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Chapter 927: Air Defense Battle At The Border (Part I)

Translator: TransN Editor: TransN

Roland had added two short telephone lines connecting his office with the command center of the Neverwinter garrison and the Taquila survivors so that both stations could instantly contact him if the need arises. Therefore, the castle, the camp of the First Army, and the Third Border City received the news almost at the same time.

"This happened too soon." Pasha was a little doubtful. "Based on our experience, we should have had half a month or even a month before the demons would launch their second attack; especially for a city like Neverwinter since they can't arrive in one day."

"Why?" Roland asked.

"Because they need time to let the panic spread. By that time, no matter how the lord of the city tries to calm his subjects, it will be all for naught. The second attack would crush the people's confidence and snuff out any remaining hope. That's why they normally waited for some time before commenced the second attack." Pasha explained. "The demons seem a bit hasty this time."

"I see." Roland nodded. Pasha was right. In an ancient city, people were too busy working every day just to feed themselves every day. In such a disconnected society incomparable to the one where Roland came from, five days were only long enough for the news to spread among the Rats and the patrons of a few taverns.

Somehow, the old rumor seemed a bit more credible to Roland now. After all, the demons' strategy was so similar to the humans'. It was highly unlikely for them to act so human-like without a human guiding them.

"What are you going to do?" Alethea chimed in.

"What else can I do? Just kill them all!" Roland said decisively. Time seemed very limited. They had only managed to add the new aiming tool on the Mark I HMG recently, and the machine gun squad they hastily assembled only had one trial, with balloons as the targets. But since many witches, including Nightingale, Lightning, and Maggie, had returned, they could now take the initiative to attack.

Roland looked at Nightingale and the other witches. "Just follow the plan. Remember the most important thing is..."

"Safety. Lightning perfectly understands!" The little girl raised her hand.

"Maggie too, coo!"

"Don't worry. I'll take care of these two little ones," Nightingale said, smiling.

"Who's the little one?" Lightning protested, raising her chin.

"Of course it's you, coo."

"Why?"

"I'm bigger than the two of you combined after transforming! Coo!" Maggie spread her wings.

"That's not what I meant!"

The two hadn't even finished arguing before Nightingale picked them both, one girl in each arm, and went out of the meeting room.

"I'll leave the defense task of the city wall to the witches of the Sleeping Island," Roland said to Tilly.

Tilly answered without hesitation, "They'll do their best."

"Good. Then I shall stand by the phone and wait for your good news," Roland said and then commanded word by word, "Move! Now!"

Pasha did not speak until Roland was alone in the room. Her voice sounded serious. "Are you serious about this? The demons would change their mind once they spot so many witches, and they won't see Neverwinter as a city ruled by the common person but by witches. They would then have completely different tactics in store for us."

"I know. You've already warned me about that." Roland exhaled softly. The ancient witch had told him about her concern when they made the defense plan. In her opinion, if the demons thought Neverwinter was a Holy City under the dominion of the Union, they would undoubtedly strengthen their defenses and attack with increasing aggression in the coming battles. In other words, they would start to view Neverwinter as an even opponent. The demons only took the witches seriously and completely disregarded the common people.

"I thought... humans would prefer to avoid a war like this."

"They'll come sooner or later, right?" Roland arose and walked up to the French window, and looked off into the direction of the border. "Since that's the case, it's better to fight a battle we have prepared for instead of heading mindlessly to war. The First Army is made up of men who used to be common hunters, miners, and farmers, and the army was not exceptionally powerful in the beginning. Now that they have to face an enemy that is not in the least like the ones they faced before, every chance of confrontation would help them gain experience and prepare them for the Battle of Divine Will. The so-called elite soldiers are simply those who have survived several times on the edge of life and death."

"I must say that your resolve has moved me." Alethea whisked her tentacles. "You're better than most of the common people just from this point."

Roland shook his head and said, "Common people didn't earn the label of 'common people' because they're incompetent, but simply because of their large population. Therefore, their strength is often easily ignored. There're stories in the Dream World telling of tales where powerful entities, whether they be ancient gods or colossal dragons, underestimated the might of the humans, and ended up being slaughtered by mere 40 ordinary people."

"I have never heard of such a legend."

"But they're not entirely false. I dare say that as technology advance, we will only need 25 common people to do the same job." Roland shrugged. Then he turned around and said seriously, "Furthermore, we can mislead the demons by letting them believe that Neverwinter is a city ruled by the Union. They will conclude that the bizarre attacks they're about to suffer are from the witches abilities and ignore the most important point—Neverwinter is neither a city ruled by a common lord nor one under the Union's rule. It is is an industrialized city that has managed to merge the essence of both."

***************

Fish Ball widened his eyes, and stared unblinkingly at the grassland to the North, so as not to miss any sign of the enemies.

He had heard of the existence of the demons from His Majesty a year ago, but the first time he saw what they looked like was during the incident five days ago.

When he witnessed the scene of the enemies' bone spears piercing through his fellow soldiers' chests, Fish Ball felt the dread he had not felt for a long time flood back over him. No human beings could attack like that. Even the demonic beasts could not threaten the city wall with that huge distance between them and the wall. For the first time since he joined the army, he met an enemy whose range of attack was comparable to that of the flintlocks. However, he failed to strike back due to the limited angle range of his weapon, which made him a conspicuous target to the enemies if he had held his ground on the wall.

At that moment, Fish Ball wanted to run away.

But he stayed his ground. It was, at first, his trained reflexes kicking in that prevented him from fleeing, but then, a strong feeling of fury and detestation flooded over him. He was furious about the previous deaths of his companions and his powerlessness.

He used to be a wimp that was known for his cowardly nature to people in the old Border Town. People laughed at him wherever he went, and for a time, he nearly believed that he was a real coward. But that all changed the day Van'er had tricked him to join the then-new Militia with two eggs. In the first confrontation with the demonic beasts on the wall, he was so scared that he peed his pants, but ever since he returned from the wall that day, no one had laughed at him anymore.

Now, Van'er was already promoted to the head of Artillery Battalion, yet he was merely transferred from the Flintlock Squad to the Machine Gun Squad and became a squad captain. Fish Ball had neither gripe nor jealousy, for he knew that Van'er was much more capable than him. Van'er even had guts to speak in front of His Majesty, and that was something he would never dare do. But that did not mean that he did not want to be a better person.

Ever since he decided to serve His Majesty, he had witnessed things far beyond his imagination. He had traveled on a concrete ship that could make its way upstream without sails, and he had attacked the nobles' capital city. He had also helped defeat the arrogant Church of Hermes and claimed the desert of the south in Graycastle for his King.

He had already seen so many things. So why should he be afraid of the demons?

Suddenly the observer shouted, "Attention. Suspicious targets spotted at 10 o'clock!"

In the same instant, Fish Ball also noticed some indistinct black spots on the horizon.

He pulled off the rifle bolt of the Mark I and raised its muzzle towards the sky.

No one knew that he was still ashamed of what had happened five days ago.

Only the blood of the enemies could help him was this disgraceful memory away.

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Chapter 928: Air Defense Battle At The Border (Part II)

Translator: TransN Editor: TransN

"Targets confirmed. The demons are coming!"

"They're heading this way!"

"They're coming from two directions. Demons also spotted at 12 o'clock!"

The observers of the different squads took turns watching their targets through the telescope, giving warnings continuously. Fish Ball's eyes were glued to the second group of enemies that appeared in the shooting area he was assigned to.

The demons in his field of vision were tiny as the leaves flying in the wind, and only when the devilbeast flapped its wings could they tell the difference between them and regular birds. Having learned by heart the firing procedures, Fish Ball placed one of the demons in his aiming reticule and then adjusted the heading indicator of the aiming tool.

The new aiming tool on top of the gun looked very odd. It contained two concentric rings: One was equipped with a Devilbeast model that could spin; the other consisted of several paratactic tiny holes that could rotate with the model.

Fish Ball knew nothing about the principles behind this aiming tool, but he knew that since His Majesty had designed it, it would be as fabulous as any of the other ingenious things the King had made. He spent a whole night memorizing every step he needed to go through before firing the weapon. The first step, he remembered, was to move the heading indicator, the Devilbeast model, to where it was parallel with the target.

In a short amount of time, the enemy in the air as aligned with the tiny hole in the aiming ring.

Right after that, he glanced at the model and shouted to his partner beside him, "A quarter!"

That meant the area of the target to that of the model was four to one, indicating that the demon was in the shooting range of the Mark I HMG.

Lord Astrologer of the Dispersion Star, who assisted in training the squads, had hammered it into them that any distances judged by the naked eye were bound to result in inaccuracies; it could only serve as a rough estimate of the range to the enemy. To ensure maximum effectiveness of the Mark I, it would be safer for them to round the distance up.

That sounded easy enough for Fish Ball to understand. A premature spray from the Mark I would be guaranteed to hit the target while firing too late might just waste bullets.

After making the call, Fish Ball only needed to wait for his partner to find the corresponding number on the shooting table before he would pull the trigger.

It only took a few seconds to finish this procedure, but the process felt excruciatingly long to him. As this was happening, everything around Fish Ball seemed to slow down for him, and the shouting sounds of his fellow soldiers in the background started to fade away. For a moment, he even heard his own rapid heartbeats and heavy breathing clearly.

He could feel a slight amount of moisture in his palms. He knew that the cowardly Fish Ball was still inside him somewhere.

But that only helped him steel himself for what was to come.

As the demons flew steadily towards the wall, they gradually rose, going for the same pattern they executed five days ago. Now that they were at least 800 or 900 meters away, they fully extended their wings so that their bodies were as stretched out as possible. This made them such thin targets that even marksmen of the sniper team would be able to guarantee a clean shot on them.

"But we are different," Fish Ball thought.

The scholar had told him of many principles, most of which was beyond Fish Ball's understanding. But he had remembered one point very clearly.

"Once the enemies are close enough to throw spears, you're free to aim and fire. But before they get in that range, you don't need to worry about hitting the enemies but rather just send as many bullets as you can in their path and wait for them to fly into the bullets."

"Use the fifth hole!" At this moment, his squadmate behind him shouted.

Fish Ball took a deep breath and raised the muzzle, "placing" the Mad Demon that he was aiming at in the fifth hole and pulled the trigger as hard as he could.

Suddenly, a gush of flame flashed out of the muzzle.

The sound of gunfire was ear-piercing, and it seemed to have resumed the flow of time which had previously appeared to slow down. Almost simultaneously, the other squads had also started to open fire. The area atop the city wall instantly heated up.

This all felt rather bizarre to Fish Ball.

The muzzle of the Mark I was not aimed at the demons but a vacant space in front of them. No one knew if they would hit the target. All they could do was keep their fingers tightly on the trigger, and pray for the best as the cartridge box was emptied one bullet after another.

Fortunately, this did not last long.

After three seconds or so, a "flower" of red bloomed among the group of demons at their 12 o'clock.

Along with the explosion of red, Fish Ball could also see a half-broken wing and body parts flying everywhere.

The Devilbeast that had been shot were jolted and spun in mid-air, like pieces of thin paper being crumpled up. It was only then that Fish Ball got a rough view of the demon's appearance. However, from the scattering limbs, he did not spot any body parts resembling those of the Mad Demons. This unlucky devilbeast must have been one of the ones who were responsible for carrying the red mist canisters.

Subsequently, two Devilbeasts swayed away midair and dropped down like stones. Fish Ball could not tell from their movement whether they had been urgently dodging the bullets or seriously injured. But they failed to recover their speed and smashed directly onto the grassland.

Apparently, the sight inspired the soldiers, who started to cheer rapturously.

"And another one! Partner, well done!"

"Air Defense Squad, it's all yours now!"

"Come on, kill those nasty things!"

"Long live King Roland!"

The demons seemed to sense something wrong. They started to disperse and accelerate, charging towards the wall without any sign of retreat!

"Three fourths!" Fish Ball grabbed the gun handle tightly and kept adjusting the shooting direction. "No... four fourths!"

The enemy in his vision was the same size as the model, meaning that the enemy was now within spear-chucking range.

"Open Fire!" the observator shouted, "All gunners, fire at will!"

The soldiers armed with revolving rifles also joined and opened up at the approaching devilbeasts.

All the guns were blasting away, cracking continuously at the wall. Four devilbeats were already shot down, however, ever since the enemies became aware of their attack and started to dodge the shots, few bullets succeeded in hitting them. At this moment, Fish Ball noticed a Devilbeast dart through the sky and dove towards him. As the deformed monster was snarling down at him from the air, he could faintly see that the Mad Demon on raised up a bone spear and aimed it at him.

A piercing chill instantly rose from the soles of his feet, crept through his body, and caused his hands to tremble involuntarily.

Now that the demon in his vision was bigger than the model, he didn't have to estimate how far the demon was anymore, for this distance was short enough for the bullet fired by Mark I to maintain a perfectly straight trajectory through the air. All he needed to do now was to raise the muzzle, aim, and keep firing until the demon's body was riddled with bullets.

But, that spear would also pierce through his body without mercy.

Flee or die.

The familiar feeling crawled up like a shadow, and the cowardly Fish Ball seemed to have grabbed him by his hands.

"Ah———!" In the next moment, Fish Ball bellowed, "Go away. I'm no longer———!"

At the same instant, the barrel of the gun spat out flames of death toward the demon.

The bullets released from the gun whistled toward the demon, tore through its muscles, shattered its bones, and ricocheted in the demon's body before exiting the other side. The impact was so intense that its body swelled a little as its guts were smashed to smithereens.

The Mad Demon threw the bone spear at the moment the bullets flew into him.

Fish ball had foreseen his ending when he pulled the trigger.

But he did not let go of his finger. He stood firm even though he was trembling violently with fear.

"—a coward!"

Bang!

Just one meter away in front of Fish ball, the shadow-like bone spear shattered as it flew into a semi-transparent barrier that had appeared out of nowhere. The barrier only shook a little but otherwise remained intact.

Fish Ball finally came to himself and realized that a short-haired and short witch had appeared on the battlements, and blocked the spear with her incredible power.

"What are you shouting for?" She let out a long breath and slowly withdrew her hands. Then she turned around and smiled at him. "Of course you aren't."

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Chapter 929: Air Defense Battle At The Border (Part III)

Translator: TransN Editor: TransN

Sylvie, who was observing the battle, could finally breathe out a sigh of relief. The Mad Demons' first volley this time did not cause as much damage as compared with their previous attack. With the help of the witches of the Sleeping Island, the spears were either blocked or strangely missed their targets. Only one spear managed to hit a heavy machine gun and shatter it, blasting the splinters everywhere. The explosion forced the squad to cease fire temporarily, but none of the soldiers were fatally wounded. Nana would be able to heal them all as long as they held on until the end of the battle.

The Mad Demons had to let their swollen arms recover before they could attack again, while the First Army could just keep firing. The longer the demons stayed in one spot, the easier a target they became for the First Army gunners. Sylvies knew then that the enemies' defeat was inevitable.

The demons seemed to sense that too. As a horn rang out, the surviving Devilbeasts scrambled to turn around and accelerated away towards the west.

Compared to the evasive movements the devilbeasts displayed when attacking, the beeline they made in the air after turning tails turned them into easy targets for the soldiers. The hail of bullets managed to snap off one escaping Devilbeast's wing. The beast then fell into the Misty Forest with its body bent in an odd angle.

By now, there were only five flying Devilbeasts left, and only three carried the Mad Demons.

Sylvie informed the last of the Neverwinter attackers, who were currently lying in ambush about this information through the Sigil of Listening.

They were the last nail in the coffin for these demons.

"Copy that," said a familiar voice from the other end of the Sigil. "I'm on it. Enjoy the show of a great explorer!"

"Be careful..." Before Sylvie could even finish, sounds of wind whooshing past already blocked out the rest of her words.

That was a signal of falling from the high sky, and an omen of death for the enemies.

The last thing the demons controlling the devilbeasts expected was that someone would attack them from above. They were proud of their natural ability to strike from the air. However, in the face of the witches above the clouds, the odds were not in their favor this time.

Lightning accelerated so fast that the goggles started to crack.

120 kilometers per hour!

That's almost twice as fast as Maggie in the Devilbeast form.

If she flew any faster, the turbulent airflow would very likely blow away her wind goggles.

What she needed to do now was no different than what she did to blow up the king's city.

Adjusting the horizontal direction of the "bomb" so that it would hit the flying demons.

But, the "bomb" she carried this time was Ashes.

It was a tentative decision to add an Extraordinary in the battle. Ashes could fly with the help of the Stone of Flight, but she could not fight while she was controlling the stone. It would be a waste to leave such a mighty warrior on the ground, so they finally came to a solution where the little girl would carry Ashes to attack the enemies. This operation turned out to be surprisingly smooth. Ashes could keep floating in the air by her will so that she would not be a burden to Lightning, and at the same time, the Extraordinary's body was strong enough to bear the violent airflow due to high-speed flight.

As they broke through the thick clouds, their vision suddenly cleared up.

The five Devilbeasts Sylvie had told them about appeared in front of them.

The enemies were still unaware of what was happening above them.

Lightning mustered all her strength and threw Ashes towards one of them.

Ashes unsheathed her long sword and slashed at the demon head-on.

It was not until the demon had heard the blade whistling through the air did it finally become aware of the danger that was fast approaching. But by then, it was too late. The demon swelled its arm and put the spear in an attempt parry the strike, but Ashes' slash was unstoppable. Her sword cut through the spear before cleaving the demon in half. The last thing the demon saw was the Extraordinary's pair of golden eyes.

The rest of the demons were startled, and they screamed out as they made their devilbeats swerve to the sides. They all raised the spear, ignoring the Devilbeast whose master had just been slaughtered. At that moment, a terrifying roar distracted them.

"Woo——Ooo——!"

The giant Devilbeast that Maggie had transformed into dashed out of the thick clouds and swooped towards the demons.

The enemies could not help but put their focus on the gigantic Maggie instead of Ashes. They knew that it was not a real Devilbeast, for they could see a witch on its back.

Two spears hurled by the demons sped towards Maggie like a pair of shadows.

The next second, the Devilbeast suddenly vanished and the spears passed through thin air. The demons then saw a white pigeon floating proudly where the Devilbeast had been.

"Coo!"

Just in a flash, Nightingale showed up in front of the enemies.

Although the peculiarness of the misty world had restricted her movement in the air so that she could not act as freely as she could on the ground, she would not let any enemy within one "flash" escape.

As long as the enemy was pulled in the misty world, Nightingale would dominate the battle.

Without God's Stones of Retaliation, the demon would never see her. The Devilbeast' narrow back was as large as a town square to her.

While Nightingale shot down the demon with her revolver, she pulled the reins on the devilbeast that is now masterless and had it crash into the last devilbeast still with a rider. The Mad Demon atop the last beast attempted a desperate struggle and threw two spears towards NIghtingale while paralyzing its own arm. As the Magic Stone was flashing blue, it did not only drain the demon's magic power but also made half of its body wither up.

Nightingale, however, did not even dodge the spears. She merely turned the black and white world upside down so that the sky became the ground, she then stood on the abdomen of the Devilbeast who, instead, took the spear for her.

The turbulent misty world also concealed Nightingale and her mount. Then abruptly, the Devilbeast, controlled by Nightingale, smashed into the last pair of the enemies.

The misty world absorbed the demon in instantly.

This was a strange world for the demon, and the distorted space and lighting of this world instantly distracted it. By the time the demon realized what had happened, the borderlines that were fine as silver yarn flooded over it like a tsunami.

When the enemies reappeared, both the Devilbeasts and the Mad Demon had been minced into pieces, and their remains showered down to the ground below.

Maggie re-transformed into the beast and quickly caught Nightingale who was falling, while Lightning flew to catch Ashes, who had finished dealing with the other Devilbeast.

"Two to one, I win." Nightingale showed two fingers to the Extraordinary.

Ashes shrugged without a comment.

After they landed safely on the ground, Lightning produced the Sigil of Listening from her bag. "Sylvie, can you find the other two escaped Devilbeasts?"

There was a moment of silence before Lightning heard the answer. "Yes, I see them. They are about 2,500 meters away to the Northeast of you."

"Great, please guide me there."

"You want to go alone?"

"No, Maggie'll go with me. Don't worry," Lightning said as she clapped her chest. "They're just two beasts without a master."

"Noone will escape!" Maggie returned to a pigeon, fluttered to the top of the little girl, and said with her erect bird head.

"Be careful with the red mist cans. Remember not to come into contact with the mist." Nightingale warned.

"Retreat immediately if you see any new enemies," Ashes added.

"Got it. You can count on me!" Lightning raised a thumb and took off with Maggie, heading to where the enemies were fleeing.

...

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Chapter 930: A Letter from the City Hall

Translator: TransN Editor: TransN

After waiting by the telephone for an hour and a half, Roland finally received the final battle report.

The witches who were responsible for the ambush did not let any demons escape, and they also seized a lot of cans containing the red mist. Also, they acquired the corpses of the enemies shot down by the air defense squad, and Leaf also captured the final surviving Mad Demon was wandering around the Misty Forest. All in all, they had gained more from this battle than he had expected.

First, and most importantly, the victory had boosted First Army's morale. The battle had let them realize that even though the demons were not an enemy that could be easily defeated like the knights or wild demonic beasts, they at least had the power to fight back. The demons that everyone had heard so much of was not supernatural and fearsome as the characters narrated in the old stories. In terms of defense, the demons, who were flesh and blood like human beings, were no better than the God's Punishment Army in front of His Majesty's powerful firearms.

Second, the captured enemy would make the anti-demon propaganda in Neverwinter much more effective. Roland believed that once the migrants saw what the demons looked like, they would no longer discriminate against the witches; it was impossible for the demons, a kind of monster that shared none of the similarities with humankind, to brainwash the witches' minds and make the witches their servants.

Lastly, the corpses of the demons would also be quite useful. For research purposes.

Since the magic blood could not save up separately and would lose its power quickly after the host had died, Roland had not counted on applying the enemy's blood to new sigils. But Celine had volunteered to take on the job of making sigils in Agatha's absence. Celine told him that Agatha was indeed among the most outstanding in the entire Quest Society, but the knowledge of sigil making was essential to every formal member of the society.

She also stressed that apart from the quality of the Magic Stones and demon blood, the appropriate method of carving the vessels on the stone was also crucial to making a good sigil, albeit it being a less important factor. One could directly use a stick to draw a straight line if the time was limited, but carving intricate patterns on the stone would be able to fully bring its power into play.

She was proud to say that no hands could be more exquisite and precise than her tentacles. In terms of sense of touch, control of strength, and not to mention the numerical advantage, the human hand was no match against her tentacles.

As Celine goes on bragging about her tentacles, strange ideas kept popping up in Roland's mind, and it took him a long while before he could get back to reality. Fortunately, Celine could not read his thoughts when their minds were communicating. Otherwise, there would be no way for him to explain himself out of this.

But of course, there was also the bad news.

It turned out that the anti-air effectiveness of the Mark I type HMG was mostly unsatisfactory. By looking at the overview of the battle, Roland found that the hail of bullets fired when the enemies were closer to the wall was the most deadly. The demons, at first, did not expect that they would be attacked, so they flew in slowly cramped up into two tight formations. This made them perfect targets for the guns. However, out of the twelve devil beasts that came, only four were shot down by the guns. After the demons changed the tactic and started to disperse as they entered the effective range for the Mad Demon's spears, no bullets succeeded in bringing any of them down.

Fortunately, the demons' ideal range of spear throwing was about 200 meters, a distance short enough for the bullets of Mark I to keep a straight trajectory. After three more Devilbeasts were hit, the rest of the demons stopped fighting and retreated immediately. However, if the enemies' attacking range was farther, or if they chose to approach the walls in a more spread out formation, this battle would have been much harder to win.

After all, in the face of the enemies that could maneuver freely in the air, the disadvantages of the immobile defenders on the ground were apparent.

Roland would try to improve the Mark I after this, but there were limited things he could do with the design. He might add a protective steel plate around the gun or convert the guns into small forts to protect the gunners. Also, he would increase the production of Mark I to deal with the war after the Bloody Moon arrives. However, Roland understood that there was no way for them to eliminate the Devilbeasts' threat unless Neverwinter had a comparable air force.

But let him put the concern aside for now. Roland put down the quill and let out a long breath. Finally, he won the air defense battle. No matter how insignificant it was, the battle would be regarded as the first battle in the human history that was won with the help of firearms.

At the thought of that, Roland sent for Barov Mons.

"Hold a celebration ceremony in the central square tonight. Make it as good and as lively as possible as the ones we have on Victory Day. It'll be a part of the propaganda. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," Barov responded with a hand on his chest.

***************

Five days after the ceremony, Snaketooth received a letter from the City Hall.

"Who was knocking?" Tigerclaw slurred behind him. "Don't we rest today?"

"Don't worry. It's not the foreman. Just go back to sleep."

Snaketooth returned to the low table and craned his head to look out of the window. The Sun had barely set, and there was still a faint trace of light outside as if a misty veil covered the sky.

Snaketooth had been sleepy when he was awakened, but he could not be soberer now. Seeing the City Hall's red seal on the envelope, he vaguely knew what was in it.

His life had changed significantly in the past a year and a half. After he moved in Border Town, he no longer had to live a rat-like life. Instead, he, like most people, started to make a living by himself. But, still, he had not believed such things would happen to him until he got his first pay, for he was so, so familiar with hirers who were notorious for exploiting their workers. Those corrupt people would cheat workers out of receiving their wages. This was especially so for a worker like him, who was a migrant. However, on the contrary, he got a full pay every month.

So, now he couldn't even imagine how much his life would continue to improve in the days to come.

With a salary of 12 silver royals per month, he could save up one odd gold royal for a down payment on the cheapest house in the residential area of Neverwinter. And if he took a part-time job, he might be able to buy the house much earlier. Now that he was clear about how long it would take him to achieve his goal, he started to look forward to it.

As His Majesty's promises to the people were getting realized one after another, Snaketooth started to hope for more.

Snaketooth carefully unsealed the letter and poured all the contents onto the table. There were three pieces of paper of different sizes and colors.

The first piece was the thickest and palm-sized, with only a few words on it, but it made his heart thud.

Without any doubt, it was an identity card of a formal Neverwinter citizen.

Unlike the temporary card, this card was wrapped up by a transparent and hard film that gave a smooth touch. On it read not only his name and the day of his birth but also a vivid portrait of him.

Finally, he had become a member of this city, and a subject that was acknowledged by the King.

Snaketooth tried to compose himself before he looked at the second piece of paper.

It was a written notice. There were many paragraphs he could not fully understand, as he was only able to spend limited time on night classes since coming to Neverwinter, but he was able to grasp the general idea of the content.

As he had expected, his application for participating the railway construction in the Misty Forest was passed by the City Hall.

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