Chapter 356 (1/2)
Chapter 356: 「152！」
Translator: Meh/TransN Editor: – –
Weapons that enable civilians to defeat Extraordinaries?
After Wendy left, Agatha kept mulling over this phrase. Did they truly know what an Extraordinary was?
Unfortunately, she did not have a Stone of Measuring with her to clearly determine the powers and types of these witches.
After waiting for an annoyingly long time, Nightingale appeared in her doorway. “His Highness invites you to view his new weaponry tests. If you don’t want to go…”
“I’ll go,” she mumbled. “Please lead the way.”
When she saw Prince Roland still groggy and yawning, Agatha had a sudden impulse to dump ice chips onto him to wake him up. However, this move would probably cause some misunderstandings with the other witches, so she could only think about it to herself.
As they left the castle, she saw the entirety of the town in broad daylight for the first time.
With the snow as a backdrop, the first impression that leaped into her mind was order—all the two-story houses stood in clean rows and had exactly the same appearance, with matching white silhouettes and red tile roofs. The black roads were all straight as an arrow, splitting the town into equal square sections. Looking into the distance, the scenery seemed to be continuous layers of houses, trees and streets and so on.
Even Taquila’s Inner City could never be this orderly!
But she felt there was something about the town that couldn’t compare to her city. Except the castle, there were no buildings worth a second glance in this town. Even the castle itself could not compare to Taquila’s Quest Tower in grandiosity.
“After all, it’s only a small town.” Agatha scoffed inwardly and turned to Nightingale. “How many people live here?”
“Um… There used to be only a little over 2,000, but now, with the refugees from the North and South, there’re almost 30,000.”
“There were only 2,000, and he claimed to defeat demons. What a stupid… hold on, 30… 30,000?” Agatha widened her eyes in shock. Even in its prime, Taquila could only accommodate 50,000 people. Could this tiny place hold 30,000? She wasn’t counting the populations of the surrounding villages, right?
Although these square brick houses did seem to have a larger capacity than wooden bungalows, the increase of population wasn’t merely a simple addition of numbers. After the population reached a certain point, demands on the city would also increase exponentially. Firstly, the demand for food and water would increase dramatically. Secondly, there would be more public safety issues following an increase in slums. Finally, even waste disposal would become a difficult issue.
Towards the end of the Second Battle of Divine Will, Taquila faced all of these issues—following the collapse of many major cities, more and more people flocked to the Holy City. Overpopulation did not strengthen the city’s defense, but instead paralyzed the entire city. The Union had to forcefully remove a group of refugees to settle the crisis.
After experiencing this firsthand, Agatha knew how difficult the growth of population was. As she observed her companion’s casual demeanor, she somewhat distrusted her. Perhaps Nightingale had no idea what she was talking about and was simply lying to her.
“I should ask Wendy these kinds of questions in the future, ” she thought. “At least she seemed more sincere.”
After crossing the crowded city streets, Agatha followed the prince and his group onto a city wall made of mud. This kind of short city wall was far from lofty and sturdy. There were no barbs on the surface of the wall, nor was there a moat surrounding it. Demons wouldn’t even need machines to climb this wall as they could do so bare-handedly.
She became more disappointed in her heart.
Every hundred steps or so, there were protrusions of flat platforms on the top of the wall, which seemed to be prepared for ballistas. It didn’t take a long walk along the wall for Agatha to see the weapon being tested that day.
Its appearance was so unique that it commanded everyone’s attention.