26 Hot Air Balloon

1 Month after Timothy's Death, Border Town.

With the help of the witches, the development of Border Town skyrocketed. With the help of Leaf's Plant Manipulation, Flores's Seed Replication and Aqua's Water Control, the food production was almost impossible to stop. With the help of Anna's Flame Generation, Mila's Assimilation and Cecily's Cloning, the fabrication of new weapons and technologies was incredible.

Today, Roland made every witch and officials come to the back garden of the castle, so he can demonstrate the power of science.

Arriving at the back garden, everyone was confused since they only saw something on the floor made of wear-resistant canvas.

"... What is this?" Agatha asked Roland that was finishing some details.

"It's a balloon. It can make normal people like me to fly in the skies."

"Fly? A normal person flying?" Agatha was confused.

"You will see." Roland responded.

The principle of a hot-air balloon was very simple. To produce it one only had to make their way through a few difficulties; the first part was the burning device, and the second was the airbag.

The first point, in the absence of pressure vessels that could provide gas fuel, Roland had to rely on firewood or charcoal to heat the air. However, the efficiency of this was too low and he had to come to accept that he wouldn't be able to fly with it very far with it.

Roland however, could abandon the burning device altogether, and instead let one of the witches with Heat Hands Ability take over for the heating.

With the 'Nature Lecture' that Roland was teaching everyday, the some witches with Heat Hands could now control the temperature of their hands.

The second problem was to make the airbags airtight, but regarding this issue, it was something that Roland could at least use the experience of his predecessors for, and easily solve the problem by using a sandwiched fabric. The outer layer of the balloon was made out of a wear-resistant canvas, the center layer was made out of the intestinal epithelium of cows, and the inner layer was made out of a light gauze. With this, he was able to prevent leakage, while it also meant that he would not have to be afraid of it being pecked at by birds.

Roland propped up the opening at the bottom of the air sac, allowing Lara, a witch with Heat Hands Ability, to raise the inside temperature. It started to slowly begin to bulge up, seemingly to be like a melted wax gourd. By taking into account that the hot air balloon would have to carry three people, the maximum diameter of the balloon needed to be at least at five meters, using up the intestinal epithelium of twelve cows, and its sewing lasted almost for a whole week. If it wasn't for the fact that he was the Lord of the town, it would never have been possible for him to make such a big toy.

"Does it fly by using the buoyancy provided from hot air?" Anna asked to Roland while Agatha nodded to Anna's question. "I remember that hot air will always rise up".

"Yes, hot air rises, while cold air sinks; this is a common natural phenomenon." Roland responded.

When the balloon was completely inflated, it began to float up and slowly straightened the draglines. Roland took the lead and entered the basket first. Afterward, he helped Anna to climb into it.

With a shake, the balloon's basket took off from the ground, gradually climbing up. Before long, they had crossed the top of the castle, and the whole town started to spread out in front of them.

To Roland, seeing such a scene wasn't something new, after all, he had looked out of a skyscraper. But in Anna's and Lara's view, it was a new experience, it was a perspective that they had never seen before. Anna leaned over the edge of the gondola and looked out of it, grabbing at Roland's arm with one of her hands, seeming totally excited while also being nervous at the same time while Lara was watching the city with excited eyes..

Soon, the basket which was tied to a hemp rope had also reached its limit finally stopping its rise. The hemp rope was about 50 meters long, in other words, it was around the height of a fifteen to sixteen-story building. Roland let Lara reduce the temperature so that the hot air balloon could begin to hover within the air.

When looking down from this height they could clearly see the castle roof, the constructions taking place all across town, the Redwater River flowing from west to east and the green farmland on the other side of the river.

"How do you feel?" Roland asked with a smile as Anna retracted her hand and Lara silent.

"It's so beautiful. Thank you Roland." she said excitedly. "It turns out that even I could fly so high."

"You can even fly higher," Roland sat down next to the side-wall of the rattan basket. "If the following hemp rope was longer, we could fly even ten times higher, but up there the airflow is much more chaotic, and it would become harder for us to still stay safe. Furthermore, this is only the first aircraft, just wait until I invent a piston machine, then even ordinary people can fly faster and higher than even the birds, and then…" He looked up at the blue sky full of hope in his heart, "humanity will one day fly out of this world and into the boundless space."

"…" Anna and Lara held their breath, their eyes were shining and full of expectation for what was to come.

'... A normal person flying!...' Agatha thought while watching the balloon floating on the air.

After some time, Roland made Lara lower the temperature, making the balloon descend to the ground.

Seeing Roland and Anna leave the balloon while Lara was still in the balloon for the next round, Agatha and Nightingale immediately entered the balloon.

After everyone finished their own round of flying, they dispersed.

...

"Your Highness, there is a message from King's City." A guard voice sounded outside Roland's office.

Taking the message from the guard, Roland opened it and started reading.

'... So Timothy is dead... With Gerald and Timothy deaths, Garcia will probably start to attack me for the throne' Roland thought while burning the message.

'... The only way to attack me with her Blacksail Fleet is with the Redwater River... They will take 1 month to come here even if they departed immediately...' Roland thought while making a blueprint about something.

'... It's time to produce a long-range weapon.' Roland thought while seeing the blueprint.