“Are your feet completely healed?” Scroll asked as she sat next to her.
“Oh, it’s you Teacher Scroll,” she blinked for a moment in confusion, then nodded happily and said. “Yes, Miss Nana has restored them to their original form. Like this, I finally don’t need to endure the pain in my toes during winter.”
“Are all these plants you planted in the garden your improved versions?”
“Well,” Leaves said as she began to point happily towards each of them, “Over there is the vine shed, here are the fruit trees, and there are the crops. I also asked His Royal Highness to bring me a batch of compost, just so that I could test the absorption quality of the new crops. In addition, there are dozens of bird’s nest in the fruit trees, and the messengers Honey raised are all sleeping on top of the trees.”
Scroll lovingly stroke her hair and said, “I thought you would be the first witch of the Witch Alliance to evolve. After all, when we were within the Impassable Mountain Range, the ability you displayed wasn’t below that of Cara.”
“His Royal Highness said that the possibility to evolve one’s ability comes along with the understanding of our ability. Plant cells do indeed make people feel they are unfathomable is what I’ve thought long ago, but now I think that at the root of it they are all the same. You see, a bundle of tiny grass when fused together can change into flexible vines, but if they were different, how could something like that ever be possible?”
Scroll opened her mouth, but she didn’t know whether she should comfort her or agree with her, so finally, she said: “Your ability, even without evolving, can already do so much for His Highness.”
“I feel that it is not far away from me,” Leaves said, shaking her head, while her eyes were filled with bright light, “Animals are living, plants are living, and even several parts of them together are living as well… Birds need trees to build a nest, while their droppings once again bring nourishment to the trees. A forest can provide a living being with everything its needs while at the same time the forest extends due to the provided moisture of all living things.” She paused, “Look at this garden. I think I already found a way to move forward.”
Chapter 307 Death from the sky
The hot air balloon was flying two thousand meters above ground, which was something Lightning had measured by flying vertically up towards the sky.
When she raised her head, it seemed as if the clouds she could see were almost within reach, looking like a loose cotton. However, if she really wanted to touch them, she would still have to fly a few hundred meters or so further up.
The whole hot air balloon was painted with blue and white patches, which from a distance, gave it the exactly same appearance as the sky. Furthermore, they themselves had also put on camouflage clothing, the same was even true for “Easterly Wind 1”. According to His Highness’ requirements, it was important that this surprise attack was sudden and came from under cover. Therefore, the First Army had even gotten off the boat before they reached Silver City’s pier and walked to the back of the nearby mountain.
Under Sylvie’s surveillance, the team was able to avoid all eyes, not drawing anybody’s attention from beginning to end. After they finished setting up camp, Cloud Gazer slowly took off, they would carry out the bombing mission on the next day.
After spending one week on the street, today was the beginning of the first month of autumn.
Due to the insufficient possibilities to observe from inside the basket, Maggie flew out in front of the balloon like a white shadow, taking over the responsibilities for directing and investigating their route. Even from such a high altitude, after changing into a white-tailed eagle, she was quickly able to identify the roads connecting the towns and the carriages that was traveling on them — at this point, the eagle’s eyes were much better than an observation mirror.
Fortunately, the other side cannot change the place at which the bomb will drop, Lightning thought, otherwise I really wouldn’t have anything to do.
“Are you tired?” Anna asked, leaning over the side of the basket, “Come in and take a rest, we won’t come across any Devil here anyway.”
The little girl shook her head, “At this speed, I can fly the whole day long.”
“Aren’t you a little nervous?” Wendy asked, as she came and leaned over the side.
“I’m not,” she said, curling her lips, “I have practiced the course of event many times, and the palace is so big, it’ll be impossible for me to miss.”
“Is that so?” Wendy smiled. “Anyway, do not try to be brave, His Highness said that the most important thing is our safety. Also…. the incident at the Devil’s Town during the investigation mission wasn’t your fault.”
“What, I…”
Wendy interrupted her in a gentle tone, “Anyone could see that you’ve been frustrated these last few days, but you weren’t too cowardly to fight, rather, you just haven’t gained enough battle experience yet. If it had been me in your place, I definitely couldn’t have done any better.”
“Indeed, Nightingale possess reflexes and skills which most of us witches don’t have,” Anna added in comfort. “You might as well come in and have a rest, the amount of magic you will need to adjust the impact point of the bomb won’t be a small amount.”
Hearing the comforting words coming from the two, Lightning sniffed gently, then bowed her head as she entered the basket. Even before she had landed, Wendy had already wrapped her into her bosom, “No one blames you, so you should also not blame yourself, understand?”
“Ok…”
…
After flying for an entire morning, Maggie flapped her wings and returned to Cloud Gazer to report to the other three, “The King’s City of Graycastle is in front of us, we are almost there, goo.”
Lightning immediately flew out of the basket and lifted the lookout mirror — only to see that it was exactly as His Highness had said, King’s City’s city wall was such a grand sight, that it was still clearly visible even from so high up in the sky. It arose from the earth, just like a blue-green colored crooked string as it described the scope of the city. Furthermore, the fingernail-sized white spots in the middle of the gray block seemed especially eye-catching.
According to the first plan, they would first drop leaflets all over King’s City before releasing Easterly Wind No.1. But after going through several test runs, they finally had to accept that there was not any possible way for them to control the direction the papers would fall when releasing it from a height of two thousand meters, even if they were to add some extra weight it still wouldn’t work. Trying to reduce their altitude however meant they would then easily be discovered, after all, Cloud Gazer’s size was just too big. If that was coupled with the stream leaflets dropping from the sky attracting the eyes of the crowd below, it would become very difficult for them to hide.
Therefore, His Royal Highness had decided to cancel the leaflet part in the end. Instead, he had shifted the task to Theo so as to inform the public of the news, that they were the ones who had thrown a bomb at the palace.
Wendy manipulated the airflow so that the basket came to a halt above King’s City.
“Everyone ready?”
“Pull up the valve,” Lighting said while nodding.