Er Mu - Release that Witch

“I knew it,” Hogg sighed. “Although they are propagated as the devil’s minions, those strange abilities they possess are indeed enviable. It is impossible for ordinary people to fly into the air and draw such an exquisite mural beyond compare afterward.”

“Only the second half of your sentence is correct,” Roland shook his head, “Ordinary people, even if they don’t rely on magic, can also fly. They can even fly higher than an eagle and fly faster than the swift.”

“You have a good sense of humor,” Hogg laughed out loud, “Only if we have a pair of wings, and also become lighter than the birds.”

Margaret however, sounded startled as she asked, “Really?”

“Of course,” the Prince said confidently, “And I can prove it to you.”

Letting the merchants receive the knowledge and experience about his various types of inventions, wouldn’t only promote their relationship, it would also open up a new effective way for them to trade — it was the same for everything else, from the mugs to the liquor, whether he was able to sell it or not was another matter. Anyway, the caravan would be staying in town for several days, and after their regular trading, the negotiation would also be finalized. The rest of their time was typically filled with drinking and being merry making. Furthermore, Anna was also very interested in taking a trip in the hot air balloon, so by giving her a possibility to rest for a moment from her busy work, it could be seen as an action which fulfilled multiple purposes.

Soon, Cloud Gazer was once more inflated, and all the witches who couldn’t ride with the balloon last time had gathered. Lucia even shyly asked if her younger sister could also go up and take a look, which Roland had immediately agreed to.

As the balloon that was carrying everyone began to slowly rising, Margaret covered her mouth in astonishment, while Hogg grabbed hold of the edge of the basket, not knowing whether he should be excited or scared. Since Bell’s size was too small, it was impossible for her to see the scenery outside of the basket. Without any better option, Lucia had to hold her up and permitted for her to ride on her shoulders, while gingerly stepping close to the edge of the basket and repeatedly warning her to not fiddle around too much. As the navigator and the rescuer, Lightning continually circled around the hot air balloon, only stopping from time to time to pull a face at Bell.

After the hot air balloon circled along the southern coastline one more time, their airborne sightseeing trip had come to its end.

…

Back at the castle, Hogg’s legs were still trembling, stammering he said, “I would have never thought, that looking down from up in the sky would be this frightening, I felt like I was always falling down.

“After flying for a few times it will be okay,” Roland laughed. “Leaving with your feet from the ground for the first time will always create such an illusion, it is the same for a person who had never gone out to sea, they will also start to vomit due to the sea’s up and down motion.

“You spoke the truth,” Margaret exclaimed in admiration, “Today, the scenery I saw was indeed inconceivable, looking from the sky to the edge of the sea, it actually resembled a blue arc.”

“But Your Royal Highness, I do not seem to be wrong,” Hogg drank some iced liquor, “Even though we ordinary people were able to fly in the sky, but this was still a witch’s ability. If it weren’t for them, this big guy would never be able to fly.”

“No, old friend,” Even before Roland had the chance to answer, Margaret had already begun to speak, “Don’t tell me you haven’t realized it? Miss Anna had been merely releasing her flame, nothing more. I also specifically asked Lightning, she said that as long as enough heat is poured into the airbag, Cloud Gazer will rise up into the sky. The flame is not a witch’s privilege, Your Royal Highness, am I right?”

She once more proved why she was able to establish herself as a Fjord ocean merchant in King’s City, no matter if it was her perception, or her intelligence, they were both exceptional. Roland smiled and nodded, “Hot air will rises, while cold air will sink, that’s also the reason why it is called a hot air balloon.”

“Really, would using a brazier be hot enough?” Hogg asked disbelievingly.

“That won’t do, because if you want to let the balloon float in the sky, you have to supply it with heat the entire time. Furthermore, wood itself is already very heavy, so you can’t take it with you without end, because of this the problem needs to be solved in a special way.”

“Can you achieve it?” Margaret asked impatiently.

“Well… I should be able to,” after thinking for a while, Roland continued, “But there are still some troubles.”

“That would be truly wonderful,” Margaret answered immediately. “I hope that I will be able to purchase four to five hot air balloons, they don’t need to be so big, it would already be enough if they can carry one person.”

“Do you want to put it on your ships?” Hogg asked.

“Well, the mast cannot reach an unlimited height, but a hot air balloon can, it can go as high as the rope connected to the basket is long. Moreover, if it connects to the mast, it also won’t drift away with the wind. So, by using a hot air balloon as a lookout, they should be able to detect nearing pirate ship much earlier. Regarding the sea trade, besides the unpredictable storms and tsunamis, the biggest harm to our merchant fleets comes from pirates.”

“But I fear that it is unlikely that the construction cost will be low,” Roland calculated it within his mind, “I estimate that it will require more than one thousand gold royals.”

In case they didn’t use a witch to heat the air, the hot air balloon would need to use gas as fuel, and the most easily obtainable fuel would be coal gas. Unfortunately, Graycastle’s coal mines were located at the Cold-Wind Mountain Range, which was just too far away from Border Town. According to the transportation conditions, it would be impossible to transport it over. Turning the hot-air balloon into a hydrogen balloon would be much easier to achieve, but he had still to solve the problem of the gas tank — if it couldn’t be used unobstructed, then it wouldn’t be of any practical value.

“One thousand gold royals apiece, was it?” Margaret said then made a counter-offer, “If you really are able to make this, I can guarantee that all the caravans from the Fjords will buy at least one or two of them.”

“This time Crescent Moon Bay Caravan hadn’t come along. Otherwise I’m certain you would have received your next huge order,” Hogg grasped the liquor cup and drained it in one gulp. “I, however, won’t need such a balloon, even though they seem very magical, they don’t have any use for my mines in Silver City. I just want to get my steam engines as soon as possible.”

Hearing Margaret accepting his price made Roland pleased beyond his expectations. The one thousand gold royals were the price he got after increasing the estimated production costs by five times, he had never expected that the other party was able to accept a price twice the price of a steam engine. But when he thought about it again, a sea faring ship carrying all kinds of goods would probably be worth much more than this price, not to mention saving the entire merchant fleet and the lives of the ship’s crew, so long as they could avoid being looted by pirates, the deal would still be cost-effective for ocean traders.

Also, the thousand gold royals wouldn’t be the end of the deal, whether it was hydrogen or coal gas, they were both consumables. If they were used up, they would eventually need to come back to Border Town for a refill, which would then yield an additional revenue… Of course, in case they acquired the gas canisters in large quantity, giving them a discount or present them with several inflations for free could be considered. In this regards, he could use the 4s[6] car shops and CPC[7] and CNPC[8] as an example and imitate them.

Roland pretended to hesitate for a moment before he finally nodding, “In that case, I think we have reached a deal.”

The Fjord’s weather was very strange, yesterday had been a sunny, cloudless day, with an endlessly blue sky. But the sky was gloomy today, the wind was blowing and the thunder rolling, looking like a massive rainstorm was imminent.

Ashes held down her hair to prevent it from fluttering about wildly in the wind then stepped into Tilly’s home only to discover that there was a fat pigeon sitting on Tilly’s shoulder.

“Maggie?”

“Goo!” The pigeon raised its head, its eyes turned bright, it opened its wings and immediately threw itself at the doorway, only to gently be blocked by Ashes hand, “Turn into your human form so that we can talk.”

“Woo… Goo,” With fluttering wings, Maggie landed on the floor, shedding her feathers to reveal her original appearance. She opened her mouth and unhappily asked, “Do you have a hatred for pigeons?

“I’ve always felt that a bird that can speak is way too strange,” Ashes said laughingly and pulled up the girl that was sitting up from the ground, “At what time have you come back?”

“Just a moment ago, I was afraid that I would get caught up by the storm, my wing almost ended up broken,” she patted her chest. “Fortunately, I was able to reach Sleeping Island before the rain began falling.”

“Did you fly back… like this?” Ashes tapped her on the forehead, “Why didn’t you just turn into a swallow wouldn’t that have been much faster?”

“Oh…” Maggie’s eyes became wide, as if she had suddenly only just realized something, “I forgot, goo.”

Tilly couldn’t help but laugh, she then put down the letter in her hand and said, “I’m putting you through a lot of trouble. I already know about the news from that area, so for now, you can should go and look for Lotus or Molly and play with them, I will think about a good reply and notify you later.”

“Good, goo!” Maggie saluted and then hopped as she left the room.

“What did Roland Wimbledon have to say?” Waiting until the both of them were the only one left in the room, Ashes went over to Tilly and sat beside her on the woven mat. There, on the ground in front of them a map was spread out. Looking closely, she discovered that it depicted the terrain surrounding Border Town.

“This is his letter,” Tilly handed her a piece of paper, “I have to say, the witches he picked are indeed… quite special…”

Ashes quickly finished reading the letter given to her, unable to keep the frown on her forehead she asked “He actually chose Sylvie? Does he simply do not care about exposing his identity?”

“I don’t know,” Tilly said, not expressing her opinion, “Perhaps my summary about their abilities was too vague, so he was unable to do an in-depth investigation? Or it could be that he simply does not care if his identity is exposed to us, and might be trying to show his sincerity in cooperating? Of course, there is still another possibility…”

“He really could be your older brother,” Ashes finished her sentence, “And because of this he doesn’t care at all about Sylvie’s ability.”

“But this possibility is next to nothing,” she laughed at herself, “Who would know better than I the kind of person my older brother is? If he was indeed Roland Wimbledon, he would never chose to go against the Church in order to protect the witches. From young to old, the thing he has always been best at was with escaping. No matter what challenges or difficulties he was facing … Even when the king sent him to Border Town, he never went over to meet with “father” or tried raising any form of protest, even if it would only be a symbolic one.”

Ashes raised one eyebrow, “In short, him taking the initiative to pick Sylvie is a good thing for us. In that way we don’t need to think of an excuse to send him an additional witch, but those other witches… don’t tell me that you really want to agree to send them to him?”

“Why not?”

“Lotus is one of Sleeping Island’s most talented witches. If she is gone, who will build new mud houses or restore our old ones? If you want to create something, or transformation the island’s terrain, not having her ability to remodel the terrain would prove extremely inconvenient. After all, we are currently using less than 30 % of Sleeping Islands terrain, there are still many places which can be transformed,” as she said this she raised one finger.