After eating the cake, Roland allowed Nana to leave.
Anna asked, “Why did you allow her to leave? Just like me, she’s also a witch, right?”
“She still has her family, and at the present time her family has not found out, that she has become a witch.”
Anna whispered, “It’s just a matter of time.”
“Right, sooner or later,” Roland sighed, “so, it’s a little late, but… Do you want to see your father?”
She shook her head; no wavering was seen in her lake-like eyes. It seemed that the betrayal of her father had made her completely lose her hope. She didn’t have a family to return to before, at least now she had a friend.
“Nana will always come back, in fact, I’m going to have her come here every second day to let her practice her own ability.”
Hearing this, she blinked her eyes and nodded quickly.
“Do you want to go back to Karl’s college and learn together with the other children?”
Anna did not answer, but he felt that he could understand her inner thoughts.
“These kinds of circumstance are unlikely to last long… As long as I am here, you will one day be able to live like normal people, anywhere you go there would be no one to arrest you, much less send you to the gallows. One day this will be reality, “said Roland stressing every single word ” I promise.”
Since Karl took over the city wall project, fourth prince Roland suddenly settled down.
He spent every afternoon in the castle garden, accompanied by Anna and Nana. Now they had no further need to prepare extra clothes for Anna’s training, even if there were leaping flames on each of her fingers, she could still operate them skillfully. Now it was unlikely to be like before when a mishap occurred, igniting her own witch’s uniform.
Nana also changed her clothes into the same witch uniform Anna wore, at first she felt a little reluctant about the practice, but the afternoon tea session appeased her. Seeing the two witches come and wander around in his backyard greatly alleviated the bitterness in Roland’s heart.
Occasionally, he went to the north slope at the foot of the mountain to check the progress on the city wall. After more than two weeks of construction, the wall had already reached a hundred yards in length. In this era where a theodolite to measure the distance didn’t exist, every day, at the same time, Karl would have the craftsmen determine the distance and evenness by using the shadows formed by the sun with the help of a wooden pole. They built a watchtower every ten columns to stabilize the city wall.
Such a large-scale building project was naturally also noticed by the town’s nobility, but in addition to finding Barov and asking him about this project, they took no further actions as if this had nothing to do with them. Roland did not complain, since their possessions were at Stronghold Longsong, they would definitely not stay here and help him guard the Border Town. He could even imagine these people getting together and ridiculing Roland, saying he had overestimated his capabilities.
Not only had the nobility noticed the change, but the merchants as well. In the previous years, the traveling merchants would purchase animal fur, but now it appeared that there was no possibility to purchase it. One after the other, they began to set out and return to the stronghold. Naturally, the anger about their empty-handed return was vented to Roland. The news regarding the fourth prince Roland Wimbledon’s building project to repel the demonic beasts in the Months of the Demons had already spread along the Redwater River, many calling it just stupid and ignorant.
At this point, no one thought that he could hold Border Town; even the majority of locals did not believe it. After all, the impression everyone got from the fourth prince did not include the courage to fight. Regardless what he did, in the end, he would take refuge in the stronghold.
In this manner, while everyone was discussing him, Roland welcomed his first winter after crossing over.
Chapter 16 Future route
The flames in the fireplace were in full bloom, dispersing the chill which penetrated through the doors and windows. Above the huge fireplace hung the skull of a deer with long horns. In the glow of the fire, the shadows reflections of the horns on the back wall appeared to be huge claws and teeth companions of skull.
Opposite of Roland stood a long deep-red wooden table laden with parchments and books. Most of the documents only needed his signature to the execute the order. Usually, Roland would only be here to handle official work, but since he had transformed the castle room into a three-room office he had grown to love working here.
Through the windows at the end of the floor he could see the town spreading out beneath his gaze, and in the horizon were the endless mountains. The mountains were almost impassable, they separated the Kingdom of Graycastle and the wild lands in two. The northern mountain slope was just a branching pass of the mountain range.
At the foot of the window he could see the wood-fenced garden, which Anna used to train. In order to provide a convenient place for afternoon tea, the brick pool was already transformed into a long table. If the weather was good he could go down and lie underneath the sun, or maybe even take a nap on top of the custom-made rocking chair.
Although it was small, it was nice to have your own personal garden as well. In his former life, if you wanted to sit on the stone steps of a real castle, it would be almost impossible. Just to look around, you had to spend money to buy a ticket. But now, he not only had his own castle, but a whole town as well.
“Your Highness, recently we spent a considerable amount of money from your treasury to recruit tradesmen and handymen. If this continues, I’m afraid our treasury won’t last until next year’s spring.” Barov handed the parchment with the recent reports of the financial situation to Roland.
Originally, Border Town had a very simple chart of income and expenditure. Their line of income came from ore mining and trade with precious stones. This line of income was in the hands of the Longsong Stronghold. The output of the North Slope Mine was directly exchanged for wheat or bread, without any taxes, and the exchange of resources was presided over by the stronghold. Described in simpler terms, the North Slope Mine was a joint-stock item of the Longsong Stronghold nobility. Those nobles stationed in the border town could be seen as the custodians of the shareholders, their fiefs were mostly in the east of the stronghold. They came here only for a limited time, and there would be different people each year.
In fact, Border Town had less than 30 years of history. Compared with the nearly two hundred years of Longsong Stronghold, it was simply a newborn baby. Duke Ryan had only intended to establish an outpost here to get an early warning in case an evil beast invasion began. He had never expected that the pioneers who discovered a mine rich with mineral resources in the Northern Mountain Slope would just settle there, practically making a small municipality, named Border Town.
In order to prevent stealing, the Duke did not accept manpower sent by the other nobles. Instead,he employed the local residents. Even criminals became miners, and food was prorated based on the output of ore each home provided.
The stronghold would just provide some food and commissioned employers throughout the year. The stronghold only paid a fixed amount of money, it wasn’t based on the mining output. Of the two thousand inhabitants of Border Town, more than half of them were in the mining services.
Another line was the town’s other industries — the blacksmith’s shop, tavern, textile shop and so on. From them, Border Town usually received a modest amount of revenue throughout the year, but it was quite difficult to have money left over by the end of it. The appointed Lord didn’t govern Border Town seriously, since Roland was sent there from Graycastle. Instead, he had decided to stay in the stronghold, without returning to Border Town.