Two days after Ash left, Maisie returned to the Frontier Town to surprise everyone and reappeared in front of everyone.

After asking why, her return was warmly welcomed, and the League of Witches was added with a new member.

She was greatly touched by the fact that the welcome banquet was held in the back garden of the castle, and the long iron shelves were hung with all kinds of meat, which could be taken down and grilled at will. The seasonings are also abundant, including salt, oil, chili peppers, peppers, and Roland's own barbecue sauce - a soup made with mushrooms from the hidden forest and whole chicken, and then stirred with salt, sugar and wheat flour to make up for the lack of MSG. Maisie almost had her stomach stretched before she stopped.

In the afternoon, Roland tested her abilities.

Judging by the nightingale, her total mana is at a moderate level among witches, and her ability to transform into a variety of birds - provided she has seen it. The mana consumption is quite large when changing, and it can change 4-5 times a day, and it consumes very little mana to maintain the transformation state, which is a summoning ability, and is affected by the Divine Punishment Stone. Her favorite bird was the pigeon, but Roland noticed that no matter what kind of bird she became, she would be much larger. The sparrow, for example, seemed to him to be the size of an ordinary pigeon. As for the actual pigeon, it is about the size of a sea eagle.

Maisie was also unable to transform into the flying beasts of his imagination, such as the phoenix, griffon, and kunpeng drawn by Roland, which he regretted.

In addition, there is another point worth paying attention to in Ash's plans, which is what abilities do the many witches that Tilly has gathered have, and if there are auxiliary witches who can greatly improve the efficiency of farming, he doesn't mind exchanging technology for them.

To this end, Roland decided to write a long letter to Tilly, first explaining the natural alliance between the two sides, then warning her of the Church's intention to unify the continent, and finally handing out an olive branch, expressing the willingness to help each other and make progress together. When Maisie heads to the fjord next month, let her take her with her.

The next day, the prince had another piece of good news.

The building for the production of steam engines was finally completed. The factory is located on the opposite bank of the Chishui River, at the west end, next to the experimental field of leaves. The entire site has been fenced off with a wooden fence, and an improvised road has been leveled to the pontoon bridge. In Roland's plan, this place will be an industrial park in the future.

In order to maximize the building space, the building was made of lightweight wood and covered an area of about 1,000 square meters, and the machines made by Anna were already transported: two steam boring machines, two manual milling machines, a manual grinding machine and a manual lathe. Although the principle of these machines is simple, the workmanship is top-notch - except for the base or the pedals, which are made of wood, the rest of the components are cut from wrought iron or steel, so to speak, at the level of existing materials, and can be said to be machined with the highest precision.

At present, there are only a dozen or so workers in the factory, who were originally blacksmiths and apprentices in the town's blacksmith shop, but have now been recruited by Roland for a high salary of fifty silver wolves a month to learn how to operate high-end machine tools. Their blacksmithing tools and blacksmith shop were also moved to a brick house outside the factory, and the steam engine was to be made entirely by machine tools, except for some minor parts.

Roland held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the entrance of the factory, and in order to strengthen the momentum, he recruited a city hall official and gave a short speech. Amid an echo simulated salute, Greycastle Industries was officially announced.

In the following days, Roland, who is the head of the company, went to the factory as soon as he had time to demonstrate the operation of the machine tool and the manufacturing process of the steam engine. The best he could think of for the illiterate blacksmith to master how to process and assemble a steam engine was to illustrate the flow of the parts, similar to the assembly instructions for a model, with the names, numbers, and dimensions of the parts, and then to depict their installation sequence and connection. At this point, Soroya helped him a lot.

The first few days of production were as he expected, with almost none of the parts meeting the requirements, let alone putting together a complete steam engine. However, Roland didn't care about the scrap rate, and in Anna's hands, these defective products could be reforged into new plates in the blink of an eye. He believed that after repeated practice, it was only a matter of time before these blacksmiths mastered the new way of making.

In addition to the industrial plant, the prince converted the firing room and backyard of the North Slope mining area into a military factory, mainly for the production of revolver rifles and bullets - after the arrival of the "furnace expert" recommended by Carl, Losya, arrived in the border town, the temperature of the new batch of blower bags was greatly increased, and the cement powder could be fired independently, and the firing room no longer had to exist.

However, due to the limitations of the process, the production of the revolver gun and bullets is still done by Anna, and Roland is designing a steam punch for stamping bullets, although it is not as efficient as Anna's cutting and molding, but at least it can reduce her burden.

To thank Anna for nearly half a month of busyness, he decided to give her a gift.

"Gift?" Anna put down the cut parts in her hand, brushed the strands of hair that had slid to her forehead, and smiled brightly, "Okay." ”

"Don't you ask for any gifts?" Roland teased.

"Well......" she thought for a moment, "I like all the gifts you give." ”

After more than half a year of recuperation, Anna can no longer find a trace of the shadow she saw when she first saw her in the dungeon, she is thin and weak, she has now become slim, her blue eyes are full of brilliance, her plain dress looks refreshing and neat, and her whole body is full of youthful vitality.

That's what an eighteen-year-old girl should look like.

Seeing the corners of the other party's mouth can't help but curl, Roland's mood has become much happier.

The "gift" was placed in the courtyard of the castle, and to surprise Anna, it was covered with a layer of linen cloth - an idea he had in mind when he made the Ember Bringer. Since he was a prince, of course, the gift had to be special, and finished products such as jewelry seemed too insincere, and he thought about it for a long time before he came up with this idea.

Roland uncovered the sackcloth, and a rattan basket appeared in front of the two of them, with a number of twine ropes attached to the top of the basket, and a huge canvas at the other end.

"It's ...... What?" Anna said curiously, walking up and circling around it.

"Hot air balloons. He replied with a smile, "I can take you up to the sky and look down on the earth like a bird." ”

"Flying into the sky?" she said, her eyes flashing with excitement, "Is it really possible?"

Soaring in the sky has been the dream of human beings since ancient times, from gliders to hot air balloons, from airships to airplanes, people have made great sacrifices in the exploration and challenge, and have never given up the pursuit of this aspect. Although there are witches in this world, flying is still the right of a few. The view from a high altitude is sure to leave a lasting impression.

"Of course, just fill the airbag with hot air. ”

Roland asks Nightingale to bring in Lightning and Maisie to act as emergency responders, and in case of an accident, Lightning and Maisie, who has turned into a large sea eagle, can at least protect the two of them from landing safely. As for the other witches, he decided that it would be better not to call them for the time being, especially Wendy and the Scroll, and would certainly object to any of his ventures, which could not be wrong in the eyes of both of them. (To be continued.) )