“Not much, Your Highness. There are only two or three such demonic beasts during each Month of the Demonic Beasts. Otherwise, Longsong Stronghold would face big trouble.”

“Very good, you observed carefully,” Roland ordered the hunter to stand up. “What’s your name? You don’t look like a Graycastle native.”

“I’m half-Mojin, people in town call me Iron Axe.”

Mojin, desert dwellers in the southwestern wilderness of the kingdom, said to be descendants of sand giants. Roland searched his memories. He didn't use his clan name, but a title, obviously not wanting to be associated with the sand people. As for why he came from the southwestern border to this remote place, there were probably a series of bitter stories.

But those were not the point, Border Town didn’t care about background.

Roland clapped his hands, “That’s all for today, Carter, reward each of them ten silver wolves, take them down.”

“Thank you for your reward, Your Highness,” the three said in unison.

After taking the men away, Carter Lannis returned, “Your Highness, are you asking these questions because you want to stay here?”

Roland was noncommittal, “What do you think?”

“Absolutely not, Your Highness!” The knight said loudly, “According to the hunter, even the wild boar-type demonic beasts are difficult to deal with. Crossbows can’t penetrate them from fifty steps away, so you have to wait until forty steps, thirty steps to shoot, which only the elite soldiers of the fortress can do. Plus, they are numerous. Without sturdy city walls to rely on, if relying solely on the local guards to resist, I fear that casualties exceeding 10% would lead to a collapse.”

“You said the same thing before seeing the witches. Can’t you think of things in a positive light?” Roland sighed.

“This… although witches are evil, Anna… Miss Anna doesn’t seem to be like that. As your knight, I must be realistic.”

“Is that so? What if I give you a city wall?”

“What?” Carter doubted he had heard correctly.

“I’ll give you a city wall, between the foot of the North Slope and the Redwater River,” Roland said, word by word, “Although it’s not as magnificent as the walls of Graycastle, it should be able to stop the demonic beasts.”

“Your Highness, do you know what you’re saying?” The knight laughed in anger, “There should be a limit to nonsense. If you don’t leave by then, you’ll have to forgive my rudeness.”

“Aren’t there still three months? I’ve read past records, the first snow here mostly arrives at the end of the second month after winter begins.”

“Three years wouldn’t be enough! Building a city wall requires a lot of workers, starting with compacting the foundation with mixed soil. It needs to be compacted every one to two feet, otherwise it will be in danger of collapsing. This is still the simplest rammed earth wall,” Carter shook his head repeatedly, “Brick and stone walls are even slower, requiring hundreds of masons to pre-chisel the stones into squares, and then build them up one by one. Your Highness, every city wall is built like this, there have never been exceptions. Letting a city rise from the ground day and night, that’s only in myths and legends.”

Roland motioned for him not to say any more, “I understand. You don’t have to jump to conclusions so quickly. If there isn’t a reliable city wall by then, I’ll evacuate with you to Longsong Stronghold. I don’t plan to throw my life away in this godforsaken place.”

The knight knelt on one knee, “I will protect you with my life!”

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

In the castle garden, Roland took a sip of bitter malt beer, watching Anna intently eating cream pastries, and his mood improved a lot.

He had decided to stop the demonic beasts in Border Town—if he couldn’t even defend the base camp, what was the point of farming? To build a wall connecting North Slope and Redwater River within three months, he had to adopt a reasonable plan and era-crossing technology.

Roland wasn’t acting on a whim. He had surveyed the surroundings of Border Town (though not personally), and clear images remained in his memory—the closest point between the foot of North Slope and Redwater River was only six hundred meters, practically a natural choke point. And the North Slope mine was filled with crushed rock from the mine due to years of excavation.

The cross-sections of these crushed rocks were greyish-white and rich in calcium carbonate, which could be used as limestone after being crushed. And with

Limestone, it equaled having cement.

That’s right, this hydraulic material that changed human construction history had a wide range of sources and was simple to prepare, truly a farming weapon.

Roland estimated in his mind that creating concrete was out of the question, not because it couldn’t be done technically, but because the amount of cement needed was too great. He wasn’t sure he could calcine that much cement powder in three months. Plus, concrete has poor toughness and needs to be used with steel bars to become complete, so making a concrete city wall was obviously not realistic.

To maximize cement savings and utilize existing materials, a rubble self-weight wall was the most appropriate choice.

So-called rubble is unpolished stone material, in its natural state when just mined. Because the angles and shapes of such stones are irregular, they cannot be directly assembled. They need to be processed into brick shapes by stonemasons before they can be used. A rubble wall uses cement as an adhesive. No matter how strange the shape of the stone, it can be piled up. The gaps between the stones are filled with cement, which saves cement and doesn't pick materials.

That was the general direction, but in practice, he was afraid he would have to do it himself, Roland thought. Whether it was calcining cement or building a rubble wall, they were all completely new things. Apart from himself, no one had seen these things, and no one knew how to do them. He was afraid that the next three months would be busy.

"Look."

Anna's clear voice came from behind.

Roland turned around and saw a small cluster of flames suddenly appear in her palm. There was obviously no wind around, but the tip of the flame rose and fell, as if nodding to her. She shook her finger, and the flame slowly moved towards her fingertip like a toddler. Finally, it stopped at the tip of her index finger and calmed down,

"You did it."

An incredible scene, Roland admired in his heart. This was not a magician's trick, nor a chemical gimmick, but a real supernatural power. But that was not the most attractive part for Roland - even more dazzling than the flame was Anna's expression.

She stared intently at her fingertips, the lake-like clear eyes reflecting the dancing flames, like a spirit sealed in a sapphire. The traces of torture left on her by the prison had faded away. Although she still rarely smiled, her face was no longer lifeless. The girl's delicate nose oozed a little sweat, and her fair and rosy cheeks exuded vitality, which made people feel happy even when looking at it.

"What's wrong?"

"Ah... it's nothing," Roland noticed that he had been staring at her for too long, he looked away and coughed twice, "Then next, let's try to use it to melt iron blocks."

In the past few days, except for eating and sleeping, she would repeatedly practice in the shed. Her hard work made Roland feel ashamed - even when facing the college entrance examination, he hadn't worked so hard.

It seems that it won't be long before she can skillfully master this power, Roland thought. In this way, his long-planned new project can also be put on the agenda.

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