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[Assistant] It was vastly different to anywhere she had ever been. And if there was one thing that impressed her most, it was the unparalleled vitality which the town radiated.


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[Assistant] Even the newly developed sleeping island could not compare. Are these people not afraid of the cold?


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[Assistant] Watching people on the street come and go, Enduria asked curiously, What's it that your brother promised them for them to be willing to work on this cold winter day? It's still mid-autumn, ashes shrugged her shoulders. You can't even tell the seasons apart? There isn't much difference from winter.


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[Assistant] I was merely using an analogy, which is a technique that is regularly used in the book Her Dream, His Nation Not. And Erlia elegantly lifted up her long hair. Of course, barbarians will never understand. What's that your dream my dream book?


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[Assistant] Dearie me, it's simply difficult to talk to a barbarian who has never appreciated theater.


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[Assistant] I'm sure Lady Tilly has watched this famous play which originated from the Kingdom of Dawn. Quit bickering, you too. Silvio let out a sigh. I imagine that the reason is simple indeed.


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[Assistant] Most commoners refuse to work in winter because energy consumption is high while they are short on food and susceptible to catch a cold.


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[Assistant] However, these problems don't exist in border town.


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[Assistant] Over here, the price of food is inexpensive, there is more than sufficient firewood, and Miss Lily is able to treat chills and colds.


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[Assistant] Therefore, people are able to continue working hard despite the wind and snow. A day's work for a day's pay, after all.


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[Assistant] I can understand why firewood is sufficient. Mist forest is just over to the west, and there are woods in the surrounding as well. But the low prices of food, how is that possible?


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[Assistant] And earlier asked questioningly, my family was involved in the food business before and whenever natural disasters or other factors caused poor harvests the prices of food would go through the roof.


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[Assistant] When there is bad weather, don't the nobles and merchants here raise prices? Nobles? Merchants? Silvio chuckled silently.


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[Assistant] Over here, only one person controls the food business, and that's none other than His Highness Roland. Are the fields along the river all his? Tilly frowned. No, those belong to the serfs.


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[Assistant] Silvio gave an account of everything that she had seen and heard about the town and described the scene during a bumper harvest. Roland sets the buying and selling prices of food.


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[Assistant] After the weed is collected, it requires threshing, grinding, and storing.


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[Assistant] These processes are costly and therefore it is perfectly normal for prices to be increased. Lady Tilly's right. I only understood after consulting teacher scroll. Sylvia laughed.


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[Assistant] She said that after these extra expenses are collected, they can either be distributed as wages to the workers who process the wheat, be used to build a new granary, or to expand the scale of production. These provide the town with new.


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[Assistant] Perhaps yes, but the prices which his highness sets are largely affordable.


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[Assistant] If these prices never change, the people are able to feel at ease.


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[Assistant] Sometimes, freedom doesn't represent the best state of affairs. Tilly said with a sigh.


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[Assistant] She had made sense of the purpose behind Roland's measures.


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[Assistant] Prohibiting other people from selling food may seem dictatorial and unjust, but in practice, it eliminates hoarding and profiteering and therefore is effective in preventing prices from skyrocketing during a food shortage.


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[Assistant] Taking King's City for example, if snow falls in autumn unexpectedly, the prices of food will inflate by a factor of five or six, and more than half of the commoners will starve.


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[Assistant] If this persists for a long period of time, the people may start to riot, and the only solution then would be either sending relief grain from the palace or mobilizing the guards.


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[Assistant] In either case it will come at a significant cost to the National Treasury.


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[Assistant] Although Roland's policy looks impressive, it's not implementable just anywhere.


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[Assistant] In most places, the people controlling the food business are the nobility and wealthy who own many surfs and fields.


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[Assistant] Therefore, the royalty is unable to hard buy the food produced by these people or prohibit them from hoarding the food.


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[Assistant] However, in Border Town, with the exception of Roland Wimbledon himself, there is no other noble family, and therefore he is able to have the final say on all matters.


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[Assistant] After Tilly provided her opinion, Ashes still had a few grievances. What about the serfs?


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[Assistant] When prices of food increase, the serfs will probably be able to earn more income. The fixing of prices prevents them from doing that.


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[Assistant] You speak as if in a city with free trade. These people aren't exploited.


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[Assistant] When there's a bumper harvest of wheat, they not only have to turn in a larger amount of wheat, but even the portion that they keep for themselves will drop to a very low price.


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[Assistant] And when there's a poor harvest, after subtracting the portion that they turn in, the remainder that they have left is insufficient for them to tide over the famine.


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[Assistant] By comparison, having a fixed price is more reasonable.


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[Assistant] It'll always be that the greater the production, the higher the earnings. And over here, they can choose not to be a surf.


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[Assistant] Silvio's words captured the other three witches for a brief moment.


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[Assistant] His Highness has said before that when production output reaches a certain target, surfs can be promoted to free citizens.


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[Assistant] Then, whether to continue working in the fields or choose to find a new job is entirely up to their wishes.


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[Assistant] However, as a free citizen, they'll only need to hand in one-fifth the amount of food they usually do to earn a considerable income if the buying prices of this year's bumper harvest are anything to go by.


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[Assistant] Yes, in fact, during a public speech, His Highness even spoke of his desire to make Border Town a place without serfs in two or three years' time. That explains it. Tilly felt a sudden jolt in her heart.


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[Assistant] This is the reason why the town is so full of vitality.


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[Assistant] When sending policies, Roland took into consideration the views of the citizens and implemented an incentive system which encouraged the people to do more and better, which was completely different from how any other noble lord did.


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[Assistant] Incentive is given not only by way of speech, but by practical means that allow the people to obtain benefits and rewards through hard work.


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[Assistant] The riches of the town are not just stashed away in the castle's underground vaults.


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[Assistant] It was only at that time that she truly understood the meaning of the slogan on the Riverside Red Banner.


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[Assistant] Yet, while in the palace, Roland Wimbledon wasn't a generous person.


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[Assistant] Therefore, could this also be a change brought about by that portion of sudden memory?


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[Assistant] Tilly was also fascinated by the lesson content of the night classes for elementary natural science and mathematics.


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[Assistant] She had thought that after reading through the palace's book collection, there would be little else that could arouse her curiosity and interest. But now, she realized that she still had so much more to learn. A feeling suddenly swelled up in her heart.


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[Assistant] Even if I do nothing but remain in the town castle, flipping through the books that recorded magic knowledge, and at the same time observe the changes happening in the town, it will be immensely pleasurable.


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[Assistant] Suddenly, from the direction of the city wall, a bell started to chime. This was the warning for an attack by demonic beasts. Tilly suppressed her ongoing thoughts.


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[Assistant] It was a pity that she was no longer the free-spirited fifth princess that she used to be, but was now the leader who was responsible for the fates of the witches of Sleeping Island, and therefore she could not simply do what she liked capriciously. Let's head to the city wall and have a look. We may need to give the guards a helping hand. Certainly. And Derlia smiled. This is the real reason why we're here. Let's give them a good look at how witches fight.


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[Assistant] Vanner rushed out of his tent, followed the flow of people rushing towards the city wall, and took up his combat position.


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[Assistant] Since everyone had practiced the process countless times, they knew exactly what to do even without a commander around.


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[Assistant] Just like in last year's Months of Demons, only a small patrol was arranged to guard each section of the city wall in normal times.


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[Assistant] After all, scattered demonic beasts could be taken care of by two or three people.


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[Assistant] It was only when the lookout spotted a large-scale demonic attack that they immediately sounded the alarm.


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[Assistant] A group of shadows was approaching the city wall from the horizon.


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[Assistant] Vanner observed them and estimated the number to be about 1000, thinking, if this happened a year ago, we'll definitely have a tough battle to fight.


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[Assistant] In the past, he, as a pikeman whose responsibility was to earn time for the flintlock squad to load their weapons, had to take turns with the reserve members in order to persevere until the end.


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[Assistant] But now, the forces of Border Town had undergone a massive change.


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[Assistant] Meanwhile, Rodney checked the barrel of the field artillery, and after confirming it was clear of foreign objects, he began to load the ammunition.


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[Assistant] Although the new city wall was built of soil and concrete, it was higher and wider than the old one.


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[Assistant] Moreover, with a shelling platform set every 100 meters on the wall, its defensive fire was greatly improved.


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[Assistant] The city wall was rather wide, allowing four persons to walk side by side.


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[Assistant] During a battle, the flintlock squad was set in the first row and recruit loaders in the second. The latter was responsible for filling cartridges and then handing them over to regular soldiers in front of them. Why can't they just leave us alone?


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[Assistant] Rodney yawned and continued, they frantically run over here during the months of the demons every year.


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[Assistant] Even if they managed to break into border town, they wouldn't benefit much, right?


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[Assistant] They serve as good practice for us, Nelson laughed and said.


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[Assistant] In comparison, it's much more amusing to shoot moving demonic beasts than fixed wooden targets.


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[Assistant] Speaking of shooting practice, I heard of an interesting rumor recently.


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[Assistant] It's something to do with our canon squad, Jobs said mysteriously. What kind of rumor? I heard it from other mortar teams.


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[Assistant] They told me sharp shooters would be put in an elite artillery squad and take on brand new tasks. He paused and asked, does any of you know more about it? An elite artillery squad? You have a nose for news. How do we possibly know more about it than you do? Maybe it was all made up by some raffish person.


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[Assistant] Vander was the only one that remained silent in the mortar team.


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[Assistant] Hearing Job's words, he couldn't help but frown, thinking how imprudent they are to gossip about this.


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[Assistant] A week ago, Lord Iron Ax summoned and told him that his highness planned to develop a new type of cannon, which was totally different from existing field artilleries and would not serve the first army.


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[Assistant] Instead, they would be used to turn ordinary ships into warships with long-distance attack capability.


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[Assistant] Moreover, the best member of the artillery team would be chosen to operate the cannons. Anyone interested could apply to Iron Axe.


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[Assistant] Of course, Vanner agreed straight away since it was obviously a good opportunity for him to get promoted in the army.


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[Assistant] According to Iron Axe, His Highness had high expectations for the new unit, which might even be separated from the first army and become a new army.


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[Assistant] Besides, if anyone managed to make great contributions, warships built in the future might be named after them. What an honor that would be.


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[Assistant] Vanner would feel content for the rest of his life if he could have a warship named after himself.


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[Assistant] Thinking back, although he was merely a common laborer in the mining area, he always believed he could make a name for himself.


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[Assistant] Unfortunately, he failed to save his own younger brother's life in the slum in Wangsong Stronghold.


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[Assistant] But no, he didn't need to brag about anything as he could have decent meals and wear warm uniforms in the army.


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[Assistant] Additionally, every time he went back to his community, his neighbors would take the initiative to say hello to him. All these changes could be attributed to his highness. Originally, he joined the militia for an egg.


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[Assistant] Now it seemed to be the wisest decision he had ever made in his life.


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[Assistant] In addition, Iron Axe also asked Vanner to recommend candidates who may submit their applications together with him.


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[Assistant] In other words, it was equally possible for these young men to get this opportunity to prove their true worth.


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[Assistant] However, in Vanner's eyes, they were too immature right now and thus it was better to wait until they grew more composed.


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[Assistant] Besides, if they actually rendered outstanding service, should the warships be named after them as Jop or Catclaw? It would sound awful. Maybe Rodney and Nelson were better choices.


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[Assistant] As for the matter that some disclosed the news to their subordinates, Vaner thought he should report it to Iron Axe.


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[Assistant] After all, it was clearly set in the regulation training that any piece of news about the First Army must be kept only within the Army.


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[Assistant] No one was allowed to spread it unless explicitly required by their leaders. Stop gossiping. Focus all of your attention on the battlefield.


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[Assistant] As the destructive power of solid iron balls were too low, they didn't start shooting until the demonic beasts came within range.


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[Assistant] When fierce looking demonic wolves crossed the 100 meter line, the shelling started.


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[Assistant] Heat waves rolled up the snow beneath the muzzles and big booms caused acute pains in Vanner's ears.


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[Assistant] In the distance, dark red blood suddenly splashed everywhere with groups of demonic beasts falling to the ground.


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[Assistant] Neither the fur of demonic boars nor that of bears could withstand the damage inflicted by iron balls in short distance. Look at the beast over there. Cat's claw pointed to the front left. It's a red skinned demonic wolf.


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[Assistant] A group of people swiftly moved the gun carriers, adjusted the muzzles to the right direction and loaded them before firing again.


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[Assistant] Theoretically, it was unnecessary for them to aim at any target because as long as they fired, their shots would always cause heavy casualties among the enemy.


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[Assistant] On top of that, the new mud wall was higher than the old stone wall, so demonic wolves wouldn't pose a threat to soldiers on the top.


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[Assistant] Therefore, they targeted these agile demonic beasts first just to practice their shooting skills. Finally, it was the flintlock squad's turn.


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[Assistant] In order to ensure high hit rate, they didn't shoot until demonic beasts were near the 50 meter line.


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[Assistant] Unlike the synchronized sounds of flintlocks, those of revolving rifles were dense and continuous. Wisps of white smoke rose from the top of the city wall.


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[Assistant] Stimulated by the pungent smoke of gunpowder, Vander couldn't help sneezing. Holy crap.


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[Assistant] Cannons decide who win the battle, Rodney agreed and added, whether it is a war against knights or demonic beasts.


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[Assistant] At that moment, a short but sharp chime was sounded from the observation post. It was an early warning for spotting demonic hybrids.


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[Assistant] Judging from their sizes, they should be siege beasts with thick shells. What did I say just now?


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[Assistant] Vanner Grinnon said, It's time for us to show what we can do now. Put in pointed ball ammunition.


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[Assistant] To deal with enemies with strong defensive ability like these, new shells developed by the arms plant can penetrate their shells within the range of about 200 meters.


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[Assistant] If the fight against demonic wolves was deemed as warm exercises, now the official shooting began.


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[Assistant] Andrea had just climbed onto the corner of the city wall when she saw something stunning.


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[Assistant] A row of soldiers in the uniform of the militia was standing on the wall, each of whom held a strange weapon, probably the flintlock that Ash has mentioned.


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[Assistant] As the demonic beasts drew near, the flintlock sprayed flames and smoke, and the sound of gunfire rang constantly in her ears.


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[Assistant] The weapon should be similar to a crossbow, but she couldn't see bolts shot out of it, probably because of all the smoke.


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[Assistant] The demonic beasts rushing to the front seemed to be heavily struck by something because they all suddenly stopped and fell on the ground one after another.


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[Assistant] However, the soldiers didn't stop to observe their shots, nor did they refill bolts into the weapons.


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[Assistant] The shooting speed is indeed fast but the accuracy seems. Ash has interrupted her.


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[Assistant] These people were only miners, farmers, or hunters before they were recruited.


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[Assistant] They have only trained with these weapons for less than six months.


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[Assistant] It takes five years to train a warrior well and longer to train an archer.


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[Assistant] Even for the crossbow, which is easy to operate, it takes about six months of training to at least prevent a farmer from placing the bolt and backwards in panic.


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[Assistant] As for actual combat, who the hell knows what they'll shoot at?


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[Assistant] The Prince will probably just use their size to intimidate the enemies. Andrea gulped in awe. She was no stranger to these trainings.


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[Assistant] Her family used to train outstanding knights, so she understood what it meant to produce qualified soldiers in about six months.


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[Assistant] As long as they had sufficient weapons and food supply, Roland was able to put together a large army in a short time, which didn't have to worry about close-quarter combat because their ceaseless attacks prevented even elite knights from coming into attack range.


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[Assistant] It had nothing to do with the soldier's courage and willpower because the weapons had endowed them with great strength. Do you know anything else about flintlocks? Tilly pondered for a moment and asked Sylvie. Sylvie nodded. I've carefully observed it many times.


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[Assistant] It's indeed similar to the crossbow, but the arrow it fires is very short without any shafts or tail feathers.


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[Assistant] The difference is that the arrow shot by the flintlock is not propelled by an elastic string, but by the impact of exploding black powder, it can bring the shots to an extremely high speed in an instant. Black powder? Ashes asked, what's that? It's probably an alchemic product. Sylvie shook her head. I don't know its specific ingredients. It must be very expensive, Andrea said. Nothing made by alchemists is cheap.


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[Assistant] When the soldiers are shooting, they don't act like they're using something expensive at all.


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[Assistant] Wait a moment, something is coming. Sylvie, who had been observing the battlefield, said in a stunned tone, Oh God, is that also a demonic beast? It's almost as tall as the city wall.


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[Assistant] Those flintlocks may have limited impact on that, but as long as I can get within ten steps of the target, even the city wall can't withstand my magic arrows. Ashes, you cover me. Okay. Ashes took down the sword on her back reluctantly. Let me remind you, you'd better not embarrass Lady Tilly. Don't go! Sylvie tried to stop them. They have. Andrea missed the second half of Sylvie's sentence.


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[Assistant] All she could hear was a deafening roar that sounded like a thunder ringing in her ears.


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[Assistant] Looking back, she saw that those metal tube weapons standing on the city wall were shooting out flames in unison.


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[Assistant] This time she vaguely followed the arrow's trajectories. They were like shadows going at a lightning-fast speed toward the distant beast that had just appeared.


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[Assistant] After a few seconds, columns of snow sprung up near the beast.


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[Assistant] While the snow scattered down, the ugly large demonic beast still proceeded with the same speed. Obviously the round of attack missed the target.


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[Assistant] Despite this, Andrea was already in shock. The shooting distance was much farther than what a longbow and a heavy crossbow could reach. Is this? His Highness calls it field artillery. Simply speaking, it's a magnified flintlock. Sylvie uncovered her ears.


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[Assistant] This weapon is much more powerful than flintlocks and can reach a much farther target.


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[Assistant] His Highness used these to easily defeat Timothy's fleet at the Fork of Redwater River.


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[Assistant] The demonic beast wasn't as lucky in the second round of firing, as two shots accurately landed on the beast's shell.


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[Assistant] After two heavy collision sounds, Andrea clearly saw a layer of mist spring from the beast's bumpy shell and two big holes appear on the shell near the beast's head.


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[Assistant] Black blood and guts spurred out of the holes, splashing everywhere. The fight didn't last long.


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[Assistant] After a short while, piles of demonic beasts' bodies were scattered at the foot of the city wall.


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[Assistant] Warm blood flowed out of their bodies and turned into fog when it touched the snow. The soldiers began to clean up the mess.


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[Assistant] Andrea, on the other hand, hadn't found any chance to use her abilities in the fight.


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[Assistant] It seems my prediction was wrong, Tilly said resignedly. He doesn't need the help from combat witches.


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[Assistant] When I arrived in this town last time, this sort of weapon hadn't been popularized, and they were exclusive to Chief Knight.


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[Assistant] This was probably why his highness insisted on announcing the existence of witches in public despite the pressure from the church. Andrea didn't talk back.


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[Assistant] Normally, she would have teased Ashes, but now she felt extraordinarily depressed with no strength to fight back.


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[Assistant] After the witches returned to the castle, they found that His Highness Roland had prepared a hearty lunch for them.


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[Assistant] Looking at the colorful dishes on the table, Andrea felt even more depressed.


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[Assistant] The upper nobility of the Kingdom of Dawn emphasized the natural form of food.


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[Assistant] They spent lots of money and time on collecting cherished and rare ingredients, and they cooked them using the most authentic methods.


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[Assistant] The food served in the Kingdom of Grey Castle was covered with all sorts of spices and sauces.


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[Assistant] In her eyes, this was a rather vulgar way of eating. Seasonings were only used to cover up the defects of the food itself.


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[Assistant] The more seasonings were added, the worse the food actually tasted. Surprisingly, every dish on the table was terribly delicious.


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[Assistant] Take the grilled mushroom for example. Where did his highness find all these juicy mushrooms?


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[Assistant] A small bite of it yielded a mouthful of flowing juices. Then there was the vegetable soup.


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[Assistant] It looked just like ordinary clear soup, but it tasted as rich and fresh as it had been cooked with a whole chicken, ribs, and kelp for a long time.


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[Assistant] The most special dish was the dessert, ice cream bread, which was actually a kind of sandwich with fragrant ice cream in between.


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[Assistant] Taking a bite of it, she felt intoxicated by its icy and creamy texture.


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[Assistant] Although it was winter, it didn't stop her from eating piece after piece.


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[Assistant] Damn, even in regards to food, she had completely lost.


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[Assistant] Looking at Ashes, who was smiling at her provocatively, Andrea didn't say anything in response for the first time.


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[Assistant] On the third day, the assembly of a large hot air balloon was completed, and it was time to explore the ruin. The new hot air balloon was called the Farsight.


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[Assistant] Its huge basket could accommodate more witches and was surrounded by a canvas so that it could resist the cold wind and heavy snow.


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[Assistant] As the earlier they carried out the mission, the safer it was. The witches bade a simple farewell to Roland and stepped onto the hot air balloon.


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[Assistant] They took off from the castle backyard and headed for the stone tower.


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[Assistant] In order to land quickly and fight enemies as soon as they appeared, the far sight flew at a very low altitude, almost as low as the rooftops of the townhouses. Most of the subjects witnessed this miraculous view.


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[Assistant] Some of them froze in place, while others shouted Long Live His Highness Roland. In their eyes, such a miracle could only be created by the Lord of Border Town.


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[Assistant] When the hot air balloon flew over the west wall, the soldiers of the 1st Army all saluted it.


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[Assistant] Both Lightning and Maggie, who were flying to escort the balloon, were no strangers to them.


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[Assistant] The little girl lightning, who used to guide the artillery squad's shooting directions, aroused especially enthusiastic cheers among the soldiers.


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[Assistant] Soon, through the flying snow, Farsight left the town behind and entered the misty forest.


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[Assistant] Tilly stood at the edge of the basket, overlooking this boundless forest.


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[Assistant] The snow season during the months of demons turned the whole world white.


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[Assistant] The top branches of gigantic trees were all covered by thick snow, which looked like high and broad platforms above the ground at first sight.


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[Assistant] On the other side of their view were layers of mountains, casting a shade of grey in the obscure mist.


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[Assistant] As the feet of the mountains weren't visible, they looked as if they were floating in the air. Beautiful scenery. Shavy side. This is the first time I see a snow-covered western region. Are you a witch from the western region? Wendy asked curiously. I used to live in Fallen Dragon Ridge.


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[Assistant] It was close to the south, so it rarely snowed in the winter.


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[Assistant] Later, I heard that Lady Tilly was exploring Sleeping Island, so I secretly traveled to the Port of Clearwater by boat to meet the other witches.


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[Assistant] I see, said Wendy, shaking her head with a smile.


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[Assistant] His Highness had been complaining about the lack of new witches even after spreading the rumor of the Witch Cooperation Association in Border Town. It seems that he was one step later than Tilly. Did you also spread messages to attract witches?


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[Assistant] They did, but the person they sent wasn't very skillful.


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[Assistant] If you didn't run into Lady Tilly, you would probably have gone to Border Town. I'm not his highness.


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[Assistant] Yesterday, Andrea seemed depressed about something, but today, she seemed to be herself again.


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[Assistant] On Sleeping Island, Andrea, born to a noble family, was the only one who dared to pick on ashes.


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[Assistant] Tilly said, no matter where we are from, Sleeping Island or Border Town, we're of a family, so let's make no distinction between witches. She turned around and looked at the witches one by one.


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[Assistant] Before leaving, they had introduced their own abilities to one another so that they could cooperate well while fighting against enemies.


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[Assistant] There weren't as many combat witches in Border Town as there were on Sleeping Island, and most of the former ones weren't fit for combats.


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[Assistant] If she had to choose a witch who impressed her the most, it would be this woman who had her awakening in this desolate place and made a profound impact on Roland.


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[Assistant] Every time she stood beside Anna, she felt an indescribable decorum and peacefulness, which was a new feeling to her.


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[Assistant] If she had to put it into words, it was like the feeling of laying on a broad field, with the soft but firm ground on your back making you feel at ease.


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[Assistant] Anna didn't talk much to anyone but Roland, and her facial expressions didn't change much either.


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[Assistant] However, as long as she stood among the witches, she was hard to ignore.


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[Assistant] Sylvie told her that Anna was the first witch who evolved in Border Town and had astonishingly great magic power as her Blackfire was extremely powerful and malleable.


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[Assistant] Besides, she was the first witch who read through natural science theoretical foundation, a fact which made Tilly feel closer to her.


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[Assistant] In this winter, if only I could sit with Anna beside the fireplace and have a good discussion about books. I'm more than willing to do that. Tilly thought silently and was looking forward to it.


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[Assistant] Princess Tilly then moved her gaze to lightning, who was flying beside the basket.


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[Assistant] As the daughter of Thunder, Anna had a lot in common with his father, the number one explorer in fjords.


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[Assistant] Only the endless sky could accommodate her adventurous heart.


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[Assistant] Although Thunder wanted his daughter to live a peaceful life, Tilly knew Lightning was bound to be an explorer as soon as she saw her, and maybe even a more successful one than her father. All she could do was try her best to protect Lightning. We're almost there.


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[Assistant] Tilly's thought was interrupted by lightning, who came near the basket to inform everybody. Come inside and rest, said Wendy concernly. Your lips are frozen white. I'm okay. My face is just a little numb. She patted her rosy cheeks.


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[Assistant] Fortunately, I have the scarf from his highness with me, so my ears aren't cold at all. They didn't encounter ferocious demons along the journey.


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[Assistant] The demonic beasts crawling through the forests occasionally roared once or twice towards them, but they obviously didn't have the ability to attack a hot air balloon on the sky, so the first half of the journey was fairly smooth.


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[Assistant] However, when the far sight arrived above their destination, everyone was shocked by the sight down below. The forest seemed to have been swept through by something huge.


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[Assistant] Lightning pointed at the open space under them, her tone full of disbelief. It's gone. Tilly looked in the direction that lightning was pointing at. On the brown and white ground, there was a huge hole.


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[Assistant] It was so black that its bottom remained invisible, and it looked as if someone had dug a tunnel toward an abyss.


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[Assistant] I see the stone tower and the frozen coffin you talked about, she said carefully. God. It swallowed the whole ruin. What to do next? Everyone looked at Tilly. Is there anything else other than the worm?


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[Assistant] There are some demonic beasts, but all in the warm stomach. I think they are dead. Sylvie watched for a while and shook her head.


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[Assistant] Till he thought for a moment and said decisively, let's land.


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[Assistant] Several of you keep watch outside, and the others should follow me into the hole, kill the huge beast, and retrieve the frozen coffin.


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[Assistant] Ashes was just about to stop Tilly when she was interrupted.


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[Assistant] If we wanna get into the hole, we must rely on witches who can fly to bring people out. Tilly waved the ring on her finger.


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[Assistant] Although carrying heavy objects will consume more magic power, I can bring at least one witch, who would be vital to our mission. With one more witch, we can face bigger challenges.


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[Assistant] She paused, looking at the border town witches and said, Anna, Lightning, Maggie, I need your help.


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[Assistant] The three of them didn't show any dissent and Maggie even seemed itching to go. Tilly was slightly relieved.


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[Assistant] Ashes, Shavy, and Sylvie will join us and go to the bottom of the hole.


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[Assistant] Sisters who are on the ground, please try your best to guard the gate.


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[Assistant] Lady Tilly, please let me join you, Andrea said.


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[Assistant] Nightingale might find it hard to cope with the demonic beasts all by herself. Tilly shook her head. You two can cooperate well from close and afar. Don't worry. I will guard the exit for you. Nightingale seemed full of confidence.


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[Assistant] Neither demons nor demonic beasts will get close to the exit.


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[Assistant] Tilly was fully aware that the number of witches who could go down depended solely on the flying witches.


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[Assistant] First of all, the heaviest item was the frozen coffin.


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[Assistant] If the witch inside the coffin couldn't be awakened on the spot, they would have to chop the coffin apart and take her back.


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[Assistant] The coffin's weight would amount to that of two to three witches. A weight only Shavy could carry using her invisible barrier. Sylvie's Eye of Magic was necessary too.


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[Assistant] Without her, they couldn't precisely locate the ruin in the worm's belly.


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[Assistant] So are Anna's cutting and heating abilities, but neither Sylvie nor Anna could fly.


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[Assistant] Fortunately, neither of them was heavy, so Maggie could transform into a magic bird and carry them.


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[Assistant] The last necessity was the extraordinary Witch Ashes, who could fight fiercely under any circumstance. Tilly would carry her during the mission.


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[Assistant] Lightning could fly, but according to her, her altitude would drop greatly if she carried someone on her back.


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[Assistant] Therefore, she would not be able to fly out of the deep hole.


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[Assistant] Her advantage lay in her excellent flexibility and high speed, which could play an effective role in alarming, exploring, and attacking. These witches were almost irreplaceable.


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[Assistant] The absence of any of them could make the whole situation extraordinarily tricky.


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[Assistant] So, Tilly's decision was made out of comprehensive consideration instead of momentary impulse.


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[Assistant] As for Andrea, her destructive power in close range was astonishing, but her ability would be greatly impeded in a dark, narrow area.


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[Assistant] So, it would be better if she and Nightingale stayed on the ground to guard against possible demonic beasts nearby.


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[Assistant] Tilly had also considered giving up the rescue mission completely and going back home directly, but an uneasiness kept gnawing at the back of her mind.


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[Assistant] How could the surrounding areas remain intact and the stone tower ruin be the only target?


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[Assistant] The direction the giant beast was crawling toward was especially suspicious.


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[Assistant] She looked to the northwest of the mountains, which was the demons exact residence. Could there be any connection between the two?


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[Assistant] Under Wendy and Anna's control, the hot air balloon soon landed steadily.


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[Assistant] Tilly put all her confusions aside and went through the whole plan one more time. Taking a deep breath, she said slowly, let's go.


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[Assistant] This hole was six and deep, which was deeper than she had expected.


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[Assistant] At first it plunged straight down, then it tilted, and in the end it became a horizontal channel. The surrounding soil exuded an unpleasant smell.


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[Assistant] Looking closely, one could see sticky liquid dripping from the surface of the soil that looked like wet traces left by slugs.


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[Assistant] As the team proceeded, the light that came from the mouth of the hole soon disappeared.


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[Assistant] The bottom was completely dark except for some dim spots illuminated by a few torches.


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[Assistant] Meanwhile, the whistling wind had gradually died out and the coldness was replaced by heat emanating from the earth. Tilly felt that her body was also warming up.


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[Assistant] Looking at the flickering torches, she couldn't help but think of fireflies. The giant beast is ahead of us, Sylvie whispered.


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[Assistant] Even without her warning, everybody could sense that the target wasn't far away. There were strange sounds coming from the deep hole.


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[Assistant] Some were like an autumn wind blowing through rustling woods. Others were like something chewing. Let's land.


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[Assistant] She told Ashes, who was on her back, to wave the torch twice, and then she controlled the magic stone to lower her altitude until her feet fell onto the loose and soft soil. Then, Anna's cold light appeared.


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[Assistant] She changed her black fire back to heart fire and cold and soft light suddenly filled the surrounding areas.


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[Assistant] Under her green light, the witches clearly saw the giant beast's tail. The beast was slowly crawling forward.


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[Assistant] Its squirming gray skin was constantly excreting mucus, which made the putrid smell even stronger.


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[Assistant] A disgusting big worm, ashes pulled out her sword and said, What should we do next? Cut its stomach open?


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[Assistant] Wait a moment and let Anna do it, till he shook her head and said,


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[Assistant] I'm not sure if what's in its stomach is dangerous, but killing it with a sword is too risky. Well, let me try.


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[Assistant] Anna summon a ball of black fire while keeping the green fire burning.


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[Assistant] In the blink of an eye, the black fire turned into a thin line and flew directly toward the giant beast.


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[Assistant] It penetrated the beast's skin without any resistance and cut its belly open.


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[Assistant] Perhaps the thin line had too high a temperature because the skin it touched instantly burst into flames.


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[Assistant] Shavy was already prepared for it and held up her invisible shield, blocking all the scattering liquid. Tilly thought this must be her evolved power.


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[Assistant] Although Ana had spoken about her own abilities, seeing it happen still shocked Tilly.


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[Assistant] The black fire was transformed into a thin line and could be operated by consciousness without being attached to anything.


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[Assistant] It was not only sharper than any giant sword, but its movement was also hard to predict, thus making it difficult for enemies to dodge it.


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[Assistant] The beast issued a sharp scream and its body began to scorn maniacally.


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[Assistant] However, the black fire continued to attack and soon pulverized most of the beast's body.


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[Assistant] The flowing liquid was vaporized by the green fire before it reached the witches.


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[Assistant] Gradually, the giant beast stopped struggling and its skin crumbled in a heap. It's dead, said Sylvie. Its heart has stopped beating. Something like this also has a heart? Ashes asked, with one hand covering her nose.


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[Assistant] Yes, the heart is in its head and is about as big as the basket of farsight. And...


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[Assistant] There isn't much recorded in history books about demonic beasts and barbarian land, so this area basically remains unknown to us. Let's hurry up and dig out the frozen coffin.


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[Assistant] After Anna burned the beast a second time, the putrid smell wasn't so strong anymore.


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[Assistant] Under Sylvie's guidance, they quickly found the ruins swallowed by the beast.


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[Assistant] Unsurprisingly, the basement had been turned into nothing but scattered rocks and showed no signs of its previous structure.


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[Assistant] The illuminating magic stones that lightning mentioned earlier were mostly turned into pasty lumps. Fortunately, the crystal pillar was still intact.


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[Assistant] After being turned out from the beast's stomach, it showed no signs of erosion, and the woman sealed inside still looked lifelike. Now show us what you can do, Tilly said to Anna.


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[Assistant] 4 to 5 thousand, I'd say that's a lot of hot pot.


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[Assistant] Your hair will grow back, and it'll be as lovely as ever.


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[Assistant] But you'll never be more beautiful than you are now.


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[Assistant] If you think so, Joe, perhaps you should go.


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[Assistant] It's called... The words are... Do you understand German?


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[Assistant] Weiss wass ich leider, can now, hot a sudden.


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[Assistant] And I'm not, uh, alone and parted far from joy and gladness.


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[Assistant] The weekly volcano. You must forgive my ignorance. But what is that?


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[Assistant] Since we seem to share a mutual interest in writing and music, would you allow me to take you to the opera or the theatre sometime?


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[Assistant] The bareback rider was the most beautiful thing in the world.


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[Assistant] Well then, perhaps you haven't missed your home so much lately, or your old friends.


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[Assistant] I have read your story in the volcano. I'd like to talk to you about it. Will you please come in?


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[Assistant] Oh, oh, Miss Josephine, please. I am so sorry. I didn't want to hurt you. I want to help you. What a blundering fool I am.


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[Assistant] Oh, Lordy, your friend. Something has happened to him.


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[Assistant] On top of it, a stupid professor comes blundering and makes things worse.


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[Assistant] Yes, that is what I thought. And then I said to myself, I maybe have no right to speak. But then I said to myself, I maybe have no right not to speak. For you have a talent.


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[Assistant] Otherwise I would not say it. You know that. And I say to you, sweep mud in the street first before you are forced to that talent. Say to yourself, I will never write one single line which I have not first felt in my own heart. Say to yourself, while I am young, I will write the simple, beautiful things I know and understand. Will you do that, my little friend?


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[Assistant] But then you will not be here. I will not see you.


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[Assistant] You were right, but go Josephine, go back to your home and write your stories as you can write them. And maybe someday I will see you there, your home.


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[Assistant] Oh, is Miss Martin, Miss Josephine March?


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[Assistant] Will you give this to her, please? Thank you.


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[Assistant] It has such truth, such simple beauty. I cannot tell you what it gives me, my heart.


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[Assistant] Please, please, Joe, just one moment before, I have a wish to ask something. Would you, or I have no courage to think that, but if I could hope that, I know, I should not ask. I have nothing to give but my heart, which is so full, and these empty hands.


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[Assistant] Knife and fork, scarf, dagger, broom, necklace, love letter. Overdose, mercury, spell.


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[Assistant] Insect. Hair. Dust. Rat.


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[Assistant] Do you really think so? Mind you, it had to go there.


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[Assistant] Go and get my, uh, s-s-s-scissors.


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[Assistant] Well I think you've earned a little holiday. I'll advise you in due course. Thank you very much, I'm sure.


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[Assistant] Yes. Mother's cooking the dinner. Season to taste. Oh, of course. Of course.


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[Assistant] What exactly are we making Betty, do you remember? Ah, Dinny Kenman. A tiltjack and a kook. Ah.


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[Assistant] I thought we'd have coffee altogether here. I don't believe in segregating the sexes. Do you, Miss Fernery?


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[Assistant] I told him the lovely story of the ghost. He's going to write a whole chapter about it. But you've sent him to the wrong castle, mother. The wrong castle? Don't be ridiculous. Everyone knows that when the laird of Loch Inver dies, or gets married, I forget which, the piper paces the battlements. The piper of Loch Rea?


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[Assistant] And we are proud to have as our auctioneer today, a real, nice, pitwa, uh, pilot.


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[Assistant] Had I known, I would've worn my Bowling Green stuff. I had no idea we were going Mack Pride. The battle of Halloween parties. That's true. Which is best. Oh my god, yeah. I'm in them both. My boat goes to OU. I don't know what things are like these days, but in the late 80s?


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[Assistant] Wisconsin is the biggest party school in Ohio, isn't it? Yeaah. It used to be one of the biggest in the country. Yeaah. I think Arizona has since... Wisconsin is pretty good. Wisconsin is pretty good.


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[Assistant] Yep. Yep. That's true. That's way to go. Very quickly apparently. Man. We're definitely getting into it. Let's start with the Browns. Uhm, Greg Newsome, who was on this program a couple of weeks ago. We love him. He's got a very, very high bar for the Cleveland Browns defense this year. Listen to what Greg Newsome told Cleveland.com about how good this Cleveland defense could be.


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[Assistant] We're capable of whatever we want. Our goal is to be the number one defense.


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[Assistant] In the whole NFL. Bull, is that crazy talk or is that realistic?


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[Assistant] That's not good. That's not good at all. Are the pieces there G. Bush?


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[Assistant] I like Walker a lot. I mean, they were dinged last year on the defensive side. It seems like every week they were rolling out with two starters that couldn't play. If you'd have asked this question of me two weeks ago, I would have said no. I think there is a solid top 10 defense.


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[Assistant] I don't think they have the potential to lead the way. If you're the NFL's best defense


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[Assistant] I know that you're saying it's kind of fluky and it does have so much to do with turnovers, but if you're the NFL's top ranked defense.


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[Assistant] You're giving your team a chance to win no matter who you play every week out. I'm not quite sure we're to that point, but I will say this. With the signing of Clowney, I think they are ready to be a top five defense. And if things break their way, because again, I think so much of it is health.


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[Assistant] And turnovers. But if things break their way and they stay healthy and they can


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[Assistant] get the turnovers, which know they're flukes. But i and stay healthy, I think or who knows, maybe even because I think they're mo in the back half of the se


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[Assistant] What about depth though? Because so often, especially on the front line, you're rotating guys in. We've seen this the last decade in the NFL. They try to keep guys fresh.


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[Assistant] You need backup players that can come in and play 15-20 snaps a game and spell the starters. I'm a little concerned about our depth on the front. I think on the back of the defense, I like it. On the front of the defense, I don't like our depth.


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[Assistant] can be in the top five in the NFL. If the offense lives up, you can see why there's huge expectations around this football team this year because I think everybody here would


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[Assistant] Without even hesitation say, oh, this team is offensive driven. That's where all the, that's where the majority of the stars are. And if, if everything goes their way and Watson plays, they're going to score points. So if you're talking about a top five, even a top 10 ranked defense, this team's going to win double digit games.


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[Assistant] And because of that, I don't think they're ready to make a change, but I think after this year, when he's added pieces, I still don't think Tua's gonna be able to make that leap. He just, his mechanics, everything about him reeks good college quarterback, not able to make the transition to the NFL.


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[Assistant] He looked good because he was playing with a bunch of guys. Alright, well, we're going to change the gears now and it is time for our Tuesday version of Being Red. Oh, look at him.


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[Assistant] I will say this, Oscar Gonzalez looks tremendous. I know it's only five games or whatever he's been up. He looks like a major league talent.


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[Assistant] 8 games under 500 and then June 1st happens and Terry figures it out and then they go off.


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[Assistant] Bieber looked like Bieber in his last star. He did, Plisak was alright. Plisak looked great last night. The kid, the young kid, who we couldn't think of his name, he pitched again last night, had a 1-2-3-7. Yes. Morgan, Eli Morgan. By the way. Why did he come out for the 8th inning? I was just gonna say that.


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[Assistant] Yep, yep. It's crazy. We gotta go. We're gonna talk to David Njoku, right? David Njoku. Man, this guy's born under the right star. I, I, I, we talked about this last week because we heard it was coming down the pike.


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[Assistant] It's actually a reality now. David Njoku is the fourth highest paid tight end in the National Football League. Four years, just under $57 million. Half of that is guaranteed. My guess is he'll never see the back end of that deal. Because I just, I don't see.


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[Assistant] His production puts him between 16 and 22, tight end wise. Yet he's number four right now in the NFL. And guys, he's just a handful of dollars behind guys like Kelsey, who


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[Assistant] When you look at, when you start comparing the production, it's nowhere close. I don't understand.


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[Assistant] Why they had him on a franchise deal and could have kept him this year to see what he's going to be with Deshaun Watson. And they bought the farm when they could have rented it for another year. I just don't understand.


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[Assistant] Look at the talent that k have on offense. Look at t


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[Assistant] But when you go back and you think about these huge plays that the Chiefs have to pick up, it's third and 15, you almost know they're going to Kelsey. The defense almost knows they're going to Kelsey. And they go to Kelsey and they get the first down. If, if Njoku becomes that guy for the Browns,


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[Assistant] Thank the Lord. I think this is a great deal, but he's never been that guy. I've seen nothing that tells me he's going to be that guy. And for that kind of money, I want that kind of security that you talked about and that Kelsey provides for the Chiefs. And I don't think we're gonna get it.


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[Assistant] That's right. And they could have had in Joku on a tag for a year. And if he does become that guy finally in year six, then you pay him.


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[Assistant] The Browns were to give Baker Mayfield a deal like this that would make him the fourth or fifth highest paid quarterback in the NFL after what we've seen from, from what, four years?


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[Assistant] What we've seen so far, which is a large enough sample size, not even in the same zip code, but pay wise, he's just


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[Assistant] Because now if you're in Lamar Jackson and you're watching this, you're gonna, you're gonna want the same kind of thing.


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[Assistant] And if I'm, if I'm the Ravens, I, I don't even know if Lamar is, if you can replicate that year after year after year. And at what point does it become an absolute non-starter that he can no longer be that guy?


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[Assistant] Because we're all, as you get older and you're still trying to do things that you could when you were 23, 24, after taking the hits that he's taken, I don't know that he can continue to play at that level of dating. And they have no wire.


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[Assistant] Well, if he's smart, that's the way he'll play it. Aditi, I know we have to let you go because you're up against it, but thank you so much. We'll see you Thursday, right? You're back Thursday.


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[Assistant] My name is Jay Crawford. I am a lifelong Cleveland sports fan. I have carried my fandom every city I've ever lived in.


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[Assistant] And we know how much our teens mean to us. Most of us know that because of our parents. In my case, my father was just a huge Cleveland sports fan. It was really part of our life. It was woven into everything we did. And it was our connection throughout his life.


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[Assistant] Hi, my name is Jay Crawford. I'm a lifelong Cleveland sports fan. My favorite all-time Cleveland sports moment. You're not going to believe this. It was Rajay Davis's home run in game seven that tied the score.


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[Assistant] You know, in a newsroom, a television newsroom, it's pretty reserved. You know, there's really not a lot of noise. When we were shooting promos for our show, Bull was in the studio at the weather wall and he was going to record some promos. And as soon as he launched into his, you know, I'm out of the bull! Everybody in the newsroom looked around and they were like, he was in there.


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[Assistant] So I think this is a good place to start as any. We've been trying to figure out like, so what's the missing link to this team? What's, what is the piece that is going to take this team over the top without giving away too many assets that have helped us rebound to where they finished last year?


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[Assistant] As you look at how this team is built right now, what are they missing and who can they part ways with to help get them over the top?


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[Assistant] So am I hearing you right? Your answer might be, it might be right in front of us. We just don't know yet. We didn't see it.


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[Assistant] And I think if they punt now, I do feel like there's gonna be questions that were left unanswered just because we didn't get to see how these pieces fit together. Because that ultimately, you're gonna have five great pieces. If they don't click, you've got the Lakers. You've gotta figure out a way to make the machine go forward.


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[Assistant] And God, I want to believe that the pieces are here. I still think though to get over the ultimate hump, if they want to win an Eastern Conference Championship, I still think there is a missing piece that's not on this roster.


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[Assistant] Serena, you were talking about they have something that these other teams haven't had. It's obvious. This team was as much fun to watch as the old Cavs.


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[Assistant] I like, I think Luke's gotten a bad rap. I really do. I like him. I like him as a coach. I think he probably.


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[Assistant] I don't know, but to your point that it's a good fit for the organization, I think the one thing that they really seem to be paying attention to that in the past the Cavs necessarily didn't is that


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[Assistant] Boy, these guys are all saying not just the right thing, but the same thing. They sound like the same guy. And I think the organization should be applauded for bringing in not just great players, but we were talking about like these might be like the players least likely to get arrested. Nerds. You know, nerds. We want nerds that can ball out. That's it.


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[Assistant] Is incredible in the NBA because he has never played against this size and this, the quality of player and night after night.


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[Assistant] I agree with you. I think that Mobley has the potential to be an absolute superstar that you could ride a team to a title.


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[Assistant] He might have been the only guy in the building on certain nights that didn't understand that he was no longer that guy.


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[Assistant] I think with LeBron, I do believe that because he, every part of his game is so accomplished, if he wants to take on any given night and say, I'm gonna have 15 assists tonight.


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[Assistant] He can do that and just not focus all of his energies on either scoring or rebounding or anything else.


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[Assistant] Okay, let's put all the Playmaking Wings names in a hopper. Which one do you want to pull out?


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[Assistant] I don't care if he's 38 or 40. Right. I haven't seen a drop off. I haven't seen his game diminished to the point where I would say, I don't think this is the guy that can put them over the hump. Diminished. I mean, he scored 30 last year.


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[Assistant] To have the ability to play make and score and take over a game. How many times have we seen him?


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[Assistant] To be able to check that ego of being I once was the greatest, you have to be able to check that and say I'm a contributor now and I'm here to make everybody around me better and to show them the way.


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[Assistant] I think the, my biggest regret of the last year was that they didn't get a playoff series because you mentioned this earlier and this is so true.


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[Assistant] And then you watch the playoffs. Every sport kicks it up a notch. I think the NBA kicks it up five notches. It's almost like they're just running the marathon just to finish in the top 30 and then the real race starts.


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[Assistant] And the calves were in the other place. And I kept telling anybody that would listen, they're playing too hard on defense.


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[Assistant] It's great that they can play defense, but they're playing defense against teams that are in regular season mode.


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[Assistant] Spreewell tell you to get the F off the quarter who's gonna F and kill you.


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[Assistant] My name is Jay Crawford. I am a lifelong Cleveland sports fan. I have carried my fandom every city I've ever lived in.


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[Assistant] And we know how much our teens mean to us. Most of us know that because of our parents. In my case, my father was just a huge Cleveland sports fan. It was really part of our life. It was woven into everything we did. And it was our connection throughout his life.


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[Assistant] Fan told one of his teammates, watch this, I'm about to go smack you in the teeth out of his mouth.


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[Assistant] Whatever happens next, you know.


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[Assistant] That was the biggest sidebar that we've ever experienced. So here's the Judge Jay Dilemma, okay? We all love fantasy football. We all participate. I can't wait till we have the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show Fantasy Football League. It is going to be lit like no other.


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[Assistant] We were trying to figure out, are you team Peterson or are you team FAM? Well, there's no way you can support just going up to a grown man and slapping him in the face over a fantasy football dispute. So I don't think that's what we're going to debate here.


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[Assistant] I don't even know what the flashpoint needs to be, but it can't be was the slap legit, because there's no way you can defend that slap. And he didn't owe him no money.


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[Assistant] That in his mind was a legal move. He put a player on IR who was actually


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[Assistant] Out. He was out. You're allowed to do that. Well, for some reason, Fam took issue with that and Fam


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[Assistant] So then Peterson, according to fam, responds with some derogatory comments about the Padres.


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[Assistant] That's what got the whole thing started. Now FAM ends up leaving the league in the middle of the season.


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[Assistant] Which is really lame. Yeah. So I mean, if you've got beef with one guy in the, in the league, okay, settle that like grown men. Yes. But you, when you leave the league, you throw the whole league. Yeah. It's all that guy's on auto and it's a mess. It's a nightmare.


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[Assistant] I don't see how anybody here can make any argument for FAM, no matter what the buy-in was. Peterson, by the way, had said that FAM considers himself a Las Vegas big player, I believe.


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[Assistant] He wouldn't slap an average judge's face. And by the way, Peterson, I thought this was kind of a, this was a lame move. Peterson broke out his phone to show media members texting.


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[Assistant] We're just sitting here watching this saying, why did he acknowledge this for so long? The interview was like three minutes.


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[Assistant] That's the other problem with this. That moves the meter. Yeah. Fantasy football moves the meter more than baseball does these days. That's crazy. I'm ready to make a ruling, um, and I've amended my ruling after hearing your argument, counselor. Uh, Adam, I thought you made a great point about the commissioner has to take some of the responsibility here. First and foremost, I'm putting 85% of this blame


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[Assistant] On fam. Like it was just, it's a fantasy football thing. We all want to win. We get it. Your feelings are hurt because he called you a cheater. But in reality, like Peterson, you know, didn't do anything wrong. You know, he put a player that was hurt on IR. You're allowed to do that. Look it up. It's part of the deal.


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[Assistant] So the bulk of the blame goes to Pham. I'm putting 10% on the commissioner. He could have manned up and like made this not so big of a deal. And I'm putting 5% of the blame on Peterson just for his


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[Assistant] Like you said, it's really not cool with him talking to media as long as he's here. He made it a legitimate thing. Who cares? And he answered many questions. And the other thing was, he showed a text chain to a reporter. See? See? He's a bad guy. I like that. We like when the players take us inside a little bit. I don't like that. Let's just make a rule here. If we ever get into beef,


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[Assistant] Let's go to weight loss. No break. Let's just do weight loss right here. So we had the weigh-in today. These were the weights. What were these? The original weights? No, these were the weights after last week. So Bull had lost 16, 13 pounds. Bull's first weigh-in, he was 315.


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[Assistant] He came in after one week. He dropped 13 pounds. We were all stunned. Uh, Steve, our executive producer asked, did he have


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[Assistant] Yeah, reality kicks in. Now I do think, I don't know if there should be, I am in the judge costume still. I'm almost want to make a ruling that he came to the weigh in in shorts.


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[Assistant] I think he's a top 10, but I don't know he's a top 5, but man. I don't know there's been anybody, anybody more consistent over the last 5 years than him. Listen, he's gonna, it's hard to win an MVP for a team that doesn't make the playoffs or isn't in the playoff chase.


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[Assistant] If things keep going and you vote based on which player is most valuable to his team, this is slam dunk.


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[Assistant] Yeah, we're going to go talk. It'll happen every time. Cole and I will talk. Yeah, big mistake on me. Alright, we're out of time. We're going to wrap up the show. We'll see you tomorrow. Leroy Hoard, JT Barrett. It's going to be a great show. We'll see you tomorrow. In the meantime, we're going to jump over to a little UTSS YouTube overtime. We're going to give today's final takes. Powerful thoughts. See you tomorrow.


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[Assistant] I'll write to him today to tell him you're coming. You'll get it tomorrow afternoon.


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[Assistant] Yes, it is, but the shop's closed and our society is here to rehearse.


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[Assistant] There, I've carried out your plan step by step. Henning and Norton have both gone to Thrale.


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[Assistant] Started, perhaps. By now, he should be safely in our care at the mill. You see, we are efficient sometimes. It merely meant advancing our plans 24 hours.


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[Assistant] No, I've got Barrington by now. But it's only until tomorrow evening if all goes well.


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[Assistant] Big smiles. Look right down this lens. Big, big, big smiles. Three, two, one.


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[Assistant] Why? Why did you tell us to let the chief of this lord get away? I didn't. But Mr. Dimble, you distinctly said that we were not to stop her. Yes, but it's a hymn we want.


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[Assistant] Seeing, knowing, and understanding Northeast Ohio is something we take very seriously.


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[Assistant] And every night at 11 on What's Next, you can rely on us.


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[Assistant] Oh yes madame, silk pajamas, size 42. Thank you madame.


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[Assistant] Yes? There's a chump outside, says you owe him some money. Shall I have him tossed out?


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[Assistant] Tito. You're on in five minutes, Miss Terry.


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[Assistant] Since my, my working life and that storage. And so I guess it's pretty natural for me to come back and address something that I've lived with for about 20, 25 years on different facets of the table. Uh, I was a typical young engineer.


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[Assistant] One of those disruptive themes you're thinking about. There are a few things that stand out


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[Assistant] Over the last, I would say, five, ten years, and this is in 2008 now, uh, we saw a big change in, I think some of the stuff you're talking about, big change in how IT is delivered. We saw a big change in how people use computing resources, and with the emergence of, uh, models like the SaaS models, this whole notion of how consumers consume


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[Assistant] And the depth of the box, basically. The whole idea of a box being something that you consumed, you bought, slowly became as old as the mainframe business. So we looked at those three big paradigms and found an opportunity to come back and create a disruptive environment where we decouple


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[Assistant] What do you do with your data versus where you store it? The old model was, there was a box, it came with a few knobs, and if you wanted more of those knobs, you found more boxes.


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[Assistant] Uh, what I really paid for from a value perspective versus, you know, the junk that has to come with the value. And so that was the basis for how we came back and tried to come back, come up with a, a model that, that separated out what is truly important for the business from what is truly a commodity and come up with this unified data management.


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[Assistant] And say, well, that's how I used to do it 15 years ago. Surely it must be working fine because we have companies that have, you know, 20, 40 billion dollar market caps building around this model. And that's probably the toughest part is to get out of your own mold of what you knew and really look at the discontinuity from a position of strength rather than just a position of comfort.


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[Assistant] We had to be cognizant about how much friction there is between an idea and a business. And so uhm, there's a lot more in terms of the thought process of what else could we make discontinuous


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[Assistant] In the consumer industry, by the way, this is another big phenomenon, I think, that drove what we did. For the first time in 10 years, maybe, maybe 15 years ago was when the consumer markets truly started driving technology and consumption models. Never happened before. It was usual enterprise guys. We were the smartest guys around. But not anymore.


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[Assistant] And so we learned a lot, truly allowed the elephants to start dancing. And this was one of those things that we learned a lot, kept trying to tune it at the speed at which the market could absorb.


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[Assistant] Like I said, I think career wise, you've looked at, uh, uh, storage companies that have just done an incredible business of piling on more storage to save all kinds of data, uh, making, I used to run HP storage business about, uh, six years, seven years ago, you know, six billion dollar business.


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[Assistant] And, uh, there was a very interesting scenario where 50 of the biggest HP's customers used to be brought in for an off-site retreat. And I had my counterpart who ran the software business, my counterpart who ran the server business, I was the storage guy.


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[Assistant] And the CIOs would come, people who ran big businesses would come in and ask the software guy, hey, you know, I need some innovation in security, what's your roadmap for the next five years? I'm trying to build this web business. Uh, the server guy would be about, hey, density, you know, processing power. And when it came to the storage guy, it used to be a very simple question. I don't know what you guys do.


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[Assistant] Can you just make this thing free? Because I really can't see the value of this thing. All I know is there's tons of storage being consumed. And that was the starting point. The before story was a very simple exponential growth that just showed that 29 billion dollars of storage in 2013 was bought to store copies of data. 29 billion.


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[Assistant] In fact, if you look at the numbers, uh, the storage market on the production side is literally half that.


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[Assistant] And so they were able to take that geometric data growth and come back to doing something meaningful to say my spend on storage is now much better aligned with how my business grows. You know, I have no problem paying for something that I, that I build my business on. I have a problem and it's non-linear.


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[Assistant] And that's the part that, uhm, we first, you know, come back and talk about. In fact, it becomes less than linear in many cases. The ability to reuse the same data for many things.


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[Assistant] Uhm, there's this whole concept, I mean, all of, all of you probably, you know, dealt with, you know, having to pay the, you know, health insurance premium or premium for all kinds of auto insurance. And the only goal there is it keeps piling on. In fact, that's the whole notion of the insurance business. It keeps piling on until you have the rainy day that you need this fund for.


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[Assistant] Imagine if this insurance actually could work for you, that paid for the school.


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[Assistant] As a liability, as an insurance, as something that is more of a risk that you have to pay for and hope I never have to use to something that becomes an asset. Hey, I have my backup data. Can I use it to accelerate my SaaS business? We today have a SaaS company that literally speeds up their development platform.


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[Assistant] The devil, the release of development by eight times. And imagine if you were a business and I could speed your business by 8x.


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[Assistant] People who haven't worked in the enterprise, but the model was you call the IT guy, ask for some file, and somewhere about two weeks later you get your database or file back.


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[Assistant] Unheard of. Those in the consumer industry want it now.


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[Assistant] So does the enterprise too, because businesses don't have the time to wait for days and weeks to get, get the information back. And that ability for us to come back and demonstrate access to information anytime, anywhere, instantly.


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[Assistant] Was a huge difference. In fact, if anything,


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[Assistant] If you come back and say, hey, I give away my existing, my competition, if I look at the competition, these are big massive companies. They could give away the product for free.


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[Assistant] Now we just, the reason I'm late here is, you know, we were in the middle of a deal. Our fiscal quarter ends this, end of this month. We are competing against a competition that's bid $34 million against us, and we probably end up with about $1.5 million. 30 times less. They could give it away. They're big enough. What they cannot do is beat the one part.


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[Assistant] And change the speed at which you access information anywhere. That is probably what Mike would call the killer value proposition. You can literally give away my competition's product. What you cannot do is to come back and make my information available fast enough because you cannot give back time.


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[Assistant] So that causes a complete disruption in the market, and that's what we've done. I think for those who follow the server side, there's some company called VMware that's done that. And I used to, my counterpart used to run the HP server business. The poor guy just lost, I mean, you thought you lost your hair?


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[Assistant] He's completely gone. Uh, but decimated the market. So that's what happens when software completely takes over what used to be packaged hardware.


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[Assistant] And, uh, the last part, you know, we talked about this, this prison of boxes that the vendors used to come back and, and deliver, you know, I used to sell you a box. And by the way, if you want more of this, you better buy from me because this box doesn't talk to anybody else. You have to buy more of my stuff.


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[Assistant] And more of my stuff, until you get to a point where you're so fed up that you decide to take another big shift.


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[Assistant] This ability to come back and change that and provide freedom, I think Mike used to have this phenomenal slide a long time ago.


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[Assistant] Look, we are dramatically faster, we are dramatically cheaper.


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[Assistant] I think all of these, they're hard to think about and you know, usually you try to get it down to one or two things, maybe three things. But I think it's important for paradigm shifting technologies to demonstrate this much bigger things that happen than just one or two things.


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[Assistant] Right, I think, you know, as with every learning process, one of the things that Mike was talking about is the friction of just trying out. Here we are, complex enterprise software.


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[Assistant] Uh, or they did have it, they bought some cheap one with some memory that was bad.


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[Assistant] And the inability for me to justify 50% better, meh, big deal. I'm better off staying with my existing guy because it just doesn't make a difference enough for me because the risk of something going wrong is significantly more than just


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[Assistant] On an average we are 30 to 1. We just, like I said, I just came back from this where we are 34 million versus 1.2. Uhm, you know, recovery is uhm, you know, eight and a half hours versus two minutes. Just a whole different ball game. I mean, you're- Okay. So now you-


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[Assistant] Yeah, I think the pivot wasn't about, uh, the basic concept. The active file versus active field, uh, was probably just a simpler way to explain how to say something that, uh, uh, was having a hard time, uh, for the, for the audience. But that apart, uh, the, the quote-unquote pivot, uh,


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[Assistant] Reduce the friction between what we're building and what the value proposition for the customer is and what it took to demonstrate this very, very quickly. We talked about this copy data storage.


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[Assistant] And somebody really asks us, are you really a storage guy? I said, really? You're enterprise software.


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[Assistant] And boom, you're done in a day. So that, that part we constantly pivot. And there's more. And by the way, we're not done. You know, we...


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[Assistant] We have a long way to go as we, I think we talked about this, much of your innovation in packaging, messaging, value proposition continues to change and I think that's one thing that definitely needs to change as we understand better and more importantly as the market understands us better.


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[Assistant] We couldn't have said we are copy data storage three years ago. They would have said, what the heck is copy data? Then Mike came in, defined the whole space called copy data. Now there are analysts, there are external proofs that talk about, guys, we should all be managing copy data. It's not us, it's actually analysts talking about copy data.


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[Assistant] So there's a bunch of pivoting that we did in terms of packaging, in terms of better messaging, but not the fundamental product itself.


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[Assistant] Enterprise guys are a little tough to pivot. Consumer markets are a little different story. There's a lot of deep rooted market analysis we do before we jump into this game.


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[Assistant] I took all my meals in my room for the next two days, managing to avoid Chris until dinner on Wednesday. I thought I wouldn't feel so awkward by then. I was sadly mistaken.


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[Assistant] The tight sobs were enough to silence Mary. It would have stopped me too. And crying seemed like an impossibility.


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[Assistant] And it wasn't like a slew of three or fours were going to parade down the palace halls looking for a maid to take as a wife. She really was stuck. I side-steady myself and entered the room.


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[Assistant] Are you sure Ms. Anne asked trying so hard to keep her voice composed? Very. I'll see you all tomorrow. They didn't need any more encouragement than that and thank goodness.


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[Assistant] It doesn't even matter at this point what the change might be. They're so desperate they don't care. They don't even have to, they don't even think to ask. Perhaps the key is staying calm while others panic.


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[Assistant] I hesitated a moment, but who else could I talk to about this?


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[Assistant] Father's quite disappointed with my grasp of the language and is still insisting I study more. As if I'm not doing enough these days, he said with a sigh. That is kind of strange.


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[Assistant] I'd seen the way he smiled at the other girls at meals or nodded to them in the hallways. He never did that to me. I felt instantly uncomfortable and didn't know what to say. It appeared Maxson didn't either. I decided I couldn't ask him about the diary yet.


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[Assistant] Couldn't shake the worry that he knew more than he'd ever shared, but I needed to know more myself before I spoke.


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[Assistant] I accidentally placed the cool stones against my skin and tied a little ribbon that held them together. Lovely, he said. And there it was, pushing up through all the worries. Hope.


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[Assistant] Even if I let myself be everything my father said I was, everything Aspen said I wasn't, I couldn't be Chris. Chris was better. I was so tired and stressed and confused, I started crying.


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[Assistant] America, he said. He asked hesitantly. What's wrong? I don't understand. What don't you understand, he asked quietly.


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[Assistant] And because I was slowly realizing he was the steadier choice, what about Aspen? I don't know if I'm ready to do that yet. After a moment of thought, Maxim looked at me.


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[Assistant] She was very long indeed in accomplishing her task, so long that Mr. Rochester, grown I suppose impatient of my delay, sent up to ask why I did not come. She was just fastening my veil.


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[Assistant] The plain square of blonde, after all, to my hair with a brooch. I hurried from under her hands as soon as I could.


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[Assistant] She cried in French. Look at yourself in the mirror. You've not taken one peep. So I turned at the door.


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[Assistant] I saw a robed and veiled figure, so unlike my usual self that it seemed almost the image of a stranger.


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[Assistant] Jane? called a voice, and I hastened down. I was received at the foot of the stairs by Mr. Rochester. Lingara.


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[Assistant] He said, my brain is on fire with impatience, and you tarry so long.


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[Assistant] He took me into the dining room, surveyed me keenly all over, pronounced me fair as a lily, and not only the pride of his life, but the desire of his eyes.


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[Assistant] And then, telling me he would give me about ten minutes to eat some breakfast, he rang the bell. One of his lately hired servants, a footman, answered it. Is John getting the carriage ready? Yes, sir. Is the luggage brought down? They're bringing it down, sir. Go you to the church. See if Mr. Wood, the clergyman and the clerk are there. Return and tell me.


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[Assistant] The church, as the reader knows, was but just beyond the gates. The footman soon returned. Mr. Wood is in the vestry, sir, putting on his surplice. And the carriage? The horses are harnessing.


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[Assistant] We shall not want it to go to church, but it must be ready the moment we return. All the boxes and luggage arranged and strapped on, and the coachman in his seat. Yes, sir. Jane? Are you ready?


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[Assistant] I rose. There was no groomsmen, no bridesmaids, no relatives to wait for or marshal. None but Mr. Rochester and I. Mrs. Fairfax stood in the hall as we passed.


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[Assistant] I would fain have spoken to her, but my hand was held by a grasp of iron.


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[Assistant] I was hurried along by a stride I could hardly follow, and to look at Mr. Rochester's face was to feel that not a second of delay would be tolerated for any purpose.


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[Assistant] I wonder what other bridegroom ever looked as he did, so bent up to a purpose, so grimly resolute.


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[Assistant] Or who under such steadfast brows ever revealed such flaming and flashing eyes? I know not whether the day was fair or foul.


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[Assistant] My heart was with my eyes, and both seemed migrated into Mr. Rochester's frame.


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[Assistant] I wanted to see the invisible thing, on which, as we went along, he appeared to fasten a glance fierce and foul.


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[Assistant] I wanted to feel the thoughts whose force he seemed breasting and resisting.


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[Assistant] At the churchyard wicket, he stopped. He discovered I was quite out of breath. Am I cruel in my love? He said. Delay an instant. Lean on me, Jane.


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[Assistant] And now I can recall the picture of the grey old house of God rising calm before me, of a rock wheeling around the steeple, of a ruddy morning sky beyond. I remember something, too, of the green grave-mounds.


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[Assistant] And I have not forgotten either two figures of strangers straying among the low hillocks and reading the mementos graven on the few mossy headstones.


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[Assistant] I noticed them because, as they saw us, they passed round the back of the church.


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[Assistant] And I doubt it not they were going to enter by the side aisle door and witness the ceremony. By Mr. Rochester they were not observed.


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[Assistant] He was earnestly looking at my face, from which the blood had, I dare say, momentarily fled.


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[Assistant] I thought my forehead dewy, and my cheeks and lips cold.


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[Assistant] When I rallied, which I soon did, he walked gently with me up the path to the porch.


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[Assistant] We entered the quiet and humble temple. The priest waited in his white surplus at the lowly altar, the clerk beside him.


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[Assistant] All was still. Two shadows only moved in a remote corner. My conjecture had been correct.


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[Assistant] The strangers had slipped in before us, and they now stood by the vault of the Rochester's, their backs towards us, viewing through the rails the old-time stained marble tomb, where a kneeling angel guarded the remains of Dema de Rochester, slain at Marston Moor in the time of the civil wars, and of Elizabeth, his wife.


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[Assistant] Hearing a cautious step behind me, I glanced over my shoulder. One of the strangers, a gentleman, evidently, was advancing up the chapel. The service began.


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[Assistant] The explanation of the intent of matrimony was gone through, and then the clergyman came a step further forward, and bending slightly towards Mr. Rochester, went on, I require and charge you both.


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[Assistant] As you will answer at the dreadful day of judgment when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, that if either of you know any impediment,