s right. If you become Minister of Chemical Industry, I’ll give you this periodic table of elements, complete ’Intermediate Chemistry’ and maybe even ’Advanced Chemistry’.”

Roland admired the Chief Alchemist’s enthusiasm toward chemistry but also knew that limited by this era’s conditions, Kyle could hardly know more chemical knowledge than a senior high school student did in modern times. Now that he had complete chemistry textbooks, he decided to show them to Kyle. By doing so, he could enable Kyle to have more time to teach more students and effectively reduce the influence of Alchemist Workshop of the king’s city.

He also believed that although Kyle preferred chemical experiments to trivial matters in management, as the former Chief in the Alchemic Workshop of Redwater City, he must have a sound knowledge of management, and basic organization and coordination skills.

”I... get it.” Kyle bowed after hesitating for a moment. ”I’ll serve as your minister.”

Somehow, Roland found that compared to imposing his will on the others, he became increasingly fond of this method of offering conditions that could not be denied as a bargaining chip in negotiations. He wondered was this syndrome of a person in power.

No matter what, he believed that it was a win-win option.

He folded the periodic table of elements and handed it to Kyle, saying, ”When you’ve more students, you’ll have less trivial things to do by yourself. Here’s your bonus paid in advance. Do your best, and your name will be recorded in the history of chemistry.”