Capítulo 30: The Wheels Turn
The winter's first rainfall finally ended, lasting for two days.
Surging with emotion, Roland didn't know how to describe his present situation and could only quietly watched at Nightingale and Nana who waved their hands from the back of the carriage. As he waved back, he smiled at what seemingly blown out of control situation.
They went away with the four-wheeled four-in-hand, to the witches cooperation association camp. The situation with the carriage attracted a lot of attention, the grand display made a grand noise.
Unlike in big cities, the use of carriages was generally limited, especially to a small town like Border Town that primarily used the Redwater River to transport things. But besides the occasional wagons the travelling merchants used, the town folks actually had a use for such thing, and that was to transport ores from the mine.
However, such carriage was naturally different than what the townfolks used to see. Just the size alone showed it was on another level. But it was not this that made a spectacle, but rather the possibility stemmed from it.
In Border Town, there were only two known occasions where there might be such carriage, and subsequently a train of such carriages heading from or to the town. One was during the start of the months of the demons, where nobles with some assets were seen fleeing from Border Town to Longsong Stronghold, and the other one was when they came back.
Both occasions would always make Border Town residents feeling sad and horrible. Although it was not snowing yet, the temperature was getting colder with each passing day and they can't help thinking along the line. The carriages were usually the clue, they would soon have to pack their belongings and took refuge to Longsong Stronghold, despite the tragedy still lingering vividly in the memories of the survivors.
Initially, the four-wheeled carriage brought over from King's city indeed served the same purpose. It had been rusting for months in the castle backyard as it was not being used and Roland had been wondering whether he should transform it into something like cargo to help speed up the wall project.
After a brief discussion with Barov and Karl, he decided against it after he had seen that while the people involved were a lot, most of the use for carriage were to bring stones and some other materials, which had a rather slow output. They had a lot of free carriages now considering the mine had yet to be repaired, so what they had for the job were more than enough. He later complimenting that perhaps he should sell it, but he ended up parking it for unexpected situation saved the luxurious ornaments onboard.
The now bare carriage was not like the usual ones seen in Border Town, it was the biggest there for a reason that it had a rather spacious inside that could carry up to eight adult passengers. It worked well just right for the expedition.
After his talk with Nightingale, he made an immediate meeting with craftsmen to add some modifications to it, including a movable cover above. With that, it could ensure extra protection over the sun or rain for the passengers.
The greatest change, however, was the steering. Roland applied Ackerman steering geometry to the setting of the wheels, something that took him a whole day to instruct the craftsmen before it could be said a finished product.
Just as he thought before, the technology here was not very advanced and like in his first impression, it was most likely similar to the late medieval period in term of advancement. Since he wasn't that knowledgeable in western history, he couldn't say much what's supposed to be in there. However he could see that the application of his modern knowledge might be simple in nature, it could still boost the developments here by much, just because the people here had yet to think about it and played with the idea.
The slow progress was quite common in the past, and only in modern society that things could move fast enough to make some people actually get left behind. Roland knew that, and a good example of that was the Ackerman geometry he used for the carriage. It was a model that rose from an idea in the late eighteenth century and only came to be in the early nineteenth century, nearly half a century gap before it could be realized from the start.
For something relatively distant for the year that he lived before, it was still a base for many modern developments. In fact, it still had its use due to its fairly simple yet effective setting.
As for why he didn't go with what modern cars typically used, it was simply because he didn't know. The reason Roland could bring it was partially thanks to the design not needing much complexity and the fact he had the experience listening about it being talked about in detail.
The principle in which the two front wheels turn about a centre that lies on the extended line of the back axle was already pushing the imagination limit of the people here that it took a lot of tries to get it right. For now, it was already good enough that it could slightly reduce the burnt from bumps and minimalized the danger of overturning. They needed speed, but more important than that was safety.
The introduction of the innovation was something that only came up to the table at that point of time because he wanted to support Nightingale, yet she was not alone returning to the camp. It can be seen how the situation had developed into something he didn't expect.
It can be said that it became like that because Roland didn't keep quiet about the issue, so the young witches Anna and Nana learned about it later. Not only them but also Barov and Carter, even Tyre. What surprised him that in the end, Nightingale would be accompanied by Nana and her father, also Carter and Tyre. The combination of people inside was weird enough for Roland to sweat over, but it's already a done deal now that the carriage went off to the camp.
He had packed them more sandwiches than they could eat. All he wished that things went as he hoped, and above all, they would return safely.
Glancing around, a sea of uneasiness still surrounded the area. The town people were getting restless, and the noise didn't die down and instead grew to a higher height. Roland looked at the knights Carter temporarily assigned as his personal bodyguards, he gestured them to start.
Carter and others willingly partook in such risky quest. As the Lord of Border Town, Roland naturally won't stay idle and watched them from behind. He had the thought of going with Nightingale at first, but he was calm to know that all he might be able to would be add chaos to the already dangerous situation.
Therefore, he decided to do what he ought to do.
Roland took his steps to the elevation stand.
When Prince Roland took a stand and greeted the people, the rowdy square nearly exploded. Since Roland didn't dressed extravagantly like typical noble and had a hood that hid his unique characteristic of grey hair, many people had an assumption that the prince was in the carriage, going away and leaving them behind and didn't notice that he was actually standing in front of them the whole time.
The calmer people already knew it shouldn't be like that since the prince was the one that gave an advanced notice which said he would make a speech. It was also the reason the majority of them came to the town square in the first place.
They didn't come here just because they were curious, the prince was generous with his attempt to make them come listening. He offered a piece of bread and a portion of hot soup for every people attending, regardless of whether they were men or women, young or old. There weren't much to do in cold weather and when the mine was still unusable so when people heard the issue, most came in droves.
Barov had arranged many things behind the scene, but not the prince speech. The beardy old man was similarly curious like the residents about what Roland wanted to do, but he was also feeling anxious because there were too many happening lately.
There was that appearance of yet another witch, a young woman called Nightingale. He was still processing why Carter and others followed her to the camp, and although she managed to get Carter approval due to her high skill in combat and the ability to see through deceits that uncovered a lot of rats and hidden agenda, that didn't change it seemed to be a reckless move. Furthermore, with her addition, he couldn't help thinking the prince was going to say something unreasonable like asking his people to accept witches right away very soon.
He was someone experienced, and he could see that while Roland had a lot of novel ideas that made it looked like he was someone that prefer using logical thinking, he was actually very emotionally driven. The witches being innocent, Barov had slowly got used to the idea after seeing Anna and Nana, but it still took him at least a month to accept the possibility.
Barov was someone who had high intellect and could see political manoeuvring behind the religious organisation, he naturally didn't blindly followed the church doctrine and less resistant to prince idea. But it was different from the mass who didn't know what he knew.
Although Border Town didn't have a church and people in charge of spreading such teaching, it was not without roots already planted. Ironically, the stonemason Karl Van Bate who now despised them thoroughly was once the person that covered their education the best in town. Karl had been elevated to be the centrepiece for the prince's wall project as the direct supervisor and couldn't attempt to reverse his teaching as he had no time to waste.
He looked at Roland who was coughing with a fist covering his mouth as if clearing his throat and then looked at some of the undercovers he prepared in the midst of the crowd. Unconsciously raising his head to the sky, Barov hoped that the prince wouldn't say anything crazy this time.
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