Chapter 666: The Good and Bad News
Translator: TransN Editor: Meh
A week later, Roland returned to the Border Area from Longsong Stronghold.
As soon as he entered the castle, he received two pieces of good news. The first was brought by Barov. “Your Majesty, the astrologers of the old king’s city arrived in Neverwinter three days ago. A total of 312 people came including artisans, apprentices, and their families. I’ve arranged nine astrologers to stay in the Foreign Affairs Building, while the others have been temporarily arranged to stay at the reception area.
“This group of people is finally here,” Roland thought for a moment, and then commanded. “Let’s hold a welcome party in the square this evening. I want the subjects of Neverwinter to know that there’s now another school in the town.”
As with alchemy, astrology had a high reputation among the general population. Usually, only the king’s city would possess both schools of thought. Now that the Astrology Association was approaching the Western Region, Neverwinter would become more accepted as the new king’s city.
However, Roland did not need this school of astrology divination. Instead, he really attached more importance to the astrologer’s computing power. For this era, they were absolutely regarded as the forefront of the mathematicians. Both analyzing the calendars and estimating the orbit of the stars needed a lot of calculations. If they had relevant knowledge of middle and advanced mathematics, they could undoubtedly be better on the previous foundation.
He intended to set up a School of Mathematics to allow these people to devote most of their time to calculating, apart from the occasional observation of the Star of Extinction—in this era where there was no computer, many scholars working together to complete some complex operations was the most efficient choice. Whether it was for laying of railways in the future, constructing large ships, installing Longsong Cannon in the mountains or writing shooting manuals, these all required their help.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Barov nodded, and then asked, “I don’t know if your trip to Longsong…”
“I encountered a lot of problems.” Roland did not need to conceal anything in front of Barov, the City Hall Director. “The secondary City Hall of Longsong Stronghold has already started to show signs of dereliction of duty and corruption. Scroll has found many fake accounts, and two corrupt men were even arrested from the batch of officials from the Border Area.”
At this sentence, Barov could not help but swallow his spittle. “Are they my disciples?”
Roland was amused by the cautious look on Barov’s face. He shook his head reluctantly. “Even if they’re your disciples, I wouldn’t put the blame on you, so you can rest assured.”
“Your Majesty is wise,” Barov said hurriedly, “So are they the original people from the town?”
“Well, they were the second batch of graduates. After passing the assessment, they entered City Hall and then they were transferred to the Longsong Area with the entire team.” Roland sighed. “As of today, it has only been less than a year.”
At the moment, City Hall had cultivated a group of semi-leaders. One group came from the Longsong area, which followed the exact model of Border Town. Together with the locals Honeysuckle Petrov, Elk Rene and some minor nobility, they were a well-equipped group, just slightly smaller in numbers.
The other half was a small batch that went to Fallen Dragon Ridge. In addition to assisting Countess Spear to maintain the political situation, their secondary task was to establish a framework for the secondary City Hall.
There were also scholars from the Northern Region that came back with Edith Kant to learn about the management of City Hall. Together with these scholars, Roland could probably make up the other half in a short period of time.
He had already allocated these people to the Southernmost Region.
It was undoubtedly the local officials who could carry out Roland’s will who were the rarest of talents.
Without them as the foundation, even if Roland conquered the entire Kingdom of Graycastle, he would not be able to centralize the kingdom’s resources quickly—local governments were an important part of the centralization of authority. He could use the witches to promote science and technology, but he could not create a bunch of grass-roots officials from thin air.
The sub-aristocrats would never obey his orders willingly. In the eyes of the feudalists, the only important thing was the small acreage that they occupied.
Therefore, every person who had administrative experience was a rare treasure. After losing a few of them, Roland naturally felt depressed. Despite the inevitable corruption of the organization, he thought that they could persevere for more than a decade. He really did not expect to encounter such a problem in less than a year. The fact that the two corrupt people were born civilians also proved in some ways that once they had the power, they might be more likely to lose their way than the noble.
“Those who violate the law…”
“All have been dealt with severely.” Roland conceded. “To set an example for everyone else.”
This should help to maintain everything for a few years—Nightingale and Scroll’s ability temporarily preserved the integrity of the organization. But he also knew that the situation should be resolved in an alternative method, otherwise, the witches could easily be at risk again. And this time the enemy would come from the internal departments.
“Summon every one of City Hall to gather in the castle hall tomorrow. I’ll personally give them a briefing to talk about the importance of discipline and responsibility.”
Of course, there were also rewards and punishments—they should know how to choose when faced with the pressures and prospects of the Battle of Divine Will.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Barov bowed.
Looking at the old director’s back as he left, Roland was satisfied and had a sip of his tea.
He knew the reason for Barov’s loyalty—Barov enjoyed the satisfaction that the power brought whilst chasing power, and also made good use of his power at the same time. Barov was undoubtedly a very suitable person for the new regime. Perhaps in the future of City Hall, only he could contend with Edith.
The second good news came from Wendy.
“Evelyn’s ability has been evolved?” Roland was a little surprised when he heard the news.
As far as he could remember, Evelyn’s magic indicators were very balanced and did not seem prominent. He was quite surprised that she actually became the first witch on Sleeping Island to evolve.
“Yes… Agatha has confirmed this, but…” Wendy bitterly smiled. “The evolved ability is so weird that I don’t know how to describe it.”
“Take her to my office,” he said excitedly.
…
Evelyn went to the third floor of the castle, together with several glass bottles.
Roland noticed that each bottle was filled with different colors of liquid.
“Her magic power looks like a gray ball…” Nightingale whispered in his ear, “but the shape isn’t fixed.”
“What’s the total amount of magic power?”
“The level of improvement is good. At the moment, she’s between Soraya and Maggie.”
Roland nodded and looked at Evelyn. “What’s inside the bottles?”
“The drinks that I’ve made with my ability in these days.” She seemed a bit dejected. “They taste different, and I absolutely lose control of the last result… The only thing in common is that they all can be drunk.”
“Drinks?”
Roland’s curiosity grew immense.
He found a few cups and poured himself a glass from each bottle.
When he first tasted the light blue drink, it was indescribably delicious, like a fruit juice mix, but also with a hint of refreshing coldness.
Just drinkable? This is way too good a drink!
