The fire rose up from her feet but quickly dispersed.
That had been her twenty-third attempt.
And she had failed again.
On Anna’s forehead, beads of sweat constantly appeared, but she used the back of her hand to wipe them away, and the crackling sound of rising flames went out.
Without stopping to rest, the end of one exercise was immediately followed by the start of the next. The witch’s uniform lay at her side, neatly folded. If Anna had not insisted on doing so, her new uniform would have already been burned to ashes.
Fortunately, given Roland’s identity as the Fourth Prince, getting a few spare robes for her to practice in was not difficult. He had his maid Tyre deliver a whole bucket of robes, gathered by the maids for Anna to use.
The twenty-fourth attempt had finally been successful. The flame no longer came from her feet. Instead, it appeared in her hands. She gingerly moved her arm to try and have the flame go to her fingertips, but the flame suddenly shook twice and engulfed her arm, setting her sleeve on fire, spreading from the sleeve to engulf the whole robe.
Anna dispelled the flames, but her robe was already completely burnt and unusable, so she turned to the bucket and got a new one.
This wasn’t the first time this had happened, but whenever it did Roland would look away. He would stare off into the distance, even if Anna herself didn’t care.
In fact, if it weren’t for Roland’s strong objections, she would probably have taken off all of her clothes and practiced in the nude, in broad daylight! But even if Roland would look at her, he wouldn’t be able to work well with a naked girl, especially when that girl burst into flames and her body gave off an entirely different kind of energy.
Roland shook his head, removing such impure thoughts from his mind. For the moment, it seemed very difficult to master the use of magic. Roland had instructed Anna to try to control the fire to such a degree that she could release flames from her palm or her fingers without destroying her own clothes. However, he also wanted the flames to be hot enough that they could melt the pig iron ingots that were in the yard.
After Anna’s thirtieth attempt had failed but before she could begin the next one, Roland stopped her and told her to take a break.
Anna looked startled, but she gave no other response.
Roland had to walk over and even pull Anna by her hand, leading her to a chair and forcing her to sit down.
"You are tired; when you are tired you need to rest. Do not be too impatient, we still have some time." He helped her wipe the sweat from her forehead and said, "Let us have some early afternoon tea."
Roland knew that the noble of the Kingdom of Graycastle were not in the habit of drinking afternoon tea. Since this world’s economy was underdeveloped, the vast majority of people would not have the opportunity to taste such delicious food. The people in this world were not familiar with the idea of eating three meals a day, not to mention a fourth one. As for the sons of nobles, they generally gathered together in the afternoon at bars or casinos.
If Roland wanted to introduce the custom, he had to prepare the food and drink himself, for the maid and the cook were not familiar with it. Since prepared some light refreshments and they didn’t have any tea, he was forced to use ale as a substitute, but it would be important to get some tea in the future.
So, in a wooden cottage in the castle backyard, the first afternoon tea party of Graycastle was held.
Anna looked at the dishes of exquisite snacks, not believing her eyes. How could food look so beautiful?
Although she did not know the name of the cake she ate, it was a pure white, and the bright red collection of fruit could make a person’s mouth water.. The edges of the pastries were decorated with exquisite patterns. This experience exposed her to things she had never seen before, forcing her to change her view of the world once again.
Roland proudly observed Anna’s expressions; she looked stunned, but also slightly frightened. Although the strawberries on the cream cake were marinated in sugar and didn’t even taste fresh, Anna ate the whole thing.
Roland found that watching the witch’s face while she ate was more satisfying than eating himself. Roland observed Anna, who was carefully placing the cake into her mouth, her blue eyes twinkling and her hair gently swaying in the wind. Seeing all this, his heart suddenly beat faster and he thought to himself, why would anyone eat food which is not only delicious, but also beautiful!
Well, these strong feelings were also very important.
Watching Anna while she practiced and having afternoon tea with her became Roland’s daily routine. He had not shown any interest in government affairs. Barov helped him to take care of any issues so that everything was in order.
Three days later, Barov delivered the information on the Border Town’s industries that Roland had asked for to his office. This was an unbelievable moment; the former Fourth Prince had never actually had the patience to see such a large pile of complicated reports.
In fact, even now he still didn’t have it. Roland needed only to read two lines of text before he began to feel dizzy, and he told Barov, "You’ll read it to me."
He spent an hour listening to Barov read the reports before he found a mistake. "Why did the Border Town have no trade revenue or annual taxes in the winter?"
Since the winters were so cold, the lack of agriculture revenue was reasonable, but how could it be absolute zero? Did the local people hibernate?
Barov coughed, "Your Highness, have you forgotten? During the winter months, the ‘Months of the Demons’ takes place. Since the town cannot guard its borders, all of the residents must evacuate to Longsong Stronghold. But rest assured, your safety is certainly our main priority."
"Months of the Demons?" Roland seemed to recall having heard that phrase before. He personally didn’t believe the tales of ghosts and the legends of wicked witches, and he privately considered it to be part of this uncivilized world’s nonsense and superstition. But now it seemed that the monsters were not myths, since witches did actually exist. Then, what about other famous legends, like ghosts?
When he was receiving his education, his history tutor had told him the story of the "Month of the Demons." Every winter, after the first snow fell and the sun had disappeared behind the mountains, an intense darkness would descend upon the world. At that time, the gates of hell would open and release demons into the world.
The evil spirits would corrupt living creatures and turn them into the slaves of the devil. Some of these animals would change into powerful demonic beasts that would attack humans. Most witches were born during this season and would be much stronger because of it.
"Have you seen the Gates of Hell?" Roland asked.
"Your Highness, how could we ordinary people see them?" Barov shook his head repeatedly. "Don’t say such things. The mountains they come from cannot be conquered. Even being close to the mountains means you’ll be affected by the foul miasma. First you get a mild headache, and then you can lose your mind in the most severe cases. Unless..."
"Unless what?"
"Unless the person who goes to the Gates of Hell is a witch. Only a witch would be able to travel to the Gates of Hell because they have fallen from grace and become the devil’s minions. Naturally, they don’t need to fear the evil forces," Barov said, glancing in the direction of the backyard.
"Have you ever seen one of these demonic monsters?" Roland said, knocking on the table to recapture the attention of the Assistant Minister.
"Well, I personally haven’t see them. Like you, this is my first time I have ever been to the kingdom’s borders. In the capital, only a few people there have encountered real demons."
If he needed to evacuate once a year, how would Roland be able to develop the Border Town? He initially thought that the Border Town was a barren land, but that it could be developed; that now seemed to be a pipe dream.
"Since we can hold of the demonic beasts at Longsong Stronghold, and since they aren’t invincible and they can be killed, then why can’t we defend this Border Town as well?"
"Longsong Stronghold has a very high wall. Also, Duke Ryan’s elite troops are stationed there. It is nothing like this Border Town. This small town cannot be compared to it," Barov explained. "First, the Border Town was established to provide an early warning to the stronghold. Therefore, the town was set between the North Slop Mountain and the Redwater River."
It seemed that the Border Town only existed to slow down the demons. It was the only path they could take to reach Longsong Stronghold. Roland laughed at his bad luck.
