Chapter 53 Heart of Fire (Part 2)
The day after Anna woke up, Roland and the others bid Nightingale farewell.
“Although the reason why is still unclear, but Anna is probably the first witch who has spent the day of awakening without pain,” Nightingale excitedly said before leaving. After Nightingale had followed Roland for a long time, she got used to the term ‘awakening’ when describing the transformation of witch. “When I come back, I will bring my sisters with me. At that time I hope you will accept us, just as you had accepted Anna.”
This would be exactly what Roland wished for. With only Anna’s ability he was able to revolutionize the forging process, allowing the town to see the dawn of the industrial age, so what would he be able to do with a bunch of witches? Of course, he also had to take into account safety issues, since crossing the mountains during the Months of the Demons was very dangerous.
But apparently, Nightingale was quite eager to bring her sisters back because she said, “During this winter, many of my sisters will have to face this difficult period. If I can bring them the news only a little earlier, I might be able to save at least some of my sisters. Rest assured, normally the demonic beasts aren’t able to find my whereabouts. “
Finally, Roland asked, “When do you have to face your day of awakening?”
Nightingale turned around and mounted her horse, “At the end of winter or early spring.” While leaving, Nightingale waved back towards the prince, “Do not worry about me, in the previous years the bite of the demons gotten lighter and lighter for me.”
This answer gave Roland something to think about.
He had already thought about how Anna could survive her day of awakening. After all, Anna said afterwards that she hadn’t felt any pain. This was completely against the Nightingale’s concept – “the power of Witches come from the devil, so the power is contaminated by evil.” This could be seen when their blood turned black and flowed out of every pore. Their skin would look burnt, leaving the body in a miserable condition. This was unshakable and irrefutable evidence.
However, since the beginning, Roland had thought this was wrong.
He rummaged through the memories of the old 4th Prince, but he didn’t find any proof that God or the Devil existed in this world. Since it isn’t a divine power, it shouldn’t be regarded as a standard to distinguish between good and evil. In fact, even if there were gods who would frequently interfere with the mortal world, it was still the believers who choose their own camp. Only then would the gods get their power, rather than vice versa.
According to the Nightingale’s description, a witch would gather the magic gathering within her body. However, when the magic had no way to be released, would it damage its own vessel? Roland thought that the possibility of this theory being right was very high. After all, most people who were confronted with hostility and pressure would certainly choose to hide their own abilities, pretending to be normal while hoping to leave the battlefield alive. This would lead to the point where before they reached their adulthood they would rarely have the opportunity to use their magic.
Roland certainly did not think that his castle would block the Demon’s Bite. He asked Anna if she had an unbearably painful experience before this. If anything was different during this year, then it was because she came to the castle and was able to use her magic almost every day.
So, with Nightingale’s final answer his guess was confirmed – her stealth ability wasn’t very noticeable, so she could even use it often. In addition, she had been forced into training her ability by other people and was forced to use her ability recklessly. Thus, the backfire of her magic power only had little impact on her.
When Roland were back in the Castle he immediately started Nana’s enhanced training. If no one was injured while defending the town, she had to treat a variety of small animals. If he was able to confirm his theory with Nana’s help, the significance for the witch community could be described as earth-shaking. The devil’s curse would change into a present of the divine. As long as he could ensure that his territory was a safe haven for witches, endless masses of witches would come to Border Town.
He didn’t know how, but after the last attack everything was back on track, without any big waves.
Roland began to intensify the production of his steam engine II, but also gave Anna enough time to get familiar with her new capabilities.
He built another shack in his backyard, but this time it was cover from the snow. It was used as an experimental area, since he still felt it was safer to build one in his own backyard.
Nightingale had previously said that witches, when reaching adulthood, would stabilize their magic power and probably produce new branch capabilities. However, until now he hadn’t seen Anna show any new capabilities, but her control of fire, had become completely differently than before.
No, whether or not it could be called a flame was still a question … Roland thought, the former flame was still in the range to understand with common sense, but now the green flame wasn’t understandable with common sense.
He named it “Heart of Fire”
It could exist away from Anna but at the same time stay influenced by Anna’s will, capable of changing its shape. Just as she was doing it right now – the Heart of Fire was burning on top of an iron panel two yards away from her, swaying lightly back and forth, as if it was saluting her. However, Roland knew that Anna was still controlling it. Normally, the Heart of Fire had a temperature close to one’s body temperature, but when Anna wanted to heat it up, it would instantly raise its temperature to a comparatively higher temperature, changing its color from a jade-like green into darker green. Similarly, it could also turn into a big cluster of flames from a small flame, or even change its movement speed.
Unfortunately, it couldn’t be moved too far away from Anna. After repeated testing they discovered that when the flame moved more than five yards away from Anna, it would disappear.
Another new future of the Heart of Flame was that Anna could call more than one flame – but until now she had barely been able to operate the two flames simultaneously.
Even so, the situation at the wall was described as calm. The demonic beasts would still appear one after another outside the wall, but there was no presence of a mixed species. Without them it was nearly impossible for the demonic beasts to break through. Just like Roland had said, they became stronger and faster, but they were still just beasts. Due to the huge wall length, they had to direct the demonic beasts to the middle section of the wall, so that the militia with only two hundred members could hold the wall.
So in addition to his daily routine of patrolling his territory, Roland had plenty of time to spend on construction.
He had set aside a site south of the castle, and planned to use it as living area for the arriving witches. As the investor of the project, he appointed Karl as the head of the workers, building a batch of two-story brick houses. At the same time, a reasonable and beautiful layout was considered, allowing easy entrance and exit, and a good drainage system strove to create a well-planned neighborhood.
He also considered whether the witches would be distributed to the old areas or only the new urban areas, mixing them with the common inhabitants, but after thinking about it, he gave up the plan. Although this would help accelerate the acceptance of the witches by the normal people, before he could erase all the misunderstandings, the consequences were likely irreparable. After all, the witches only had a certain influence within the militia.
In addition, there was also no guarantee that the witches brought by Nightingale were harmless and behaved people – most of them had suffered the pain and suffering of the world, so Roland was afraid that the situation wouldn’t be so easy to summarize. After all, all the witches couldn’t be like Anna and Nana.
Also, when the witches lived in one area it would be convenient for collective management. Before they came, Roland had to draw up all the relevant rules and regulations. Until now, Roland had no experience he could refer to, after all, he had neither the personnel nor capacity of the National Security Agency, nor was he the creator the avengers, who knew how to manage a group of people and had the abilities for it! He was without any better option than to press for a basic system used for personnel management by companies, slowly wading through the river by groping for stones.
Of course, Roland knew that this program had loopholes, but as a pioneer, what else could he do? Retracing his tail and only staying in Border Town could take decades to be able to touch the threshold of industrialization, but he wasn’t a cultivator, so how could he wait for decades?
Wanting to lead this era into the next, being at the forefront of the reform, it was necessary to have a spirit of adventure.
Just when he was recording these thoughts on paper, Barov opened the door and walked in.
Shaking the snow of his coat and saluting the Prince, he informed him: “Your Highness, a messenger of Longsong Stronghold is coming.”