Chapter 594: Shallows and Reunion

This was indeed an unexpected surprise.

Roland had originally thought she would send a few combat witches to assist, but he hadn't expected her to come in person. This meant the troubles on the island had been resolved, or at least wouldn't threaten the stability of Sleeping Island for the time being.

The day after receiving the letter, Roland led Anna and others to the shallows to welcome Tilly's arrival.

After half a month of construction, the sandy beach was showing signs of human intervention.

Simple wooden cabins and sheds stood around the slope—the beginnings of warehouses and sailor dormitories. To prevent sea wind erosion, the windward sides of the cabins were coated with a bright orange layer, both eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing. A stretch of beach about thirty meters long had been leveled by Lian, and brick and stone were piled up around the periphery, serving as a temporary pier. Since it was a natural deep-water port, even a jetty was unnecessary, and even three-masted ocean-going ships could dock directly alongside.

Most of the witches were seeing the shallows in their developmental stage for the first time and looked around with curiosity.

"Is that big pit over there the collapsed dock from before?" Anna walked to Roland's side, pointing to where a group of workers were busy. "What are they doing now?"

"Uh, you heard about that too?" Roland said, slightly embarrassed.

"Of course, NanaWa told me that day. Three workers broke their legs."

This incident, along with the explosion during the test run of the coke oven, were considered the two most serious accidents in Border Town in the new year. The latter could be said to be the price of exploration, but Roland was at least half responsible for the former.

Considering the loose soil in the shallows, Construction Minister Karl had suggested building the dock on the edge of the mountains, but Roland had flatly rejected it. The main reason was the construction period—it had taken so long just to settle a long slope, and settling a dock in the old way would probably drag on until next year before construction of Thunder's steam sea ship could begin.

As for the loose sand, he didn't think it was anything to worry about, as long as Lian made the outline of the dock, and then poured concrete as a protective wall.

The project started very smoothly, just as he had imagined. After the concrete solidified, the four walls looked quite solid, like adding a stone wall to the foundation. Roland was even complacent about it, thinking that civil engineers were nothing special, but an accident happened when the iron gate was being installed.

The iron gate, as thick as an arm, suddenly fell down along with the concrete walls on both sides after leaving the Hummingbird's contact, crushing the workers installing it below. Although Hummingbird made the door as light as a feather in the first instance, the three people who were crushed were still seriously injured. If NanaWa hadn't treated them in time, they would basically have had no chance of surviving.

Later investigation revealed that when the concrete wall was initially filled, some of the sand had collapsed under the workers' feet and filled the bottom, causing the wall to not be tightly connected to the floor. The seemingly flat and solid concrete surrounding had only a thin layer at the joint at the base of the wall. When the iron gate was hung on such a wall, its own weight instantly exceeded the limit of the steel bars, and the consequences were naturally imaginable.

In later generations, this would definitely be considered a serious mistake, but in this era, casualties during construction were normal, so no one would take it seriously, let alone criticize the lord himself. The guilty conscience and sense of guilt could only be felt by Roland himself.

He cleared his throat, suppressing his thoughts. "They're building wooden pile retaining walls."

"To reinforce the soil on both sides of the dock?" Anna quickly guessed the answer.

"Yes, like tree roots, inserted into the ground in a crisscross pattern, they can increase the friction between the sand, so the sidewalls won't easily collapse," Roland nodded. And with the previous lesson, when filling the concrete this time, he would definitely carefully check whether there was any residual sand inside the formwork.

"Look, a ship is coming!" Mi Yue suddenly shouted.

Everyone followed the sound and looked towards the horizon, where a sailing ship with a pink flag was slowly sailing towards them.

There was no doubt that the only sea ship that would bypass the southern cape and head to the inland of the Western Region was Sleeping Island's

Pretty Maiden.

The ship lingered for a while after approaching the shallows before adjusting its direction towards the shore. Obviously, the other party hadn't expected the shallows to look like this now.

Roland saw Tilly Wimbledon again, the Fifth Princess of Graycastle.

He extended his right hand to her, and they shook hands with a smile. Even though they hadn't seen each other for months, her expression was as if they had just parted yesterday, with no sense of unfamiliarity. And from the look in her eyes, she felt the same way about him.

This was a good reunion, he thought.

The other witches were not so reserved.

Honey, Candle, and Evelyn surrounded her and embraced their former partner warmly; Andrea put her arm around Nightingale's shoulder, completely without the demeanor of a noble; Wendy took Ashes's hand and asked about her recent situation with concern; and Shadow startledly discovered that there was even a Bloodfang witch among the arrivals.

"Why are you here?" She frowned as she walked up to a witch with a pale face. "Could it be that Hedy Morgan couldn't wait for my and Iffi's reply and couldn't help but throw you over here again?"

"No, Lady Hedy is on the ship," the other party shook her head.

"What—" Shadow's exclamation immediately attracted everyone's attention. "You mean... she's also come to the Western Region?"

It was easy to hear the strong fear in the little girl's voice.

"Who is Hedy?"

"Seems to be the leader of the Bloodfang?"

"Ah... Iffi seems to have mentioned it."

"What is she doing here?"

Roland looked at Tilly. "Did you settle her?"

"If you're referring to subdue, then you could say so—the plan was very successful, and Hedy did target Annie's illusion," Tilly spread her hands. "But along the way, she refused to reveal the whereabouts of the witches rejected by the Bloodfang, and said that she would only speak after seeing you."

"Seeing me?" Roland was taken aback.

"That's right, I guess she sees you as her last lifeline," Tilly blinked. "The ruler of Graycastle, the representative of the secular nobles, as long as she can offer enough benefits, you should spare her life, and even help her regain her position in Wolfheart... maybe."

"Are you deliberately reminding me?" He couldn't help but laugh. He had to say that when Tilly pretended to be casual and hinted at things, she looked quite cute. "Don't worry, if I were to measure the lives of witches with benefits, you wouldn't have brought her here. By the way, who is that witch? I don't think I've ever seen her before."

"Sunset, a combat witch of the Bloodfang," Tilly replied. "If it wasn't for her using the Symbiotic Seed to sustain Hedy's life, the latter probably wouldn't have been able to make it to Neverwinter City."