Release That Witch

Chapter 300: The Witch Building

quot;Owh! Owh!”

In the newly built castle backyard, Maggie fiddled with her wings and tail, twirling around to show everyone.

Roland, who had already heard what had happened from the other witches, was still stunned when he saw the “demonic beast form” of Maggie.

She had become an enormous brown-feathered bird with a 10-meters-long tail and a wingspan of about 15 meters. When she fully spread her bat-like wings, the blood vessels and bones under the thin skin were quite distinct under the sun. She had limbs the size of an adult and talons instead of hands to support her long body.

Her head was the most conspicuous, with three eyes lay triangularly on the top and both sides of the head. In addition, a fierce-looking mouth that was not the kind of common bird-like beak covered a large part of the face. Maggie’s lips moved and revealed sharp teeth and a long tongue as she talked, making other girls cry out in astonishment.

“This is the demon’s mount?” Leaf said, “Fortunately, we didn’t run into such monsters in Barbarian Land, or none of us could have escaped.”

“If she didn’t evolve the new ability, I’m afraid I couldn’t survive at that moment,” Nightingale said, stroking Maggie’s glossy neck, “I’ll prepare a bag of small pieces of grilled fish for you every day.”

“Owh…!”

“I know. I’ll season the fish with more honey.”

The giant bird whisked its tail even more cheerfully.

Those were his grilled fish pieces! Roland sighed inwardly. How could Nightingale reward others with food that she stole from the kitchen and talk about it so loudly?

“Then, as usual, let’s test your new ability.”

“Sure! Owh!”

…

After a morning of hard work, Roland gained a detailed insight into Maggie’s ability after she shapeshifted into a beast.

The change had followed the convention of enlargement. Her new form as the enormous brown-feathered bird was twice the size of the Devil’s mount. Her loading capacity also saw a slight upgrade, so she was now capable of carrying two witches while flying. But her speed at full-load, which could be kept at about 80km per hour, was much slower than Lightning’s.

However, since any load would reduce Lightning’s flying height and exhaust more of her magic power, Maggie’s endurance was an advantage. As long as the giant bird was completely shapeshifted, the depletion of magic power was slow. The height she flew or the load she carried did not matter. The only concern was her physical strength.

Maggie’s magic power had also grown considerably, allowing her to climb from the bottom to a medium-ranked witch in the Witch Union. She had enough magic power to shapeshift seven to eight times a day.

Roland also confirmed his previous hypothesis through Maggie.

The understanding of their own abilities determined the evolution of the witches, whether they understood it through learning or sudden enlightenment.

This also meant there was a possibility for the witches to evolve naturally. As time went on, a few of them would be lucky enough and eventually stand out. The new ability, which was miraculous enough to turn the foul into the ethereal, absolutely overtook the old one. Could this be the reason why the church fully suppressed the wild witches?

After lunch, the lord’s castle ushered in a great event.

After nearly four months of construction and renovation, the Witch Building was finally ready for use.

Roland marveled at the building with only three stories and less than 50 rooms. Though it looked like the ordinary self-built house in the modern world, this building represented the highest construction level of the mainland kingdom, not from its size, but technique-wise.

It was the first brick-and-concrete structure built with concrete beams and pillars reinforced with bamboos.

Roland remembered what Karl, overwhelmed with emotion, had said to him when he poured the first concrete earth pillar. “I never thought that cement could be used this way. After being mixed with pebbles, you can shape it any way you like and use it for any part of the house… Your Highness, I believe it won’t be long before masons completely disappear from the masonry.”

In addition to the beams and pillars, the floors were all paved with the prefabricated cement slabs with holes dotting the center. It awakened Roland’s childhood memories. These old building materials can only be seen by the post-80s as they were completely abandoned by the times and replaced by cast-in-place concrete slabs before he turned 20.

Yet the “old” prefabricated slabs were reborn in Border Town.

The Witch Building stood on the left of the castle, forming an L-shape with the castle. The open space surrounding the two buildings was the new garden. It was three or four times the size of the old one, enough for Leaf to improve the cultivation of grains and fruits.

Evelyn, who was staying in the new home, felt uneasy.

Having been in Border Town for a month, she seemed to have done nothing more than wine-tasting for His Highness. She was also in the bottom in the last test with only five points… Although Teacher Scroll did not publicly announce the test results, she could easily pry into the information.

Even Maggie who could not complete a sentence got 61 points.

She suddenly felt she was no better than an idiot.

Still, His Highness treated her as usual without discrimination. From time to time, he sent for her and they would talk about wines produced in different regions and taste the newly made hot white liquor. She even earned a gold royal at the end of last month, which worsened her uneasiness. Compared to the other four witches, she seemed like a freeloader.

“There’s actually a kitchen next to the living room for cooking and a weird little white-painted room. Come and take a look,” Candle said excitedly, opening the bedroom door.

“Yeah…” Evelyn answered weakly.

“What’s wrong? Are you unwell?” Candle asked, looking a little startled. She crouched down to touch Evelyn’s forehead. “It’s not hot.” She then laughed. “Are you reluctant to be part with the sisters of Witch Cooperation Association who have shared one bed with you?”

Evelyn was silent for a moment before she whispered. “We’ve been here for more than a month, right?”

“Almost.”

“Lotus is about to finish the new City Wall that she’s responsible for. Honey has trained plenty of carrier pigeons for His Highness; Sylvie even dared to accompany His Highness to investigate those terrible monsters,” she said in frustration, “I’m the only one who has done nothing. I don’t even have any training arrangements and I also have the worst test scores… I really don’t know why His Highness invited me here.”

“Well.” Candle mused for a moment. “Why not ask him personally?”

“Huh?”

“Prince Roland is Lady Tilly’s brother. And you’ve noticed that he treats witches with sincerity. Even Sylvie who used to tell us to stay away from Roland and to beware of Roland has changed her attitude. Yesterday, she couldn’t help complimenting him.” Candle shrugged. “He won’t bite you if you ask him.”

Is that so? That seems reasonable.

Evelyn thought for a moment and decided to take Candle’s advice to get rid of the anxiety that had haunted her for so long.

Chapter 301: The Bomb and The Wine

oland called Barov, the City Hall Director, to his office the second day after the relocation of the witches from Sleeping Island.

“I need you to issue a recruitment announcement.” He pushed the drafts towards Barov. “10 people for one week’s work. Preferably women.”

Barov picked up the paper, read it carefully, and asked, “Your Highness, may I ask, what is… starch?”

“I suppose you know about wheat flour?”

The director hesitated for a moment. “Which kind of flour do you mean, the coarse flour or the refined flour? The grains can be crushed before being baked into loaves of bread or wheat cakes, and yet the bread Your Highness eats is made from the refined flour that has been sifted to remove the bran. The yield of the refined flour is only 60% of the coarse flour and the corresponding bread is softer. It has a price so high that only great nobles can afford it.”

The thing that Roland liked most about the former treasurer was his good understanding of all the ordinary commodities. Due to the underdeveloped agriculture and deficient food supply, the same thing could be eaten in different ways according to the social class. Take the common wheat for an example. Civilians simply made porridge from the roughly-hulled wheat in order to make full use of the food. The disadvantage was that wheat hulls and sand remained in the porridge making it gritty to eat.

By comparison, the low-class nobles cared more about daintiness. They would ask people to sift away the sand and pulverized the wheat into the coarse flour for baking bread and cake.

As for the rich great nobles, food, which was viewed as a way to pursue an enjoyment of superb cuisine, was more meaningful than just something to fill their stomachs. After being sifted further, the coarse wheat flour would become the snow-white fine flour from which the beige bread was made, smooth and sweeter.

“The starch is further refined and processed from the refined wheat flour,” Roland explained, “after the workers are recruited, I’ll send someone to tell them the procedure.”

“Fur-further processed?” Barov could not help but stare at Roland. “How much wheat will it take?”

“Not too much, 300 or 400 kilograms…” Roland paused and changed his words. “A basket as big as my desk will be enough.”

Barov nodded and asked again, “Why would you prefer to recruit women?”

“Because, they’re more careful, and I want to see more women employed rather than them just staying at home.” Roland suddenly remembered something and he continued, “At present, in Border Town, of all classes established by the universal education, the woman’s class seems to be progressing more quickly, correct?”

“That’s indeed the case, with Lady Scroll mainly in charge of the Ministry of Education. Women in town, who barely had anything to do except taking care of children and completing housework, have been spending most of their time learning and reading.”

“In that case, I request that you recruit some female apprentices into City Hall after the next assessment and gradually increase the proportion of female jobs,” Roland ordered.

“Your Highness, this… is unheard-of.” Barov frowned. “My apprentice is just as good as a woman when it comes to being careful.”

“Then make it heard-of,” Roland said bluntly, “It’s the easiest and quickest way to increase the workforce without growing the population. If all of the women can contribute to the construction of the town, I would have the double manpower. All you have to do is to guide the people in order to change their mindset—as long as the pay is attractive, I believe they’ll apply, out one by one.”

After Barov took his leave, Nightingale laughed in the prince’s ear. “What kind of goody are you going to make this time?”

“The starch? No, it’s not for eating,” Roland drank some tea. “But, we can actually get some good ingredients during the process.”

Pour the refined wheat flour into the water, knead and scrub until the water has turned completely white, and then do it again with new water. At last, the remaining sticky substance is gluten, which can be used to fry or quick stir. Adding a bit of honey or spices will make it particularly delicious, especially with the flexible texture.

But, what Roland wanted was greater than just something to eat.

The starch, that settled in the milky white water that had been sifted, was what he really wanted. It was the main material of explosives.

Since nitroglycerin had not yet begun its testing trial and neither had TNT, nitrostarch was relatively the simplest high explosive they were able to make, and the production process was exactly the same to nitrocotton. But, the sensitivity of the finished product was low so that it could not be ignited by an open flame. It could only be ignited by using a detonator. Nitrostarch, more powerful than TNT, was widely used as a substitute for TNT during WWI and WWII.

With highly refined starch, those alchemical apprentices who had been extremely proficient in the production process of nitrocotton would presumably be capable of producing a batch of nitrostarch in a short period of time.

After lunch, Roland had returned to his chamber, to take a nap. However, that was when he heard footsteps outside the door.

His heart thumped a little wildly, guessing it was most likely Anna who would come for him at this time of the day. “Would she pick noon to come here, because she was too tired and fell asleep last time?”

“Come in.”

Roland was a little surprised when he saw Evelyn standing outside the door.

“Uh… It’s a bit different from what I was expecting.” He coughed a little, wore a genial smile on his face, and said, “What’s the matter?”

She walked over to the table and bowed her head. Despite looking a little nervous, she said, “Your Highness, I want to ask you a question.”

“Is it just another platitude like ‘Why do you treat witches so well?'” Roland thought to himself, and yet in the spirit of treating the comrades like a warm spring wind, he smiled, “What do you want to ask?”

“Why did you… pick me to come to Border Town?”

The question shocked Roland for a moment, “Is she complaining about the bad wine?”

“My ability is neither as good as Sylvie’s nor as practical as Lotus’s and Honey’s,” she said in a low voice, “and if you want someone to taste your wine for you, a gold royal per month is sufficient enough to hire a professional winemaker from the king’s city.”

“What do you think of… the variety of wine?”

“The alcohol burns at first but it mellows if you drink it slowly and get yourself used to it. And, the drink that’s made of ice, fruit juice, and syrup is richer in taste. But, all of these are based on my personal preference,” Evelyn replied cautiously, “My family-run tavern only sold cheap wines and watered-down ale, so I’m not very clear about which kind of wine the nobles would prefer.”

“So, it’s not a problem with the wine.” The prince was silently relieved. He rose to open his bookcase, took out a can of ale from the top shelf, and placed it in front of Evelyn. “Can you turn this ale into my brewed white liquor?”

“I think… that’s no problem.” She reached out her hands and held the jar soon the dingy wine began to change. While bubbling, the ale was gaining clarity and then finally became as transparent as boiled water, which was marvelous to Roland who could already smell the strong bouquet of the transparent liquid. He could not wait to dip his finger into the liquid and have a taste. He felt the bitter and burning sensation, which was the exact taste of high-proof alcohol.

Roland could not help but laugh. “This is what you’re chosen for.”

Looking at the puzzled look on Evelyn’s face, he clapped his hands and said, “I’m going to set up an alcohol factory… No, it’s a brewery. Would you like to be my chief winemaker?”

Chapter 302: The Battle Horn

he fireplace was blazing inside the king’s city’s palace hall of the Kingdom of Everwinter.

Summer here was exceptionally short when compared to the Kingdom of Graycastle, with its four distinct seasons. The coming of fall was more like a warning for the upcoming cold and a cold wind would quietly arrive before people would change their light jackets.

Garcia Wimbledon was sitting on her throne in her fox-fur overcoat, while listening to the complaints and requests of the nobles.

She did not like this palace. The pillars, walls, and floors were all white stone, which had been polished smooth and made translucent to look like ice. Even though she sat on two velvet cushions, she could still felt the biting chill spreading up to her from the steel throne.

“The damn house seems to be built of ice,” she thought unhappily. “The first thing I’ll do is to break down the floors and walls, and then rebuild them with dark brown granite slabs, after my situation has stabilized.”

“Respected Majesty, I’m begging for justice!”

A noble said, in a woeful tone.

The fellow was long-winded when the matter needed only a few words. The main point was nothing more than that Archbishop Heather presided over a public trial of sinful nobles, most of which were sentenced to the gallows. Although he was lucky enough to avoid being hanged, he was still sentenced to confiscation of his property and was forced to deal it out to the civilians who had suffered from his persecution.

“I can understand your request, and your private property shall not be infringed upon.” After a moment of contemplation, Garcia continued in a calm voice, “But, it’ll be hard to clarify the specific amount. Provide me with a balance sheet from the last five years, I’ll replace a portion of your compensation from the seizure.”

“But, those mobs have almost robbed me blind, so I’m afraid the records might…”

Garcia interrupted. “Well, I can only give you compensation in accordance with the standards previously announced, if you can’t provide the balance sheet. There’re other nobles being ransacked around you. If I give you more, others will get less, right?”

“That’s right. Who knows whether the numbers you declare are true or not! ”

“Don’t be so verbose, Knight Halon. Those gold royals were not yours.”

“You should be content with what you’ve got. Compared to your companions, you’re lucky. They can only beg for compensation from the deities in the heavens.”

Seeing that all the nobles around him were glaring, Knight Halon could only bow, saying, “Okay, I accept the compensation you’ve given me, and thank you for your mercy, Your Majesty.”

“Next,” Garcia said with a smile.

“I’d like to send my best regards, Your Majesty,” a white-haired old man said as he stepped out of the crowd, with his hands on his chest. The kamon of the Silver Heron Family was shining on his chest.

“Marquis Bode, I remembered your domain did not suffer attacks from the church mobs.”

“Yes,” he nodded and said, “they definitely wanted to attack but they couldn’t… Snow Ridge was easily defended, and my knights blocked the invasion of the mobs. My son, however, was less fortunate. He was on duty at the palace on the day of the riot. In order to protect the former Queen, the believers killed him and hung his body on the gate. He wasn’t free from the humiliation until Your Majesty arrived at the Kingdom of Everwinter.”

“That sounds like a tragedy.” Garcia pretended to be sad and sighed. “What would you like me to do?”

“A guy named Butcher killed my son, and he has become the leader of the surviving rebels. The gang of people has been hiding in the Impassable Mountain Range to the north. I want to kill them to avenge my son.” Marquis Bode stated calmly.

“I don’t have enough manpower. Apart from those going on patrol, defending the city wall, and the granary, it’s hard to dispatch more to hunt for the hundreds of mobs in exile,” Garcia said and shook her head to express regret, “Once winter comes, the heavy snow will block the mountain pass, then they won’t be able to get supplies, and sooner or later they’ll all freeze or starve to death. So, why don’t you stay calm?”

“I’ll only feel relief after killing the foes to avenge my son, Your Majesty. I’m not requesting that you dispatch knights to search for the rebels. There’re many grottos at the foot of the mountain, and they must be hiding there. However, the entrance to the grotto is extremely narrow, and the knights can’t invade since it’s blocked off by rubble. I was hoping that you would provide me with the alchemical materials necessary to destroy the gate, and I’ll do the rest by myself.”

“He wants snow powder?” Garcia thought and frowned. “The formidable power of the snow powder is almost ever-victorious. It can be the trump card needed for game-changing, so it shouldn’t be spread around.”

As she went to refuse the Marquis Bode’s request, he said again, “If you grant my request, I would return back to the palace to work for you. The Silver Heron Family would support your rise into power in the Kingdom of Everwinter.”

Garcia slightly paused upon hearing his words. “When the church put the former Queen to death, a portion of important officials were also killed. Marquis Bode was quite prestigious here, he could work as the prime minister to unify the rest of the nobles, which could, to some extent, ease the dilemma of the administrative difficulties.”

“You request too much.” She contemplated his words for a moment before making the final decision. “But, since I’m not willing to give you gunpowder directly I can send my specialized alchemist to assist you in destroying the gate.”

…

After the official business was over, Garcia went to the back room. Ryan came forward and handed a cup of heated fruit wine to her. “It’s hard work, Your Majesty! Those nobles all turned to you as expected. In this case, you’ll still be able to take over the whole Kingdom of Everwinter, gradually, even without depending on the King of Wolfheart.”

“If it wasn’t for the church.” Garica shrugged her shoulders.

The church’s move to deprive the nobles of the inheritance right had caused them all to side with her. She had won the wide support of the nobles and, together, with her efforts to greatly undermine the rights of the church power-holders, it would make it less difficult for her to gain a firm foothold in the king’s city. However, she would still have a long way to go to take control of the Kingdom of Everwinter. People there were greatly influenced by the church. The soldiers of Blacksail Fleet, who were dispatched to wipe out the churches in some of the large cities, had suffered attacks from civilians and believers alike. Therefore, there was a vital importance to align with the Kingdom of Wolfheart, not only to help resist the church but to also weaken the influence of the church by thinning their population.

As for the civilians who were as stubborn as mules, they should all be killed.

“Oh, by the way, the King of Wolfheart sent you a letter,” Ryan took out an envelope and said, “you were busy dealing with the administrative affairs at that moment, so I didn’t bother you.”

Garcia looked serious as she opened the envelope and read the letter.

“Bad news?”

“The church has dispatched troops again,” she said in a deep voice, “and they’re heading to Wolfheart City by land and have broken through several of the temporary lines of defense.”

“What? The Months of Demons is about to come, are they planning to abandon the new Holy City?” Ryan’s eyes bulged in shock.

Garcia returned to her desk, contemplated a moment, and then frowned.

It was impossible to think that the church would let her off the hook, but she had not expected them to counterattack so quickly. She would be well prepared if the church had waited to wage war until spring, but the enemy obviously did not want her to have the respite. If she did not accept the request for assistance from the King of Wolfheart, she would not be able to resist for long if the Kingdom of Wolfheart collapsed.

However, there was a chance.

Provided that the troops from the church were exhausted to near death in Wolfheart City, the enemy would then suffer from a great calamity as the demonic beasts invaded massively into Hermes.

They might send out more of the God’s Punishment Army, even so, she had more powerful weapons, like the snow powder. That, used with the black water from the Styx River, would create an evil fire powder that would be lethal if thrown over the high wall in Wolfheart City. She could absolutely destroy the collective strength of the enemy.

Realizing this, Garcia said, “Execute my command, the troops of Blacksail Fleet are to get ready for the expedition! We’ll get through winter in Wolfheart City this year.”

Chapter 303: Preparation for Aerial Attack

fter a week’s assembly and testing, Roland and Anna finally completed developing the impact fuze for the bomb.

Compared to the fuze for the artillery shells, there was no need to withstand high temperature and pressure, nor high-G overload when during the detonation, that’s why the structure was surprisingly simple. But even for such a simple thing which was made up of a firing pin and a spring, they had to conduct countless experiments to succeed.

The main issue was that no one knew how much elasticity the spring required to avoid ignition during an accidental fall. In the same time, they had to guarantee the firing pin would trigger the bomb during a normal launch.

He and Anna could only test this by changing the thickness and the hardness of the spring little by little.

Fortunately, Anna and Lucia had already done a lot of pre-work. Thus, Roland could choose from a variety of high-quality materials. In the end, through testing, they ended up using the steel alloy number 1365, which had a relatively high hardness, but a lower toughness. So, even if the bomb fell from an altitude of one meter, it would not be completely compressed.

After the selection of the spring, the rest was easy. Even though Roland had never seen a fuze before, he could still come up with a design by himself according to how it worked.

It was certainly not state of the art but it would be enough for the current crude bombs.

The completed fuze looked like a cylinder, 12 centimeters long, five centimeters wide, with a thread below it which could reach up to the top of the bomb.

Its interior looked like a downward convex groove so that the firing pin which had the same shape could fit inside. In the idle state, its top part would be pushed by the spring to the groove mouth, while the firing pin inside the groove was just one finger away from the primer. For security purposes, Roland also opened a hole in the head of the firing pin and used a plug to keep it fixed on top of the ammunition case. This way, before the launch, it was necessary to pull the plug first, or else the firing pin would not move upward and downward.

The simulation launch was held on a sunny afternoon.

Because the weight of the bomb after it was filled with gravel and black gunpowder was close to five times Nightingale’s weight, Roland did not to board the hot air balloon, and instead watched the launch with a telescope from 300 meters away.

Apart from himself, Iron Axe, the Commander of the First Army and Carter Lannis, the Chief Knight were also watching the simulation.

“You plan to use a hot air balloon to throw a giant explosive package in the palace?” Carter could not believe his ears when he heard Roland’s plan. To initiate an attack from an altitude of two kilometers, disregarding the city walls and the garrison forces, this redefined entirely his concept of a combat—but of course, having stayed in Border Town for almost a year, his previous concepts had been redefined many times already.

“As long as it’s controlled properly, this is entirely possible.” Roland nodded. “Timothy is currently recruiting soldiers of the militia by force. If he isn’t stopped, the Western Territory will definitely suffer from another attack of a drugged army. And even if we win, it won’t benefit us at all.”

According to Theo’s secret letter, Timothy still wanted to use his old tricks to decrease Roland’s strength. He was not sure whether the people sent out from Barov would be on time to recruit as many people as possible to Border Town before it was too late.

“Supposing you successfully release “thunder’s fury” on Timothy’s head, he’ll be utterly scared!” Iron Axe said excitedly, “It would be like an inescapable God’s Punishment!”

“I hope so.” Roland smiled.

Theo had mentioned in the letter that Timothy had probably figured out black gunpowder recipe and had opened a workshop in the inner city, planning to mass produce it. After thinking carefully, Roland still decided to choose the palace as its target.

The reason was simple. The palace was much more eye-catching.

When looked from an altitude of 2,000 meters, even the most magnificent city of Graycastle was half a palm big. Therefore, it was important to choose the target of the bomb in advance. The palace was situated in the middle of the inner city, surrounded by red tile wall. At the top of it, there were white slates, which were particularly eye-catching, making it impossible to miss the target.

But the workshop was different.

Without layout chart of the king’s city and ground guidance, it would be impossible to describe the exact location of the target by words. Plus, the workshop’s area was not so big. If the bomb were to fall on top of a civilian’s house, the whole plan would fail.

Suddenly, a white shadow fell on the ground, causing a pillar of smoke in the simulation field, followed by the thunderous sound of an impact.

“Looks like the bomb has landed.” Roland put away the telescope. “Let’s go see the results.”

After a week’s training, Lightning’s bomb dropping technique had improved significantly. This time, the bomb had hit the ground just five meters away from the target. The whole bomb was sunk in the ground and the outer shell was greatly deformed due to the impact.

Once the Cloud Gazer landed, Anna used her Blackfire to cut open the bomb, and everyone saw that the soil near the fuze had been burned black—this proved that the primer’s temperature was high enough to ignite the gunpowder which was spread on the ground beforehand, so the fuze itself worked properly. If the interior of the bomb was filled with nitrostarch, it would easily create a four to six meters deep hole, and everyone within a vicinity of 50 meters would die.

Since the development of bomb had been completed, the next thing to do was to plan the attack.

Roland looked everyone around him and said slowly, “The surprise attack on king’s city will be carried out next week. First, Iron Axe, you’ll lead a group of 50 flintlock squad members and escort the witches to the outskirts of Silver City. There’s a mountain ridge in that area, which is much concealed, and it’s suitable both for setting camp or launching off a balloon.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” Iron Axe answered.

“We won’t fly directly from Border Town?” Wendy asked.

“No, it’s too far.” Roland shook his head. Normally, from the Western Territory to the king’s city it required at least a week’s trip and with the Cloud Gazer it would take around six days to go and come back. Furthermore, with the dropping equipment installed, the basket could only load two people, and since Nightingale was not going, only Anna had the ability to fight out of the four witches. Thus, spending six nights in the wild would be too dangerous for them and he did not want to risk it. “If you set out from Silver City, you’ll be able to complete the mission in just one day and return before nightfall.

“Next, the witches for this mission are Anna, Wendy, Lightning, Maggie, Nightingale, and Sylvie. The last two will be responsible for monitoring the surroundings, while the attack will be carried out by the first four according to our training. Especially Lightning.” He looked at the little girl. “Our success depends on you.”

“Just leave it to me,” she replied and patted her chest.

“The last thing I want to say is, be careful,” Roland emphasized each word. “I’ll be waiting for your return in Border Town.”

Four days later, under the escort of the First Army, the first bomb “Easterly Wind No.1”, carried out by a carriage, was loaded on a freighter to Silver City.

Chapter 304: The Unexpected Surprise

ay never thought that by the time she would set off for Border Town once again, and her heart would be filled with expectation.

The forest along Redwater River started to become yellow and the blowing breeze had a trace of chilliness. The river water with its waving light was flowing below her, and from time to time one could see fallen leaves sliding across the rail.

Without the anxiety and restlessness of last time, the autumn scenery around her looked as if it came out of a poem or painting.

“Miss May.” A voice full of admiration sounded from behind. “The play that you performed, “The Witch Diaries”, was it really written for you personally by His Highness?”

As May turned around, she saw a group of actresses gathering behind her, and in front of them standing a woman who looked at her nervously. She recalled that her name was “Swallow”.

“Aha, sorry.” Irene waved at her from the bow of the boat and laughed. “I couldn’t answer their question so I told them to go ask you.”

“Such a fool…” May rolled her eyes. In the past, she would have answered them with a sneer. But after spending more time with Irene, she became more and more patient. She said, “His Highness didn’t write it for me. It was the Minister of Education of the City Hall, Lady Scroll, who wrote it for the witches.”

“Uh, is that so?” Swallow blinked. “We thought it was true when seeing you fight with Bella.”

“‘His Highness wrote it personally’ and ‘His Highness wrote it personally for me’, these two sentences are so different, but yet they still manage to confuse the first with the latter,” May thought. “His Highness has approved both the script and the theatrical performance, so mocking the script indeed means mocking His Highness. In this aspect, I didn’t lie to her.”

“Have you met His Highness?”

“I heard that he has the iconic long gray hair of the crown and is extremely handsome, is that true?”

“I also heard that he’s romantic and has many lovers!”

“Uh, really?”

“…” Looking at this lively group of young girls, May could not help but frown. Damn it! She should have never responded to their curiosity.

“Alright, stop bothering Miss May.” Rosia came forward and sent them away while giving May an apologetic look.

“It’s alright.” She shrugged and continued to enjoy the scenery along the coast. “I was the one who answered their questions after all.”

“I… don’t understand.” Rosia scratched her head. “Why did you bring them along? Out of the 35 people, only two of them have previously performed, while 26 of them haven’t even completed all of their drama classes. According to what you used to say, they can be considered as more the unhatched than the chicks. Even if the lord’s requirements for the play aren’t so high, I’m afraid it’ll still be hard for them to be accepted. If it’s revenge against Bella that you seek, you should have persuaded some more experienced supporting actors.”

“I never planned to let them all perform.”

“Huh?” The other was shocked at the spot.

“They can all read the scripts, correct?” May smiled. “Although they’re still a long way to performing on stage, they can at least read and write. Haven’t you realized that this type of people is exactly what His Highness needs?” She paused for a moment. “Do you believe that Prince Roland Wimbledon asked us to perform because he really loves drama so much?”

“This….”

“If it was Lord Petrov, then the answer would be affirmative. Before he started managing Longsong Stronghold, he used to go to the theater every week. But His Highness Roland, except for the first performance of a new play, he’s never appeared in the town’s square, so the reason he’s promoting drama isn’t for pleasure but to pass on his ideas to the public by showing the performances.” May continued, “Compared to the first plays, which emphasized on resisting oppression and that witches aren’t evil, the new plays “Dawn” and “New City” aim towards people’s recruitment and the message of getting rich through hard work. I’m merely following his wishes and do as much as I can to help out.”

“So that’s how it is. I never thought of this…” Rosia said.

“To understand a script, apart from putting yourself in the position of the character, it’s also necessary to contemplate and realize the true meaning of what it intends to reflect as much as possible. This is also a quality that a good actor needs to possess.

“Yes, thank you for your guidance!” She bowed respectfully.

“Rest assured.” May smiled. “In case you don’t want to perform anymore, you can still find a pretty good job in Border Town. You may even enter the City Hall and become an administrative officer. After all, His Highness doesn’t focus on status or family background. A career like that is much easier than that of a performer.”

…

As the ship arrived in town, May right away noticed Ferlin Eltek standing on the dock.

Obviously, he was there for Irene.

She could not help but sigh as she saw the girl throwing herself into his arms.

“Isn’t that person Morning Light Ferlin Eltek?”

“So he was not exiled by His Highness.”

“The first knight in the Western Region, so nice.” Shallow admired. “I thought he would be with the Star of the theater…”

“Stop talking nonsense.” Everyone stopped talking upon hearing May’s cold tone. “Quickly gather your luggage and disembark. Gait and Rosia will take you to the City Hall and have you registered. Everything else will be arranged by them.”

“Yes,” everyone replied respectfully.

As she came down to the docks, Ferlin, with his arm around his wife, approached and said respectfully, “Miss May, Irene just told me about the clash in the theater. Thank you for keeping an eye on her.”

“There’s no need to thank me,” May replied, “They’re actually targeting me, though it looks like they’re offending her.”

“Even so, I still have to thank you.” the Knight laughed. “If it weren’t for you, she would have definitely cried at that time.”

When the couple left, May curled her lip, carried her luggage alone, and walked towards the residential district.

Even though she had given up on him, but seeing them together still made her feel a bit sad. Furthermore, that familiar figure also did not appear, even though he had promised in his letter that he would give her a surprise.

Well, he was, after all, someone important to His Highness. Would not he be able to move freely like the Morning Light right?

Having arrived home, May put down her luggage and felt a sense of relaxation that she had not felt for a long time. She took a long breath and walk to the cupboard to take out some white liquor. Just as she was about to pour herself a drink, she heard someone knocking the door.

At the door, Carter Lannis was standing before her.

“I didn’t expect you to arrive an hour earlier.” He wiped the sweat from his forehead. “I came here straight from the barracks when I heard that the ship from Longsong Stronghold had arrived.”

Curiously, even though he did not wait for her at the docks to escort her, her mood instantly became better after seeing him like this. “Would you like some drink?”

“No thanks, I’m on duty this afternoon. Carter waved his hand.

“Alright.” She nodded. “His Highness’s work is more important. ”

“I wanted to give you a present.” The chief knight took out a white wooden box from his pocket and handed it to her.

“Is this the newest product from the Convenience Market?” May asked curiously as she took the box. When she opened it, she saw a yellow-orange ring. At the top of it, there was a transparent gemstone, which reflected various colors of light from the autumn sun that shone through the window.

Without a doubt, the ring was priceless, something unlikely sold in the Convenience Market. And when nobles gifted a ring, it meant… she could not help covering her mouth.

“Miss May, will you marry me?” Carter asked earnestly.

Chapter 305: The Chemical Breakthrough

t had been four days since the witches and the First Army departed. According to the plan, they should arrive at the Silver City suburb the following afternoon.

Since they were equipped with Honey’s carrier pigeons, Iron Axe, Anna, and Nightingale sent Roland letters every day. Though they were not as fast as mobile phones, they were not slower than newspaper messengers. If there were more carrier pigeons, with birds flying between them all the time, maybe they could achieve the effect of texting.

With Nightingale away, the chief knight had taken over the task of defending the castle. Roland was puzzled to see that Carter had been especially cheerful these days; it seemed that he had encountered something pleasing. Was being Roland’s personal bodyguard the cause of this extra cheerfulness?

Roland shook his head and focused on the report from Karl Van Bate, the Minister of Construction.

Over the past month, with the assistance of the witches from Sleeping Island, they had made amazing progress on the construction projects in Border Town.

The first was the successful completion of the steel bridge across Redwater River. Compared with traditional stone and wooden bridges, the steel bridge was much easier to construct. The main body of the bridge was prefabricated, and then it was hoisted and assembled into place. Two floating islands raised by Lotus in the river course further simplified the difficulty in erecting the bridge, shortening the construction of the main bridge astonishingly into a month.

By modern standards, this bridge was short and narrow, with a simple structure and low load capacity, making it a project that was purely a waste of materials. However, in this era it could be regarded as a magnificent bridge. It had a total length of 100 meters. The surface of the bridge was flat and wide enough for two carriages to move side by side. The bottom of the bridge was high enough for the inland river ships to pass through, something impossible for any of the heavy stone bridges.

Secondly, Lotus’s new city wall had also been completed. This purely mud-built city wall had increased the size of the town twice over. If he built a city on the basis of the town in the future, the original town would be the virtual “Inner City”. However, Roland preferred to use “First Ring” and “Second Ring” to describe it. Perhaps one day in the future, this place could be expanded into a mega-city with seven rings, and officially named the “Imperial Capital”.

Finally, as for the construction of the Kingdom Main Street, some parts of the foot of the Impassable Mountain Range had been flattened by Lotus, greatly reducing the construction time. Now the roads could go straight through.

“Your Highness, what’s your next construction project for Lotus?” Karl asked after reporting the progress.

It could be seen that he was in extreme admiration of her ability to transform the terrain. He nearly proposed to recruit her in the Ministry of Construction and appoint her as the deputy minister.

“Well…” Roland was also considering it. He had three major renovation projects to be implemented in the following days.

The first would be the estuary project. They would look for a low opening in the southern mountain ridge and then level out the terrain to build paths to the shallow beach. This could only be achieved by using Lotus’s ability. Once completed, the Western Region would own a seaward harbor.

The second was residential expansion. Although City Hall had invested a lot of manpower and financial resources to speed up the construction of residential districts, nearly 3,000 people might still be without the warmth of brick houses come winter. The simple shelters and wooden sheds they had at present, could not keep warm. He would need a number of cave dwellings with thick walls and heated brick beds to solve the problem.

The last project was the construction of a shipyard. To produce shallow water gunboats, he had to build a spacious shipyard first. It could not affect the shipping on Redwater River. Roland planned to lower the riverbank on the west side of the town to form a dry dock. Then he could install a lifting valve at the side of the river to control water intake and runoff. It would be a large project with huge earthwork, which would also require Lotus’s ability.

After considering for a moment, he finally decided to give priority to residential expansion. Since they had brought the refugees from the Eastern Region to Border Town, they were responsible for their basic life necessities. If they froze or starved to death, it would not only be a major loss but would also lower people’s sense of belonging to this place.

“So where should this temporary residential area be located?” Karl asked.

“Locate it in currently the serf shack district.” Roland glanced at the map. “It’s far from the defense line of the city walls. They’ll also be sheltered from the wind by the Impassable Mountain Range.”

After the minister of construction left, he was about to take a nap in his chair when Kyle Sichi came in.

“Your Highness, the large-scale acid-making process you required has been successfully developed.”

His words were a great relief to Roland’s tiredness. He stood up from the desk in surprise. “Really? Take me to see it.”

They came to the laboratory at Redwater River. Several gray tanks and a furnace had been built next to the Fifth Laboratory. Each tank was as high as two men and had a pipeline connected to its top. The tanks had a smooth shape, clearly Anna’s work.

“My respects to you, Your Highness.” A young man bowed to Roland.

“You’re Chavez?” Roland knew that Kyle had brought some apprentices and a distinguished alchemist from Redwater City, but this was his first time meeting this young man.

“You actually remember my name,” Chavez said in surprise.

“Sir Kyle has mentioned you on many occasions.” Roland patted his shoulder in encouragement. “Nice work.” Then he looked to the chief alchemist and asked, “How is acid produced here?”

Kyle laughed while touching his beard. “It was developed successfully, because I deducted the chemical equations completely from the ‘Elementary Chemistry’. Look at that furnace. The purified sulfur will burn in the furnace, and the resulting gas will go into the lead tank after further heating.”

“Are all these devices made of lead?”

“That’s right. Only lead can withstand acid corrosion.” Kyle nodded. “The lead pipeline at the top of the tank keeps sprinkling down nitro-sulphuric acid. Meeting hot sulfur dioxide, the nitric acid will decompose to nitrogen oxide, which will react with water and sulfur dioxide to generate the sulfuric acid solution. The solution will flow out of the hole at the bottom of the tank. The ingenious part of the reaction is that nitrogen oxide only acts as an oxygen carrier, but it won’t be consumed. In this way, the need for nitric acid is very small. Once the reaction starts, it can go on working forever!”

“How’s its output?” Roland patted the lead tank excitedly. Large-scale acid production was a prerequisite for the mass production of smokeless gunpowder. If this problem had been solved, he could produce the ammunition for the new-generation flintlocks and cannon.

“This is the fourth device I’ve tested. Its daily output is equal to a week’s output from the laboratory. We use a dry distillation method for a week,” the chief alchemist proudly said, “It isn’t large because I just made it for testing. If I can use larger lead tanks, the output can be further improved.”

“That’s really good news.” Roland laughed. “When Miss Anna returns, you can immediately start building a larger-scale acid plant. In case the lead isn’t enough, you can use iron instead. Miss Soraya’s coating can make iron containers withstand acid corrosion.”

Kyle nodded, but his next words made the prince’s smile fade away.

“The large-scale acid-making process has succeeded, and all five laboratories are filled with apprentices. Your Highness, would you please award the ‘Intermediate Chemist’ to me as you promised?”

Chapter 306: In the Castle Backyard

croll stood behind His Highness Roland, quietly watching him writing out the manuscript. The autumn sunshine shone through the window onto her back, making her feel like being bathed in warmth.

“Oh, what contents should also be included… in addition to gain and loss of electrons? Can anyone tell me? I’m waiting online…” The prince wrote down some words on the paper from time to time and then began to hold his forehead to meditate, occasionally saying some incomprehensible nonsense. Originally Scroll was somewhat worried about his physical condition, but later she realized that this was just the normal state of His Highness when he tried to recall his “knowledge”.

Only today his “symptoms” were much more severe than before.

“Unfortunately, I can’t help him…” Scroll lightly sighed, “I’m afraid Anna is the only witch who can help him in this aspect. I’ve already memorized the several pages His Highness wrote earlier. However, I just remember the contents but don’t understand them at all. The knowledge is much deeper than the basic principles of mathematics and natural science we’ve learned in the past. Just reading it has already made me feel dizzy. No wonder that His Highness is so frustrated.”

“How about we call it a day?” Scroll could not help but say to His Highness.

Roland gave up and dropped his pen, leaning against the chair. Then he sighed. “I really envy your ability of never forgetting anything. If I could be like you, I would never need to worry about exams. Then I would be admitted to a famous university and achieve the pinnacle of my career.”

She automatically ignored the latter part of his words as nonsense. “Did Your Highness also need to take exams in the palace?”

“Yeah. Otherwise, how can they figure out which prince is more excellent,” he muttered.

“In fact, sometimes remembering everything isn’t so good,” Scroll said with a smile, “Things like bad encounters, sadness, and griefs. I’d rather I could forget them.”

When she lived in Seawindshire, she had been beaten and insulted countless times, just because of being poor. Until now, she could still remember the blows the suffering, the twisted faces of those perpetrators who beat her to release their anger, and the pain of each hit and kick. Only after she was sheltered by an old captain with broken legs, had her life become slightly better. In fact, in places like the slums, every day many people died from fighting and killing each other, which was not less than those from hunger and coldness.

For a long time, she had detested herself for clearly remembering the hardships she encountered. The scenes were so clear that the insufferable experiences turned into her nightmares every night. Until she entered adulthood and awakened to gain the derivative skill, “Book of Magic”, she began to understand that she had an extraordinary memory because she was a witch.

Roland probably guessed what she was thinking, and he showed an apologetic smile toward her and said, “You’re right.”

Scroll suddenly felt warmth flowing through her heart.

Few people cared about a witch’s feelings, not to mention that this man was a prominent member of the royal nobles.

“It’s alright. It’s in the past, Your Highness.”

Roland Wimbledon was different from any noble she met… No, he was actually different from any men she met. He owned profound knowledge, yet thinking of passing the knowledge to others all day. He had a noble background, but yet he did not have an arrogant and refusing attitude toward others. He was admired by all the people and could do anything as he liked, but yet he did not, and instead, he would consider other people’s feelings.

A desolate and backward town had undergone earth-shaking changes within one year. The witches gained their long-dreamt peace and freedom, which all thanks to His Highness. If she had not experienced it by herself, she would never believe a ruler like this could exist in the world.

Now, Scroll found that her thoughts were also changing little by little. She had not agreed with His Highness’ decision of marrying with a witch in the past. But at this moment she felt that no matter who he married, His Highness would ascend the throne of the Kingdom of Graycastle. He did not rely on those noble members who knew nothing but following the routines and greedily fighting for power and fortune. Instead, he relied on people who supported him because he brought a better life to them.

She vaguely felt that this power would be stronger than any other power before.

“Ah, well,” Roland suddenly rubbed his head and said, “this is the last page.”

“Will we continue tomorrow?”

“No, just give it to him like this. With another physics textbook, it’ll be enough for him to study for a long time.” His Highness took a new piece of paper and quickly wrote a few characters. “After all, it’s normal for a book from ‘Ancient Times’ to have some missing pages, right?”

Scroll took the paper and saw the name of the book on it—”Intermediate Chemistry (Remnant)”.

…

After finishing her memory work, she left his office and was ready to go to the City Hall, but was attracted by the magnificent view of the castle backyard.

After the expansion of the castle walls, the backyard became almost as large as the town square. It was planted with a wide variety of plants within less than a week. There was no doubt that this must be the masterpiece of Leaf.

Scroll walked deep into the garden along the passage of olive trees. After passing through a dense row of sugarcanes, she saw Leaf sitting by a small pond.

Leaf did not bundle her hair into the usual braids; instead, she had her green long hair casually hanging around her shoulders. She was gently tapping water with her white feet, and holding some wheat grains with both hands and throwing them to the fish from time to time. Whenever a fish swam up and rubbed her toes, she could not help but chuckle.

“Your feet have been healed?” Scroll sat down beside her.

“Ah, Miss Scroll.” She blinked, then nodded and smiled. “Yes, Miss Nana restored them to their original form, so I finally don’t have to endure the pain of the toes in winter.”

“Have you personally improved all the plants in the garden?”

“Yeah.” Leaf happily pointed to the plants. “Those are grapevine sheds. Here are fruit trees and crops. I also asked His Highness to send some compost to test the absorption of new crops. There’re dozens of bird’s nests in the fruit tree area, so the carrier pigeons that Honey raises can all sleep in them.”

Scroll affectionately caressed her long hair and said, “I thought you’d be the first witch in the association to evolve your ability. After all, when we were in the Impassable Mountain Range, the ability you demonstrated was nearly as strong as that of Cara.”

“His Highness said the evolution of one’s ability comes from the understanding of our own abilities. The plant cells are indeed incredible, but I’ve thought long before that they should have been the same. You see, a bunch of grass can gather together to form pliable vines. If they’re different, how can they integrate together like that?”

Scroll opened her mouth but did not know whether to comfort her or agree with her. Finally, she said, “Even if your ability doesn’t evolve, you can still do a lot of things for His Highness.”

“I feel it isn’t far away from me.” Leaf shook her head while her eyes were shining with excitement. “Animals are life, plants are also life, and even the parts that form them are also life… Birds need to nest on trees, and their faeces can also fertilize trees. A forest can support every living being to grow, while it also expands because of the support of the living beings in return.” She paused. “Looking at the garden, I think I’ve found a way forward. ”

Chapter 307: A Knell from the Sky

he hot air balloon was soaring over 2,000 meters above the ground. This number was measured by Lightning when she flew perpendicularly.

The sky was loosely specked with puffs of white clouds that seemed so close to her that she almost felt they were within her reach. If she really wanted to touch them, however, she had to fly up for another several hundred meters.

The entire hot air balloon was colored in white and blue, perfectly fused with the sky from a distance. Like the “Easterly Wind No.1”, Lightning was also in camouflage. Since His Highness had told them that the raid must be quick and unexpected, the First Army landed before the boat arrived at the pier of Silver City and marshaled toward the backside of the mountain ridge nearby on foot.

Thanks to Sylvie’s monitoring, the army successfully reached the camp unnoticed. After tents were pitched, the “Cloud Gazer” slowly rose and was ready for bombing the following day.

It had taken them a week to commute, and now it was exactly the beginning of mid-autumn.

The white figure in front of the balloon was Maggie. As it was inconvenient to observe in the basket, she took over the guidance and scouting work. After turning herself into a goshawk with white tail feathers, Maggie was thus able to quickly capture various roads connecting cities and towns, as well as carriages running on these roads. It seemed that goshawk’s eyes worked better than a telescope for scouting.

Lightning was happy to know that Maggie at least could not help adjust the landing spot of the bomb. Otherwise, she would truly become an idler.

“Are you tired?” Anna asked while leaning against the basket. “Get in to take a rest. There’re no demons right now anyway.”

The little girl shook her head. “I can fly at this speed for a whole day.”

“Are you a bit nervous?” Wendy also joined the conversation.

“Certainly not.” Lightning twitched her mouth. “I’ve practiced a lot of times. Plus, the palace is huge. There’s no way I’ll miss the target.”

“Really?” Wendy smiled. “In any event, don’t force yourself. His Highness has said safety is a top priority. Plus… you don’t need to worry too much about what happened during the investigation of Devil’s Town. It wasn’t your fault.”

“Well, I…”

Wendy continued in a gentle voice, “Everybody knows that you’ve been in low spirits for the past few days. You weren’t afraid, but were simply not good at battling. If I were you, I wouldn’t necessarily have done any better.”

“Wendy’s right. Most witches don’t possess the combatting skills that Nightingale does.” Anna comforted Lightning. “Come in and have a rest. You’ll need a lot of magic power to adjust the landing spot of the bomb later.”

Persuaded, Lightning let out an imperceptible snort and flew into the basket, head hanging. Before she completely landed, Wendy had pressed the little girl firmly into her chest. “Nobody will blame you, so you don’t need to cast the blame on yourself, understand?”

“Yes…”

…

After flying for the whole morning, Maggie returned to the Cloud Gazer while flapping her wings and reported to the three people in the basket. “The king’s city of the Kingdom of Graycastle is right at the front. We’re almost there, choo.”

Lightning left the basket and raised the telescope. Like Prince Roland had said, the magnificent city wall of the king’s city, which wound like a blue thin thread that twisted and crooked along the whole city, could be easily detected from above. In the middle of the gray color block stood out a nail-sized white dot.

Based on the original plan, they should have first distributed pamphlets before dumping the “Easterly Wind No.1”. After several trials, however, they had discovered it was impossible to have the flyers land at their designated spot, even with loadings. If they lowered the height, they would then be easily spotted by people on the ground. After all, the “Cloud Gazer” was not a tiny balloon. People would naturally look up when sheets drifted down and thereby see them flying in the sky.

As such, His Highness had at last asked Theo to spread the message, whereas they were only responsible for bombing the palace in the air.

Wendy manipulated air currents to let the basket hover above the king’s city.

“Are you ready?”

Lightning gave an approving nod and said, “Open the valve.”

With a clink, the heavy bomb was detached from the basket and plunged straight down to the ground. As the loading was abruptly discharged, the hot air balloon rose swiftly.

Lightning was too familiar with the steps coming next.

As the parachute at the end of the “Easterly Wind No.1” slowly opened, Lightning soon caught up with the bomb and started to adjust its trajectory little by little.

For witches of the Witch Cooperation Association, the king’s city was familiar to them. During the time they had traveled to Barbarian Land to seek Holy Mountain, they had hidden in the slum of the city for a few months. The purpose of staying in the king’s city was to collect food and recruit new members. In fact, Soraya and Echo had joined the Witch Cooperation Association during that time period. Although having not personally experienced herself, Lightning had heard witches were less tolerated in the king’s city than in any other cities. Witches were executed almost every month at the square in the outer city. Therefore, their stay in the king’s city had been the shortest among all others, for to linger one more days had meant more suffer from the loss of their sisters.

Lightning did not like this flourishing capital at all. If she could throw the bomb right above Timothy’s head and end his regime, she would be very glad to do so. She believed that if Roland were the ruler of the Kingdom of Graycastle, there would have been no such tragedies.

Right now she just got an opportunity to correct the error.

Winds whistled in her ears. As Lightning flew lower, the landscape below started to become clearer. More details of the palace in the inner city were presented.

Compared with the low-rise residences where peasants lived, the palace was much larger. Its main architecture consisted of a dome temple, a reception building and a tower castle. There were also numerous complementary buildings such as barns, barracks and stables. In view of the fact that the castle was fortified and that its roof structure was complicated, Roland picked the temple as the bombing target because it was easier for them to ignite the fuze there.

With the bomb dropping rapidly, it was soon about time to detach the parachute. Lightning pulled the trigger to let the sleeve separate from the bomb while at the same time quickly flying upward with the sleeve.

Although she remembered His Highness had told her repeatedly to fly high enough to keep herself safe before the bomb landed and not to turn around to see the explosion, the little girl still lowered her head in curiosity.

A blinding flash lighted up the temple, and soon a fireball began to grow in size.

The white illumination immediately turned into a bright orange-red color and was then engulfed by the surrounding smoke and ashes that sprang up. The blast only took a few seconds. Next Lightning heard a deafening explosion that almost tipped her over in the air.

She had never seen a real battlefield full of bombards before, but she was totally shocked by the monstrous power of the “Easterly Wind No.1”. The noise produced by the bomb was 10 times more than all the sounds produced by those terrifying weapons that discharged iron balls.

Smogs that ejected from windows enveloped the pillars surrounding the temple, permeating throughout the garden and the hallway outside. Presently, several cracks appeared around the dome where the bomb landed.

Lightning’s attention was attracted to the explosion. She gazed at the last of the temple while holding her breath.

In a second, black cracks were all over the dome like spilled ink that streamed down. As the bombing continued, the dome finally failed to support itself and collapsed, kicking up an even thicker gust of ashes and crumbs.

The temple of the palace crumbled under the fierce attack of the “Easterly Wind No.1”.