Echo sat at the very top of the castle – on the sloping roof of the lookout tower. From here, she could overlook the entire town.

Lightning had brought her up, and the little girl would come back to take her down when the sun went down. Now, Lightning should already be on the way to Longsong Stronghold.

The weather was excellent today. The sun shone brightly on the earth, and the distant river was like a ribbon of light, flowing slowly westward, dividing the land mingled with green leaves and white snow into two halves. Lying in the sunlight, she felt enveloped in a gentle warmth all over her body, unlike the scorching sun of the extreme southern region, where the burning rays could easily irritate the skin.

The wind was also very different, she thought. The winds of the mainland kingdoms were diverse: the slightly salty sea breeze of Clearwater Port, the humid monsoon of the royal capital, alternating between hot and cold, the icy northern wind of the Impassable Mountain Range, and the gentle breeze of the town, carrying the fragrance of the earth. In any case, the wind here was pure and singular. But in Iron Sand City, it was either scorching hot and windless, or a sweeping storm. The wind was visible, the whistling air mixed with pebbles and sand, like a black beast sweeping in. At this time, it was necessary to hide indoors, or anywhere that could avoid the wind. Standing against the wind was a dead end.

Echo gently exhaled. Now that she thought about it, it had been nearly four years since she left Iron Sand City. The Ao Sha clan had unfortunately failed in the power struggle. Her father was killed by the enemy after surrendering, and she, witnessing all this, wanted to rush up and die with the enemy, but was struck from behind.

She wondered how many people in the clan had survived in the past four years.

Before being sold as a slave to Clearwater Port, she vaguely heard that the Ao Sha clan had violated the agreement of the Sacred Duel. Clan members despised by the Three Gods would be exiled to the Endless Cape, never to return to Iron Sand City. But Echo knew that all this was a conspiracy of the Iron Whip clan. They had smeared black oil flowing from underground on their whips, which could not be extinguished even with water once ignited. It was this move that caused her brother, the strongest warrior in the clan, to be burned alive during the duel, causing the formation to be thrown into chaos.

The Endless Cape, apart from the scorching sand, only had ever-burning pillars of fire and an ocean more manic than the Earth Mother. The sand people who went there would soon turn into bones, a fate even more miserable than becoming a slave herself.

After Echo awakened as a divine messenger – what the mainland kingdoms commonly called a witch – she had also thought about revenge, but her ability was the useless imitation of sounds. No matter how she begged the Three Gods, the gods did not send her any decree. After living in Clearwater Port for half a year, she realized that the claim that divine messengers were favored by the Three Gods was just a self-deceiving deception of the Mojin people. Within the four major kingdoms, divine messengers were hunted by the church. From that day on, Echo completely gave up hope of revenge.

At this moment, thick smoke suddenly rose in the distance. She looked towards the east bank of the Redwater River, and saw flames flashing with a faint green light traveling through the small woods. The black smoke from the burning trees and the white mist from the evaporating snow mixed together, forming a gray column of smoke on the horizon.

That was Anna's Green Flames.

When she first arrived here, Wendy briefly introduced Anna and Nanaawa to the sisters. At that time, Echo was very envious of Anna's ability. Freely controlled flames, the high temperature that could melt swords... If she had such power in Iron Sand City, not a single member of the Iron Whip clan would have survived.

Echo shook her head. Thinking about these things now was meaningless. Compared to those clan members who were likely buried in the sand, she was lucky to be alive. Since His Highness the Prince was willing to take her in, all she could do was strive to complete the orders he gave.

She cleared her throat and began to hum the song as requested.

It was a cheerful little tune. His Highness the Prince only hummed it once, and she completely memorized the entire melody.

Music was not unfamiliar to Echo. When she was taught as a high-class slave, seductive dances and provocative whispers were skills she needed to master. But the Prince's song was completely different... It was very rhythmic, full of a bursting upward vitality, especially when he asked her to simulate the sound of a flute to play this piece. Every note seemed to jump up, making people want to dance along.

The difficulty lay in adding drums and strings while the song was in progress. Simulating three sounds at the same time and overlapping them was a first for Echo. She had never thought that music could be played like this!

At first, she found it difficult to ensure that the drums did not disrupt the rhythm of the flute. She tried the method proposed by His Highness, using her hands or feet to keep the beat, and gradually merged the two sounds together.

After a few days of practice, Echo gradually mastered this method of sound imitation.

After trying to sing it a few times, she stood up and decided to add the final strings to it.

As the music played, Echo found that this little tune had changed again – if the cheerful flute constituted its trunk, the passionate drums gave it bones, then the final seemingly embellished strings gave the song a soul. She stepped to the beat, over and over, allowing the three instruments to completely blend together, the sound getting higher and higher, and finally couldn't help but sing out loud –

*******************

"My attack power is higher than yours, so I win."

Roland placed the last card on the table, while Soroya covered her face and let out a low cry of realization.

"One more round," she thought for a moment, then gathered the cards again. "This time, let me choose your ten cards."

"Ahem," the Prince coughed, "It's getting late, I have things to do. Go find someone else to play with."

After making a roughly usable card set, the next step was to copy it. With a template in front of her, Soroya's drawing speed was comparable to a printer. Soon, Roland got several identical Gwent cards.

So Soroya became his first opponent.

After explaining the rules of the game clearly, a card battle began. In the battle, he found that the witch's ability to learn was indeed higher than ordinary people. Soroya quickly figured out the card-playing skills. In the next few rounds, although Roland could still win, he had used a special deck. Now that he saw the other party asking to draw cards for him, he shamefully refused.

"Okay," Soroya put the cards into her arms and ran towards the door. Just then, cheerful and melodious music came from outside the window. She stopped, ran back, and leaned out the window to look around. "Is that Echo?"

"Yeah, it seems she's completely mastered it." Roland leaned back in his chair, appreciating the familiar music.

The Border Town First Army would soon enter the comprehensive exercise phase. Unlike shooting on the city wall, the comprehensive exercise would take place in the wild, requiring the team to maintain order while marching – this was also the basic link in the line-up firing squad. In order to keep the soldiers' steps consistent, it was necessary to use drums or slogans to direct everyone's pace. Now that he had a witch who could simulate mixed sounds, he simply learned from the British and directly used infantry marching music.

Compared to simple drum beats, marching music could not only control the speed of the team, but also effectively boost morale and inspire the military. Of course, Roland only knew the name of the most famous marching song during the line-up firing squad period, "The Grenadier March", but he didn't remember the complete melody.

But this did not stump him. There was a song that was adapted on the basis of "The Grenadier March" and resounded throughout the country during the Anti-Japanese War. And its melody was familiar to almost everyone, that was the famous "Guerrilla Song".

Soroya turned her head. She heard the Prince humming along with the music. It was a language she had never heard, clean and neat, and completely matched the beat of the song.

"We are all sharpshooters,"

"Every bullet eliminates an enemy;"

"We are all flying troops,"

"Even if the mountains are high and the water is deep!"

"In the dense forest,"

"Comrades' camps are arranged everywhere;"

"On the high hills,"

"We have countless good brothers."

"(...)"