Roland took out a piece of paper from his desk and roughly estimated the average age of the residents in the urban area and the temporary residential area. He then concluded that the average age of Neverwinter residents were between 40 and 50, while that of the latter was around 35. He could already tell many problems from these numbers.
Generally speaking, it took a long time to increase men’s lifespan. Apparently, the life in Border Town in the beginning should be no better than the refugees’. However, in just five years, the lifespan of the local residents had increased significantly, to which Nana and Lily made a great contribution.
“We’ve collected data of 1,000 people within just two days. I don’t think Momo looked at each individual one by one, did she?” Roland asked.
“No. If she has sufficient power, she can see the numbers of all the people in that area,” Wendy replied quietly. “But she hasn’t done that before, neither does she know her limit. She thinks that her ability is like a curse. She can see when they’re going to die but can’t do anything about it.”
“Like she’s watching people around her die,” Nightingale commented after a sigh.
Roland, however, thought it totally wrong. This was definitely not a curse or a misfortune! When the development of a country reached a certain level, every single policy could exert a profound influence on the nation. Roland certainly had to abandon that outdated management style, and that was the reason statistics was so important.
Every modern organization should develop a well-functioning system to collect, observe and track the data change and make adjustments to their policies accordingly. A statistical analysis of the residents’ average lifespan was an indispensable step in this process.
It would normally take several decades to found such a well-organized department and recruit enough employees to conduct the survey without Momo’s ability, for people would never know how long a man could live after he was deceased.
Currently, except for Neverwinter, the other cities in Graycastle only had a secondary city hall to execute orders, and they were always short staffed. It was, therefore, almost impossible for them to conduct the census in the communities.
In fact, the establishment of such a complete information system was largely attributed to Scroll’s hardwork. Only when they could delegate literate people to grass root organizations such as local communities could they say that a fully-developed government had been established.
Momo’s ability, however, could help Roland skip all the preparation work and develop a national statistical system right away from scratch, even though she only knew a little about her ability at the moment.
Once Wendy figured out what those different colors indicated, possibly hunger, disease, environment, etc., he could then easily build a huge database that predicted the future trend of the population. With proper management, Roland believed that the kingdom would benefit a lot from Momo’s ability.
Those nobles in the Kingdom of Wolfheart never knew what they had missed.
Roland had already viewed Momo as an honorous clerk of the Administrative Office, and she could possibly become a minister in the future.
“By the way, did you get Nana’s treating schedule?” Roland asked as he closed the report.
Wendy answered with a nod, “She’sworking today. Do you want to see her?”
The hospital was indeed the busiest place in the city, especially after a major war. Unlike Anna, Nana Pine did not have to stay in the laboratory all day, but she was fully booked every day. It was said that there were hundreds of people on the waitlist, and that number was steadily increasing.
Her busy schedule was also partially due to her ability. Nana would exhaust her power within only 15 minutes when she treated a person with a broken limb. As such, she would not treat anyone that had lost a body part larger than a palm now. All these people would be granted a certificate of disability. Only after Nana came of age or upgraded could these disabled men jump the queue and receive treatment. They would need to show their certificates of disability to enjoy this privilege, of course.
Speaking of upgrade, Nana would enter her adulthood in the Months of Demons this year. However, the first thing that came to Roland’s head was when Nana had held that injured chicken and indignantly accused him of inflicting pain on the poor creature. Roland remembered that she used to study in the same school as Anna.
“Alright. Let’s go take a look.”
Momo had not expected that Wendy would treat her with great hospitality instead of banishing her after knowing about her ability.
She and Thylane thus moved to the Witch Building and became members of the Witch Union.
Every night after dinner, there would be some other witches visiting them, althoughThylane and Momo could not match the faces to their names. The food here was heavenly delicious, and someone also taught them how to use the facilities in the room and told them what they should pay attention to in the Castle District. Within just two days, they had changed their previous idea about the world completely.
It was so nice to be alive.
When Momo learned that she could see again, she threw herself into Wendy’s arms and cried.
This was the only place where she had the liberty to cry.
“Don’t worry,” Wendy consoled her while patting Momo on the back. “Nana rarely lives in the Witch Building, but she’s also a member of the Witch Union. She’s around the same age as you and would love to treat you.”
On the day of her appointment, Momo followed Ring to the hospital early in the morning. On her way, Ring explained to Momo Nana’s background. Unlike her, Miss Pine was from a noble family. She had great power and was called Miss Angel by Neverwinter residents. In other words, she was a person Momo looked up to.
Momo could even see Nana in her mind’s eye that the latter must be a smiling and elegant lady wearing pretty clothes whom everyone adored.
Momo was thus very nervous when Ring led her to Nana’s room. She lowered her head, feeling somehow ashamed and embarrassed.
“Is this the patient I’m treating next?” a silvery voice reached her ears.
“Yes, she’s Momo. Like you, she’s also a witch,” a familiar voice responded. Momo looked up and, surprisingly, found the person was none other than the king!
And then she saw Miss Angel that everyone was talking about.
It took Momo all her efforts not to scream.
Nana Pine was wearing a white robe, with only a pair of eyes left in the air. Her clothes were far from being pretty. Instead, she wore even simpler than civilians.
What truly horrified her was the fresh, dripping blood on her chest!