As with Lucia's Coming-of-Age Day, Lightning's promotion was certainly gratifying, but it also brought Roland some trouble.
"Someone was injured in the residential area last night?"
The next day, after listening to Barov's report, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.
"Yes, Your Majesty..." The other party's complaining voice came from the telephone receiver, "A unlucky fellow was planning to go to the toilet, but he was scared by the explosion and broke his leg. Two other guys fell from the bed and bumped their heads. A large group of panicked people from the City Hall came early in the morning, asking if Neverwinter City was attacked by devils or evil beasts. It took a lot of effort for the people below to persuade them to leave. Your Majesty, can you tell me in advance before such things happen in the future?"
Even through the receiver, he could imagine the other party's resentful appearance.
Probably the old butler himself was also frightened and waited anxiously until dawn without sleeping all night.
"How are the injured now?"
"They have all been sent to the medical center. There is no problem in saving their lives, but the people are still talking about it. There are still people guarding the propaganda board in the Central Square waiting for the announcement—this must be caused by the witch's ability, right? If you had notified me in advance, I wouldn't have bothered you with such trivial matters."
"I know, but things related to magic are inherently difficult to predict. It's not that I don't trust you," Roland reassured. "Announce that I am researching new weapons. There will be similar phenomena in the future, so don't panic. In case of a real enemy attack, the alarm will be the standard. By the way, the medical expenses for those injured will be paid by the City Hall."
"Yes... Your Majesty," Barov said aggrievedly.
Roland shook his head helplessly, then hung up the phone.
For some reason, the old butler has recently had a growing sense of being clingy. Although the government affairs are handled well, this tone of "Your Majesty, your subject has dedicated all his light and heat to you, you cannot let your subject down" still gives him goosebumps.
On the contrary, the conversation with the Pearl of the North was much more straightforward.
I wonder where she is now.
Taking back his distracting thoughts, he looked at Lightning, who was standing in front of the desk with her head drooping, and asked with a smile that was not quite a smile, "You should have heard what I just said, right?"
"Woo..." The little girl said dejectedly, "Your Majesty, I was wrong, please punish me to do two sets of exercises."
Roland then shifted his gaze to Maggie on top of her head, and the latter awkwardly looked away, pretending that it had nothing to do with her, "Coo—"
Although the members of the expedition team are close, Maggie resolutely chose silence in the face of the great mountain of comprehensive exercises.
He finally couldn't help but laugh out loud, "Haha... Okay, lift your head up, this can't be considered your fault—after all, I agreed to let you fly, so I should be responsible."
"Re-really?" Lightning suddenly raised her head, her eyes sparkling.
"Of course, you didn't know that doing so would cause damage, and the loss is not significant, so the exercises are waived."
Since the flight route at that time was towards the Impassable Mountain Range, her impact on the residential area was very limited—except for some cracks in the window glass of the castle and the diplomatic building, the other buildings were basically intact. And when passing through the kiln area, Lightning had already climbed to a certain height, and its impact was further reduced, making it difficult to cause damage again.
"Your Majesty, you are really... the best!" She seemed to have instantly recovered all her vitality, and Maggie also spread her wings with relief.
Seeing that the two of them were about to pounce on him, Roland quickly raised his hand to stop their actions, "But does high-speed flight really consume so much magic power? You only flew for less than a quarter of an hour yesterday, right?"
Speaking of this, Lightning was a little embarrassed, "I was also very surprised. At that time, I wanted to leave some magic power for testing, but I tried to accelerate a little, wanting to see where the limit was. I didn't expect the magic power to be exhausted so quickly, and I almost fell from the sky."
"Even faster?" Wendy, who was recording on the side, immediately grasped the key point.
"Yes," Lightning said confidently, "As long as there is enough magic power—even the sound of the wind in my ears disappeared at that time. I even felt that nothing could stop me from continuing to sprint."
"What about Maggie? Was she crouching on your head the whole time?"
"Coo!" Before Lightning could answer, Maggie had already started circling around, "Too fast, dizzy, hug coo!"
Is she saying that she felt uncomfortable because she flew too fast, so she was hugged into her arms? Roland found that his understanding of pigeon language had greatly improved, and he was already able to automatically fill in the blank sentences.
"Just dizzy?" Agatha, another witch in charge of ability testing, said, "Didn't you feel the change in airflow?"
"Hmm..." Lightning thought for a while, "Although I was wearing goggles at the time, the wind seemed to suddenly disappear halfway through the flight."
"What do you think?" Roland looked at the Ice Witch, "Is there a record of such a branch ability in the Association?"
Although Lightning accidentally exhausted most of her magic power, causing the ability test to be temporarily put on hold, the current Witch Union has established a systematic evaluation procedure and inherited the experience of the Association. Even without using her ability, a rough judgment can be made through inquiries and testing with magical stones.
According to Lightning, she crossed the Impassable Mountains and flew into the wilderness in only about three minutes, while this distance usually takes about half an hour. The thunder in the night sky can also confirm this—the evolved ability gives her the qualification to chase sound.
Roland didn't waste much time on the concept of the sound barrier—Agatha's learning ability has always been among the best among witches, and she understood why the thunder was caused with a little explanation.
Although there are many creatures in nature that can reach the speed of sound in a short period of time, and humans have also faced the challenge of the speed of sound with flesh and blood in special circumstances, it does not mean that this process can be easily achieved. There is no doubt that the reason why Lightning is not affected at all must be related to the newly awakened branch ability.
"I think it should be 'Magic Power Synchronization'," Agatha pondered for a moment, "This type of branch ability often appears in witches whose main ability will bring danger to themselves, so there are many records left. It usually expands into a cocoon, wrapping the witch inside, while keeping the environment inside the cocoon in a normal state. It just takes a lot of magic power to maintain it, and the greater the difference between the internal and external environment, the higher the magic power consumption rate, in other words..."
"Lightning exhausted her magic power in a short period of time not because of flying, but because of the branch ability?" Wendy continued.
"That's right," Agatha nodded, "Most branch abilities are born to assist the main ability, such as Scroll's Magic Power Absorption and Lucia's Color Block Vision—without them, the effect of the main ability will be greatly reduced, or even difficult to exert. Magic Power Synchronization is also like this. It is better to get seriously injured and fly less."