Roland tapped his quill once more against the table, and once more Nightingale pinched his left side.
“Well, even in the case that what you said was the truth, there is still the problem that this treasure map should be hidden in the basement of your family home. You have already given up the right of your inheritance, and I’m afraid they won’t willingly see you ever again.”
“What you say is the truth,” he firmly nodded, “But I have completely memorized the content of the drawings, the above patterns and the text I can roughly depict it”.
“Then draw it for me,” Roland pushed his quill and paper over the table into his direction. “If what you said is true, I can make an exception to your request.”
“His Royal Highness is too kind.” Ferlin went to the table and began to depict the treasure map.
It was true, Morning Light wasn’t only good at fighting; no, he was also talented in painting and calligraphy. Soon, a rough topographical map appeared in front of Roland.
The map actually showed the area behind the Impassable Mountain Range, the lower right corner of the map was occupied by mountains. Then around the center, he drew an equilateral triangle, and the three corners pointed to different places. One corner ended at the foot of the Northern Slope, and another corner pointed to a hexagonal star mark inside the Concealing Forest, which was most probably the so-called treasure’s location.
However, Roland’s attention was entirely attracted to the third vertex of the triangle, pointing to the middle of the Wild Lands, on top of a sawtooth-shaped mountain top, stood the word: “Taqila.”
Chapter 135 To start with the basics
– “The Devils grow in number each day, but we become less.”
“The Holy City of Taqila has already fallen into the hands of the enemies, the only option left to us is to scatter in all directions.”
“We fled over mountains and across rivers, as far as possible from the Gates of Hell.”
“But next time, where should we flee?” –
“What do you think about it?” Back in his office, Roland closed the illusion of the ancient book and turned to Scroll to get her opinion of it.
“”In the case that what the Knight remembered was the truth, this would really be an incredible coincidence.” Scroll pondered for a moment about her next words, “The content of the treasure map and what’s recorded in the ancient book is the same, so this proves that the Church had once stepped into the Wild Lands and constructed a point of resistance against the Devils there. In addition, the points marked on the map are perhaps the defense towers, posts, warehouses, or whatever they built there.”
“You mean… this isn’t really a treasure map?”
“Of course. After all, the Church isn’t a group of bandits or pirates; they do not need to hide their treasures, but they would leave behind a drawing to help the future generations.”
Roland nodded, “Well, so… this is just such a map?”
“Although it is not clear why the Church did not record this period in history, I believe that the ruins buried in the eastern forest aren’t the only one of its kind.” Analyzed Scroll, “If the locations marked on the map are just some facilities, the chance that we find something after all these centuries aren’t that high, but if it has a storage warehouse in the basement, it will probably be another underground site, and we might be able to uncover some clues from it.”
“What kind of clues?”
“Like the reason that the Church is concealing the existence of the devils? Why do they resist the devil, but still carefully conceal it?” She paused, her voice becoming a little unsteady,” and… why do they call us witches the Devil’s messengers and why do they want to kill us?”
Roland did not know how to comfort her, so he was unable to find the right words as he fell silent after a moment. Only after a while he slowly began, “Unfortunately he didn’t know how accurate the picture was. According to his statement, the original map wasn’t drawn by hand.”
“Do you want Nightingale to go to the knight’s house?”
“That doesn’t sound right,” Roland denied, “The treasure map has already been passed on for hundreds of years, so the possibility that the storeroom is filled with God’s Stones of Retaliation or other traps is high.” Pointing at the triangle symbol, “For now, this place is out of reach, in any case. If this is the area of our North Slope mine, then the location of the hexagonal star is at least 50 kilometers away from us, almost as far as the distance between Border Town to Longsong Stronghold. With the exception of Lightning, who can travel that distance within a day, the rest of us would need to walk for two to three days. What will we do if we were to meet some of the Devils during the journey… I don’t want you to have any kind of mishap.”
“You can let Lightning explore the forest from the air; maybe she will be able to find something,” Scroll suggested.
“That is a viable option.” Roland immediately stood up, “The next time she comes back I will give her her new mission, but for now I want to go to the North Slope Mine while you get ready to give your next lesson. If you need more copies of the books, you should find Soraya, she will handle it for you. Don’t forget to continue to give them lessons this evening.”
Now that Roland had already held the first lessons of his new primary course, he could give the teachers position to Scroll. With her phonetic reading and writing and her ability to repeat everything from memory she had once heard or read, Roland believed she had everything that was needed to become a good teacher.
“Yes, Your Highness,” Scroll said as she saluted and left.
The testing and production area near the North Slope Mine was now more than two-times as large as it was before, and the two holes needed for the production of the twelve-pound cannon were still left on the ground. When Roland arrived in the testing area, he immediately saw Anna practicing her new ability. On the table next to her, there laid two finished products that looked exactly like steel pipes.
He immediately held them up to take a closer look; the steel pipes were perfectly round and had a totally smooth surface without any pores, the hole in the middle was equally wide on both sides, and the sunlight passed through without any problems through the hole in the pipe. To compare the thickness of the pipe-walls, Roland placed his fingers into the holes. This way, he discovered that they were exactly the same size.
Roland couldn’t stop admiring her work, “How were you able to make this?
“Take a look,” Anna picked up a freshly cut steel bar, laid it flat on her hand, and inserted a thread of her black flame into one end, leading it through the complete body. Then she let the thread rotate around the center of a circle, and soon the hole was complete.
What an amazing ability, he thought, with her magic, she is capable of hot wire cutting, and at the same time her accuracy and control are incomparable. Anna alone is enough to push the industrial production to a new height inside Border Town. Trying to restrain his excitement, he said, “Let’s do some basic tests first.”
The basic test included the testing of the scope of her abilities, her ability’s strength, and its duration.
Nightingale also took part in the test; she appeared out of her fog and was responsible for observing if there were any changes to the magic inside of Anna’s body.
The results showed that in addition to a substantial increase in the strength of her ability and the duration at which she was able to cast her magic, the range at which she was able to use her flame was still around five meters, and it was only within a range of three meters that she was able to carry out her precise control.
Furthermore, her magic still belonged to the category of summoning, and could still be suppressed by God’s Stone of Retaliation. When Anna ordered her black flame to enter the range of the stone, the flame would still suddenly disappear.