Release that Witch

Barov and Scroll walked into Roland’s office together. ”Your Majesty, here’s the statistic analysis of the accident.”

”Oh? So what exactly happened?” Roland asked with concern.

”Fortunately, no one was killed in the accident. Six students were injured. Three got fractures as they were escaping from the classroom. Two lost their hearing, which should be caused by the deafening explosions and one got severely burnt. All of them were cured by Miss Nana.” Roland felt relieved after hearing City Hall Director’s report.

Scroll added, ”It happened during a lunch break. Hearing the loud noise, the teachers in the office immediately organized the students to evacuate. Ferlin Eltek told them that it was the First Army on maneuver and that the soldiers were simulating a counterattack against enemies attacking the school. He ordered the students to calm down and act in coordination. By doing so, he successfully controlled the panicked students except those in class six. That class witnessed the awakening of the witch and the all the injured students mentioned by Barov were in this class.”

Roland praised Ferlin at once. ”He’s indeed Morning Light. To take advantage of the prestigious First Army as a way to restore the order and calm down the students. What he did significantly reduce the impact of the accident. As long as we take some proper remedial measures afterward, most people won’t think that the awakening of a witch may be a dangerous thing.”

The newly awakened witch had done her best to control her power, this was to some extent, prevented this accident from turning into a disaster. The loud bang had been caused by electric current striking through the air which formed an electric arc with the metal bolt on the window. Similar to a thunder, it was something very loud but not extremely destructive.

Agatha had quickly come to the school after the accident. Naturally adept at fighting fires, she had frozen the source of the fire in several minutes to save the main teaching building. Despite that, Roland still considered replacing the old teaching buildings with modernized concrete in case similar accidents happened again.

Barov asked, ”Your Majesty, what remedial measures are we going to take?”

Roland tapped on his desk and asked, ”Do you have any ideas?”

The City Hall chief thought for a moment and answered, ”We have to notice two points in this accident. The first one is the reason behind the students’ fight. Based on our investigation, this conflict was caused by a quarrel between some kids from the Southern Territory and Eastern Region. They were fighting about whether the Eastern Region was the home of the rebel king, as Valencia was Timothy’s domain. This area hasn’t surrendered to you, so...” Probably not willing to talk too much about the infighting of the royal family, Barov paused for a moment before he finished his sentence and then continued. ”The kids could never know these kinds of things unless their parents were talking about them at home. To avoid such disputes, we’d better punish the parents of those kids and ban any discussion about Timothy.”

”Well... you can go ahead with that.”

”My second point is how to prevent a witch’s awakening from causing harm to the public. My suggestion is that no matter what you decide to do about this accident in the end, we should make it a rule in law to avoid disputes.”

Without any comment, Roland gave Barov a meaningful glance, excited about his improvement.

These two years working as the chief of City Hall had indeed opened his eyes and helped him understand things in new ways. Now, he was not the assistant of the Treasurer anymore and was able to dig out the root cause of a fight among students.

However, Roland also noticed some limitations in Barov’s thoughts. Times were different now, as a strong central power had started to replace the feudal aristocratic order. With greatly increased power, City Hall had to shoulder greater responsibilities. Writing a decision of the king into the law could not guarantee that everyone would uphold it. Sometimes, when it went against most of the people, making it a law would even sow the seeds of rebellion. This hidden crisis would break out sooner or later and become a thorny problem.

”What do you think?” Roland looked at Scroll.

”Your Majesty, I’ve some different views. Now that most subjects of Neverwinter are from different places across Graycastle, we’re going to see various beliefs among them. If we ban all the disputes they have, the law will become too complex bogging down City Hall management. I suggest we guide them to mediate and to know right from wrong. This approach may work better than the law in preventing this kind of disputes.”

Scroll paused to think for a moment and continued, ”Regarding the second point mentioned by Barov, I think you should ask Miss Agatha for suggestions, as Taquila must have rich experience in coping with these kinds of accidents caused by the awakening of witches.”

Roland picked up his teacup and slowly took a sip.

He agreed with Scroll about guiding public opinion. As compared to a ’one size fits all’ solution, namely the law, offering proper guidance to the people was a better choice and at the same time a very feasible plan. Unlike feuds fueled by nationalism in the world he had lived before. The disputes happening between these different regions were much simpler. Having never been infected by any form of nationalist sentiment, the human beings in this world would easily accept the propaganda that all the people in Graycastle and in the other kingdoms were the same. Thinking about this, he decided to deal with the students involved in the fight leniently.

He also planned to write this view into teaching materials to tell all his subjects that all of us were the same kind, honest people, except for a small number of rebels with ulterior motives and that innocent people should never be blamed for those rebels’ sins.

For him, the really difficult part was how to harmonize the witches’ relationships with the common people.

He wanted the witches to be well accepted and thought of as part of the people instead of being an isolated group. However, the witches were very different from common people, making it an arduous task which might last throughout the human history in this world. He could not think of a perfect solution to the problem at this moment, he decided to take it slow and follow Scroll’s suggestion to learn from Taquila first.

Fortunately, this accident hadn’t turned into a disaster, so he could still easily deliver his policy of integrating witches with the people.

With these thoughts in mind, Roland said, ”Let’s handle this dispute as an ordinary fight among students. The one who beat the girl and injured the witch with a chair must be verbally criticized and pay their medical expenses. The Witch Union will pay the medical expenses for the other wounded students in class six. City Hall needs to mend the teaching building as soon as possible to open the school again.”

”Yes, Your Majesty.” Barov and Scroll replied simultaneously.

”As for the remedial measures, let’s do what Scroll suggested. Guide the people’s opinions. I’ll draft a plan for you later.” He heaved a long sigh of relief. ”By the way, that witch...”

”Her name is Sharon, Your Majesty. Do you want to meet her?” Scroll asked.

”No, let her have a good rest to recover for a few days. You can ask Wendy to see her and tell her the basic situation of the Witch Union.”

”I see.”

After Barov and Scroll left the office, Roland called Agatha and Phyllis next.

Before taking a seat, Agatha said solemnly, ”Your Majesty, I’ve got something to tell you. The awakenings of witches in Neverwinter doesn’t seem quite right.”