“…” Anna held her breath, her eyes were shining and full of expectation for what was to come.
“I cannot guarantee that we will be able to fly out of the world,” Roland became amused by seeing her appearance, “but creating a piston machine, so that even ordinary people can fly around like the birds, the rest of my life should still be enough time to achieve that.”
In fact, with Anna’s capabilities, I won’t have to face any sort of bottlenecks during the processing, but the currently existing materials are so short of the needed quality. Low-quality pig iron is good enough to create steam engines while wrought iron is sufficiently good to produce guns with, and together with Anna’s black fire to create steel producing revolver-rifles is also no problem. But to build an internal combustion engine, I am afraid I need high-quality iron, steel or aluminum for that.
“That Border Town was able to achieve its current appearance, this is all because of your contribution, ‘Miss Anna’.”
After hearing these words, Anna stared blankly into the distance. After a while, she sat down and softly said, “My mother died in a fire, while I wasn’t buried inside of the thick smoke and the raging inferno and contrary to my expectation I instead became a witch. For a long time, I thought it was my awakening that had led to the fire, ending in the situation that I became extremely disgusted with myself for being a witch. Then, when I was imprisoned for being a witch, I thought that this was the way in which I could die in relief, but you saved me and took me out of prison. Teaching me how I could use my ability… I would never have expected that in addition to destroying and bringing pain, my flame could also bring so much usefulness. “Anna paused, “That I was able to meet you, I should already feel very satisfied, but now I have discovered that my way of thinking has already changed. Sometimes my heart feels oppressed, and I feel unwell, hoping for even more.”
She held onto Roland ‘s shoulder, “Even if it is like this, do you still want to hire me?”
Her lake like blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight and blowing her breath directly into his face, giving him a somewhat itchy feeling. Through their thin clothing, he could feel her soft body and her racing heartbeat. Despite all of this, she did not avoid his view, she was looking straight into his eyes. In the absence of Nightingale, she was full of enthusiasm and now even took on the initiative.
“Out there …”
Even before Roland was able to finish, Anna had already sealed his lips.
When they separated, he gasped, “I want to hire you, all the way, Miss Anna.
“Ok.”
This time, he took the initiative, lowering his head and closing the distance.
…
“Hey” Maggie who had already been chasing Lightning for a while now, suddenly felt an emergency and stopped in the sky, looking at the empty basket, “They’ve disappeared! Goo!“.
“Ah?” After a short glance back Lightning said, “They just sat down.”
“Don’t they want to see the outside scenery?”
“They can always take in the landscape later, but they don’t get many opportunities like this one.”
“Opportunities?” Maggie shook her wings and landed on Lighting’s shoulder. “I don’t understand goo, should we go and take a look goo?”
“That won’t do,” Lightning said, hugging the pigeon. “It is a sacred ritual that cannot be interrupted.”
“Goo?”
“In short, I can only tell you that you will understand it in the future. Until then it’s better for you not to see it, at least that was what my father, the greatest explorer ever, told me.” Lightning tossed Maggie into the air, “Now it’s your turn to run, and my turn to chase you!”
Chapter 176 The answer at the bottom of one’s heart
The hot air balloon stayed in the air for around half an hour. Afterward, it slowly came to land in the castle courtyard.
When the basket of the balloon landed, it attracted the attention of all the other witches who had surrounded the waiting Nightingale one after another, and by now nearly all of the members of the Witch Alliance had gathered together in this place. Scrolls who had recently returned, from the City Hall had even run the whole way back. When she had arrived after taking a worried look up at the sky, as if she was afraid that a huge balloon would drop from it, she immediately requested to be informed about the situation.
The moment the Prince had climbed out of the basket, Scroll and Wendy immediately went over, bursting into a lecture, advising him again to not put his own life into so much risk. The Prince, however, defended his behavior using the novelty of the toy as an excuse and flipping the topic around at them. Nightingale who felt that the situation was actually quite funny and was on her way up to meet them, suddenly felt how her heart turned stiff stopping instantly in her place.
She’d seen the overflowing joy within Anna’s eyes when Roland had helped her out of the basket, staining her cheeks with a slight blush. Her flax colored bangs was skewed to one side, with the aid of a small hairpin which reflected the silvery within the sun.
Nightingale recalled how he had polished a piece of silver during the time when he was at the factory, guiding the blacksmith on how to operate those heavy machines.
Had His Highness personally made this hairpin?
Soon the other witches began clamoring that they also wanted to take a tour on the balloon, and like that the balloon began to rise again, this time with Anna and Nana standing on board.
Nightingale, however, stood outside of the crowd, staring at the hot air balloon, seeing it become smaller and smaller.
In her mind there was only one thought, Anna’s face, brimming with a gentle smile.
Usually, Anna’s face would always show a calm and neutral expression, rarely exposing any other type of expression. During her journey to the Witch Cooperation Association, within those large cities Nightingale had met many people displaying a similar smile.
So, she knew what it meant, it was clear that His Royal Highness and Anna had not only simply taken in the scenery up in the sky. Even though Maggie and Lightning had still been around, making it impossible for them to take it to the last step. But as long as the idea came up even once, it would become difficult for them to suppress it again. She suddenly felt like a piece of her heart had become empty.
Although she had thought that she had made her decision long ago, having to see it turn into reality, Nightingale discovered that she was far less prepared for it than she had ever imagined.
Wanting to be alone she went to a corner and leaned herself against the wall to sit back down, watching everyone with a disturbed look, while her head was a complete blank.
When the hot air balloon had landed once more, and Nana had stepped off of the basket, Leaves immediately seized the opportunity and climbed into the basket.
When Nightingale came back to herself, she discovered that Roland was no longer in the courtyard, he had most probably returned back to the castle, busying himself with his work, maybe lecturing over one of his books. She also had to go back to the office, she needed to always stay at the Prince side, just as she had done in the past. But when Nightingale stood up, she found that she was unable to take the next step. She really didn’t know how she should face Roland right now, even in the case that she entered her own space so that he couldn’t see her, she still knew, seeing now his face full of happiness would only make her feel all the more uncomfortable.
Wendy came over after the hot air balloon had gone up and down several times, “Why don’t you go over and try it for yourself? It’s a great experience to see the town from up in the sky.”