Release that Witch

He didn’t have much preparation work to do, his biggest job was to remove the obstructions placed in the town square, and instead to put a pile of wood at the center. In addition, they had built tables out of stone, used to carry the barbecued food. Yes, this was the plan Roland had come up with – a combination of campfire with a wild barbecue.

Roland had long thought about the problem, how to increase the people’s sense of belonging to Border Town. After a long life working under their previous lord, the concept of status and nationality was set too deep within these rural and illiterate villagers. Only their property and the lives of their family were of their concern. The more backward the people were, the more short-sighted they would become, this was a law for the development of civilization, “Civilization can only be as big as the greatest ideas of it’s people,” Roland thought deeply.

But this does not mean that lifting their spirits could be ignored, and this victory celebration was one of the methods he had figured out to transform their thinking.

In fact, he found it hard to understand that there was no general celebration after the end of the Months of Demons. Facing the invasion from the demonic beasts once in a year was just like a natural disaster. To overcome such evil was naturally worthy of remembering.

So he had decided to name the first day after the end of the Months of Demons as “Victory Day”. So that within all of the territory belonging to him, this day had now become a public holiday, on which many kinds of celebrations were held. As long as he was able to do it for three to four years, this kind of celebration would become a tradition and would even later carry on without Roland. And with time the people would gradually feel that their own and other people under the governance of the Lord was indeed differently.

Even so, it wasn’t noon yet, the square was still full of people. The members of the militia were lined around the pile of wood so that no other could come near it.

It seemed that the free distribution of food was quite attractive, I think that at least half of the town’s inhabitants had come, Roland thought. In the end, more than one thousand people stood side by side, filling up the complete square beside the woodpile, there was no place for any other activities. He even discovered that some children had climbed up on the roof of the surrounding buildings so that they had a free look of everything.

Since it was their first time with this celebration, there were still some shortcomings. Roland thought that it was now the right time to enter the stage and to hold his speech.

This was now his second public speech he had held on this square, thanks to this his attitude was much calmer than the last time.

“My people, good afternoon. I’m the fourth Prince of Graycastle, Roland Wimbledon.” He still used the same introduction as last time, but today its effect was completely differently than it was the last time. His voice hadn’t fallen yet, but the crowd already cheered, “Long live the Prince, His Royal Highness!” “Long live His Highness!”

Roland suddenly felt a kind of warmth spreading through his chest, this time, he hadn’t arranged for any propaganda from his own people. So when he heard the spontaneous cheers from his own militia and the townspeople, he felt a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in his heart.

When their voices finally calmed down a little, he continued, “The Months of the Demons is finally over! Thanks to the militia’s heroic struggle, the demonic beasts weren’t able to cross the wall one step. This year Border Town had only to pay a very small price to fight off the demonic beasts. This proves that, as long as we unite, even if we don’t rely on the power of Longsong Stronghold, we can still get a foothold here! They wanted to threaten our town with food, the fear of hunger and cold, trying to force us to yield. But today’s victory told them, that all this was futile! “

“Right, I do not want to go back to that place anymore!”

“With His Royal Highness, we don’t need to fear a day of hunger during the winter!”

“At last they cannot blackmail us any longer, His Royal Highness is too kind!”

“Let us celebrate this splendid and glorious triumph together,” Roland shouted, taking advantage of the rising emotions within the crowd.