"She can already get ashore now..." Roland said with interest, "I remember you said that after she chose to live in the Yudahai, she didn't have contact with humans for a long time."

"Thanks to the help of Princess Tilly and Ms. Camilla," Margie replied with emotion, "If it weren't for the ability to communicate directly through consciousness, I'm afraid she wouldn't be able to adapt to normal human life now. And Joan has completely forgotten how to speak. Lord Thunder has found several scholars for her, but the effect is not ideal. Now she can only say a few words, and can't even complete a conversation."

Speaking of this, the female merchant paused for a moment, seeming to hesitate to speak.

"What's wrong?" Roland couldn't help but ask.

"I don't know if it's because of the long transformation, some parts of her body have become a little different from humans," Margie bit her lip, "According to my understanding of witches, they should be the same as ordinary people when they don't use magic. But Joan can't completely return to her previous appearance. Her cheeks, neck, arms, and legs are covered with blue-green scales, like those... Sea Ghosts."

Roland immediately thought of Lorgar's long ears. Well... scaled skin seems to have a unique charm—cough, cough, this is not the time to consider such issues. Even the harmless ears of the three princesses of the Fiery Flames can be feared by the sand people, Joan's situation is estimated to be even worse.

"Did someone maliciously hurt her?"

"We tried our best to prevent it, but it's still inevitable that someone will spread the news." Margie sighed.

"Wanting to teach her to re-adapt to human life, it is impossible to avoid contact with others," Thunder's voice was also quite helpless, "Even in the fjord, there are only a few who can accept her in this appearance—since bringing her to the mansion, three maids and two scholars have been scared away. Some people outside even say that I keep Sea Ghosts in the mansion, perhaps the sea is more suitable for her."

"If my friend hates the life on land, I naturally won't force her to stay on the island," the female merchant continued, "But from the process of Joan's contact with other people, she doesn't hate this change. Although she still spends a few hours a week soaking in the sea, she is also happy to get along with those maids who accept her. In addition to eating raw fish and meat as before, she now prefers to eat it cooked."

However, such an environment is limited to Thunder's mansion—Roland understood what the other party meant, but couldn't think of a good solution for a while. Changing perceptions is a long process, and even more so for Joan. Even her problem is more serious than that of ordinary witches. Bestialization, deformity, or non-human appearance, have been objects of discrimination and exclusion for a long time in history.

"It will slowly get better," he could only comfort, "Can you let me see what she looks like up close?"

If this problem is really serious, then he can only try to cover it up first—for example, like Lorgar's ears, wearing a hat is basically the same as ordinary people.

"Of course," Margie said, beckoning towards Joan, "Dear, come here."

But the latter just poked her head out and glanced, then hid back again.

"Uh... Your Majesty, I'm sorry, she may not be used to so many people," Margie bowed apologetically.

"Looks like you scared her," Nightingale whispered gleefully in his ear.

Roland glared at the empty space beside him, cleared his throat twice, and said, "It doesn't matter, she will stay in Neverwinter City for a while anyway, and she will always get used to it. Let's go to the dock first."

...

In order to build the steel sea ship, Roland specially designated a piece of open space of nearly a hundred acres in the southwest corner of the shoal, and let Lian raise earth walls around it to form a barrier to block the line of sight. Not only are sentry posts set up at the four corners, but the First Army is also stationed on the wall, so apart from the construction workers, not many people know what the big ship, which brings together the top industrial level of Neverwinter City, looks like.

When the group passed through the earth wall and walked down the zigzag stairs to the bottom of the dock, a burst of uncontrollable exclamation broke out in the team.

Everyone was attracted by the behemoth displayed in front of them.

This is definitely not an exaggeration.

When admiring the sea ship from below, the first thing you see is the towering and upright舷(xián)（side of a ship) - unlike the round three-masted sailing ship, its freeboard is almost perpendicular to the ground, and the abdomen is also flat and unremarkable, and the keel part protruding from the hull cannot be found at all. Under the condition of limited viewing angle, the crowd seemed to be standing under a majestic wall of steel, and the sense of oppression can be imagined.

"Three Gods... am I dreaming?"

"How heavy can it be? I'm afraid it's more than 20,000 dan."

"Even the largest three-masted ship can't stand a collision with it!"

"Don't mention sailing ships, I think even deep-sea beasts will be scared away when they see it!"

"Thunder... no, Lord Swift, you didn't say that we were going to play with such a monster!"

The team suddenly lost order, and the sailors ran to the side of the ship, touching and tapping the hull, their excitement beyond words.

They are all the most experienced boat handlers in the fjord, and even if they have not seen similar sea ships, they also realize its extraordinary nature.

And the shock in Thunder's heart at this moment is no less than that of others, or even stronger.

Because Roland's letter mentioned that this ship was entirely cast from steel from top to bottom, and he thought it was an exaggeration at the time—after all, even ordinary wooden ships would only use the best wood in key parts. Therefore, when recruiting his subordinates, he only described the ship as having a steel skeleton, enough to withstand the giant waves of the sea, and a sail-less ocean-going ship.

But the facts before him told him that this was not the case.

Although he knew that Neverwinter City was quite skilled in shipbuilding technology, he didn't expect it to be exaggerated to this extent. Not to mention how to connect the hard steel together, just the raw materials it uses are beyond the reach of the fjord islands.

How precious is steel?

Among all kinds of commodities, iron ore is not a luxury. A piece of pig iron ingot the size of a palm can be sold for about thirty or forty silver wolves. But if it is forged into steel, the price will be ten to dozens of times higher, so that knights often regard their armor as heirlooms, passed down from generation to generation.

More importantly, this process is extremely time-consuming. A blacksmith can only make seven qualified steel armors in his entire life. In other words, even if all the blacksmiths in the fjord are gathered together, it is impossible to collect so much steel even after decades of work.

At the beginning, what he ordered from Roland was just a steam paddlewheel ship, and according to the price heard from the Fjord Chamber of Commerce, it was about three or four thousand gold royals. Therefore, when the other party told him that they only charged the cost, he did not pay too much attention, because the value of a new sea route far exceeded the cost of the ship itself. Since the King of Graycastle hoped to share information, this transaction could not be said to be taking advantage of the other party.

He even planned to pay Roland all the expenses of the ship together after completing the exploration of the sea route, not for anything else, but as a reward for taking care of his daughter, just hoping that Lightning would live better in Neverwinter in the future.

But at this moment, Thunder couldn't help but suspect that even if only the material cost was calculated, the price of this ship would probably be an astonishing number.

He couldn't help but sweat for his purse.