376 – Castle’s New Facilities

Sorry for not posting anything in two days, I had to go to the hospital and was there until this morning. I’m back home now and translating again, although I really should be resting according to the doctor. What was my illness? Well, a crystal variant of kidney stones, and yeah, it hurt like hell. I tried translating over in the hospital but I really didn’t feel like I could, prove of that is that this chapter, after editing, had way too many errors in the part I did at the hospital.

Anyway, I’ll share a quick announcement I made in my patreon. I didn’t want to post it here yet until I had everything in order but… oh well, everyone believes I’m dropping out so I better clear things out. Copy/pasted.

As some of you are already aware, currently I’m finishing paperwork, remodeling, inventory and some other minor details in order to take over the family business like I told you a week or so ago.

This would not keep me from translating, as some have commented on my blog or discord, and I believed it to be implied, but I forgot to tell you about what my role would be in my “new job”, so maybe that’s why some people have some reservations about this announcement.

With all the current stuff going on I don’t want to enter any specifics, but what I would do will be more of a managing job, allowing me to be able to stay in front of the computer pretty much all day.

I can say this with certainty since I was in charge a few years ago, and to be honest, I was so bored I nearly spend all day watching Netflix since there was really not much to do but to answer calls and check that the numbers aligned at the end of the day. Obviously, sometimes I need to do actual work, but my point is, this will definitely free some time compared to what I currently use to translate.

There have been some family issues, of which I would rather not talk about in detail, but since my brother and sister-in-law, whom took care of the business so far, are no longer together, it fell onto me to work there again.

Well, I want to thank you all for all your support, and although this past week and (hopefully not) the next one has been and will be a bit chaotic for me, I will soon be trying to “release” that witch much faster.

That’s pretty much it. And now, onto the chapter. Enjoy.

 

---

 

“What are those?” Andrea asked as she chew on some dried fish.

His Highness, the Prince of Greycastle, was making something new again. He joined together sections of copper pipes, and had Anna weld the joints, then Soraya used her magic coating to wrap an insulating layer around them. At first glance, it looked like it was just the usual bathroom plumbing, only a lot bigger in size. Each one of them had a width close to an adult’s thigh, and if not for Hummingbird’s weight-reducing ability, one might not be able to move them.

And there were more than one or two rooms with these copper tubes installed, they extended across the whole castle and the witch building. They came from a corner of the room, all the way through the bottom of the wall, into a strange metal shutter and towards the next room, where they connected to a continuing pipe at the end.

This huge project attracted many witches who came to observe. Whether they were from Sleeping Island or belonged to the Witch Union, they all showed great curiosity about it.

“Can any of you guess?” the prince smiled mysteriously, “If you can guess correctly, I’ll let you have an extra serving of ice cream sandwich for dinner.”

Andrea suddenly became very interested, ice cream sandwich! This was the most amazing food in this place, two pieces of toasted bread filled in with sweet ice cream in between, it was like nothing she had ever seen in the Kingdom of Dawn. The first time she ate it, she instantly fell in love with this marvelous food. And despite Ashes repeatedly teasing her about it, she still ate it with a blissful expression on her face, since leaving the sandwich alone in the plate was a torture to her.

“Is this going to supply the rooms with water?” Ashes frowned.

What a narrow-minded remark, Andrea thought, copper is not a cheap metal, and since even the small pipes used in the bathroom can deliver enough water, why would the pipes need to be so big?

But recently, she was mocked by Ashes with a ‘Who said that the most delicious food is the one with the original flavor?’ as a counterargument. And since she indeed said those words in front of Lady Tilly, it was really inconvenient, so she had to pretend that she didn’t hear such superficial words.

“What a narrow-minded remark, why would there be the need for such a large water pipe?” someone said behind Andrea, “His Highness wouldn’t do such a pointless thing.”

Perfect! Exactly what I was thinking, those words lifted Andrea’s spirit. Other than herself and Miss Nightingale of the Witch Union, nobody else dared to use this kind of tone with an Exceed witch.

She turned around and saw the other witch looking down at Ashes with ridicule, the smug look on her face and the chin raised slightly was simply perfect. But nobility should not use such expression!

Still, Andrea secretly cheered on this woman, who was the most approachable witch for her since she first arrived at Border Town. During the rescue operation in the ruined tower, Nightingale had already demonstrated extraordinary skills. She also shared noble origins, and even her hair color was very close to Andrea’s!

After several battles sniping demonic beasts and hybrid species from the top of the wall, Nightingale also recognized Andrea’s ability and shared some dried fish with her, quite in a noble’s way.

But most importantly, she also didn’t like Ashes.

Although I’m not sure how Ashes managed to offend her the first time she came to Border Town, but… the enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? And her personality is also compatible with mine.

“It seems like you already know the answer,” Ashes shrugged her shoulders.

“Of course, I know it,” Nightingale said as the corners of her mouth rose, “I was in His Highness’ office when he was drawing the schematics, so I saw all the designs he made with my own eyes.”

“That’s not fair!” Mystery Moon muttered.

“She won’t take part in this small quiz,” the prince’s words turned Nightingale’s triumphant expression into a stiff one, “I’ll give you a hint, these pipes are just part of a bigger system, if you look at the rest of it, it might be easier to guess the correct answer.”

“Guu!” Maisie and Lightning immediately flew out of the room. The other witches, unwilling to be left behind, also hurried outside in order to find out the place where the pipes went.

Andrea deliberately fell behind, and after everyone finally left, she winked at Nightingale and called her to outside the door. “Just what in the word is this?” she whispered, “If it’s the correct answer, I’ll share half of the ice cream sandwich with you at dinner.”

“I don’t know either,” Nightingale’s answer shocked her.

“Didn’t you say that you saw all the designs?”

“Yes, but it’s the same as with《Theoretical Foundations of Natural Science》, even if you know the words, can you really understand the real meaning behind them?”

“Uh—” Andrea opened her mouth to reply, but found that Nightingale’s excuse was perfectly reasonable. She skimmed over the pages by herself once, but those words made the same sense to her as the holy bible.

“Among the Witch Union, I’m afraid Anna is the only one who has the ability to understand His Highness’ intentions just by looking at the drawings,” Nightingale said as if giving her a hint, “If you go ahead and ask her, I’m sure she’ll be able to tell you the answer.”

After Nightingale left, Andrea hesitated for a while before finally deciding not to call Anna outside the room. She was not being shy or embarrassed, she just… decided it out of respect. Neither the wicked criminals, nor the ruthless Army of Judges scared her, but she felt true fear towards this young girl who wasn’t even twenty-year-old.

She recalled that one time she passed by the prince’s office, and overheard Anna talking to His Highness… Even now, recalling the content of their conversation gave her goosebumps. High-angle parabolic calculation, parameter correction of the landing point, kinetic energy conversion in an ideal state… all those weird terms shocked her still.

Why is it that even though she’s a witch like me, Anna can fluently speak words I can barely understand?

Since that moment, Andrea had a totally different image of Anna, not like she was a person like herself, but like she was in a totally different league at the same level as Tilly.

Since she couldn’t ask for an answer, she decided to rely on herself. According to the hints the prince gave, Andrea left the room to explore—at the end of the hallway, she found a finished room with the same copper pipes separated by a horizontal iron fence, seemingly placed to prevent people from coming in contact with the pipes. If it wasn’t for some barbarian like Ashes, she thought, people wouldn’t really touch these. Thinking about the words Nightingale said, ‘His Highness wouldn’t do such a pointless thing’, it seemed like these iron fences obviously served a different purpose.

When she came to the first floor of the witches’ house, she discovered something new, there was a newly-built shed between the castle and the witches’ house, and the copper pipes leading to those two buildings extended from here. Inside the shed there was a huge iron box, the lower half of this box was hollow, and in the top of it a huge chimney sprung upwards… almost like a cooking stove. She saw a pipe directly connecting to the well in the castle’s yard, similar to the water supply for the water tower.

Wait a minute… is this supposed to be used to boil water? But the small pipes can be used to transport the hot water, there is no need for them to be this big. Andrea was baffled, and even after thinking about this for a long time, she couldn’t figure out its purpose.

Before dinner started, the prince gathered all the witches in the main hall and as he smiled, said, “Today, the castle’s heating system is officially started.”

“Heating system?” Ashes asked puzzled.

“Yes, at the boiler room, the hot water reaches a high enough temperature to turn it into steam, which then goes down the pipes and into the rooms, raising their temperature through the radiators. All you need to do is shut the doors and windows, and soon the whole room will be warmed up.” The prince explained, “It’s not always easy to keep moving the heating buckets, and we need to keep the windows open, otherwise we run the risk of getting carbon monoxide poisoning. But with this new heating equipment, that issue is no longer of concern, you can also enjoy a spring-like warmth while you’re sleeping. When the test trials are over, the residential areas will also gradually enjoy this new heating equipment.

“And now, tonight’s ice cream sandwich winner. Aside from Anna, Soraya and Hummingbird, whom were involved in the installation of the heating system, the one who guessed correctly was… Tilly!”

At dinner, Andrea, completely forgetting about her dignity as a noble, helplessly stared at Lady Tilly as she deliciously ate the ice cream sandwich with a huge smile on her face.

 

 

 

<< Previous   Table of Contents   Next>>

• Release that Witch