Moisture condensed on the window glass, forming a layer of even white mist, like a thin gauze curtain. The occasional thudding of the cold wind against the window contrasted sharply with the quiet burning of the stove inside.

Juan sat curled up at the long table in the City Hall office, flipping through thick volumes of documents.

The content of the documents was not related to education, but rather data statistics reported by various departments. She would record these things whenever she had time, for everyone's convenience—this was also one of her main tasks recently. The Ministry of Education didn't have much to deal with. After all, the second round of assessment had only just ended, and the next round was estimated to be implemented next summer.

After working for Roland for half a year, she discovered that His Highness had an unusual fondness for data. He liked to have his subordinates transform everything into a long string of precise numerical lists to describe it. Horizontal comparisons, year-on-year comparisons, and sequential comparisons were terms he often used. By now, all the members of the City Hall had been infected with this trend.

As the town's population increased, the related statistics also surged. His Highness entrusted this task to her, and even jokingly called her the "database" of Border Town. Although it sounded like a warehouse or something, His Highness described it as extremely important, saying that with a database, it was possible to predict the development situation in the coming year and formulate economic and military plans. Even all future strategies in the territory would be based on data analysis.

"Juan-daren," the wooden door of the office was suddenly pushed open, and a woman dressed as an apprentice walked in. After saluting, she handed an application form to Juan, "Hello, I am Fuya. Carter-daren of the Department of Justice hopes to obtain information on the fugitive refugees who passed the residency review last week. Head Butler Barov has approved this application."

Since the number of times the branch ability could be used was limited, His Highness stipulated that querying complex data must first be approved by Barov. As for single-item data, she could ask her at any time.

"Wait a moment," Juan glanced at the signature on the form, then summoned the Magic Tome and displayed the corresponding content on the page, "Okay, give this to Mr. Carter."

"Th-thank you." She carefully held up the golden tome that appeared out of thin air, looking as if she was embracing an Evil Beast.

"Don't worry, it won't hurt you," Juan couldn't help but laugh. Most people showed such an expression when they first came into contact with the Magic Tome, "You don't need to return the tome to me either. It will automatically disappear after two hours, but according to the confidentiality regulations, you must not give it to anyone other than Carter."

"Yes... daren."

The other party bowed and left. As the door opened, Juan could see a crowded scene in the hall. The noisy sounds instantly flooded into the room, but quickly quieted down as the door closed.

Today was the weekend, and it should have been a day of rest, but City Hall was as busy as ever. Everyone already knew the news that Border Town was about to be built into a city, and they worked particularly hard. Coupled with the overtime pay rewards proposed by Prince Roland, no one wanted to stay at home at this time.

Juan didn't quite understand His Highness's approach. In her opinion, the work in City Hall was not particularly heavy. Compared to the miners and kiln workers who consumed a lot of physical strength, writing documents, compiling statistics, and creating reports didn't require much effort—and this was the main work of City Hall. As long as His Highness issued an order, everyone would gladly obey, and there was no need to increase wages on this. To most nobles, his actions were too benevolent.

Roland was not like a true lord, this was Juan’s inner thought, but it was precisely this kind of person who had led everyone to this point today, which had to be said to be a miracle.

She didn't think so out of her own respect and trust, but because the data clearly illustrated everything: compared to a year ago, only the miners in Border Town could obtain a stable income. Now the wages of the lowest-paid miners, kiln workers, and handymen were already twice as high as before, and some emerging occupations, such as steam factory assemblers and acid plant operators, had salaries that were many times higher, and the number was still growing.

As for the changes in the town itself, there was no need to mention them. If one had not lived here all along, it would be difficult for anyone to believe that the current town was the same place as it was a year ago.

Juan stroked the handwriting on the document,

She couldn't imagine what the territory under His Highness's control would become in the future, but she believed that it must be a road full of hope and surprises.

"Ms. Juan," the wooden door was pushed open again, this time by Roland's personal guard, "His Highness is looking for you."

……

Back on the third floor of the castle, Juan saw Prince Roland sorting through the papers in his hand.

"Do you need me to record these things?" She gathered the black hair that had been ruffled by the cold wind and re-tied it behind her head, taking the initiative to ask.

"That's right, I've lost at least half of my brain cells to write this book," the prince rubbed his neck, muttering some words she couldn't understand, "Even the knowledge I used to use regularly, I can only make up a rough outline, and some formulas have to be derived myself."

Juan was already used to this. She ignored the strange words and curiously picked up the manuscript. She saw that the words on the cover were an unprecedented orange color, also composed of a string of made-up words, which together meant "Calculus."

After flipping through a couple of pages, she gave up trying to understand the meaning of the title and focused on memorizing the contents—compared to the equations she had learned before, she found that the formulas above didn't even have numbers. They were all bizarre symbols, like a completely new set of characters. This kind of thing was probably only of interest to Anna and Tilly.

"By the way," Roland asked, "What is the average income of the residents now?"

"The lowest is ten silver wolves per month, and the highest is forty silver wolves," Juan replied while memorizing calculus, "But calculating the average value requires the use of the Magic Tome, and I have already used this ability today."

"It doesn't matter, it's the same if you give me the statistics in two days," Roland waved his hand, "I need to determine the cost of water and heating for residential buildings based on this value. The collective heating project will officially start in a week, and when it is completed, even the longest winter will be as warm as spring here."

A Neverwinter city that fears no cold, this is also part of the miracle, she thought, "If there are no other tasks, I can give it to you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow... I wish you could turn the Magic Tome into a story," Roland said with a smile and shook his head, "As long as Anna hasn't seen it."

"A story?" Juan was slightly startled, and then immediately understood, "Tomorrow is Anna-xiaojie's..."

"Awakening Day," the prince nodded.