Messenger

Roland wanted to lead the girls to the dining hall to finally have a normal warm dinner but Anna stopped him.

"Your Highness, a messenger with letter arrived from Longsong Stronghold just today. I tried my best to take the letter so you can see it yourself once you come back however the messenger strictly said that he needs to deliver the letter to your hands personally, therefore I could only come up with a few excuses. Thankfully you came back so quickly." Anna said with a slightly apologetic expression.

"Good job, you did everything you could. I am really curious what's this letter all about. Can you please lead the girls to my office, I will try to resolve it quickly so we can have dinner together." Roland put his hand on the top of her head to reassure her.

"Yes!"

"I will come with you, if you don't mind" Nightingale said before disappearing into a fog. Roland didn't say anything so she assumed that he doesn't mind.

Roland went to meet the messenger who by a coincidence was also the same person who came here to resolve the trade between Border Town and Longsong Stronghold.

...While the girls were waiting in his office, looking around curiously aside from Anna and Nana who were already used to being here, and Wendy who had some reserves not to invade someone's privacy.

"*Anna, don't you think Nightingale was a bit different? I am aware that she and Roland are used to fooling around, however, she never crossed the line of physical contact, at least not in front of others. Also, the way she was looking at him from behind was also different, you should be careful Anna!*" Nana whispered to Anna who looked confused by her words.

"It was just a regular hug, we have done it with His Highness several times already. It just shows that Nightingale is finally comfortable around him and trusts him!" Anna said with a cheerful smile, making Nana shake her head with a disappointed expression.

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When Roland finished reading the letter, his eyes were already dangerously narrow.

'The king is dead, Gerald is the killer and will soon be executed and Timothy is going to be crowned in several months? So much information yet not much of it makes any sense.'

"The battle for the crown is over, please head back to King City as soon as possible" The messenger named Petrov said with a slightly nervous expression.

"Hee?" Roland put the letter down and looked at Petrov with a smile which slightly scared him since Roland was smiling right after reading about his father's death.

"I will send a messenger to "His Grandiose Majesty". You may tell Duke Ryan that it might take some time until I leave, after all, it is still the months of the demons. We wouldn't want any demonic beasts to attack me on the way, right?" Roland said, not even trying to hide his mocking tone.

"A-alright, I have done my part, I will be going now if you excuse me, Your Highness" Petrov felt awkward so he just wanted to leave as soon as possible and Roland just called for a maid to see him out.

"Are you alright?" Nightingale appeared, standing behind his chair, and asked with a concerned tone.

"Is it about the letter? We have never been close, to begin with. As for the situation with Longsong Stronghold?" Roland said before pausing.

"Hahaha, I am feeling fantastic! I have been thinking that the manpower we have right now is nowhere near to develop this town. Duke Ryan has been a thorn in my side and I have been thinking about how to force him to take action against me, however, he would never make a move while the battle for the crown was still ongoing but now? What do you think will happen in case I will refuse to go back? Haha." Roland laughed with hand over his face, despite the nature of the news, they were very good news for him.

"The reason why Duke Ryan sent this messenger was also to say 'Go back to where you came from' He must be so pissed that I stopped trading ores with him but he couldn't do anything about it, however now a chance he has been waiting for has shown itself." Roland explained and Nightingale couldn't help but force a smile, seeing him in such high spirits.

"You really are a manipulative person, do you know that?!" She said with a smile.

"Yet you still like me" Roland turned to her and replied with a wink.

"W-what?" She was caught off guard by his words and her cheeks turned slightly red.

"Ah...sorry, I didn't mean it literally. I heard that the close people say that to each other when the one says about the other something not very nice yet the truth.

"I-It just caught me off guard, anyway, you really are happy" Nightingale said with a genuine smile, feeling glad that Roland's mood was great.

'Still, it's probably just a lie that Gerald killed father. To be honest, even the idea of Timothy killing his father seems slightly unbelievable. Was this really a simple plot from Timothy? Maybe if it was Garcia herself, then I would have no problem believing that she is the real killer, however, the entire battle for the crown seems like such a stupid idea. Skirmishes between us are completely unavoidable so why would the king practically order for the civil war? The Kingdom of Graycastle is the strongest of all but that can easily change after such a civil war, his actions don't make any sense. It looks like I will have to put more attention to this issue.' Roland thought.

With the messenger gone, he went with Nightingale to take the girls to the dining hall where they had warm and delicious food. Lightning kept asking him about the blueprints in his office but most of them were still unfinished so he couldn't really say much.

"Let's toast to new members joining us today." Roland said and raised his glass of wine.

However, when he saw Nana, Lightning, Airy, and Abby taking the glass of wine into their hand his eyes widened in panic.

"Aaah, no one under 18 years old is allowed to drink alcohol!" Roland almost shouted while pointing at them.

"Eh? But we will be 18 in a few days!" Airy and Abby both said at the same time.

"The regulations are here for the reason, we can toast later to your survival and you may join in that day." Roland winked at them when he saw them pouting but they still put the glasses down.

"I can hold my liquor, Your Highness!" Lightning said firmly, visibly displeased by this regulation.

"Yeah, that's always what those who assault someone later say. I would be glad to find out in the morning that I am still the only one in my bed so please refrain from drinking." Roland said with a stern face but his tone wasn't really matching his serious expression.

Nana after listening to them put the glass down while looking at it as if it was poisoned.

Red Pepper looked at the glass filled with wine in her hand and then around the table, after seeing the peaceful looks on everyone's faces, a smile appeared on her face. Even Wendy was smiling, feeling that Roland was quite responsible if not a little bit strict by denying Abby and Airy a little sip despite being almost 18. Still, she could sense that Roland meant it as encouragement telling them to survive so they can all drink together.

'He really is-' Wendy thought before shaking her head to stop the train of her thoughts and instead she just looked at him with a warm smile.

After the dinner, Anna led everyone with satisfied faces to their new rooms. Nightingale remained next to Roland and Airy and Abby were now sitting in front of his desk in his office.

"So what exactly are your powers? We need to start using them as soon as possible to make your day of adulthood as painless as we can." Roland said and started with Abby.

"Well, I can make things turn quiet for some time. Usually, I didn't go over an hour but it takes a small amount of magic to do it. It wasn't very useful therefore I rarely used my powers." Abby explained with a nervous expression, thinking that Roland might find it useless too.

"That's amazing! Please use it on this." Roland exclaimed and put the revolver on the desk. Abby used her magic and then nodded her head to Roland.

Roland opened the window behind him and shot once before closing the window. The revolver certainly didn't make a single sound but the recoil was still there. It was quite bizarre but he already knew how to make use of Abby's ability.

"I can control insects however I cannot communicate with it...mostly" Airy said what her ability is with the same nervous expression.

"Mostly?" Roland questioned her last words.

"It's...I feel like I can communicate with them to some extent but it takes a lot of concentration plus it's very hard to achieve it. They also take mostly simple commands, go from point A to point B. I can't order them to go find somebody and then inform me where they are." Airy explained.

"That's good, to be honest, your ability is truly enviable." Roland said with a smile.

"Really?" Airy asked skeptically.

"Of course, you can be supporting witch who helps developing the town however you can also become a battle oriented witch! Insects are extremely strong if they are united under someone who commands them all. Obviously, against someone like Anna who can scorch everything around her, they wouldn't stand a chance but everything has its weaknesses and strong points." Roland explained before telling them to get some sleep since tomorrow they will be using their magic till the exhaustion and each day like this until their day of adulthood.

'I will definitely have to buy a book about insects for Airy. Maybe by studying them, she will come to enlightenment. She will also know which insect to use in which situation. As for Abby, she can use her power on the steam engines since they are still very loud and if built near the residential area, they would be only causing trouble. This way, I can postpone its upgrade and focus on some more pressing matters such as Duke Ryan. I will inform Karl to start building bunkers next to the road that leads to the Longsong Stronghold. Since no one knows what they are, most of the people will think they are just some houses, the same for the possible scouts from the Longsong Stronghold' Roland thought with closed eyes and content smile.