He was suddenly enlightened. "That's right," he thought. "I'm no longer just a regular man who only interacts with blueprints all day, and this is no longer the world I used to live in. Now, I'm a lord of a great territory, and I might become a king one day, so if my situation ever changes, I can't use my old approaches to hold myself back."

"I just have to follow my heart," he told himself. "If I force anything because of some insignificant 'principles', it could only result in continuing to hurt Anna and Nightingale."

At this thought, Roland felt a weight had been lifted off his heart. He inhaled deeply and pushed open the backyard door.

Opening the steel door was just like opening his heart and he instantly saw a whole new world.

"Oh... Here comes His Highness!" Hummingbird and Lucia ran up to greet him.

"You're here." Anna smiled sweetly. Roland saw a faint red mark on her pale neck and couldn't help but recall the pa.s.sionate scene last night. However, since he already made his decision, he didn't mind waiting a little bit more.

"Have you completed the model?"

"Of course." Anna made a beckoning motion. When the two walked out of the yard, they saw a steel boat floating in the middle of a pond surrounded by snow. The steel boat was about one meter long and twenty centimeters wide, seeming much slimmer than those unwieldy concrete boats. The bow had a distinct thin point, its stern was flat, and the unique part of it was that the hull was covered with overlapping supporting bars as if it were pieced together with thousands of squares.

"This is exactly what I wanted," Roland exclaimed. Compared to the concrete boats that were poured into steel molds, the pure steel boat had a unique delicateness, and the overlapping bars made it look like a work of art. He knew that every piece of this model was cut with Blackfire according to shrunken proportions, without a single junction missing. If this model were brought to the modern world, it would be worth tens of thousands yuan.

"Is this the new kind of boat you want to build?"

"Yes." Roland nodded. "It's also the town's first regular wars.h.i.+p."

Originally, Roland planned to use the concrete boats as shallow water gunboats, but he realized that if the steam engines didn't provide enough power, the concrete boats would be too slow. Even when only carrying fuel and crew, the fleet's average speed during the journey to Longsong Stronghold was only eight to nine kilometers per hour. If the boats also had to carry 152 millimeters Stronghold Cannon, gunpowder, and other weapons, their speed could drop to as low as five kilometers. This was equivalent to even less than three knots per hour. This was due to the big dead weight of concrete, which wasn't an issue in simple supply transport, but it was an undesirable feature in wars.h.i.+ps.

If the town was still suffering from a lack of steel like it was two months ago, Roland would have to put up with this flaw. However, with the production of Star of Steel, the current amount of steel inventory was enough to build a true steel-clad wars.h.i.+p. Roland chose the simplest technique of module a.s.sembly, which meant soldering pieces of steel boards together with beams to form a large hollow unit, and then connecting these units together to form the hull bottom. This piecing method eliminated the traditional need for a keel, and since the enemy did not have any cannons, he did not worry about defense mechanisms. The sides of the hull were made almost entirely of thin steel plates, thus minimizing the cost and dead weight.

As for the propulsion, Roland decided to use the propeller technology instead of a paddle wheel. The power still came from a steam engine that turned the two propellers by rotating gears. In the blueprint he gave Anna, he also left room for it to be remodeled as a triple-expansion steam engine since he planned to invent a new type of steam engine more suited for boats when he began ma.s.s-producing the steel boats.

When they returned to the backyard, Anna began to cut the first steel plate.

The Blackfire in her hand acted like a precise ruler that instantly sliced a thick steel block into seven thin plates, each exactly five millimeters thick.

Next came the soldering. Hummingbird reduced the weights of the steel beams and placed them between two plates, and Anna's Blackfire turned into an extremely thin and hot line and sewed the three components together like thread. This was completely different from her original soldering technique, because her Blackfire heated the steel from the inside, allowing the liquid steel to completely fill all crevices. After the three were completely combined, the beam was lowered by about a millimeter, which meant that its bottom had completely filled the s.p.a.ce between the two plates.

A cross made by steel beams could connect four plates, and more crosses could form a hollow box unit. These units were lightened by Hummingbird and transported to the Redwater River, where they were a.s.sembled together at the dock.

Meanwhile, Roland's eyes never left Anna's busy figure. Her flaxen hair swayed with her cutting motions like a spirit dancing in the pure white snow.

...

In the afternoon, Roland met Summer, the newly awakened witch.

Since she was in his office, it meant that she had pa.s.sed Nightingale's verification. Wendy had already clearly recorded her ability, so Roland need not perform any more tests but immediately placed the contract in front of her.

Summer held the pen awkwardly for a while before saying with a red face, "I... can't write."

"That's alright." Roland smiled. "You can also sign with your fingerprint."

She carefully pressed her inked thumb onto the parchment. "Is that all?"

"Yes." Roland rolled up the contract. "Wendy has told me every detail about your situation, so even though you signed the contract, you don't have to live in the castle. You only need to come here every day to practice and attend cla.s.ses. Has Wendy told you about the characteristics of magic power?"

"Yes, Your Highness." As soon as she learned that she did not need to live in the castle, Summer became much more relaxed. "Lady Wendy said that if I don't release the magic power that's acc.u.mulating every day, I'll be in great danger on my Day of Awakening."

"That's right, so you have to practice well. I know she'll continue to teach you how to precisely control magic power and its connection with your ability." Roland didn't correct her honorifics because he thought it would be best for a beginner to have some awe. "If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask any member of the Witch Union."

"I understand, Your Highness," she said with her head lowered. "But... do you think this ability is completely useless? I asked Lady Wendy about this, and she said only Your Highness would have the answer."

"Of course not," Roland said with a smile. "You have the ability of a detective, so you'll be very helpful in fighting crimes."

"Detective?" Summer looked confused.

"Don't worry. Soon you'll understand." He summoned Nightingale from her Mist. "From now on, this witch will be your supervisor."