The Farewell
The Farewell
Ashes waited until the prince put down his quill before proclaiming, "I won."
"Absolutely, you won." Roland nodded without hesitation.
Such a straightforward attitude made Ashes feel a bit surprised. She'd thought that Roland was going to argue and had not expected that he would admit this result.
"However, I admit that you do have the power to fight against the God's Punishment Army," she said. "The God's Punishment Army isn't impervious to blades and spears. Their power and physical capabilities are similar to mine. However, they lack consciousness and also the ability to think. That's why I can handle three at one time. According to the previous contest, if the knight's opponent is God's Punishment Army, I believe they would attack with a frontal assault on the knight. The God's Punishment Army isn't able to have a single dispatch as the Judgement Army does. If what I assume is correct, the church needs to appoint someone to lead them."
"Thank you." Roland smiled. "This information is substantial."
"What was the new weapon in the knight's hand?"
"A running fire flintlock," he said, "From now on, all my soldiers will use this weapon. Even a farmer would be able to defeat a well-trained member of the Judgement Army using the flintlock."
Ashes hesitated. "Could you give me a flintlock?"
"Not unless you join the Witch Union." Roland shrugged. "This weapon is still fairly rare at this stage."
Roland's refusal was expected. Ashes breathed out and said, "I have to reunite with Tilly as soon as possible. Tomorrow at dawn, I'll leave Border Town. If you can't withstand anymore, you could move to the Fjords for sanctuary."
He nodded. "You too, don't forget to tell the news to my beloved sister that there's a place for the witches in the Western Region of the Kingdom of Graycastle."
Ashes was silent for a moment. "I'll consider it."
When Ashes was just about to leave the office, the prince called her to stop. "Wait, I have a gift for you. It's right behind the door."
A gift?
She was dazed for a moment. She turned around and saw a huge sword near the door. It was blocked by the door so she hadn't noticed it when she walked into the office.
"Your original sword couldn't be used anymore. I asked Anna to make a new one for you. This sword isn't made out of inferior pig iron, it's made of pure steel."
The body of the huge sword was smooth and well-proportioned. It reflected an orangish glow under the light of sunset. She walked to it and gently touched the body of the sword. Its width was very well-balanced, and the side of the blade showed signs of the hardening process. Undoubtedly, this was a high-quality weapon. The only thing confusing Ashes was the style of the sword. Rather than having double blades, it was a single blade, and the other side was as wide as a little finger. The sword did not have a tip. Its top was in a trapezoid shape. The most bizarre part was the first section of the blade. A particular pattern was ingrained on the blade, and the unsharpened side had a round bump covered in gold. It would definitely catch everyone's attention.
Even though she did not want to show her affection to the new sword, she could not help but lift it up in admiration.
"Why is its appearance... so weird?"
"Because this isn't an ordinary weapon." Roland smiled. "Its name is the Messenger of Ashes. Compared to the plain sword that you had before, this is a legendary item."
Ashes decided not to inquire about the strange words that Roland was using. "Well then, I'll accept this gift. In return, I'll give you a gift too."
"Umm? What is it?" Roland asked curiously.
She did not answer and simply left the room.
*******************
The next morning, Roland opened the door and saw Nightingale sitting in front of the desk with a piece of dried fish in her mouth.
"They left."
"Both of them?"
"Yes," she answered in a sluggish tone. "They departed at dawn. Wendy accompanied them part of the way."
Roland was moved. Wendy was caring for every single sister, not to mention that this was the witch that at one time protected her from harm and indirectly helped her to leave the cloister. He'd thought that Wendy would have gone with Ashes. He had not expected that Wendy would refuse Ashes' invitation.
In the end, the Witch Union was still composed of 12 people. That truly motivated Roland.
"Do you believe that they'll tell the witches across the ocean about Border Town?"
"Maybe. Maybe not." He leaned against the chair and sighed. "However, if they meet insolvable hardships, they'll think of the Border Town."
Roland closed his eyes and started to search his mind for the memories that belonged to the prince.
He and Tilly were not close. Tilly had kept her distance from everyone, even King Wimbledon III. Aside from her exceptional appearance and intelligence, he did not have much information about Tilly in his mind.
Roland did not know when Princess Tilly had started to cover for witches or what she planned to develop in the Fjords. Nevertheless, since both of them planned to fight against the church at this stage, she would be a great alliance that he should strive for.
Sending Theo to spread the news was not a meaningless act. The awakening of a witch was totally random. Tilly would not be able to take away all the witches. Especially since the organization had retreated, the newly awakened witch would be in desperate need of finding sanctuary.
Since he'd gathered new information regarding the God's Punishment Army, the next thing that he needed to do was to expand the manufacture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid.
More efficient gunpowder and bombs were inseparable from nitric acid and sulfuric acid. Once the First Army replaced its weapons to the revolving rifles, gun-barrels with rifling and fixed loading bullets would drastically increase the accuracy of shooting. Therefore, training would be even more important. In this era without gun control, the skillful soldier would be able to fight 10 newbies. The consumption of bullets would be astonishingly high.
The black gunpowder would remain in the gun-barrel and block the rifling, decreasing the age of the gun-barrel. This problem could be solved by using the smokeless powder. The smokeless powder in its preliminary form was nitrocellulose, in the later stage it would be the mixture of glycerol and nitrocellulose. Right now, even the nitric acid that was used to soak the guncotton was insufficient, not to mention replacing it all with guncotton.
The production in the lab was limited to a small-scale. He would need industrial manufacturing if he wanted enough equipment to supply an army. However, Roland was unfamiliar with the chemical industry. He could not think of any better ideas right now.
Besides that, he also could not neglect the education. Not only civil knowledge, but Roland also had to implement to transform the thinking of his citizens. The locals now had a better understanding toward the witches after the challenge of the Months of Demons and also the advertisement of the First Army. However, the outsiders were still confined to the propagated thinking of the church. The population of outsiders in Border Town had dramatically increased, especially the farmers. They were still living in the wooden sheds near the Redwater River. It could be considered the "suburb" of the town. However, as soon as they were promoted to freedmen, they would gradually move to the inner city. By then it would be too late to adjust their thinking.
He had to think of a transformation method that would not arouse too much attention and would be accepted by the public.
…
His thoughts were in a chaotic mess for a while. Roland opened his eyes and noticed that Nightingale was staring at him from aside. When their eyes met, she subconsciously turned away her head.
"Ahh... yes, I forgot to tell you something." The witch stared through the window and pretended to be nonchalant. "Wendy asked me to tell you something."
"What?" Roland asked.
"She said, thank you."