Release that Witch

...

Two days later, Kyle Sichi bade farewell to Roland.

”Don’t you want to spend a couple more days in King’s City?” Roland jokingly asked, ”This is the center of Graycastle, the best place to have fun within the Kingdom. If you miss it now, it may not be here next time.”

”I’m not you; I don’t want to have an unfinished romance here.” Kyle rolled his eyes and said, ”There’s still a lot of work to do in the laboratory and the plant. It’s best for me to return to the City of Neverwinter if you want the production line of gunpowder to run smoothly.”

His reply made Roland depressed. After the situation settled down, the atmosphere in the city was a little strange: First, many women claimed to be his lovers, followed then by their illegitimate children. Of course, he knew these were all rumors. Nevertheless, he could not stop the rumors from confounding the truth. Especially, when his history was so notorious. No matter how bizarre the stories were, they would still sound convincing to some... He could only get Theo to come forward and compel the Rats to eradicate the rumors.

”Alright.” He was speechless for a while before he nodded and said, ”I’ll arrange a paddle steamer to send you back to the Western Region. Thank you for your hard work over the past few days.”

”As long as you know it,” Kyle said while shaking his beard. He left after paying respect by covering his chest with one hand.

”This guy’s really ungrateful.” Roland twitched his lips but didn’t take it personally. He even started happily singing.

”You seem very happy surrounded by so many women,” said a cold voice behind him.

”Ahem...” He was almost choked by his own saliva. ”What’re you talking about?! They were just trying to get some money out of me by saying that. I’m sure you know that.”

”How, how would I know?” Nightingale said in a panic.

”Oh? You really don’t know?” Roland retorted. ”I thought you’ve investigated everyone here.”

”... Okay,” Nightingale revealed herself. She turned around and sat on the table. Staring down at him, she said, ”I have indeed gone on an investigation. It was, however, because I was worried about your safety and afraid you’ll let dangerous people into the palace. Do you understand?”

”I understand,” he said, trying not to laugh. But, the next words Nightingale said froze the smile on his face.

”Most of their statements were false. What about Miss Kingfisher and Mrs. Rother? They were not lying!”

”Damn Yorko, I didn’t expect her to actually keep it in mind after the last cover-up.” Roland silently cursed the ”old friend” a million times. While staring seriously into her eyes, he said, ”I didn’t lie to you... The Prince Roland whom they were talking about wasn’t me. You should be able to tell that I’m not lying.”

Nightingale was feeling slightly uncomfortable being stared at and averted her eyes. ”So, it’s a misunderstanding? They thought it was you, but you weren’t there? ”

”Of course not,” said Roland righteously. ”In fact, I haven’t seen them before!”

She looked slightly calmer and said, ”So, you’re just going to let the ladies who claim to have slept with you continue to make a scene? Theo said you didn’t order them to shut up.”

”Of course, it’s exactly what they want—to be paid to shut up. It’s too much to be violent, and it’ll just increase the suspicion of the people.” Roland was still unable to kill for this reason. ”It’ll be easier distracting people with bigger news than forcing those women to stop.”

”Bigger... news?” Nightingale curiously asked.

”Yes, something they’ll be discussing for weeks.” He said smiling. ”For example, King’s City is to be renamed the City of Dawn; the City of Neverwinter in the Western Region is to be the new capital of Graycastle, etc. The rumors will subside after I leave.”

Of course, there was more news, such as that the king is not having a coronation, as well as the competitive plan for skilled craftsmen recruitment... Cumulatively, this news should be able to fill up the public’s leisure time. Currently, the Rats were slowly spreading fragments of the news to the crowd. This followed the posting of the announcement of the City Hall in order to achieve the best publicity effect. It was expected these would be the topics of discussions in pubs for a long time.

”So, you weren’t happily smiling because of them just now?”

”Not at all!” Roland patted the list of names on the table and said, ”I was happy because of this.” The chemical presentation led by Kyle was a huge success. The effect was better than he thought—there were more than 320 people from the association who were willing to move forward to the Western Region, including alchemists, students, and the apprentices. The final number was confirmed at around 500, including the family members. ”That’s the sum of employees in the five chemical laboratories and two plants in the Border Area. Now the number is doubled in a blink of an eye and most of them are the proficients who could be assigned to work after some slight training. It’s the biggest accomplishment after we conquered King’s City.” He paused and said, ”It’s not, however, what I’m happiest about.”

”What’s the thing you’re happiest about?” Nightingale asked curiously.

”Take a look at this.” He spread the list, pointing out the names at the bottom.

”Retnin... Rayleigh... Archer, aren’t they the Alchemist Workshop Chiefs?”

”That’s right, Kyle didn’t refuse them,” Roland softly said. ”He said he had already taken back what belonged to him.” Roland thought Kyle would have a serious initial retaliation after learning about the argument between the Chief Alchemist and the Alchemist Workshop of King’s City; without even meaning to continue the hatred, Kyle had received the consensus he deserved and accepted the three of them on behalf of the City of Neverwinter. It warmed Roland’s heart to see there was still a group of people taking the right path in a tough time; the kingdom would definitely be continuously improving by having them in the realm.

Right then, a rhythmic knocking sound came from outside the window.

Nightingale flashed out of the window and came back to the table in the blink of an eye with the messenger in her arms. ”A secret letter is here.”

”You scared it.” Roland shook his head. He didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry while looking at the stunned gray falcon on the table. He quickly glanced through the content of the letter lifted and said, ”Ah... it was sent by Scroll. I think we’ll have to leave as soon as possible.”

”Is there anything wrong in City of Neverwinter?” Nightingale frowned.

”No...” he twitched his lips and said, ”Lotus and Honey are coming back soon.”

”The two little brats...” Somehow Nightingale sounded unhappy. ”Do we really need to leave in such a rush? After all, there are only two of them. Lightning and Maggie can always go pick them up. They’re much faster than the hydrogen balloon. They’ll reach King’s City within a day.”

”We could definitely do that if it were just the two of them,” Roland excitedly said. ”However, the letter says Tilly’s sending along new witches.”