Then, she could only hear a loud humming sound as the heavy bomb started moving away from the basket, falling straight down to the ground. As the weight suddenly reduced, the hot air balloon began to fly upwards.
Regarding the following step, she had already knew them by heart for a long time.
Under the airflow caused from it dropping down, the parachute at the end of Easterly Wind No. 1 opened, and so Lightning could easily catch up with the bomb, she then began correcting its trajectory a little at a time.
The witches of the Witch Union weren’t unfamiliar with King’s City at all. When they’d moved westwards on their journey to the Holy Mountain, they had hidden themselves within the city’s slums for several months. One of the reasons for this was to gather food and another was to attract new blood, during which time Soraya and Echo had come to join the Witch Cooperation Association. Although Lightning hadn’t experienced it herself, but she had often listened to them speaking about this. Compared to other cities, King’s City was very strict in implementing witch hunts, on top of the flight of steps at the outer city’s public square, witches would be executed almost every month. As a result, they had stayed there for the shortest amount time, because with every day that passed, they would have to suffer the pain of seeing another sister pass away.
Therefore, Lightning had no favorable impression of this bustling capital city. If she could end the rule of the person responsible for it by dropping a bomb on top of their head, she would be glad to do so. If Roland was the one ruling the Kingdom of Graycastle, all those tragedies would never have happened, isn’t that right?
She now had the chance to correct this error.
Under the whistling sound of the wind, the scene below continued to expand, and soon, the details of the palace at the middle of the inner city started becoming clear to Lightning’s eyes.
Compared to the size of the living places of the commoners, the palace was many times larger — its main buildings were made up of a dome, a banquet hall, and a tall castle tower. The rest were auxiliary buildings such as stables, barracks, warehouses and so on. Taking into account the steep walls of the castle, the roof’s structure was very complex, and not very usable for the impact detonator, thus His Highness had decided that the imperial palace’s hall would be the target of the attack.
As the height dropped sharply, the parachute quickly reached the point of detachment. Lightning pulled the release mechanism, and let the parachute separate from the bomb, then picked it up and quickly began rising towards the sky.
Before their departure, Prince Roland had repeatedly told her that she had to rise high enough and reach a safe position before the bomb hit. By no means should she ever turn around or go and take a look at the explosion, but the young girl was still tempted by her curiosity, and was unable to restrain the impulse to lower her head.
Only to see a dazzling flash of light rise from the top of the hall and rapidly expand in all direction.
The incandescent light quickly turned into a bright orange-red, only to be followed by a rolling cloud of smoke and dust which slowly faded out. This process lasted only one instant before suddenly an ear-splitting sound of an explosion bombarded her ears, almost making her lose her balance.
Lighting really wasn’t inexperienced with the booming sound of artillery barrage on a battlefield, but compared to those terrible weapons which could shoot iron balls, the sound of Easterly Wind No.1’s explosion would be ten times louder!
Smoke spurt out of the windows and between the pillars of the palace hall, engulfing the surrounding garden and gallery. Soon, several cracks appeared on the round dome which had been at the center of the impact.
Lightning couldn’t help but stop and hold her breath as she took in the last moments of the hall.
Those countless black cracks wantonly flowed in all direction like ink, and instantly covered the entire roof. Then, as the roof was no longer able to support itself, it came crashing down, and raised an even stronger cloud of smoke.
Under Easterly Wind No.1’s amazing might, the palace hall finally collapsed.
Chapter 308 Fear
In recent days, Theo had kept in daily contact with Prince Roland.
In spite of the many incredible things he had seen during the last year he had worked for His Royal Highness, this new order felt a bit inconceivable and had also left him feeling… puzzled.
Announce the attack on the imperial palace as Roland Wimbledon’s punishment on Timothy Wimbledon?
At the time the militia which had attacked the Western Territory returned to King’s City, he had naturally also heard of the “warning” that they had brought along with them. However, Theo had merely thought that it was His Highness’ bluff, or perhaps a plan to threaten the east and strike the west — getting Timothy to increase the defenses while he sent out troops to attack other cities. Just like Garcia had done, going out to loot one of the enemy’s cities before the approaching winter.
But the following orders sent from Border Town gave him the impression that he’d been mistaken. In fact, it seemed that His Highness really did intend to attack King’s City, and had thus asked him to be ready to spread some propaganda. This latest command had made it clear that the attack would be launched on the first day of autumn, at exactly the same time as announced in the “warning” message.
Taking a look at this sentence, “The attack on the imperial palace could be considered as punishment”, in other words, His Highness would forcefully enter the King’s City inner city — but how could that be possible? King’s City possessed Graycastle’s mightiest city walls, with a thickness that could accommodate two houses set side by side, which even for His Highness’s artillery would be difficult to destroy. Furthermore, with the kingdom’s best Knights, personal guards, as well as the enlisted militia as defenders, it would be hard to set even one step into the city without already having an army that was more than ten thousand people strong.
Even using witches to initiate surprise attacks would have a similar outcome. Within the imperial palace there were as many God’s Stone of Retaliation as there were hairs on an ox. In addition, in the palace’s grand hall and in the other parts of the palace all had giant God’s Stones of Retaliation installed in them. So as soon as a witch set even one foot inside the room, she would immediately be stripped of all her powers. This was also the reason why Timothy could hunt and kill witches wantonly while being fearless of any retaliation — wishing to ever assassinate a member of the royal family was simply an unattainable dream.
Furthermore, even if there was a method, it still held some hidden dangers to it. If Timothy Wimbledon really was to die under a witch’s hand, most likely the Church would be the party to receive the greatest benefit… With only a little bit of guidance, they could start to claim that the 4th Prince, a pawn of the Devil’s minions would sit on the throne, which would result in all of the other nobles unifying against him. But Theo believed that a person like His Royal Highness already possessed enough intelligence to see hidden dangers such as that.
So, in the end, how will His Highness get into and attack the inner city?
“Sir, what kind of instruction do you have for me to come over?” Opening the half-closed door, Hill Fawkes walked into the living room.
“We are waiting for a new order,” Theo said and spread out his hands, “So go and take a seat first.”
“…Yes.”
Theo could only smile helplessly when he saw the flabbergasted expression on the former member of the acrobatic group. Usually he would only inform these people when he had received precise orders; but this time, it would be inconvenient for him to inform them of His Highness’ mission ahead of time — in case they were unable to launch the attack on the imperial palace, this seemingly absurd instruction could easily reduce the other party’s level of trust.