The Release That Witch
Chapters 16's

The fire in the fireplace was in perfect bloom, spreading a chill through the doors and windows. On top of a large fireplace hung a long-horned deer skull. In the sparkle of the fire, the shadow of the horn shadow on the back wall looked like a huge claw and skull tooth companions.

Across from Roland stood a long, dark-red wooden table filled with parchments and books. Most documents only require his signature to carry out the order. Normally, Roland would only be here to handle official work, but since he had turned the castle room into a three-room office, he was more and more happy to work here.

Through the window at the end of the floor he could see the city unfolding under his gaze, and on the horizon there were endless mountains. The mountains were almost impassable, they separated the Kingdom of Graycastle and the wild in two. The northern mountain slope was just a branching mountain pass.

At the foot of the window he could see the wood-fenced garden, which Anna had trained for. To provide a comfortable place for afternoon tea, the brick pool was transformed into a long table. If the weather is good he can come down and lie down under the sun, or maybe even take a nap on a specially made rocking chair.

Although small, it is also fun to have a private garden. In his previous life, if you wanted to sit on the stone steps of a real castle, it was almost impossible. Just to look around, you have to spend money to buy tickets. But now, he not only had his own castle, but an entire city as well.

"Your Majesty, recently we spent a lot of money from your treasury to recruit merchants and artisans. If this continues, I'm afraid our treasury won't last until the spring of next year." Barov handed the parchment with the latest report on the financial situation to Roland.

Originally, Border Town had a very simple income and expenditure chart. Their source of income came from ore mining and trading with precious stones. This revenue line was in the hands of Longsong Fortress. The proceeds from the North Slope Mine were directly exchanged for wheat or bread, without taxes, and the exchange of resources was led by the stronghold. Described in simpler terms, the North Slope Mine was a common stock item of the Longsong Fortress nobles. The nobles stationed in the border town could be seen as guardians of the shareholders, their territory was mostly to the east of the fortress. They come here only for a limited time, and there will be different people every year.

In fact, Border Town had less than 30 years of history. Compared to the nearly two hundred year old Longsong Stronghold, it was only a newborn baby. Duke Ryan only intends to set up an outpost here to get an early warning if the invasion of evil monsters begins. He had never expected that the pioneers who found the mine rich in mineral resources on the North Mountain Slope would settle there, practically making a small town, named Border Town.

In order to prevent theft, the Duke did not receive the manpower sent by the other nobles. Instead, he hired local residents. Even criminals became miners, and food was terrorized based on the ore yield each house provided.

The fort will only provide food and assigned employers throughout the year. The camp only paid a sum of money, it was not based on mining results. Of the two thousand residents of Border Town, more than half worked in mining services.

Other lines are other municipal industries - blacksmith shops, taverns, textile shops, and so on. Of them, Border Town usually received a small amount of income throughout the year, but it was quite difficult to have any money left in the end. The appointed ruler did not rule the Border Town seriously, as Roland was sent there from Graycastle. Instead, he had decided to stay in the fortress, without returning to Border Town.

As a result, when Roland wanted to hire someone to repair the wall, he could only pay for it from his own pocket. If it was the fourth prince from before, he would definitely never do so. But the current Roland, as long as he gained a firm foothold in this Border Town, even if he had to exhaust all of his properties, it would still be worth it. After all, after the ore trade was no longer settled with food, the city's income remained nothing more than a drizzle.

The only question was if Longsong Fortress was willing to give up their trade monopoly with Border Town - this would be akin to entering a tiger's den to snatch food, he said, but inventory data provided by Barov shows that mining efficiency is low and ore transport is inefficient and inconvenient. In fact, the annual yield value of ore mining was over 1000 gold royals, but for the entire fortress it was only a drop of water in a bucket. The only ones who benefit from this are the partners of the investor aristocracy.

While Roland was focused on thinking about the list of items, Barov was watching him attentively.

In these three months, or rather, in the past month, some inexplicable changes had occurred to the fourth prince. Perhaps the outsider was still hesitating, but he was by the prince's side every day, so this kind of change could at least hold him back for a short time in the darkness.

During his time in Graycastle, Fourth Prince Roland Wimbledon was only known for his poor reputation. He will insist in his own way, behave immorally, without an aristocratic attitude. In short, no big mistakes are made, only small mistakes are perpetual. Compared to his two brothers, his position was very different.

When His Majesty sent him to Border Town, he was filled with disappointment. If His Majesty does not promise the position of official finance minister after the usurpation of the throne, he will stop and leave long ago.

Originally, in his first two months in Border Town, the fourth prince had always displayed extremely childish behavior. He managed to offend the local nobility repeatedly. Fortunately, the city itself had a very small scale, so even though all the administrative positions were vacated and he had to fill those positions with a dozen civilians, they were still able to proceed. But from now on, it will be something different.

“When did the change happen?” he thought, "Maybe ... after he saved the witch the change appeared."

Barov does not doubt that the devil has the power to enter the body, or that the prince can be manipulated by hidden witches. But this was very unlikely, if demons and witches had the ability to control someone, why would they choose the fourth prince? Wouldn't it be better to directly control His Majesty or the Pope? Another thing that dispelled his doubts was that he had witnessed the prince holding the 'God Punishment Lock'.

This is the Church's trump card for dealing with witches. Any demon power would collapse in front of the 'God Punishment Key', but Roland could withstand it head-on. In other words, if he was not the fourth prince, even when God did not have power over him, there was no need to fear the demon lord, so was it necessary to expose him? Keeping your own life is the most important thing.

The Prince's style still continues in its own way, behaving immorally, but the feeling Barov gets is that the two styles are not the same. No, Barov thought, it should be the opposite. The biggest difference is the purpose. He realized what Roland was planning to do, in order to achieve his goal, he had to use some methods that were elusive to ordinary people, such as when he tried to persuade him to save the witch. Perhaps the planning was not very thoughtful, but the prince had actually planned ahead of time, and believed in the outcome firmly without a doubt.

It is this ability that causes anyone to feel the most confused. The title of king might be possible for any Roland brothers and sisters, but certainly not for the fourth prince himself. This was very obvious, because how could he develop a place as small as that Border Town? Even the gods can't do it! In the end, Roland came up with a crazy plan, a crazy plan to create a defensive line outside of Border Town, so that they could develop better than Gold Harvest City. Is he really sure that this project will work?If he was just a madman, that would be bad enough. But to Roland, who was vigorously building the city wall, it did not seem so. He actually planned to defend this place, with just the help of 'cement' of alchemy products, to build a wall, which, according to common sense, was almost impossible. Within the Barov family was also an alchemist, but he had never heard of an alchemy workshop refining such a thing. The solution to the wall's construction was based on something no one had seen before, in the end, was he just confident, or just reckless behavior?

"How far did Roland's plan go, and in the end how much do I know about Roland's scheme?"

Barov found himself interested in the days to come.