The day after Maggie's departure, Roland took the witches to the courtyard and began to assemble the new generation of hot air balloons.
Since the back garden and the witch dormitory were being expanded, Leaf had already moved the plants to the front yard. All kinds of vines covered the walls, wooden shelves and corridors, giving the impression of a prehistoric forest. The effect of shading the sun was also very obvious, the sun could only pass through the gaps between the dense green leaves, leaving scattered spots of light on the ground.
Roland gave the witches a stack of white paper, letting them spread it out into a huge sheet of paper, and then let Soroya paint the lightest blue sky coating. Compared to the combination of bovine mesentery and canvas used in the first generation of hot air balloons, the pure coating was much lighter and had excellent toughness. There were no sutures at the joints, so there was no fear of the balloon disintegrating in the air.
"I heard from Lightning that there might be witches coming from the Fjords?" Vendy asked curiously.
"If everything goes well," Roland repeated the contents of the 5th Princess's reply, "the specific situation will have to wait for Tilly Wimbledon's reply."
"It seems that Ashes succeeded," she said thoughtfully, "there are unexpectedly so many witches gathered on Sleeping Island."
"Yes, I'm afraid that Tilly has been planning this migration for more than one or two years," Roland said, "not only in Graycastle, but also in the other three kingdoms she has sent witches to secretly contact. The Witch Cooperation Association should have also received her invitation. I guess this is why the guards have been spreading rumors for such a long time, but no witches have come to the door. After all, they are one step slower than Tilly. "
"But Cara has never mentioned this to us," Vendy rubbed her shoulders.
"If she had told you about Tilly's invitation, maybe you wouldn't have insisted on looking for the Holy Mountain, right?"
"There is indeed such a possibility, but in that case, we wouldn't have met in Border Town," she smiled and shook her head. "So … this is also not bad."
"I also think it's pretty good," Lightning raised her hand.
"Tsk, maybe it would be better to go to the Fjords," Lily curled her lips. "After all, there are only witches there, so you don't need to pay extra attention to your surroundings like in Border Town."
"It's much better than before," Anna said seriously. "I didn't even dare to go out then."
"That's right, some people are just like that. Obviously, when Ashes invited me last time, she also flatly refused, but still put on an act." Mystery Moon muttered, "And she still says she's not a traitor!"
"You …" Lily's eyes widened. "Idiot!"
"Traitor!"
The other witches couldn't help but laugh.
"I also think so," Roland suddenly felt a sense of accomplishment welling up in his heart. Even if he wasn't as smart and quick-witted as the 5th Princess, and wasn't as strong and decisive as Timothy and Garcia, but at least, he could give these witches a free and comfortable living environment, and also bring a better life for the people under his rule.
"This hot air balloon … I'm afraid it's several times bigger than the last one," Nightingale looked at the part that Soroya had already drawn. "Are you going to use it to transport the witches?"
He nodded, "Only in this way can we avoid the seaport city and directly enter the border from the southern end of Border Town. Moreover, in addition to sending and receiving new visitors, it can also be regarded as a new attempt. "
After the paper was coated on both sides, it became a sandwich cloth, each piece was nearly six meters long and wide. If it was a conventional canvas or linen, it would have been very difficult to drag it with one hand, but for the light coating, it was almost the same weight as a stack of paper. By piecing together more than a dozen pieces of cloth, and then gluing the seams with the coating, a giant airbag of astonishing size was made.
What Roland wanted to test was the adhesion ability of Soroya's coating. At the very least, when he first saw her new ability, the "thick bark" half drawn on the table was still fresh in his mind. The two were firmly glued together, and by pulling the bark upwards, he could even lift the whole square table. In the end, how tightly the coating and the base could adhere, whether it could support a huge airbag, and after inflating, maintain its firmness and airtightness, these were all things he wanted to know.
At present, the hot air balloon still needed to rely on Anna to inflate, but the hydrogen balloon could be operated by anyone. Now that he had a DC motor, he could produce hydrogen by electrolyzing water, and it seemed that the famous Zeppelin airship wasn't far away from him. As long as he found a suitable lightweight skeleton material, this huge monster that could fly at a height of two to three kilometers would have almost no natural enemies, and the technical difficulty would be much lower than that of an airplane.
Although the hit rate of dropping a bomb at an altitude of a kilometer was very touching, it wouldn't be able to stop the enemy from only being able to take a beating without being able to fight back. Every day, he would be able to wander around the enemy's territory, and perhaps any opponent would collapse.
Just imagining it, in the future, when he went on an expedition to the Church's Holy City, there would be four or five airships floating side by side in the air, bombs falling like raindrops, and there would be shallow water gunships bombarding the enemy's city gates and strongholds in the river. In addition, there would be infantrymen armed with flintlocks waiting in the rear, and the three armies of the sea, land, and air would cooperate in battle. Just imagining it made him a little excited.
"Your Royal Highness, what are you giggling about?" Anna sighed, reaching out to cover the corner of his mouth that he couldn't help but grin.
"He's probably fantasizing about the new witches." Lily rolled her eyes. "Well, men …"
When the bottom of the airbag was connected to a huge vine basket with hemp ropes, the new generation of hot air balloon was successfully completed. Its volume was nearly four times larger than the first generation, and the number of people it could accommodate was also expanded to ten. Above the basket, there was also a sunshade, which could avoid direct sunlight. Of course, there was a need to leave a hole in the sunshade, so that Anna could add heat to the balloon.
Roland named the balloon Cloud Gazer, and after the completion of the heavy load test in the open space of the courtyard, the next day they officially started their first voyage. In addition to Anna, Vendy, and the other three witches, there was also the Prince himself who participated in this test flight.
The whole process of the voyage went very smoothly, and the witches were chattering non-stop in the air, sighing at the spectacular scenery they saw from the sky. Compared to the last time when they had to observe from a fixed point, this sightseeing tour that was constantly moving obviously aroused everyone's interest. Cloud Gazer, under the influence of Vendy's steady wind, advanced towards the south, and at noon they arrived at the mountainous area, crossed over the top of the mountain where the flag was raised, and finally hovered above the coastline.
After flying in a circle near the shoal, the party returned to the castle with Cloud Gazer. Roland noticed that Vendy, who was responsible for controlling the direction, was beating her shoulder from time to time, looking very tired.
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