The day after Anna awakened, Nightingale bid farewell to Roland.
"Although I'm not sure why, she's probably the first witch to safely pass the Awakening Day," Nightingale said excitedly before leaving. After being with Roland for a long time, she also began to use the word "Awakening" to describe the witch's transformation. "I will bring the sisters from the Helping Association. I hope you can accept them when the time comes, just like you accepted Anna."
Roland couldn't wish for more. One Anna was enough to overcome the hot forging process, allowing the town to see the dawn of the industrial age. What would a group of witches mean? Of course, considering safety issues, he still tried to persuade her to stay, hoping she would go to the Impassable Mountain Range after the Months of Demons ended.
But Nightingale was obviously impatient. "This winter, many people will face this difficult hurdle. If we can tell them the news earlier, maybe fewer people will leave us. Don't worry, ordinary demonic beasts can't detect my whereabouts."
"What about your Awakening Day? When is it?" Roland asked finally.
Nightingale mounted her horse. "Around the end of winter and the beginning of spring," she waved her hand, leaving the prince with a back view. "Don't worry about me. In recent years, that kind of pain has become less and less."
This answer made Roland thoughtful.
He had also been thinking about the reason why Anna could pass the Awakening Day so smoothly. After all, Anna said afterward that she didn't feel any pain at all, which completely subverted Nightingale's concept—the saying that "the witch's power comes from the devil, and they are evil and impure" arose because of this. The miserable state of blood evaporating and skin scorching at death became the irrefutable ironclad proof of the power of depravity.
However, Roland never thought about this aspect from the beginning.
He searched through the memories of the Fourth Prince and couldn't find any proof that gods or devils existed in this world. Since power is not a gift from God, it should not be regarded as a standard for distinguishing good from evil. In fact, even in those worlds where the gods frequently interfered with the mortal world, believers chose their camp first before being granted divine power, not the other way around.
According to Nightingale's description, witches are aggregations of magic power. Could it be that the container itself is damaged because the magic power has nowhere to be released? Roland thought this was highly likely. Witches are often hostile and suppressed by most people, so they will inevitably choose to hide their abilities, pretend to be normal people, and live cautiously. This means that they rarely have the opportunity to use their magic power before adulthood.
Of course, Roland wouldn't think that his castle was a fengshuibaodi. He asked Anna and learned that she had also experienced unbearable pain before this. If there was anything different this year, it was that she had been using this power almost every day since she came to the castle.
And Nightingale's last answer vaguely confirmed his conjecture—the invisibility ability does not attract attention even if it is used frequently, and she was forced to train this ability before, so she now uses it even more unscrupulously, so the backlash of the Awakening Day has little impact on her.
Roland immediately intensified Nana Wawa's training after returning to the castle. If there were no casualties on the defense line, she had to treat various small animals. If he could confirm this conjecture through Nana Wawa, the significance for witches would be earth-shattering. The devil's curse would become a gift from God. As long as he could ensure that his territory was open to witches, witches would gather here continuously.
In any case, after this disturbance, everything returned to normal.
Roland began to speed up the production of Steam Engine No. 2, while also allowing Anna to familiarize herself with her new abilities.
A shed was set up in the backyard of the castle again, but this time it was to shelter from the wind and snow. As an experimental base, he felt it was safer to build it on his own territory for the time being.
According to Nightingale, after witches reach adulthood, their abilities will stabilize and may produce new branch abilities. He has not yet seen Anna show any new abilities, but the use of flame is completely different from before.
No, whether it can be called flame is still a question... Roland thought. If the previous flame was still within the scope of common sense, the current emerald ghost flame could not be explained by common sense.
He named it "Heart Fire."
Because it can exist independently from Anna, and at the same time change shape under Anna's will.
Influence changes shape. Just like what she's doing now—
A small flame stood on the iron plate two meters away from her, swaying slightly back and forth, as if it was greeting her. But Roland knew that Anna was controlling it. Usually, it can maintain a temperature close to body temperature. Only when Anna wants to raise the temperature will it instantly raise the temperature to a higher point, and the color will also change from emerald green to dark green. Similarly, it can also change from a flame to a large cluster of flames, and it can also move slowly at a slow speed.
Unfortunately, it can't stay too far away from Anna. After repeated tests, Heart Fire will disappear as long as it is more than five meters away.
Another feature of Heart Fire is that Anna can summon multiple flames—but she can only barely operate two flames at the same time now.
The border has been calm recently. Demonic beasts still appear outside the city walls one after another, but there are no mixed species. It is difficult for ordinary demonic beasts to break through the defense line. As Roland said, the stronger are stronger and the faster are faster, but they are still just beasts. A large section of the wall was guided to the middle section, so that the militia team with only a hundred people could cope with it.
So, in addition to routine patrols every day, Roland had plenty of time to spend on construction.
He has already designated a piece of land south of the castle as a residence for witches after they arrive. As the investor of this project, he appointed Karl as the person in charge to build a batch of two-story brick houses here. At the same time, he had to consider the issues of beautiful and reasonable layout, convenient access, and quick drainage, and strive to build it into a model community.
He also considered whether to disperse the witches to the new and old urban areas and live with the townspeople, but he gave up this idea after thinking about it. Although doing so would help accelerate the understanding of witches by the people, once a problem occurs before the misunderstanding is completely resolved, the consequences may not be able to be compensated. After all, witches only have a certain influence in the militia team now.
Moreover, Roland could not guarantee that the witches brought by Nightingale were all innocent and harmless—most of them had suffered the pain and suffering of the world, and it was probably no longer possible to generalize them with simplicity. Witches like Anna and Nana Wawa would only be a very small part of them.
Therefore, centralized residence also facilitates centralized management. Relevant regulations and rules must be formulated before they arrive. In this regard, Roland has no experience to refer to. After all, he is neither a relevant personnel of the National Security Bureau's superpower office nor the creator of the Avengers Alliance. Who would know how to manage a group of people with superpowers! He had to temporarily set up a basic system according to the personnel management methods of general enterprises, and then slowly cross the river by feeling the stones.
Roland certainly knew that this plan was full of loopholes, but as a pioneer, who else could do it if he didn't? Hiding in this border town with his tail between his legs, perhaps he could barely touch the threshold of industrialization in a few decades, but he was not a cultivator, so how many decades could he have?
If you want to lead the advancement of the times and stand at the forefront of reform, you must have a spirit of adventure.
Just as he was recording these ideas on parchment, Barov opened the door and walked in.
He shook off the snowflakes on his body, saluted the prince and said, "Your Highness, the envoy from Longsong Stronghold has arrived."