Roland sat at his desk, pondering how to launch an air raid on the royal palace, when a tapping sound suddenly came from the floor-to-ceiling window behind him.

Turning his head, he saw Lightning plastered against the window, looking alarmed, while Maggie squatted on her head, pecking at the glass rapidly.

Nightingale had just opened the window when the little girl flew into Roland's arms.

"What's wrong?" he asked, taken aback. "What happened?"

"Black stones, goo! Huge snow mountain, goo!" Maggie landed on the desk, flapping her wings as she reported.

"Huh?"

"It's not that," Lightning said in a muffled voice. "It's devils, I saw devils!"

"What?" Roland's expression turned serious. He stroked her head to calm her down. "Don't panic, tell me slowly."

After a while, Lightning raised her head from the prince's arms, her golden short hair looking messy, with two light red marks around her eyes, obviously caused by the goggles during high-speed flight. "I was planning to map out the border of the Misty Forest, so I went west along the Redwater River, and then I discovered a large mountain..."

After listening to her detailed account of what she had seen and heard, Roland couldn't help but widen his eyes. The red mist that the devils relied on to survive was behind the snow mountain, and only two hundred kilometers away from the Western Region?

He glanced at Nightingale, who nodded. "I'll go get the other sisters."

An emergency meeting was then held in the castle office.

After Roland repeated Lightning's discovery to everyone, the witches who had experienced the Battle of the Impassable Mountain Pass all showed uneasy expressions, especially Leaf, who couldn't help but cover her mouth and gasp, as she had personally killed two devils.

"Your Highness, I suggest a further investigation of the land covered by the red mist," Scroll said first. "After all, Lightning only glanced at it from a great distance, and we can't be sure that devils are definitely entrenched under the red mist. Also, even if this is confirmed, we need to investigate whether they will cross the coastal mountains and reach the kingdom's mainland along the coastline."

"I agree with Scroll's point of view," Wendy nodded. "Although they are very powerful, a prepared defense is always better than being caught off guard."

As the two oldest witches in the Association, Scroll and Wendy had always been the backbone of many sisters. Although the others were still a little scared, no one wanted to sit and wait for death.

Roland also favored this response. Seeing that everyone had no objections, the matter was basically settled. The key was how to implement it.

"Let's use a hot air balloon for reconnaissance," Anna suggested. "Paint the Longshot with sky camouflage, use the clouds as cover, and fly over from the sea."

"We can also take Sylvie," Nightingale said. "Her ability is perfect for dealing with this situation."

"Yes," Roland nodded. "Also... I'm going too."

"Your Highness!" As soon as he said this, Wendy, Scroll, and Nightingale all stopped him at the same time. "You can't take this risk yourself!"

"It's not an adventure," Roland waved his hand. "If they had the ability to fly over the sea or high mountains, they would have spread throughout the four kingdoms long ago. The fact that they are still gathered in the far west proves that devils are not as scary as we imagined."

He didn't say another reason, he had more experience than anyone else in judging the development level of an alien civilization. If he could see the devils and their cities with his own eyes, it would be of great help in formulating development directions and counterattack strategies in the future.

"But..." Wendy hesitated.

"Don't worry, just a distant glance," the prince smiled. "If it's dangerous to even stay far away for reconnaissance, I wouldn't agree to let you go."

"Okay, but you have to take me with you," Nightingale said, changing her mind as she realized that she couldn't dissuade him.

Looking at the serious look in her eyes, Roland knew that he couldn't refuse her. After thinking for a while, he announced: "Then, in addition to me, the personnel for this trip will be Anna, Wendy, Soraya, Sylvie, Nightingale, Lightning, and Maggie."

"The departure time is one week later. In addition to the necessary food preparations, I will equip each of you with a Revolver. Take a week to practice it well, so that even non-combat witches have the ability to fight back against any enemy."

The speed of a hot air balloon is far slower than that of Lightning. It would probably take a whole day to fly two hundred kilometers, so everyone would need to camp in the wild for one night to complete the reconnaissance. Considering this, dry food, tents, and weapons were necessities.

"Yes, Your Highness," the witches responded in unison.

After everyone left, Roland had time to examine the black ore that Lightning had brought back.

"You said this kind of stone is everywhere on the edge of the forest?"

"Yes," Lightning had now calmed down and was sitting on the mahogany table, swinging her feet. Her cheeks were still a little flushed. "And the closer you get to the foot of the mountain, the more there is. Looking down from the air, the ground covered with black stones is about ten times larger than Border Town."

Roland held it in his hand and weighed it, his heart skipping a beat.

In terms of weight, it was much lighter than ordinary stones, so it was unlikely to be metal ore. The appearance was hard and light, reflecting a metallic luster, and it was exposed on the surface... Could it be coal?

Thinking of this, he quickly called Anna back.

Under the burning of Blackfire, the stone quickly turned red and transparent, looking very much like iron ore in a smelting furnace, but it did not dissolve as a result. Even if Blackfire was withdrawn, the orange light it emitted did not diminish in the slightest, and a slightly rising cyan flame could be seen on the surface.

Roland confirmed his guess. This was indeed a high-quality anthracite coal.

"So that's what coal looks like," Lightning said in surprise. "I thought they were all as fragile and brittle as charcoal, and the powder would stain your hands as soon as you touched them."

"Those are coal balls and briquettes that have been crushed, mixed with water, and processed," Roland laughed. "Most coal mines are like stones when they are mined. Of course, the higher the quality of the raw coal, the harder it is. In the end, it's like these stones, and the surface can even reflect light."

This unexpected discovery made him extremely happy.

Coal is not a rare item in Graycastle. Dragonfall Ridge and Silver City both have coal mines, mostly used for firing kilns and heating. But in fact, its uses are extremely wide. Before the popularization of internal combustion engines, it was the burning coal that supported half of the sky for steam power. Coking coal can replace charcoal for smelting iron and steel, which is much more environmentally friendly than cutting down trees on a large scale. Even after the electrical age, coal can also be used to refine gas, hydrogen, and asphalt, and can also be used to generate electricity. It can be regarded as a good and cheap fuel.

Holding an open-pit coal mine in his hands was obviously much better than relying on imports. The only question was, how to develop it?

Roland moved his gaze to Lightning's newly drawn map.

It seemed that building more inland river steam cement ships was imperative. (。、，Your support is my biggest motivation.)