The next day, Roland walked into his office humming and found that Wendy was already there waiting for him. "What"s the matter?" He stepped over the messy pile of books on the floor and poured her a cup of tea.
"Congratulations, there"s a new witch in Border Town." She smiled and told him about everything that happened in the past few days. "If you need, I can summon Summer to the castle anytime."
"The first witch awakened in my territory... She’s also the first witch recruited after my public recruitment notice." Roland"s face was instantly lit up, but when he heard the second half of the sentence, he asked curiously, "Isn"t she in the castle right now?"
"No, because Nightingale wasn"t there to verify her ident.i.ty." Wendy repeated what Scroll insisted. "We sent her home and paid the first month"s salary in advance."
"That wasn"t a bad idea." Roland nodded. "Tell her to come and sign the contract this afternoon."
"Yes, my lord..." responded Wendy, who was obviously dying to say something else.
"What"s the matter?"
"Aren"t you angry about people"s opinions towards you and the Witch Union? Also..." she paused for a while before saying through gritted teeth, "Also, my ability might not be suitable for leading the Witch Union. Scroll is more experienced and mature than I am, so I think she should be in charge."
"I"m sure you also brought this up to Scroll?" asked Roland with great interest. "And then she told you that you were the best candidate?"
"Huh?"
"I guess I was right..." He sighed. "And I feel the same way. Administration techniques and methods can be learned through experience, but personality is much harder to change. Haven"t you realized that the most loved member of the witches, besides Maggie, is you? Also, Scroll is mostly in charge of the education department and will only be busier in the future, so she won"t have much time to communicate with the new witches, which happens to be your strength. You should give yourself more credit. I"m an excellent judge of character."
Before Wendy could answer, the prince continued, "As for the misconceptions that civilians have towards the Witch Union, I really have overlooked them. I never thought that this body... no, my previous reputation would spread all over the kingdom." He pondered for a while. "I must fix this rumor as quickly as possible. On top of further advertis.e.m.e.nt, I also think it"s best for the organization to run independently."
"Run... independently?"
"Yes, I want to turn it into a department, just like the City Hall." Roland had considered this issue before. There were only around a dozen witches in the Union now, so he still could manage all of them. However, if it expanded to hundreds of members or were on a scale as big as the Holy City of Taquila with thousands of witches in it, he obviously couldn"t handle them all alone. They needed to establish a governing system that could operate independently and a.s.sign witches to different positions, and he would only serve to give suggestions based on their abilities and evolution.
After he explained his thoughts to her, Wendy said hesitantly, "But there"re hundreds of people in City Hall, while there"re only about a dozen sisters, and they all have their own issues to tend to... Also, how would this change the citizens" opinions toward us?"
"Rumors are like fear because they both come from the unknown. The town residents can accept witches because they personally experience the benefits that Nana and Lily bring," Roland said with a smile. "Allowing commoners to join the Witch Union will not only solve the issue of insufficient staff, but also help the people better understand this organization—voluntary promotion through the people themselves will definitely help improve the people"s impression of witches, and your work and contributions to the town will be well-known by the public."
Just like how academies of sciences didn"t just hire scientists, a great number of commoners were required for daily errands, administrative duties, and research organization. If he wanted the witches to be accepted by all the people, he would need them to understand each other better, so placing witches and commoners in each other"s lines of work made sense.
"I see." Wendy nodded. "This is a pretty good idea. But how do we select these people?"
"Since you"ll be operating independently, you"ll also have to do your own recruiting and screening." Roland stroked his chin. "You can ask Countess Spear about this, because she should be pretty good at constructing an organization centered around witches. However, there"re only a few members in the Witch Union, so you can start by hiring an a.s.sistant or staff member as practice. After the Months of Demons, I"ll build a new building next to the City Hall, which you can use as the base for the Witch Union."
He didn"t mention that since it was the Witch Union, they wouldn"t only be in charge of the Witches in Western Region or Kingdom of Graycastle. If he could build the right infrastructure, the Union would be able to immediately cooperate with the witch organizations of all the kingdoms he absorbed.
"I got it." Wendy inhaled deeply. "If you have decided to give me this task, I"ll try my best to carry it out."
...
After Wendy left, Roland continued to organize the books from yesterday.
Looking at the pages scattered all over the floor, he couldn"t help thinking of last night"s fiery and pa.s.sionate kiss. Anna"s fragrant hair, sparkling eyes, and soft body made him tingle with excitement. Although she once burned all of her clothes to the ground without any hesitation when she first met him, he had not been as tremulous as he was then.
It was probably because she was still a helpless little girl back then, and now she was a strong and beautiful woman—in only a year, she had changed so much.
"Maybe I should take the initiative and respond to her..." Roland"s thoughts were interrupted when his hands touched someone else"s finger, and he realized that Nightingale was handing a book to him. "Let me help you."
"Um..." Roland paused with a start. Last night, when Anna followed him into his office and embraced him, he didn"t notice if Nightingale had also followed them into the room from the banquet.
"Don"t worry, I left immediately last night and didn"t stick around to be the third wheel." Nightingale rolled her eyes. "I guessed that after having not seen you for a long time, she would throw herself at you—she never represses her emotions."
"Is... that so?"
With Nightingale"s help, the books were quickly organized and put on the shelves, filling up each vacancy.
"Alright..." Roland stuffed the last book into a remaining vacancy on the shelves. "Thank you."
"Alas. How long are you going to drag this on for? Don"t make her wait forever..."
Roland paused and turned around. Nightingale had already disappeared, but her final words still echoed in his ears. Although her voice was very low, he was certain about what he heard.
"... and don"t make me wait forever either."