Roland was startled by the phrase "time is running out" and only felt a little relieved after asking for clarification, "Don't stop halfway through your sentences, it's creepy."
"Don't you think five years is a long time?" Agatha frowned. "This pattern was accurate during the first and second Battles of Divine Will, but now it has shortened for some reason, and...it may become even shorter."
"I thought you were going to say the Red Moon would descend this winter," Roland shrugged. According to the current research and development progress, he would be able to equip the entire army with new firearms in another year. As long as the enemy isn't invulnerable, the war isn't without a chance of winning. The only thing to note is that the territory's construction must be developed to the point where it can sustain a protracted war. This requires land, population, and resources to reach a relatively high standard, with enough strategic depth to allow for temporary retreats to preserve vital forces in the event of operational setbacks.
Therefore, the difficulty isn't in the weapons, but in the need to build two to three industrial cities to continuously provide population, ammunition, and food for the war. Logistics guarantees victory, and personnel guarantees logistics. All in all, he realized that what he lacked most was a reliable leadership team, department heads, and clerks. Without these, even if he unified Graycastle, he wouldn't be able to integrate it into a complete war machine, and those nobles might even hold him back.
Sure enough, countries that are good at fighting are those with high levels of education. There's no doubt about that.
"What's the name of this weapon?" Agatha suddenly changed the subject. "I remember you called it the 152mm Fortress..."
"Fortress Standard Cannon," Roland added, "There will be a naval version in the future."
"If you can fill the entire city wall with weapons like these before the Red Moon appears, we might be able to withstand the demons' attack. According to Kaimo. Streel, what I'm doing in the chemistry lab is also part of the artillery, right?" Agatha seemed to have made up her mind, "I will do everything I can to produce liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen for you, as long as you can—"
"Don't worry," he comforted, "We will defeat the demons."
*******************
"Is that all for today?" Evelyn extended her finger and touched the wine in the vat, tasting it on her tongue. The spiciness seemed to be even stronger. According to His Highness's request, the purer the Baijiu, the better. The best wine should not even contain water, every drop should be pure and mellow—although she felt that the Baijiu she brewed was getting closer and closer to His Highness's description, it was getting further and further away from the word "delicious."
"Yes, thank you for your hard work," the manager of the winery attached a number to the wine vat and nodded to her. "Please give my regards to His Highness."
"Can these...really be sold?" Evelyn wondered. Based on her experience running a tavern, she doubted that many people could accept such a spicy taste.
"Well, I don't know," the other party smiled. "But every once in a while, someone comes to take away a batch, so I guess there are still people who like it."
Evelyn felt relieved. If no one wanted to drink this, it wouldn't just be His Highness's failure, but she would also lose her value... Fortunately, it wasn't what she thought. It seemed that His Highness, as a noble, was indeed very good at grasping the tastes of the nobles. She smiled, "Then I'll be going now."
Leaving the winery, Evelyn walked through the freezing streets back to the castle, and a wave of warm air immediately enveloped her. The inside and outside of the house were like two different worlds. She took a deep breath, took off her coat, and let the warmth get closer to her.
This comfortable life was unimaginable in the past. In winter, you either huddled around the brazier with your family or curled up in bed. What's the difference between this scene in the castle and the kingdom of God that the church claims to be spring all year round? Moreover, His Highness also said that he would popularize the heating system to ordinary residential areas so that the people could be far away from the harshness of the Months of Demons. She didn't know how many church believers had reached the kingdom of God, but here, the witches, who were said to be the demons' claws, and the ordinary people had taken the first step in experiencing these things. If that group of believers knew about it, they would probably be green with envy.
Prince Roland is indeed an omnipotent person.
Walking through the hall, Andrea, Ashes, and Sylvie were playing poker.
"A pair!"
"Pass."
"A pair of twos! I win!" Andrea said triumphantly, "Ashes still has six cards left, the most left, quickly hand over the ice cream IOU!" Then she turned her head and waved to Evelyn, "Hey, want to join in?"
Evelyn couldn't help but be curious, "What's an ice cream IOU?"
"It's a bet," the other party waved her hand. "Whoever loses the most IOUs has to hand over their next ice cream bread to the winner. How about it, want to try it?"
Evelyn was hesitant. This was a rare opportunity to strike up a conversation with the combat witches. On Sleeping Island, both Andrea and Ashes were second only to Tilly, and she rarely even saw them, let alone being actively invited to participate in their activities. Moreover, Fight the Landlord was indeed very interesting. The rules were simple, but full of changes, and it required teamwork. You could easily play it all day long. But...
"Uh, the final exams are coming up soon. Aren't you planning to review?"
"You mean the assessment for that basic course at night?" Andrea pouted. "They're all very simple things, you can answer them without looking, right?"
The other two nodded in agreement.
That's right... Andrea was a noble, and her knowledge was higher than everyone else's. Ashes and Sylvie could also write. In this case, she was the most backward one.
"I...I'm not going to play," she hesitated for a moment. "You guys continue, I'll go back to my room and take a look."
Leaving the three who looked a little surprised, Evelyn hurried back to the Witch Building, pushed open the wooden door of her residence, and found Candle was sitting at the table in the living room, practicing the arithmetic problems at the end of the textbook.
"You're back?"
"Yeah," seeing Candle buried in her practice, she suddenly felt a lot more at ease. "How's the review going?"
"It's not bad. The nature and arithmetic parts are a little difficult to understand," Candle smiled. "How about you?"
"Me too," Evelyn nodded. "Let's collect the things we don't understand and ask Anna xiaojie for help tonight."
"Okay."
Teacher Scroll said that these were all written by Prince Roland himself, and were part of the knowledge in his mind. If she mastered these, she could also possess part of his omnipotence, right? Evelyn thought to herself that at least in this aspect, she could make progress through hard work, compared to abilities that were determined by birth. Even if the nobles no longer liked to drink spicy Baijiu, she could also work as a teacher in the territory, instead of being useless. For this reason, she opened the textbook almost every time she had time, studying those profound words and formulas. Anna, Scroll, and Wendy's rooms were all places she often visited.
She was at the bottom of the last exam, and she was convinced that it wouldn't be the same this time.
Then, she would set a small goal first, to surpass Maisie! She said to herself.
.(。)