There was no doubt that this was a sign of the gradual improvement in the living standards for the people. In particular, the indigenous population had all received new free housing, while their salary, compared to before, had also increased a lot. Nowadays, they had even started to buy food which they usually could only enjoy during festivals. The newly introduced population was still at the stage where they were busy saving money in order to purchase a house, but when they manage to settle down the market was bound to usher for a new peak in sales.
What exactly do people need? Sometimes, eating and drinking one’s fill was already enough to be grateful to their Lord and follow him until their death.
During this era, most civilians were easy to please.
“Your Highness, beware of catching a cold,” Nightingale said, and appeared behind him with a thin coat in hand. She threw the cloth to Roland, took out a piece of dried fish from a bag and came to stand beside him, “What’s going on here?”
“Nothing,” Roland said, showing her a smile while he put on the coat, “I just suddenly had the urge to see my territory.”
“It seems the town is still very busy,” Nightingale said and pointed to the still brightly lit town square, “It’s already night time and there are still so many people who haven’t gone home.”
“That’s because today was the first time they were showing the new drama, ‘Dawn’,” Roland explained happily, “Furthermore, it was also the first show after the troupe’s several months of departure from Border Town. So, the villagers have probably been full of anticipation to see Miss May and Misses Irene again.”
But that being said, Miss May would soon become Lady May Lannis. He actually had never expected that his own Chief Knight would act so decisively to hold the hands of the Star of the West. When the other side had informed him with a sincere face about his intention, he was first stupefied for a while before he was finally to respond. The wedding of the Chief Knight needed the approval of his Lord, but Roland naturally had no objection to this kind of happy event. In the end, the wedding for the two was scheduled for after the end of the Months of Demons, more precisely, for the day when Border Town officially became a city.
“It was a dead place when I first snuck into this town,” Nightingale exclaimed, “But now, even while standing in the castle, it seems I still feel the joyful atmosphere surrounding us.”
“Life will improve, day by day,” Roland looked up, looking at the cloudless night sky as he took in a deep breath. There were still many things left to be done such as expanding the scope of education, setting up a public health care, increasing the amount of cultural constructions, encouraging birth rate and so forth. All these things would transform the Western Territory into a stable force and lay out the foundation for the unification of Greycastle.
Nightingale tilted her head and looked at him with keen eyes as she asked, “So what about us?”
“Of course, the same is also true for you,” Roland said as he patted her head, “I promise.”
Chapter 316 Re-exploration of the Stone Tower
When Lightning saw His Highness leave she pulled Maggie to the corner of the hall.
“Goo?”
Maggie’s hair was almost hanging to the floor, giving her the appearance of a floating ghost whenever she moved. Pushing aside the white hair covering her cheeks, Maggie’s high puffed up cheeks and the half swallowed crisp pork chop dangling in her small mouth became visible.
“I found a fascinating place,” Lightning whispered. “It’s hidden inside the Concealing Forest, I intend to go and explore it tomorrow. Would you like to come with me on an adventure?”
“Guru,” Maggie swallowed the food in her mouth and nodded again and again, “I want, I want. What should we prepare?”
“To go on an adventure, you need three items… Wrong, three of the most commonly used things,” Lighting discovered that from time to time she has started to use His Highness’ strange vocabulary. “You need a flint, dry food, and a dagger. The place isn’t far from here. So it will be fine if you just take along enough food for a day. Don’t fill your whole pocket with it like you did last time.”
“Okay goo,” Maggie patted her chest, ready to leave, but Lightning stopped her once again.
“Remember, that this adventure is our secret. Don’t tell anyone else about it,” the little girl said, “We’ll start early tomorrow morning.”
Looking at Maggie’s back, who couldn’t wait to get back to the table full of food, she curled her lips and began to think about their plan for tomorrow.
Despite the success of the bombing mission and meeting His Highness’ expectation, she found that her flying has become much less flexible than before, as if something was holding her back. Whenever Lightning raised her speed, she would always have the feeling that a Devil was chasing her.
This obstruction was brought by fear, she realized. Furthermore, the source of her fear was the exploration of the Stone Tower, when she saw the horrible figure in the basement doorway, she had lost her cool and calm. At that time, her only thought had been to flee from that place as quickly as she could. Ever since then she had started to question her identity as an explorer.
“Fear is not terrible, terrible is the unknown. If you want to overcome it, you must approach it first.”
Within her heart, Lightning silently repeated her father’s teaching again and again. Tomorrow she might encounter real danger, but an explorer should not be afraid of risk, nor should they shrink back. If she couldn’t get over it, she was scared that she would never be able to fly freely again.
This was also the reason why Lightning decided to keep the adventure hidden from His Royal Highness and act without authorization. According to His Royal Highness’ plan, the exploration of the Stone Tower was scheduled for after the Months of Demons and would be a cooperation between the First Army and the witches. However, she was worried that by that time, even if they visited the Stone Tower once again, it would be hard for her to see it as somehow fulfilling the idea of “conquering the fear” — only daring to approach the danger zone by relying on the strength of everyone, just couldn’t be called an adventure.
Afterward, His Highness may scold her, even going so far as confiscating her ice cream, and her sisters from the Witch Alliance would surely also be worried, but she was still determined to go through with it.
As the daughter of the Fjord’s greatest explorer Thunder, Lightning just couldn’t accept her cowardly self.
But it didn’t mean that her decision was a reckless act. Compared with her unprepared attempt a few months ago, she now had a revolver — a gift from His Highness-, possessed a greater understanding of the Devils, and lastly, she was being accompanied by Maggie.
Especially the last point… If they really did encounter a group of Devils in the Stone Tower and even if Maggie couldn’t change into her demonic beast’s appearance to drive them away, they would at least still be able to flee on their own.
An explorer doesn’t need a brigade of troops to increase their courage, she thought, but they can still have a few trusted teammates.
After dinner, Lightning gathered some pieces of honeyed meat and put it into a cloth bag, she then added torches, weapons, and water bags.
The successful completion of the bombing mission gave her some confidence, together with His Highness’s encouragement and her slightly cheeky reputation let her feel doubly courageous. And just like the blacksmith’s saying went, ‘it’s best to strike while the iron is hot’, tomorrow would be the best time for them to depart.