TALES OF A WITCHER - Season 4 Episode 18

Roland scratched over the surface with the brush, writing a long paragraph on paper.

Before he came to this world, he had only drawn mechanical blueprints using the computer. At that time he had already thought that there would only be small chances where he would ever need to write characters using a pen, never did he expect to have to use this kind of ancient form of recording ever again.

Two papers filled with text laid next to his hand, containing the next plans for what he wanted to implement.

One plan was the large-scale production of sulfuric acid and the new equipment that was needed, made by the hands of Anna and Soraya. Instead of using lead for the reaction vessel, they would use the more robust and reliable iron together with an anti-corrosion coating. Furthermore, the vessels would be made three times larger than the previous trial version’s.

Considering that at the present stage there was fundamentally no way to collect or purify the produced industrial waste gas (mainly used from combustion of sulfur and leakage of nitrogen oxides), Roland decided to place it at the southern end of the industrial park – far enough away from the residential area and the Redwater River. Furthermore, he planned to use stones so as to better isolate the building and also erect a chimney to raise the altitude at which the emissions would be released.

Increasing the output of sulfuric acid was of great help to enlarge the scale of concentrated nitric acid, so putting this equipment into production would be the most important task at present. The content of the document were instructions to Kyle Sichi to select a group of disciples who will be specializing in the production of sulfuric acid. In addition, Barov also needed to recruit some reliable local residents who could work as auxiliary handyman, raising the number of staff required for the chemical plant to around 100 people.

The second document was the formation of a public health care system.

To be honest, Roland wasn’t familiar with this subject. Talking about it, he didn’t even understand a single thing about modern medicine. However, this didn’t prevent him from using his common sense to develop a plan which meets all of their current needs.

First of all, the biggest task of this department would be to give publicity to modern scientific discoveries. Things such as boiling the water before drinking it, the fact that meat has to be fully cooked before eating, the cause of illnesses and how they manage to spread, the difference between parasites and microbes, and so forth… Thanks to his growing prestige it wouldn’t be difficult for him to get people to do what he wants, but if he wanted them to understand why they should do something, he would need someone to do the publication and education for him. It would be useless if they only spoke once about these things. Instead, it had to be repeated seven or eight times, maybe even dozens of times, like those slogans that were hanging at the edge of the field. If they continually spoke about it, their view would always become accepted in the end.

The second part was encouraging the birthrate – since the City Hall only had a limited number of staff, Roland did not want to set up a separate family planning department. Thus he temporarily also placed this under the public health care’s responsibility. The population was always the most scarce resource in this era, and the best way to confront this was by leading people to give birth to more lives. Nana’s ability completely erased the risk of giving birth and many of the other thorny problems. And with her help, the post-natal survival rate would almost be around one hundred percent. In order to avoid the abandonment of baby girls, as well as restricting any changes of something like that happening in future, Roland developed a full subsidy and punishment policy. For example, the subsidy for baby girls was slightly higher than for baby boys, subsidies would be given in installments, and the abandonment of babies would be punished with fines or imprisonment, and so on.

The last point was the regulation of payment. Except for fertility treatment, the hospital would charge a fee in accordance with the amount of magic that Nana needed to use. This way it would reduce the little girl’s burden as well as lay the foundation for the future hospital system. Roland had also already found the first person he wanted in charge of this department, Viscount Tigu Pine, Nana’s father.

The third document, was currently in the state of being written, and was the most complex and far-reaching plan – it was the plan to establish Border Town as a city.

It was related to the problems created by the expansion of Border Town and the later merger with Longsong Stronghold. When that time came about, there would definitely be a demand for new laws concerning the governance of these two places, and both the judicial system and the public security system would have to be implemented. However, if he wanted to make these points watertight, merely relying on his own knowledge wouldn’t be enough, thus Roland intended to draft a list first, and later discuss all the details with City Hall Premier Minister Barov.

After finishing the introductory part, Roland felt some pain in his wrist from all the writing so he went to the window to take a break.

Today’s weather was very gloomy, and from morning to afternoon he had yet to see the sun. The sky was consistently being covered with dark clouds, and gave the impression that torrential rains would soon be coming. The chilly autumn wind swept over the castle backyard and Roland heard the olive leaves rustling.

At this moment, a black spot appeared on the horizon, flying in the direction of the castle.

“It’s Lightning,” Nightingale’s voice came from behind him.

“She probably went to the Concealing Forest to pick some mushrooms again,” Roland said with a smile. Usually, when they weren’t on investigation duty, the goal of Lightning and Maggie’s practice was left up to themselves. Therefore, it was entirely reasonable for them to not come back to the castle to eat lunch. According to the two, they would often be somewhere in the woods looking for some eggs and honeycombs, or catching some strange animals to barbecue and eat. It was likely that all explorers would ultimately transform into Bear Grylls.

Although the bird kissing mushrooms mainly grew on trees, he could not help but always think of the story called: ‘The mushroom plucking girl’.

“Your Highness, your… smile is a little strange.”

“Keke, I had to think of a little short story, do you want to hear it?”

“Ok?”

Roland cleared his throat, “Once upon a time, there was a little girl, she liked to gather mushrooms… Wait.” The shadow was slowly growing, but contrary to what they expected it didn’t fly over the castle, but instead lowered her altitude and went straight to the window of their office. Feeling shocked, Roland opened the window only seconds before Lightning directly flew into the room without stopping.

“Y-Your Highness!” Hardly had she landed when she already started to shout in excitement, “I found a witch!”

“A witch?” Roland asked full of curiously, “Where?”

“In the Stone Tower hidden within the Concealing Forest,” Lightning pointed to Maggie, who flew into the office just at that moment, “She can testify!”

“Googoo!” Maggie agreed.

“Stone Tower?” He frowned, “Carefully tell me what happened, from the beginning to the end.”

After listening to Lightning’s narration, Roland could not help but suck in a mouth of cold lump. This fellow is too bold, actually only taking a pigeon along she dares to explore a ruin which contained Devils. But what’s even more frightening, is that there is still a witch sealed inside these ruins. Of course, there is also the possibility that she could be an ordinary person sealed away by a witch… In any case, this is incredible news.

“What was the cry of help?”

“It is coming from this thing. I found it on a table behind her,” Lightning pulled a palm-sized square box from her pocket, at first glance it looked just like a small make-up mirror. However, when she opened the lid, Roland saw a red gem embedded inside of it, and when Lightning pulled a trigger next to it, the anxious sounding voice of a female suddenly appeared in everyone’s ears.

“Save me…”

Hearing the voice, Roland’s body began to shudder, the sound seemed to flicker, sometimes appearing near sometimes coming from far off. It was indeed somewhat horrifying, if he imagined himself hearing this distressed voice after entering a dark underground chamber, he would certainly turn around and flee without any hesitation.

“The gem contains magic,” Nightingale appeared behind them and said in astonishment, “Within it, I can see a weak magic whirlpool, just like inside a witch’s body.”

Well, it seems to be a magic machine which continuously repeats previously spoken words. With this, the probability that the other person is a witch has increased. “Did you find any other stones inside the basement of the Stone Tower?”

“I didn’t take a closer look, also, many parts of the room were flooded,” Lightning shook her head. “At that time, I only thought about coming back and telling you about this news as soon as possible.”

“Never do something like this again, especially if you want to go to a dangerous place, you should first ask for permission,” Roland patted her head, then looked over at Nightingale, “Call Iron Axe and all of the members of the Witch Alliance over to the office. The exploration of the relics will be scheduled earlier than planned.”