“Well done,” Roland clapped twice to show his encouragement. It seemed that the former young Knight of the Wolf Family had not only adapted to his new life in Border Town, but also obtained the manners of the City Hall. And so, could be turned into an excellent propaganda model after a little packaging, in that way playing a small role in attracting nobles or knights of Longsong Stronghold in the future.
The second to give their report was Scroll. She had tied her long hair to the back of her head, and wore a clean and tidy white shirt, matched with a simple and decorate free black long skirt, which made her look both mature and capable. Seeing her today, it was hard for him to imagine that half a year ago, she was still a witch living in exile so as to hide away from the Church.
“At present, there are two batches of people who are in the process of completing their Primary Education, a total of eighty-five people. Most of them previously studied at the college run by Mr. Karl.” With her ability to have a highly retentive memory, she had no need to prepare any data for the report beforehand, a point which made Roland feel very envious. “Forty-six of them choose to go to work in the City Hall, twenty-one people decided to go to the bicycle factory, thirteen people decided to join the First Army,” pausing for a moment she continued, “There are also five applicants for a post at the chemical laboratory.”
Five people? Roland could not help but look over towards Kyle Sichi, merely to see the latter’s complexion clearly didn’t appear to be that good. It seems that the propaganda effect of the Honor and Award Ceremony is far less than I expected. I’m afraid that some parts of the three recently created laboratories are going to have to lie idle in the near future.
Fortunately, the employment rate is at least at one hundred percent; Roland tried to comfort himself.
Chapter 269 The first plenary session (Part 2)
When it was the Ministry of Chemical Industry’s turn, Kyle snorted, “Your Royal Highness, I hope you can find the real head of this department as soon as possible, I do not want to attend this kind of meeting for a second time.”
“…” Roland secretly rolled his eyes, after becoming a leader, he had discovered that it was important for him to selectively ignore words sometimes. Is it that easy to find a person who has talent for both alchemy and chemistry? “Do you have any idea how to mass produce the two acids?”
“No,” Kyle shrugged his shoulders, “And because of that, I have to spend more energy and staff on researching this topic, so rather than sitting here and wasting my time.” After spending such a long time in Border Town, he had also acquired some of Roland’s vocabulary, “In case you insist that I should give an account, I can only say that the laboratory is lacking personal, the more people that come to us, the better. In addition, regarding the recently five added people, although they aren’t as old, they can still be counted as clever, it seems that the Primary Education you implemented is still somewhat useful.”
Well, the person with the most disrespectful way of talking was probably the chief alchemist. However, taking each other’s age into account, and the degree of enthusiasm he showed for chemical experiments, Roland did not feel any resentment towards him for this. It was also important to remember that after going through the explosion and after being completely healed by Nana, his first and largest reaction was that he was glad that he could now conduct experiments without the slightest of scruple, and then even planned to taste the different flavors of the acids, who other than he would have such a fanatical enthusiasm to their work?
“All right… you will continue to research, and I’ll have Barov think of a method to fill in the staff shortage.”
“Oh, by the way, Your Highness,” Kyle opened his mouth again. “Were you able to compile your ‘Intermediate Chemistry’? If you could give me some details, maybe I can think of a method for the large-scale production earlier.”
“I already said at the Honor and Award Ceremony, so long as you train enough apprentices and assistants to fill the new laboratories, I will give you the book,” Roland said, spreading his hand out towards him. In fact, at present, he had not written even the first line. Just the Elementary Chemistry had already consumed all his knowledge of chemistry. He already feared, that even if he racked his brain for it, he would still be unable to fill more than a few pages of the Intermediate Chemistry.
The fourth person to report was Karl van Bate, who was from the Ministry of Construction.
“First of all, I want to thank Miss Scroll,” Karl said, as he nodded towards Scroll, “I’m really glad to hear that the children I’ve taught were able to graduate smoothly.”
Compared to the chief alchemist, the stonemason’s communication skills could be said to be as different as the sky to the earth. Scroll nodded in return before replying with, “I should be the one thanking you.”
Then Karl opened the records he was carrying with him and in a methodical manner began to describe: “At present, the town’s projects are steadily advancing. The main projects are the Kingdom Avenue, the Redwater Bridge, the new residential area and the new city wall. The amount of people working on the construction of the Kingdom Avenue has already reached four thousand five hundred people, half of them have come from Longsong Stronghold and according to current predictions, they should be finished by spring next year. Regarding the status of the Redwater Bridge, currently they are still carrying out the construction of the underground concrete wall. The residential district is already extending to the old city wall, and there are currently approximately one thousand people busy constructing it. As long as the supply of the cement and bricks are ensured, it should be possible to complete the task of moving all the eastern refugees into town before the arrival of the Months of Demons.”
Since Karl usually informed Roland on a daily basis about the recent developments of the projects, his report this time was very simple. He didn’t even mention matters such as the expansion of the castle area and the construction of the witch dorm. And after deciding on a good position for the new city wall, it was being constructed by Lotus herself, with a daily progress of approximately one hundred meters.
“You’ve worked hard,” Roland nodded, the Ministry of Construction, regardless of whether it was the staff or the amount of allocated funds, was the department with the largest amounts. Therefore, its achievements were also the greatest. “Those handymen coming from Longsong Stronghold, besides speeding up the construction they are also promoting Border Town’s preferential treatment policy. Furthermore, after a year of work, those handymen can be regarded as qualified craftsmen, and so the number of people who want to go back should be kept to as little as possible.”
“Yes, Your Royal Highness,” Karl agreed.
“Then the next one… is Iron Axe.”
It was Iron Axe’s first time participating in this kind of meeting, and so he seemed to be a little out of place. He cleared his throat, “Your Royal Highness, the army has two main things it wishes to report. First of all, the Second Army has completed their basic training, and they are now ready to be sent to the Longsong Stronghold. And secondly, in the wake of adding new blood, the First Army now has eight hundred and twenty-five people. Putting aside the three hundred and fifty people of the artillery team, the rest of the soldiers have all been equipped with revolving rifles. That’s all I have to say.” Then finished his report with a military salute.