Release that Witch

”Good morning, Miss Soraya!”

As Soraya stepped into the bicycle factory, Jilly came up and said, ”You’re so early.”

This made Soraya feel a bit embarrassed because she had stayed up late last night playing Fight the Landlord with Mystery Moon and Lily which made her wake up half an hour later than usual. When Wendy was not around, everyone became slightly lazy, of course... except for Anna and Agatha. Whether it was work or learning, they had always set a great example for the other sisters, especially Agatha. She always arrived early and stayed late.

Soraya asked Jilly, ”Is the material ready?”

”Yes, please follow me,” Jilly replied

As a student in the first graduating class, Jilly became Soraya’s assistant after graduation. Her main job was to inform Soraya of her daily schedule. A year ago, Soraya would have never believed that ordinary people and witches could work together in harmony.

”Are those the finished bicycles?” Soraya asked since she suddenly noticed that the factory was a bit different today. The steam machine was not in operation and everyone stood around and stared at a row of brand-new vehicles.

”Yes, these are the first batch of products,” Jilly said with a smile. ”20 bicycles in total. It’s not easy to make, especially the chains and wheels. The rate of the finished products was less than 50%.” She finished.

”It’s not easy indeed,” Soraya thought. The factory was built last autumn, but since then, it had experienced all kinds of difficulties, such as the equipment not being ready, a serious shortage of human resources and so on… It was clearly less prioritized when compared to the steam assembly plant and chemical plant next door. Both of the neighboring plants operated in three shifts and people were working at all times. However, the bicycle factory only operated during the daytime. Once, even Jilly complained that her friend, who had worked for the chemical plant, had a salary three times more than hers, but she had never seen a single bicycle made.

Now Jilly finally obtained a bicycle of her own.

As Soraya walked into her office, she saw that the ground had already been paved with a layer of white paper that was about 40 square meters. The white paper made the floor look as if there was snow on the ground.

”Sorry to disturb you, the part we need to process today is the inner tire,” Jilly explained to Soraya and then bowed.

”Okay,” the witch nodded and said, ”You may go on with your work.”

”Well, please call me if you need any help.” She laughed. ”I’m just around the door.”

Seeing Jilly leave excitedly, Soraya knew that she could not wait to ride the bicycle.

Soraya smiled and shook her head as she took off her shoes and stepped on the tiled paper floor.

Soraya usually painted the inner tires, outer tires and bicycle frames based on the demand of the bicycle factory. Soraya’s painting speed was faster than the factory’s production speed, so there were a lot of such things in stock. Given that magical powers grew every day, it was a waste not to use it, so Soraya came to the factory every three days to finish her painting tasks.

She recalled the color the inner tire should be painted and lifted her hand to summon the Magic Pen.

As a film material that contained gas, it must be light, soft and ductile enough and could be fused at high temperatures. From past experiences, she chose shaving coating method for it. After hundreds of tests, she found that sky coating was too flexible and ripple coating too thermal-resistant. When she was collecting raw materials, she noticed the wood shavings left by the carpenters and finally found the ideal painting materials.

Unlike Lucia, she was unable to break down materials into elementary substances and then mix them at any proportion. She had to understand the materials’ characteristics by painting it out and she was unable to remember thousands of materials and their properties. Therefore, the simplest way for her to remember was to make a color card. She would choose the appropriate coating from the color card when needed.

Of course, as the paint used for the inner and outer tires were common, Soraya was able to draw without referring to the color card.

The Magic Pen gradually widened to six meters as Soraya was standing at the center of the brush. Actually, the magic pen could expand at most to ten meters, but in that condition it could easily get out of control. So, she would rather spend more time drawing with a smaller brush to ensure the quality.

...

Within two hours, the 40 square meters of paper was coated with a layer of wood shavings. Of course, the paint was not real wood shavings. It was just like her steel painting was not real steel, but a material that was breakable like glass. A thing could never be extremely hard and extremely ductile at the same time.

Inside the wood shavings, Soraya engraved her name as a signature. This is a tradition among artists. Initially, Soraya signed at the lower right corner of the coating, but later, she found out that after the coating was cut, her name would only appear in one inner tube. So, she decided to sign everywhere. By doing so, no matter how the cutting was, people could always see ”Soraya’s work”. At first, Soraya panicked when His Highness noticed it. She thought she would be punished, but instead, his Highness praised her as a watermark inventor.

Although she did not understand the meaning of watermark, Soraya still felt happy for a few days after being praised by His Highness and decided to continue to sign her name on her work.

After the painting was completed, the next process was to burn the paper at one side of the coating to obtain the raw materials for the inner tire. It then would be sent to the cutting room to be cut into strips which would be welded into tires by hot iron. All these tasks were performed by dedicated workers, and Soraya just needed to prepare the raw materials for them.

The painting she made today almost consumed one third of her magic power and reminded her of the importance of training. Training would greatly upgrade her magical powers. In the past, this workload would make her exhausted, but now after she said goodbye to Jill, she still had energy and power to go to the North Slope Mine alone.

After entering the mountain, there was a sentry stationed almost every 100 meters as well as a bunker and watchtower set up at the entrance. Even the lord’s castle was not so tightly guarded.

As Soraya entered the yard, the soldiers saluted her. She saw Anna thoroughly focused on cutting some strange parts as usual. At this sight, Soraya suddenly felt a bit ashamed of herself and at the same time felt some admiration for Anna who was so talented and still so hardworking. Anna was also the favorite witch of His Highness.

”Hey, Sister Soraya, you’re here.” Lucia announced and smiled as she heard Soraya’s footsteps.

Anna also put down the parts in her hand and waved at her. ”Please, here are some copper wires to be painted,” Anna requested.

”No problem.” Soraya smiled and walked towards them.