Maisie left the next day, and Roland began assembling a new generation of hot air balloons in the courtyard with the witches.

Since the back garden and the witches' dormitory building were under expansion, Leaf had moved the plants to the front yard. Various vines covered the walls, wooden frames, and corridors, creating a prehistoric forest feel. The shading effect was also excellent, with sunlight only filtering through the dense green leaves, leaving scattered patches of light on the ground.

Roland handed the witches a stack of white paper, asking them to spread it out into a huge canvas, and then have Soraya paint the lightest blue sky coating. Compared to the ox intestine membrane and canvas combination used in the first generation of hot air balloons, the pure coating fabric was much lighter and had excellent toughness. There were no seams at the joints, so it could be made as large as possible without fear of disintegration in the air.

"Lightning said that witches might be coming from the fjord?" Wendy asked curiously.

"If all goes well," Roland repeated the contents of the Five King Daughters' reply, "the specifics will have to wait for Tilly Wimbledon's answer."

"It seems Ashes and the others succeeded," she said thoughtfully, "so many witches have gathered on Sleeping Island."

"Yes, I'm afraid Tilly has been planning this migration for more than a year or two," Roland spread his hands. "Not only Graycastle, but she has also sent witches to secretly contact the other three kingdoms. The Association of Mutually Assistance should also have received her invitation. I guess this is why the guards spread rumors for so long, but no witches came to our door – after all, they were one step slower than Tilly."

"But Hakala never mentioned this to us," Wendy rubbed her shoulder.

"If she had told you about Tilly's invitation, perhaps you would no longer have insisted on finding the Holy Mountain, right?"

"Indeed, that's possible, but if that were the case, we wouldn't have met in Border Town," she shook her head with a smile. "So... it's not bad this way either."

"I think it's pretty good too," Lightning raised her hand.

"Tsk, maybe it would be better to go to the fjord," Lily pouted, "After all, there are only witches there, so you don't have to be so careful when going out in the town."

"It's already much better than before," Anna said seriously, "I didn't even dare to go out at that time."

"That's right, some people are like that, clearly Ashes refused the last time she invited them, but they still pretend," Mystery Moon muttered, "and say they're not traitors!"

"You..." Lily widened her eyes, "Idiot!"

"Traitor!"

The other witches couldn't help but laugh.

"I think so too," Roland felt a surge of accomplishment in his heart. Even if he couldn't compare to the Five King Daughters' cleverness and agility, nor was he as strong and decisive as Tyfico and Garcia, at least he could give these witches a free and comfortable living environment, and also bring a better life to the people under his rule.

"This hot air balloon... is probably several times larger than the last one," Nightingale sized up the part Soraya had already painted, "Are you planning to use it to transport witches?"

He nodded, "Only in this way can we avoid the port cities and go directly from the southern coast of the town to the interior. And in addition to picking up new visitors, it's also a new attempt."

After the paper was coated on both sides, it became a laminated fabric, each piece nearly six meters long and wide – if it were regular canvas or linen, it would be difficult to drag with one hand, but for the light coating, it was almost the weight of a stack of paper. Joining more than a dozen pieces of fabric together and then using the coating to bond the seams created a giant air sac of astonishing size.

What Roland wanted to test was the bonding ability of Soraya's coating. At least when he first saw her new ability, that half of the "thick bark" painted on the table was still fresh in his memory. The two were firmly bonded together, and pulling up on the bark could even lift the entire square table. How closely the coating could adhere to the base layer, whether it could support a huge air sac, and whether it could maintain its firmness and airtightness after inflation were all things he wanted to know.

Hot air balloons still need Anna to inflate them, while hydrogen balloons can be operated by anyone. Now that DC motors are available, hydrogen can be produced by electrolyzing water. The famous Zeppelin airships seemed not far away. As long as suitable lightweight frame materials could be found, these giant monsters that could fly at an altitude of two or three kilometers would have almost no natural enemies, and the technical difficulty was much lower than that of airplanes.

Although the hit rate of dropping bombs from a thousand meters in the air was very touching, it couldn't stand the fact that the enemy could only be beaten and couldn't fight back – wandering around the enemy's territory every day would probably cause any opponent to collapse.

Imagine, in the future, when conquering the Holy City of the Church, four or five airships would be suspended in the air side by side, bombs would fall like rain, shallow-water heavy artillery ships would bombard the enemy's city gates and strongholds in the river, and infantry with repeating muskets would stand by in the rear, a three-dimensional coordinated operation of the sea, land, and air. Just imagining it made him feel a little excited.

"Your Highness, what are you grinning at again?" Anna sighed, reaching out to cover the corners of his mouth that had uncontrollably widened.

"Probably fantasizing about those new witches," Lily rolled her eyes, "Men, you know..."

When a huge vine basket was connected to the bottom of the air sac with hemp ropes, the new generation of hot air balloons was completed. The volume was nearly four times larger than the first generation, the capacity was expanded to ten people, and there was a sunshade above the basket to avoid direct sunlight. Of course, a hole needed to be left in the canopy for Anna to replenish the balloon with hot air.

Roland named the balloon "Looking Afar", and after completing equal load tests on the open space of the courtyard, he officially conducted its maiden voyage the next day. In addition to Anna, Wendy, and five other witches, the prince himself participated in this test flight.

The entire flight went smoothly, and the witches chattered non-stop in the air, marveling at the spectacular scenery seen from the air. Compared to the fixed-point observation of the last time, this constantly moving sightseeing trip was obviously more exciting. Under Wendy's stable wind power, the Looking Afar moved south, arriving in the mountainous area at noon, crossing the top of the mountain with flags, and finally hovering above the coastline.

After flying around near the shallows, the group returned to the castle with the Looking Afar. Roland noticed that Wendy, who was responsible for direction control, was occasionally beating her shoulders, looking very tired.

He had heard that women with large chests are prone to shoulder pain, and intimate underwear was created to solve this problem. Although he had never verified this statement, it wouldn't hurt to try. And as she got older, Anna's body would gradually develop, and Roland decided to make a small gift for each adult witch.