After repelling the forces of Tifiko, the town was restored to peace.
Roland selected three individuals from the Municipal Hall's Education Department and assembled a team of two teachers. They took the books photocopied by Soroya to the Long Song Fortress. Regardless of the outcome, he had finally taken the first step toward the Assimilation Fortress.
Though Perro was no battle commander, he excelled in administration. Within a week, two thousand recruited road workers arrived in the town under Knight's escort. Had it not been for the second batch of ten kiln units coming online, Roland would never have dared to build a paved road between the two locations. Now, he finally had the chance to splurge.
Roland named this road Kingdom Avenue, with Construction Minister Karl overseeing its construction. The pavement, identical to the town's streets, featured cement-stabilized gravel layers—a design that proved sufficient for transportation in an era without heavy vehicles. Moreover, its drainage system was efficient, allowing for future upgrades to asphalt or concrete as needed.
In terms of construction materials, four steam-powered crushers replaced manual labor for stone crushing, producing dozens of tons of crushed stone daily. However, limited transportation capacity hindered further production increases. Transporting such massive stone blocks required over a hundred workers using horse-drawn carts to deliver them to the construction site in a single day—a task that could be accomplished by modern dump trucks, the dominant force in road construction, with just one load.
Except for four kilns that still use clay bricks, all other blast furnaces in the kiln area have been converted to cement production. After multiple compositional tests and using iron powder supplied by the mine, the cement produced in the town now surpasses the original batch in both quality and stability.
The massive haul of gravel and cement powder by the construction crew brought significant drawbacks to the town, with dust storms being the most severe issue. By afternoon, even a light breeze would stir up thick clouds of dust, turning the streets a pale yellow. While most townspeople tolerated this, for Roland, nothing was worse than having to keep windows and doors shut during the sweltering summer heat.
The cement and gravel trucks were quickly fitted with covers to prevent spillage during transport. Thanks to Ye Zi's efforts, the town was soon blanketed in lush foliage within days, with rows of verdant plane trees lining the streets in perfect symmetry, their emerald green canopy stretching as far as the eye could see. When Roland rallied all the community leaders to implement voluntary water sprinkling for dust suppression, the situation improved remarkably.
The straight-line distance between the two locations is less than 70 kilometers. However, considering the need to avoid the foothills extending from the remote mountain range during road construction, the total length of this road is approximately 100 kilometers, with an estimated construction period of one year. With the high-quality road in place, certain modes of transportation can also be utilized—for instance, bicycles and steam cars.
In his vision, whether it's developing education or building roads, these measures would connect the two regions, much like the later widespread promotion of urban integration. Once the land development between the two areas is complete, Changge Fortress and Border Town will merge into a vast city. If he could also transform the southern hills into part of the city and open up the peripheral mountains, even the seaport would be accessible.
Naturally, developing such vast territories demanded a substantial population. To prepare for potential future conflicts, the city needed to achieve agricultural self-sufficiency while supplying a large workforce for industrial production. Preliminary estimates suggested the need to bring in approximately 100,000 people, while even the largest city-state of Graycastle, the capital, had a population of only around 20,000 to 30,000.
Roland set his sights on the northern and southern territories of Graycastle, both ravaged by war. As winter approached, large numbers of refugees—starving and destitute—were likely to arrive. By providing them with food and shelter, he could integrate them into Border Town. Even refugees from Eternal Winter and Wolfheart were within his reach. To this end, he wrote to merchant Margery, asking her to gather information about these two regions.
...
After jotting down the latest development plan, Prince folded the paper neatly, tucked it into the drawer, stretched lazily, and decided to check on Anna's room to see how her lenses were coming along.
After learning about Soroya's evolutionary origins, he resolved to develop a microscope capable of visualizing cellular structures.
If one could witness the wondrous microscopic world firsthand, it might inspire witches to develop new abilities, or at least spark their interest in learning.
For microscope manufacturing, the two convex lenses for magnifying the target are not the challenge. The real difficulty lies in the fact that each hand-polished lens has a different focal length, making the matching of the eyepiece and objective lens a meticulous task that requires repeated adjustments to the distance between the two lenses.
After briefly explaining the imaging principle of convex lenses, he handed Anna several high-quality crystals, asking her to cut the lenses and measure their focal lengths. Three days had passed, and Roland was curious to see how far Anna had progressed.
As he approached Anna's room door, Nightingale gave him a smile and stood with her back to the wall, as if to signal she wouldn't follow. Since she reduced her invisibility duration, Roland no longer needed to track her movements. When alone with Anna, Nightingale always chose to stand at a distance.
Opening the door, Anna was sitting at the table, fiddling with a metal tube.
"How are you?" he asked as he approached.
Roland froze mid-sentence. On the table lay several microscope-like instruments, their designs strikingly similar to the schematic he had sketched.
"Your blueprints revealed details that would normally escape notice," she said, tilting her head back as her long, flowing bangs swept past her ear. "Through them, I observed the paper, leaves, and puddles—each transformed from their usual forms." Ever since the hot air balloon adventure, Anna had stopped using formal language in their private moments, which made him feel much more at ease.
"How did you create this?" Roland exclaimed in surprise. "That schematic is just a rough outline," Anna replied with a smile. "The basic structure is complete. Just position the eyepiece and objective lens at the right distance to achieve magnification, then secure them with iron tubes to form the microscope's main body. During my lens testing, I found that the objective lens and subject must maintain a specific distance to produce clear images—any slight hand tremor would blur them. Your diagram also shows the need for a stand to fix the barrel, with a movable base underneath to optimize the objective distance." She paused. "The bottom panel in the schematic is tricky to interpret. Can you explain its purpose?" Roland glanced at the drawing and realized his mistake—the panel was actually a reflector, used to enhance light transmission through the subject. In those days, mercury mirrors hadn't been invented yet. Noble still used copper or iron mirrors for grooming, while royal courts attached silver sheets behind glass to improve reflection. Even without this mirror, the microscope could function with sufficient sunlight.
After his detailed explanation, he couldn't help but marvel at Anna's remarkable insight. She had created a nearly complete product based solely on a rough sketch, something he would never have achieved.
Seeing the fair neck of the other person as she bent down to check the new lens barrel, Roland couldn't resist leaning in to kiss her, but she pressed her hand against his face and gently pushed him away. "Wait, Your Highness, I'm busy." "Mmm... alright."