Release That Witch

0Margaret arrived in the second month of summer as what had been agreed upon.     0

This time, the number of their boats had far exceeded the capacity of the dock, and quite a few sailing ships had to anchor along the riverbank, waiting for the ships before them to finish unloading cargos before being connected to the trestle.     

It thus occurred to Roland that the dock of Border Town had to expand.     

The Industrial Corporation of the Kingdom of Graycastle had at length managed to complete its task this month. It had successfully reduced the rejection rate to 40% and had manufactured three steam engines prior to the deadline. Although compared with the third generation steam engine used in Border Town, the commercial products manufactured in the plant was not in the same league in terms of power, noise reduction, vibrating frequency and gas leaking control, they were much better than the first generation.     

The Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan brought 300 workers in accordance with the terms set out in the agreement. Roland took them to the industrial zone located to the south of the Redwater River and helped them settle in. Apart from building a wooden factory next to the original plant, Roland also asked Karl to build a dormitory close to the riverbank for those workers. In order to have the construction completed within a month, he instructed Karl to supervise on technical issues and Anna to cut and slice materials after logs were delivered to the site. It thus only took them two days to process materials, which was supposed to be the most time-consuming part of the whole construction process. Meanwhile, Karl, as Anna's former teacher, was astounded by her astonishing progress in her ability. In merely half a year, this quiet, emaciated girl had become so confident and radiant.     

Roland held a big feast to welcome the merchants.     

It was also the first time white liquor was presented.     

"Margaret is right. Every time Your Highness has some novelties to show us," Hogg said loudly, "and even the wine here is different. Compared with this, this..."     

"White liquor." Margaret reminded him timely.     

"Right, white liquor! Compared with this white liquor, ale and grape wine are tasteless." Hogg grinned and drained the glass. "Your Highness, you must sell a few boxes of this wine to me."     

"I prefer fruit wine actually. White liquor is too spicy for my taste." The businesswoman shook her head with a smile.     

Roland laughed. "It has nothing to do with the flavor. Not everyone likes distilled liquor of a high concentration. I didn't plan to sell it to the public anyway. The production is quite accidental, and I want everyone to have a chance to try it."     

In an era where brewing was still one of the main industries, distilled liquor evidently had great potential. The wines in the modern world, such as white liquor, rum, whiskey and vodka, were all distilled liquors with high concentrations. The widespread of distilled liquor also gave rise to the so-called wine culture later. Yet for the current Border Town, it was still too early to develop such an industry.     

"Your Highness, with respect to the matter in your last letter, I've got quite a bit news from my people." Margaret broke off. "There haven't been many changes since the church took charge of the Kingdom of Everwinter. The church, however, encountered great resistance from the Kingdom of Wolfheart. It's rumored that the church sent all its army to Broken Tooth Castle but had been stuck there for over two months. Also, the King of the Kingdom of Dawn sent a messenger to the Kingdom of Graycastle, for the former believes the church's true intention was to occupy the whole continent rather than eradicate witches. He calls for an alliance between the two nations, in hopes that the two countries can collaborate to fight against the church and Holy City of Hermes."     

"What was the response from the king's city?" Roland asked.     

"Prime Minister Marquis Wyke declined the proposal and denounced the absurdity of such an idea." Gammon shrugged. "Everyone's talking about the matter at the moment. No agreement has been reached even among nobles. As far as I know, many people view the alliance with favor, for there's no sign whatsoever that indicates the church will return the sovereignty to the heir of the Kingdom of Everwinter immediately."     

"Timothy didn't say anything about this?"     

"The prime minister must have made the objection on Timothy's order. As to Timothy himself, he's taken his army to the Eastern Region," Marleen said gravely, "I've heard that a huge fleet just landed Seawindshire and plundered the coast of the Eastern Region. They even looted the church. Many merchants from the Fjords suffered extensive losses from the pillage."     

"There has been a large number of refugees in the Eastern Region lately, of whom Hogg and I took in quite a few," Margaret added, "and they say these looters not only grabbed things with monetary value but also robbed people. For stuff they had no way to take away, they burned them as if they had wanted to burn the whole Eastern Region to ashes. This is definitely a big blow to Timothy, for he has just vanquished the nobles in the Eastern Region."     

Roland should have been glad to hear that Timothy had received quite a big blow. His heart ached at the same time, however, when he heard ordinary citizens suffered from the raid. "Those refugees..."     

"Are you interested in purchasing them?" Margaret smiled faintly. "When I was reading that letter, I thought you'd like to purchase a multitude of slaves and have them work for you in your territory. But I doubt they'll be as willing as the refugees from the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart to reduce themselves to slaves."     

"I don't want them to be slaves. As long as they're willing to settle down at Border Town, they'll receive food and accommodations, and get paid for the work they've done." Roland corrected her. He had just realized it was a good opportunity for him to increase his manpower, although the news reached him a little late. "How many of them are there?"     

"Most strong and able ones have been taken away by nobles and caravans. There're still nearly 10,000 refugees hoarding outside the king's city, but they're mostly children and women."     

"That's fine. I'll send someone to screen and bring them here." The prince made the final verdict. "Do I need to inform the officials in the king's city before taking them away?"     

"No." Margaret waved. "They're more than happy to get rid of them. As there's not enough food for all the refugees, there'll probably be a riot if the number keeps going up."     

...     

After the banquet, Roland retired to his office and summoned his guard, Theo.     

This incident reminded him how dated his intelligence network was. If he could get informed right after the refugee problem occurred, he could start his preparation in no time and bring more people to Border Town. Currently, his sole information source was the caravan who visited the town once a month. Such a frequency was absolutely not enough to meet his needs.     

Even if he garrisoned troops and built sentry posts in Longsong Stronghold, his monitoring would still be confined to the Western Region. If he wanted to become the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle, he must expand his intelligence network throughout the whole nation and even the entire continent.     

Roland did not have enough devoted, reliable people for a full-service intelligence agency, and there was no way for him to find spies and agents who were willing to work for him from different locations. As such, he planned to start from scratch by sending a group of people to the king's city to collect news of various places. Although it could not be considered as a complete surveillance system, he would at least be able to quickly get updated with current trends and the latest events, and would not be put in such a disadvantageous position like this in the future.     

Theo, who knew Black Street Forces in the king's city very well, was the perfect person for this job.     

"You want me to return to the king's city with the caravan?" Theo was a little surprised.     

"Yes. You have two tasks. First, fetch refugees from the Eastern Region here. I'll dispatch a unit of around 100 soldiers to escort you and let you know the specific screening criteria before the caravan takes off."     

"Yes, Your Highness!"     

"Second, after you bring all the refugees here, you stay in the king's city to collect news of different cities and towns for me. You dealt with underground Rats before and should know what to do. Margaret and her caravan will fully support you. You can ask for reimbursements for any expenses incurred. Unlike the dissemination of the information about witches in Redwater City last time, there's no budget limit for this operation." Roland put a revolver on the table and then said, "Take good care of yourself. I'm looking forward to hearing good news from you."     

...