RELEASE THAT WITCH

Chapters 301-310

Chapter 301 Bomb and Wine

The day after the witches from Sleeping Island moved into their new home, Roland called City Hall Premier Minister Barov to his office.

"I want you to issue another recruitment notice," Roland said, while he pushed the first draft of details in front of Barov, "A week long temporary job for about ten people, preferably women."

Barov picked up the paper, read it again before asking. "Your Highness, excuse me... what is starch?"

"Do you know about wheat flour?"

The Premier minister hesitated, "Are you referring to coarse powder or fine powder? Wheat grains, after grinding, can be baked into bread or wheat cake. And if instead of using it you go a step further and filter out the bran, you get a fine powder. The output of the latter is only 6 / 10 of the former, and bread baked with it is softer, but its price is also very high, so only powerful aristocratic families are able to afford it."

The thing Roland liked the most about Barov, was that he had a comprehensive understanding concerning goods from all categories. Food shortage as a result of the lagging agriculture could mean something completely different depending on the consumer's social class. For example, with the frequently seen wheat, civilians would often put the wheat grains directly into their pot and cook congee, this way making the most out of their limited food. However, sometimes wheat shells and sand would also land in the boiling pot which results in crackling sounds and cause tooth pains whenever they ate.

Small aristocrats paid particular attention to this and would order people to sieve the sand and stones out of the wheat grain. Then they would grind it into a coarse powder, and bake it into bread or pancake before eating.

And at the top of the hierarchy, the wealthy families and powerful aristocrats, who didn't look at food as a mere way to fill their stomachs, but rather, as something to be enjoyed. The wheat would be further sieved in the kitchen, removing the bran, to get fine white powder. The resulting baked bread was of yellowish cream color and when eaten not only tasted exquisite but also had a much sweeter flavor.

"The basis of starch is a fine powder which then goes through another purifying process," Roland explained. "After you hire the people, I'll send someone who will instruct them on what exactly we need them to do."

"Then, continue to process?" Barov couldn't stop himself shouting out loud in shock, "How much wheat will they be needing for this?"

"I do not need too much, only three or four hundred kilograms ..." Roland paused, before opening his mouth again, "Fill up a basket that is about the size of my table."

Barov nodded and asked further, "Why do they need to be woman?"

"Because they will do things more carefully. Moreover, I want to see more woman following the path of a worker, instead of being idle at home," Roland, suddenly had an idea, so he asked, "At present, it seems that the education of Border Town's women's classes are progressing more quickly, right?

"Although the head of the Ministry of Education is Lady Scroll, the situation is indeed like this. They can't do much more than taking care of the children and do housework, so they spend most of their time increasing their reading and writing skills."

"That being the case, I request that after the next round of examination, you will take the lead for the City Hall and recruit a batch of female apprentice, in that way gradually expanding the proportion of women posts," Roland commanded.

"Your Highness, this... there is no precedent for it," Barov complained. "If they only have to be careful, my apprentice aren't worse than any woman."

"If there is no precedent we have to create one," Roland bluntly said. "This is also the easiest and quickest way to increase the labor force without expanding the total population. If all woman can take on a small task in building Border Town, my available staff will double. The only thing I'm asking you to do is to lead people to change their view. As long as the pay is attractive, I think they should come over on their own one by one."