Roland let the little girl first break down the ore into its raw materials before Anna then mixed and melted them together according to the different mass ratios. Afterward they would then test the performance of these pieces — by stretching and squeezing it under the heat of Anna’s black flame. Through observing the actual time taken and amount of magic power it took, Anna could distinguish between its strength and toughness.
The first material to add had obviously been carbon.
Even though Roland knew that the essence of steel was a type of iron and carbon alloy: with too much carbon it would became pig iron, and without any carbon it was pure iron, when the carbon content was within a certain range would turn into steel, etc. However, even with just a small fluctuation it could already greatly change the metal’s properties, so the first thing they needed to measure would be the size of that range.
Within the history records he had seen, before 1500 they had only used mixtures made out of pure iron and carbon for smelting, but after 1500 they began adding new elements on top of a steel foundation. Roland thoroughly understood that every additional element in the sequence could potentially increase the results many times over, which would turn into a very long process. Therefore, he only allowed Anna to advance her exploration if she had finished all the important manufacturing tasks.
He encouraged the two witches with a few words then sat to the side, quietly enjoying the rear view of the busy Anna.
After entering autumn, the sun was still shining brightly, but it was already no longer as cruelly hot as during the last month of summer. Instead, his body now felt nice and warm, and a long lost feeling of calmness spread throughout his heart.
He didn’t know how much time had passed, but the yard gradually quieted down. He felt a soft hand being placed on his forehead, when he narrowly opened his eyes. He saw that Lucia had already disappeared and that Anna was sitting in front of him, “You have something you want to say to me?”
“…”
“It was your eyes which told me,” she said while leaning forward, letting her hair fall down naturally, resembling strands of translucent gold silk.
Roland hesitated, but then shook his head and helplessly replied, “I’m just a little confused.” He told her about his population expansion plan before continuing, “Compared with my original intention of free choice, now in order to seize time, I have to use a combination of half luring and half forcing. Although I’m doing this to avoid Timothy pressing them into his army to die under the eroding effect of the pills. However, if I think seriously about this, my way of handling things isn’t that different from his… the only difference would be the purpose.”
“Can’t you explain your purpose to them?” She asked softly.
“But…”
“I know what you want to say,” Anna covered the Prince’s mouth. “You are worried that they won’t appreciate your act of kindness, furthermore you also can’t guarantee that your objective will forever stay so proper in the future — being misunderstood because you used the wrong method while trying to achieve a good goal, or using the right methods but committing an irrevocable mistake… In the end, you do not know if it is more important for you to use the correct method or to hold on to the right objective. Am I right?
“Be at ease,” Anna immediately answered her own question, not even giving him the chance to say anything. She put her hands on his cheeks, softly whispering into his ear, “I’m here… I’ll always make sure that you look good.”
Sleeping Island’s living environment became better by the day. The further Tilly rose into the air, the more she could see of the coming and going crowd and the bustling market.
This place was no longer the secluded place where three hundred witches had all been living in isolation. Through negotiations and agreements, some of the Fjord’s Islands like Crescent Moon Bay, Twin Dragon Island, Sunset Port and Shallow Water Town had all established trading routes with Sleeping Island. Even going so far, that some ordinary people from overcrowded island villages had decided to settle down on Sleeping Island.
Although they were currently living in the outer region of the island, far apart from the witches, Tilly believed that there would come a day where Sleeping Island would become one big city. The fusion was a slow-moving process, but it left one brimming with expectation to see the result. The best news however, was that no matter if the witches, were living on other islands or were already locals when they awakened, they would all become members of Sleeping Island. Which meant that Tilly and her migrants would be able to regularly obtain new supporters.
“Come down, the wind is rising,” Ashes shouted from below, “And be careful not to fall!”
