TALES OF A WITCHER - Season 5 Episode 10

The water vapor formed an even layer of white mist resembling thin gauze on the window pane. Chilly wind blew on the windows with a popping sound, which contrasted with the tranquil fireplace burning in the room.

Scroll sat in front of a long desk in the City Hall Office, reading rolls of thick documents.

Those documents were not about education but were statistics reported by various departments. She used her free time to memorize such information in case someone needed it. This was recently the main part of her work since there was not much to deal with in the Ministry of Education. After all, the second round of assessment ended not long ago, and another round wouldn’t be carried out before next summer.

Having worked for His Highness Roland for half a year, she found out His Highness was particularly interested in statistics—he liked it when his subordinates described things with a long series of precise numbers; he frequently used terms such as horizontal ratio, year-on-year ratio, and chain relative ratio. Subsequently, all the staff in the City Hall had picked up this habit from him.

As the township population grew, the related statistical work increased correspondingly. Therefore, His Highness entrusted this work to Scroll and jokingly called her the “database” of Border Town. Although the nickname made her sound like a warehouse, His Highness described it as something extremely important. With the help of a database, he said he could estimate the development of next year and make economic and military plans. He even said all his future decisions concerning the territory would be based on the data analysis.

“Lady Scroll.” A woman dressed as an apprentice pushed open the office door and entered the room. After bowing to Scroll, she handed her an application form. “Hello, my name is Freya. His Excellency Carter from the Department of Justice wishes to acquire the information on refugees who passed the resident verification within the last week.”

Due to her limited ability to derivative skills, His Highness ordered that anyone who wanted to inquire complex data must get consent from Barov first. As for individual data, one could ask Scroll at any time.

“Wait a minute!” Scroll glanced at the signature on the application form, summoned the Book of Magic, and showed the corresponding contents on its pages. “Alright. Give this to Mr. Carter.”

“Thank… thank you.” Freya carefully held the book that came out of thin air as if it was a demonic beast.

“Don’t worry. It won’t hurt you.” Scroll could not help but laugh. Most people had such an expression when they saw the Book of Magic. “You do not need to return the book to me because it will vanish four hours later. However, according to the Constitution of Confidentiality, you aren’t allowed to give it to anybody other than Carter.”

“Yes …My Lady.”

Freya bowed and retreated. While she pushed open the door, Scroll saw a sea of people in the hall, and a chattering sound instantly rushed into her room, quieting down again when the door was closed.

This was a weekend, which was supposed to be a rest day, but the City Hall was still as busy as on workdays. Everybody was excited about the upcoming construction of Border Town, so they worked particularly hard. With the salary reward for overtime offered by His Highness, no one was willing to stay at home.

Scroll didn’t understand His Highness’s decisions. To her, there wasn’t that much work to be done in the City Hall, and compared to the labors of miners and furnace workers, writing official documents, collecting data and making reports took much less effort – yet these were the main jobs of the City Hall. His Highness only had to give orders, and everyone would easily comply. There was really no need to raise the salary in this regard. Compared to most of the nobilities, His Highness appeared to be too benevolent.

Truthfully, Scroll didn’t think His Highness Roland seemed like a real Lord. Yet, it was exactly such a person who led everybody to this stage, which was nearly a miracle.

She didn’t come to this conclusion due to her respect and trust for Roland, but due to clear data; compared with one year ago, when only miners had a stable income in Border Town; the wages of miners, furnace workers and handymen had doubled now, although they used to earn the least; some emerging occupations such as assemblers in the steam plant and operators in the acid plant had had their wages raised eightfold, and the number of workers was still on the rise.

The changes within the town itself were so obvious that if a person hadn’t lived here one year ago, he might find it very hard to believe that such changes were possible.

Scroll touched the words on the document. She couldn’t imagine how the territory would continue to transform under His Highness’ leadership, but she firmly believed it would have a future full of hope and surprises.

“Miss Scroll.” The wooden door was pushed open, and His Highness Roland’s guard stepped in. “His Highness wants to see you.”

…

When she returned to the third floor of the castle, Scroll saw that His Highness was organizing pieces of the manuscript.

“Would you like me to record these things?” Tying her black hair up, which was messed up by the cold wind, she stepped up and asked the prince.

“That’s right. It took at least half of my brain cells to finish this book.” The prince massaged his neck, murmuring words that were difficult for Scroll to comprehend. “Even for the knowledge that was commonly used at the time, I could only remember them generally, and I even had to deduce several formulas myself.”

Scroll had gotten used to this behavior. She ignored his weird terms, picked up the manuscript, realizing the letters on its cover were in an unprecedented orange color that formed the word “calculus”.

She flipped through a couple pages, and found it impossible to understand what the book title meant. She then focused on memorizing its contents—compared to the equations she had learned previously, she found these new formulas didn’t even have numbers, but a series of bizarre symbols, like a whole set of new characters. They looked like things only Anna and Tilly would be interested in.

“Right,” Roland asked, “what’s the average income of the residents here?”

“The minimum was 10 silver royals per month, and the maximum was 40,” Scroll answered without stopping her memorizing of calculus, “but to calculate the average income I would need the Book of Magic, which has been used once today.”

“That’s alright. You can give me the statistical result the day after tomorrow.” Roland waved his hand. “I need this number to determine the fee for water and heating supply. The collective heating supply project is about to begin in a week. On its completion, this place would be as warm as spring, even through the longest winter.”

A city without fear for the cold. This is one of the miracles that could only happen in His Highness’s territory. “If I don’t get extra work, I’ll give you the result tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow …It would be nice if you could turn the Book of Magic into a storybook.” Roland shook his head with a smile. “Or any book that Anna hasn’t read.”

“Storybook?” Scroll was slightly startled before quickly understanding his reasoning. “Tomorrow is Miss Anna’s …”

“Day of Awakening,” the Prince nodded and said.