Anna walked into the room and saw Wendy tending to him.

"Let me."

She picked up a cup of clear water and walked to the bed. After dampening a cotton swab, she gently moistened Roland's lips. Even though the Seed of Symbiosis had been implanted in him, his body was still influenced by multiple factors; for example, the lack of water led to dehydration and cracked lips.

For the past few days, Anna and Roland's interaction time was far less than what Wendy, Nightingale, and the rest had with him. It wasn't that she didn't wish to spend more time with him, but that she had fixed a hard rule for herself, to only have interaction with him for half an hour a day—she was afraid that she would be unwilling to leave the room.

Wendy set down her work and gave Anna s.p.a.ce to accompany Roland.

The thirty minutes were relaxed and tranquil, as though time had slowed to a crawl.

The silence was broken only until a report from the guards came from the outside.

"Your Majesty Anna, the investigation team has returned; the others are waiting for you at the conference room!"

Anna stopped for a second, then slowly placed the porcelain cup down.

"Anna…" Wendy spoke worriedly.

"Don't worry." She raised her head. "I'm fine."

In that moment, Wendy felt the instant switch in Anna's state of mind, her clear eyes that gazed upon Roland was swapped out for a resolved look, as though she was a completely different person.

Wendy realized that this girl had grown at an astonis.h.i.+ng rate, but upon recalling that Anna was always the first in Border Town to learn and understand what Roland thought, her progress was reasonable. Due to the relation between Anna and Border Town, the town had turned into a sacred mountain for witches, and at this moment, Anna was bringing everyone to new heights.

"Go and do what you have to," Wendy replied gently.

"I'll have to trouble you with him." Anna bowed slightly towards Wendy and left the chambers.

After traveling through long pa.s.sageways and stairs, she finally arrived behind the conference room doors. She stopped in her tracks, took a few deep breaths, and pushed open the doors—

"Her Majesty!" Everyone in the room stood up and bowed at her with a hand placed on their chests.

Anna did not dismiss their greetings, but instead returned the same greeting back to them—Anna knew the limitations to what she was good at, and to have everything put in order and have everything appearing clear and orderly was through everybody's hard work.

"Let us begin the meeting."

"Yes!" Morning Light replied respectfully.

The investigation team for Mist Island included Lightning, Maggie and Sylvie—according to the information Hackzord had provided, Sylvie had confirmed the island's definite position. Although her magic power was incapable of penetrating through the illusion barrier, it was as eye-grabbing as the stars in the sky in the vast ocean.

Aside from that, Sylvie discovered a large amount of magic power feedback that seemed to have enveloped the sea surrounding the island, which was the reason for the Exploration Group's abandonment for further exploration.

There was no doubt that the Sky-sea Realm was related to the magic power—aside from the frequent sea ghosts, Nest Mothers and Blade Beasts, there were a few surprisingly 'behemoths.' Demons hailed them as Mountain Devourers and were most commonly evolved from Nest Mothers. They did not possess the ability to produce limbed beasts and blade beasts, but instead had dense armor that covered their entire body and utilized a large mouth the size of a capstan to feed on the land, They were the main force of the Sky-sea Realm to produce a battlefield suited for them.

Obviously the Sky-sea Realm did not plan to give up the Bottomless Land so easily.

Right as the General Staff were formulating countermeasures, Silent Disaster and Isabella walked in—it was a rather odd duo to marvel at, a human and a senior lord, to which the human was a Pure Witch of the former Church. Anyone who witnessed it was surprised.

But Anna knew that the duo's work was extremely crucial.

And they had indeed come with good news.

Isabella smiled at her. "Your Majesty, the test was successful."

Anna's heart immediately relaxed. At present, what was most challenging about dealing with the Sky-sea Realm was the inability to trace the blade beasts, transferring the witches defending the Western Region would result in a defenseless Neverwinter, and thus, the most dependable method was to provide means for ordinary people to spot blade beasts. The only senior demon capable of doing so was Primal Chaos, a senior lord upgraded from an Eye Demon. He had the ability to see through all invisibility, but the effective radius was rather small and inferior to a pa.s.sive view capable of seeing all things.

If they were able to amplify Senior Lord Primal Chaos's ability, it might be the conclusive breakthrough.

The first to suggest this was surprisingly Hackzord, to which reminded Anna of Zero's Infinite Sigil—this changed the plan to three parts: Silent Disaster to convince Primal Chaos, Arrieta to supply high-grade magic stones, and Isabella to conduct the relevant research. This was the reason for the strange duo.

As for Isabella's part, it was definitely the most troublesome, but it had obtained a breakthrough.

This boosted the morale of the General Staff by a whole new level.

At the very least, they would have some sense of direction while attacking the Bottomless Land.

After going through the conditional theories, they were left with dispatching.

"I hope Graycastle will be in time." Agatha spoke up while staring at the map of the Four Kingdoms.

"I believe in Iron Axe and the rest," Anna replied.

…

Kingdom of Dawn, Coral Bay.

White leaned on his crutches and climbed onto the deck and moved slowly towards Speedster's bow—it was a high-speed sailboat with two masts, and although it was considered a segoing vessel, it did not have good resistance for stormy seas, for the greater part of its travels relying on coastlines to travel. But its biggest advantage lay in its costs, compared to the few hundred gold royals required in the past. It now only needed 99 gold royals to fund an entire Speedster. If swapped for Graycastle's paper money, one could even get a further ten percent discount.

"Hey Boss!" the seamen on the deck were moving the goods saluted him.

White nodded in satisfaction.

In the past, hiring men would have been a large part of the expenses, but following the merchants' increasing fondness of steam-powered boats, the price of ordinary sailboats dropped even further. This dropped the cost of hiring men to climb and hang the mast—after all, the steam-powered boats did not require any mast and thus less manpower.

As he gazed towards ocean that reflected the sky and clouds and listened to the melodious calls of the sea gulls, White's mood lightened up. From a coachman to the master of a sailboat, his personal a.s.sets could be said to have increased severalfold. Although the work still involved transporting people and that the employers were still from Neverwinter, compared to a year or two ago, it was considered an overhaul.

Of course, he did not forget to purchase the steam truck of his dreams. It was just that his present wants had several new additions; for example, buying even more boats or vehicles… Certainly, it would be best to establish himself as a specialist in the transport business.

"Boss, are you comparing the tough times to the sweet again?" someone quipped.

The seamen knew that upon becoming happy, their boss loved to brag about his past and could go on for hours if no one interrupted him. As listeners, they would get a break from their busy work; thus, everyone would always use such an opener on him.

"What are you talking about, this is the experience of life, all of you, sigh… are still inexperienced." White glared at them. "I started driving for the Countess before working for the Church, and moved on to being employed by Graycastle before acc.u.mulating enough for this family business. All of those are not tough times, but the foundations to success, get it!?"

"Yes, yes, yes, whatever you say goes!" Everyone nodded their head.

"You little brats, I know that all of you want to skive." White found a clean spot to sit down, and patted the spot beside him. "All of you, come here. Take it that I'm in a good mood today; there's no harm in listening to me talk."

Whistles immediately sounded on deck.

White did not mind too much about it; he was not a n.o.ble. If he had not made the right choice and followed the majority to Neverwinter, he might not have been any better than these seamen today.

"Today, I shall talk about the achievements when the King of Graycastle recaptured the Kingdom of Wolfheart." He mulled for a short moment, then gabbled non-stop after. He talked about the soldiers that stood in the rain and never fell, about the n.o.bles' diplomatic mission that ended up in failure upon the first meeting, but most of the content were focused on the shocking fleet.

"You guys have no clue on how large the fleet was, a continuous and unbroken extension of white masts, longer than the sea line. Even from a distance, people would be able to see it and become stunned in place, it is hard to blame the Baron of Sedimentation Bay for surrendering to King Roland immediately."

"Is it really that exaggerated?"

"Yes, it's even larger than what I just said, Kid. I can bet you that it was the most majestic sight I have ever seen in my life, a scene that you can never comprehend even if you break your head. Unless you get to see it personally, don't ever think of becoming like me your entire lives. Of course, this opportunity will never come in the next decade," White said smugly.

"Erm… boss, have you ever seen boats that appear out from beneath the waters?" someone asked.

"What nonsense are you saying. I'm talking about actual events, not some folk lore!"

"But it's right there… across the dock, and… it looks like there's more than one…" The person who posed the question stuttered.

"Did you drink too much last night?" White stood up and pushed the seamen around him aside. As he laid his eyes upon the sea, he was immediately stunned.

He saw a colossal "door" appear over the water surface.

The s.h.i.+ps that hung the banner of Graycastle appeared like ghosts, one after another, they cruised out of the door and swept past the Speedster from several hundred meters away.