“Awoo, awoo!”
Maisie was showing off her wings and tail in the newly built backyard of the castle, spinning around for everyone to admire.
Although he had already learned about what happened from the witches, when Roland saw Maisie's "demonic beast transformation" for the first time, he was genuinely shocked.
This brown-skinned giant bird was ten meters long including the tail and had a wingspan of nearly fifteen meters. Its leathery wings resembled those of a bat, and in the sunlight, one could clearly see the blood vessels and skeleton under the thin skin. Perhaps due to its excessive size, the giant bird had four limbs, about the thickness of Gren’s arms, with claws at the ends, all used to support its body.
The most striking feature was the three eyes on its head, arranged in a triangle on the top and sides. Apart from that, its entire face was a gaping maw, rather than the beak common to birds. When Maisie spoke, her mouth opened and closed, revealing a ring of sharp teeth and a long tongue, causing the other witches to exclaim in surprise.
“Is this the mount of a devil?” Leaf sighed. “It’s fortunate we didn’t encounter such a monster in the wild lands, or none of us would have escaped.”
“If she hadn't evolved new abilities, I probably wouldn't have made it back then,” Nightingale said, stroking Maisie's smooth neck. “I will prepare a bag of charcoal-grilled fish jerky for you every day.”
“Awoo!”
“I know, with extra honey.”
The giant bird wagged its tail even more enthusiastically.
Those dried fish are clearly mine, Roland sighed inwardly. Don't make it sound so high-sounding when you're taking food from the kitchen to reward others!
“Then let's test your new abilities as usual.”
“Okay, awoo!”
...
After a morning of messing around, Roland obtained detailed information about Maisie's version of the demonic beast.
Following the previous enlargement convention, the brown-skinned giant bird she transformed into was even larger than the original devil's mount, and its load-bearing capacity had also increased slightly, allowing it to carry two witches into the air simultaneously. However, when fully loaded, the flight speed could only maintain at about ten kilometers per hour, which was much slower than Lightning.
However, Maisie's advantage was her endurance. When Lightning flew with heavy objects, she not only reduced her altitude, but also increased her magic consumption. On the other hand, once the giant bird's transformation was complete, whether flying high or low, carrying one or two, the magic consumption was extremely slow, and the only thing to consider was her own physical strength.
Now, the magic contained within Maisie's body had also increased significantly, jumping from the bottom of the Witch Union to a mid-level position, enough to transform about seven times a day.
In addition, Roland also confirmed his previous conjecture through Maisie.
A witch's evolution depends on her understanding of her own abilities, whether that understanding is gained through learning or sudden enlightenment, it can promote changes in her abilities.
This also means that witches have the possibility of natural evolution. As long as enough time passes, there will always be one or two lucky ones among them who stand out. The evolved ability is completely different from the initial ability, and even has the effect of turning decay into magic. Is this why the Church is doing its best to suppress wild witches?
After lunch, the Lord's Castle District welcomed a major event.
The Witch Apartment Building, after nearly four months of construction and renovation, finally reached the day of its commissioning.
Roland looked at this residential building with only three floors and less than fifty suites, and couldn't help but sigh. Such a house would at most be considered a self-built house in the countryside in later generations, but here, it is already the representative of the highest architectural level of the mainland kingdom—not in scale, but in technology.
It is the first brick-concrete structure house to use bamboo-reinforced concrete beams and columns.
Roland remembered that when Karl poured the first concrete column, he said to Roland with mixed feelings, "So cement can be used like this. Mixed with pebbles, it can be shaped into various shapes at will to form any part of the house... Your Highness, I don't think it will be long before the stonemason industry completely disappears from construction."
In addition to the beams and columns, the floor slabs of the Witch Building were all laid with prefabricated concrete slabs. Looking at the concrete slabs with round holes distributed in the middle, Roland seemed to return to his childhood. He had only seen this kind of ancient building material after the 2000s. When he was more than ten years old, they had been completely replaced by cast-in-place concrete floor slabs and completely abandoned by the times.
In Border Town, this "backward" prefabricated slab was reborn.
The Witch Building is located on the left side of the castle, forming an "L" shape with the castle. The open space surrounded by the two buildings is the large garden after the expansion, which is three or four times larger than before, enough for Leaf to improve various crops and fruits.
*******************
Evelyn was a little uneasy about moving into her new home.
She had been in Border Town for a month, and it seemed that all she had done was taste wine for His Highness. The last exam was also at the bottom of the witches, with only five points... Although Ms. Rolle didn't announce the results publicly, you could guess it as long as you inquired privately.
Even Honey, who talks to birds all day long, got seven points!
She suddenly felt like she was no different from a fool.
Even so, His Highness didn't treat her any differently. He still occasionally asked her to chat about the special wines from various places, and often tasted the newly made spicy liquor. At the end of last month, she even received a Golden Royal's salary. This made her even more uneasy. Compared with the other four, she seemed to be eating and living for free.
“There is actually a kitchen specially used for cooking next to the living room, and a strange little room painted white. Come and take a look,” Candle pushed open the bedroom door and said excitedly.
“Um…” Evelyn responded weakly.
“What’s wrong? Are you not feeling well?” Candle was stunned for a moment, then squatted down and covered her forehead. “It’s not hot.” Then she smiled and said, “Could it be that you are reluctant to sleep with your Co-assistance Society sisters in the same bed?”
Evelyn was silent for a moment before whispering, "It's been more than a month since we came here, right?"
"Almost."
"Lynn's new city wall construction will be completed soon. Honey has trained a large number of flying messengers for His Highness, and Sylvie even accompanied His Highness to investigate those terrible monsters," she said dejectedly. "Only I am still doing nothing, and even the usual training content has not been arranged, and the examination results are still the worst... I really don't know why His Highness chose me to come here."
“Well,” Candle pondered for a while, “Why don’t you go ask him yourself?”
"Ah?"
"His Highness Roland is Princess Tilly's brother, and you have also seen that he treats witches sincerely. Even Sylvie, who usually always talks about staying away from Roland and guarding against the prince, has changed her tone, and couldn't help but praise him a few words yesterday," Candle shrugged, "You ask His Highness face to face, he can't possibly eat you, right?"
Is that so? It seems to make sense to say that.
Evelyn thought for a while. In order to no longer be troubled by this torment, she decided to do what Candle said.