A week later, Border Town welcomed the last month of autumn in a heavy snow.

Roland looked out of the office window, black figures swaying on the snow-white roofs – this was a daily task for the townspeople, shoveling the accumulated snow off the roofs to prevent them from collapsing.

Today marked exactly one year since he came to this world, but last year's autumn was not so cold, and he could not see so many neat and dense houses from here.

At that time, it was not surprising that the town was about to be abandoned. Except for a circle of decent-looking wooden houses around the square, the rest were dilapidated mud houses and thatched cottages. The nobles' residences were mostly concentrated around the square, and the only stone road led from there to the castle. Apart from that, the entire town had no flat ground, and there were human and animal excrement everywhere.

Now all the roads here have been replaced with water-stabilized pavement – even without a surface layer, it is a high-quality hard road. The dark lines divide the silver-white town into many squares of different sizes. The wide main roads are the planned commercial areas for the future, and the outskirts are residential areas.

In addition, Border Town's industry has gradually taken shape, or rather, it has finally transformed from workshop-style production into a self-circulating production line – of course, only limited to steam engines. The blast furnace area can produce iron ingots that meet the processing requirements, and the steam plant can process them into parts. The blacksmiths are no longer unfamiliar with various machine tools, and at the same time, they have taken on a large number of apprentices. Although those highly precise steam machine tools rely on Anna to manufacture, it is still a rare progress for them. After all, before that, this group of people only touched blacksmith hammers, or were simply miners or hunters.

Let's just assume that the workers produced them with their own strength.

In addition, the production of bullets and gunpowder is also handled entirely by ordinary people. Firearms still need Anna to do it herself. The reason is not the lack of processing machine tools, but because the town's blast furnaces cannot produce stable quality steel. This has been listed by Roland as a problem to be solved urgently in the next stage.

The achievements in chemical engineering are much more surprising, probably because not much hope was placed on it originally, so any result is a pleasant surprise. Sulfuric acid and nitric acid have now begun mass production, and chemical explosives are also showing signs of progress. As long as bullet production can be increased, it will not be difficult to replace them with a new generation of repeating rifles.

It doesn't matter if the production method is backward. For the town's current situation, solving the problem of having or not having is more important. When Bai Zhi's ability stabilizes and she can accurately control her magic power, the chemical industry may usher in a new peak.

Most importantly, whether it is production, education, or construction, Border Town is now in a stage of healthy development. As long as there is enough time, and the educated population increases, breakthroughs in various fields will become faster and faster.

It took a year to turn a barren land into what it is now, and he felt a sense of accomplishment from the bottom of his heart.

Standing by the window and looking at this town, Roland felt like he could watch it all day.

Just then, a melodious chime rang from the northwest.

It was a warning of demonic beast attack.

After the Month of the Demons arrived, the alarm bell would ring about every three to four days. However, the First Army is already skilled at dealing with this situation and no longer needs Roland to go to the city wall to supervise the battle – thinking back to a year ago, if he didn't appear in the militia's sight, they would probably abandon their weapons and flee.

"The demonic beasts are here again, should I go take a look?" Nightingale's voice came from his ear.

"Yes," Roland nodded, "Be careful."

"Don't worry, they can't touch me."

Then he felt a slight warmth on his cheek, and the voice disappeared.

Roland shook his head helplessly. Probably even the witches felt bored in such snowy weather. Saying they were observing the situation was actually just finding something to do. Especially the combat-type witches brought by Tilly, they would always go to the city wall to watch the battle at the first time, waiting for those hybrid demonic beasts that could climb onto the wall, so they could show off their skills. Since knowing this, Nightingale

was also interested, and would go with them whenever the alarm bell rang, perhaps wanting to compete with them to see who was the strongest combat witch.

Roland sighed in his heart, he hadn't seen her be so attentive when studying.

However, since fighting side by side could increase the understanding between witches and ordinary people, he didn't bother to stop it. The current revolving rifles were still okay for dealing with ordinary demonic beasts, but they were still somewhat inadequate when facing wolf-lion hybrids. Having powerful witches stationed on the scene could effectively stabilize the defense line and reduce the possibility of troop casualties.

So far, the First Army has not had a single casualty.

Nightingale's departure made his heart move. Combat-type witches had their own entertainment activities, but auxiliary witches didn't have so much fun to find. Perhaps, it was time to create some new entertainment activities.

Thinking of this, he called Soraya.

"Your Highness, do you have a new task for me to complete?"

The painter who had made great contributions to Border Town looked energetic, the freckles on her face had faded a lot, and her smile was full of undisguised youthful vitality.

Her initiative made Roland choke slightly. Why did he suddenly feel guilty?

"Uh, are you busy with work lately?"

"No, why do you ask?" Soraya brushed her hair in front of her forehead. "Recently, fewer people went to work in the factory. I only need half a day to complete the coating coverage. It was only when the alchemist Kaimo was making those strange metal boxes that I was busy for a while," she paused and smiled, tilting her head. "But compared to the days I spent in the Mutual Aid Association camp, I prefer this fulfilling life now, and I am very happy that my ability can help you."

Hmm... This smile is so dazzling.

Roland couldn't help but feel a sense of guilt. "Ahem, I called you here because I wanted to draw some new cards."

"More Qun-te cards?"

"No, you're probably tired of those," he waved his hand. "After all, the rules are very simple. If you know the other person's cards, there's not much change."

"Well, that's true..."

"Look, the new cards are like this, very simple," Roland took out a piece of white paper and drew a rough sketch. "Divided into four suits, and then numbered from one to thirteen, and finally add a King and a Queen, a total of fifty-four cards."

Soraya's ability has improved a lot. She directly used the sketch as a base and quickly drew a set of hard-coated playing cards. "How do you play this?"

"It has many ways to play, but let's start with the simple ones," Roland tried the feel of the poker and immediately regained the feeling before the time travel. During the Chinese New Year, the most common thing for a family to do was to sit in a fire bucket, watch the Spring Festival Gala, and play poker all night long, until the day when they lit firecrackers to welcome the New Year.

Compared to another traditional entertainment, mahjong, poker has no requirements for the venue. A board can be placed on your lap and you can start playing, and it has rich gameplay, probably one of the most popular games in the world.

"Go and call Anna," Roland smiled, "I'll teach you to play Landlord."