“Really, would using a brazier be hot enough?” Hogg asked disbelievingly.
“That won’t do, because if you want to let the balloon float in the sky, you have to supply it with heat the entire time. Furthermore, wood itself is already very heavy, so you can’t take it with you without end, because of this the problem needs to be solved in a special way.”
“Can you achieve it?” Margaret asked impatiently.
“Well… I should be able to,” after thinking for a while, Roland continued, “But there are still some troubles.”
“That would be truly wonderful,” Margaret answered immediately. “I hope that I will be able to purchase four to five hot air balloons, they don’t need to be so big, it would already be enough if they can carry one person.”
“Do you want to put it on your ships?” Hogg asked.
“Well, the mast cannot reach an unlimited height, but a hot air balloon can, it can go as high as the rope connected to the basket is long. Moreover, if it connects to the mast, it also won’t drift away with the wind. So, by using a hot air balloon as a lookout, they should be able to detect nearing pirate ship much earlier. Regarding the sea trade, besides the unpredictable storms and tsunamis, the biggest harm to our merchant fleets comes from pirates.”
“But I fear that it is unlikely that the construction cost will be low,” Roland calculated it within his mind, “I estimate that it will require more than one thousand gold royals.”
In case they didn’t use a witch to heat the air, the hot air balloon would need to use gas as fuel, and the most easily obtainable fuel would be coal gas. Unfortunately, Graycastle’s coal mines were located at the Cold-Wind Mountain Range, which was just too far away from Border Town. According to the transportation conditions, it would be impossible to transport it over. Turning the hot-air balloon into a hydrogen balloon would be much easier to achieve, but he had still to solve the problem of the gas tank — if it couldn’t be used unobstructed, then it wouldn’t be of any practical value.
“One thousand gold royals apiece, was it?” Margaret said then made a counter-offer, “If you really are able to make this, I can guarantee that all the caravans from the Fjords will buy at least one or two of them.”
“This time Crescent Moon Bay Caravan hadn’t come along. Otherwise I’m certain you would have received your next huge order,” Hogg grasped the liquor cup and drained it in one gulp. “I, however, won’t need such a balloon, even though they seem very magical, they don’t have any use for my mines in Silver City. I just want to get my steam engines as soon as possible.”
Hearing Margaret accepting his price made Roland pleased beyond his expectations. The one thousand gold royals were the price he got after increasing the estimated production costs by five times, he had never expected that the other party was able to accept a price twice the price of a steam engine. But when he thought about it again, a sea faring ship carrying all kinds of goods would probably be worth much more than this price, not to mention saving the entire merchant fleet and the lives of the ship’s crew, so long as they could avoid being looted by pirates, the deal would still be cost-effective for ocean traders.
Also, the thousand gold royals wouldn’t be the end of the deal, whether it was hydrogen or coal gas, they were both consumables. If they were used up, they would eventually need to come back to Border Town for a refill, which would then yield an additional revenue… Of course, in case they acquired the gas canisters in large quantity, giving them a discount or present them with several inflations for free could be considered. In this regards, he could use the 4s[6] car shops and CPC[7] and CNPC[8] as an example and imitate them.
Roland pretended to hesitate for a moment before he finally nodding, “In that case, I think we have reached a deal.”
Chapter 254 Alliance
The Fjord’s weather was very strange, yesterday had been a sunny, cloudless day, with an endlessly blue sky. But the sky was gloomy today, the wind was blowing and the thunder rolling, looking like a massive rainstorm was imminent.
Ashes held down her hair to prevent it from fluttering about wildly in the wind then stepped into Tilly’s home only to discover that there was a fat pigeon sitting on Tilly’s shoulder.
“Maggie?”
“Goo!” The pigeon raised its head, its eyes turned bright, it opened its wings and immediately threw itself at the doorway, only to gently be blocked by Ashes hand, “Turn into your human form so that we can talk.”
“Woo… Goo,” With fluttering wings, Maggie landed on the floor, shedding her feathers to reveal her original appearance. She opened her mouth and unhappily asked, “Do you have a hatred for pigeons?
“I’ve always felt that a bird that can speak is way too strange,” Ashes said laughingly and pulled up the girl that was sitting up from the ground, “At what time have you come back?”
“Just a moment ago, I was afraid that I would get caught up by the storm, my wing almost ended up broken,” she patted her chest. “Fortunately, I was able to reach Sleeping Island before the rain began falling.”
“Did you fly back… like this?” Ashes tapped her on the forehead, “Why didn’t you just turn into a swallow wouldn’t that have been much faster?”
“Oh…” Maggie’s eyes became wide, as if she had suddenly only just realized something, “I forgot, goo.”
Tilly couldn’t help but laugh, she then put down the letter in her hand and said, “I’m putting you through a lot of trouble. I already know about the news from that area, so for now, you can should go and look for Lotus or Molly and play with them, I will think about a good reply and notify you later.”
“Good, goo!” Maggie saluted and then hopped as she left the room.
“What did Roland Wimbledon have to say?” Waiting until the both of them were the only one left in the room, Ashes went over to Tilly and sat beside her on the woven mat. There, on the ground in front of them a map was spread out. Looking closely, she discovered that it depicted the terrain surrounding Border Town.
“This is his letter,” Tilly handed her a piece of paper, “I have to say, the witches he picked are indeed… quite special…”
Ashes quickly finished reading the letter given to her, unable to keep the frown on her forehead she asked “He actually chose Sylvie? Does he simply do not care about exposing his identity?”
“I don’t know,” Tilly said, not expressing her opinion, “Perhaps my summary about their abilities was too vague, so he was unable to do an in-depth investigation? Or it could be that he simply does not care if his identity is exposed to us, and might be trying to show his sincerity in cooperating? Of course, there is still another possibility…”
“He really could be your older brother,” Ashes finished her sentence, “And because of this he doesn’t care at all about Sylvie’s ability.”
“But this possibility is next to nothing,” she laughed at herself, “Who would know better than I the kind of person my older brother is? If he was indeed Roland Wimbledon, he would never chose to go against the Church in order to protect the witches. From young to old, the thing he has always been best at was with escaping. No matter what challenges or difficulties he was facing … Even when the king sent him to Border Town, he never went over to meet with “father” or tried raising any form of protest, even if it would only be a symbolic one.”
Ashes raised one eyebrow, “In short, him taking the initiative to pick Sylvie is a good thing for us. In that way we don’t need to think of an excuse to send him an additional witch, but those other witches… don’t tell me that you really want to agree to send them to him?”
6
In China, authorized car dealership are called 4S car shops. The 4S represents Sale, Sparepart, Service and Survey. 整車销售(Sale)、零配件(Sparepart)、售後服务(Service)、信息反馈(Survey). In most cases, brand-name new cars can be purchased only from 4S shops. For new cars in high demand, a high premium is added for instant delivery or just placing an order.The profit of car dealers in China is quite high comparing to the rest of the world, in most cases 10 %. This is supposedly due to the ‘non-transparent invoice price’ as announced by manufactures and to the premiums they charge for quick delivery. Due to the lack of knowledge for most customers, dealers can sell add-ons at much higher prices than the after market. There is no regulation by either the government or associations.