"Ooh, ooh!" Maixi flapped her wings and tail in the newly built castle's backyard, spinning around to show off to everyone.
Though he had long heard the story from the witches, Roland was genuinely stunned when he first saw Maxie in her 'Demoness' form.
This brown-skinned giant bird measures approximately ten meters in length including the tail and has a wingspan of nearly fifteen meters, resembling the fleshy wings of bats. Under sunlight, the blood vessels and skeletal structure beneath its thin skin are clearly visible. Due to its elongated body, the giant bird possesses four limbs, each with a thickness comparable to an adult's arm and clawed ends, all of which serve to support its body.
The most striking feature was the creature's head—three triangular eyes positioned at the crown and flanks, its entire face dominated by a gaping maw rather than the typical bird beak. When Maxie spoke, her mouth would open and close, revealing a row of sharp teeth and a long tongue that sent the other witches gasping in shock.
"Is this Devil's mount?" Ye Zi exclaimed. "Thankfully we didn't encounter such beasts in the wilderness—otherwise none of us would have escaped." "If she hadn't evolved those new abilities, I probably wouldn't have made it back," Nightingale murmured, stroking Maxie's smooth neck. "I'll prepare a bag of charcoal-grilled dried fish for you every day." "Ooooh!" "I know, add more honey." The giant bird's tail flapped even more cheerfully.
Those dried fish were clearly mine, weren't they? Roland sighed inwardly. Taking kitchen supplies to reward others without permission—how could you justify it with such grandiose rhetoric!
"Then, as usual, test your new ability." "Alright!"...
After a morning of hustle and bustle, Roland finally got the detailed abilities of the Macey version of the mythical beast.
Following the standard scaling convention, her modified Brown-skinned Giant Bird is significantly larger than the original Devil's mount, with a slight increase in payload capacity that allows it to carry two Witches simultaneously. However, when fully loaded, its flight speed remains around 80 km/h, considerably slower than Lightning's.
However, Maxie's strength lies in its remarkable endurance. When Lightning carries heavy loads while flying, it not only reduces altitude but also increases Magic Power consumption. In contrast, once the Giant Bird completes its transformation, its Magic Power consumption remains extremely slow regardless of flight altitude or the number of items carried. The only factor to consider is the bird's physical stamina.
Now Maxie's Magic Power has surged dramatically, jumping from the bottom tier of the Witch Alliance to a mid-tier level, with enough room for seven or eight changes in a single day.
Moreover, Roland confirmed his earlier speculation through Maxie.
Witch's evolution hinges on understanding its own capabilities. Whether through learning or sudden enlightenment, this self-awareness can drive transformative changes in its abilities.
This also implies that witches could undergo natural evolution—given enough time, one or two lucky ones would inevitably rise above the rest. Their evolved abilities would be worlds apart from their original ones, even achieving the miraculous effect of turning the mundane into the divine. Could this be why the Church relentlessly suppresses wild witches?
After lunch, Lordcastle District welcomed a major event.
After nearly four months of construction and renovation, the Witch Pavilion has finally been put into use.
Roland gazed at the three-story residential building with fewer than fifty units, sighing deeply. In later generations, such structures would merely be considered rural self-built houses. Yet here, it represented the pinnacle of architectural achievement in the Continent Kingdom—not in scale, but in technical mastery.
It is the first brick-concrete structure house that uses bamboo-reinforced concrete beams and columns.
Recalling how Karl, overwhelmed with emotion, told Roland when pouring the first concrete column, "So cement can be used this way—mixed with pebbles to mold into any shape, fitting into any part of a house... Your Highness, I think it won't be long before stonemasonry vanishes from masonry altogether." Unlike the beams and columns, the Witch building's floors are entirely made of prefabricated concrete slabs. Seeing those slabs with round holes in the center, Roland felt like a child—only the post-80s generation had ever seen this ancient building material, which by their teens had been completely replaced by cast-in-place concrete floors, utterly abandoned by the times.
In Border Town, this 'backward' prefabricated panel has been given a new lease on life.
The Wicht building stands to the left of the castle, forming an L-shaped layout with it. The open space between the two structures, even after the expansion of the large garden, has grown three to four times larger than before, providing ample room for Ye to cultivate various crops and fruits.
...
Evelyn was a little nervous when she moved into her new house.
It's been a month since she arrived in Border Town, and she seems to have done nothing but wine-tasting for Your Highness. Her last exam was the lowest in the Witch class, scoring just five points... Though the book teacher didn't announce the results publicly, such details could be guessed with a little digging around.
Even Maxie, who couldn't finish her sentence, scored 61 points!
She suddenly felt like a fool.
Even so, Her Highness showed no sign of favoritism toward her. She would still occasionally invite her to discuss local specialty wines and savor freshly brewed fiery baijiu. At the end of last month, she even received a golden dragon-shaped salary token. This only deepened her unease—compared to the other four, she felt like she was living and eating for free.
"Look! There's a kitchen right next to the living room, and this weird little room painted white. Come and see!" Zhuhuo said excitedly as she pushed open the bedroom door.
"Hmm..." Evelyn replied weakly.
"What's wrong, feeling unwell?" Candlefire paused, crouching to cover her forehead. "It's not hot," she said with a smile. "Could it be the Sisterhood of the Common Aid who won't sleep in the same bed?" Evelyn fell silent for a moment before whispering, "We've been here over a month now." "Pretty much," Candlefire replied. "The new city walls overseen by Lian are nearing completion. Honey trained Your Highness with a squad of flying messengers, and Sylvie even accompanied Your Highness to scout those terrifying monsters," she said dejectedly. "Only I'm still idle—no training schedules, and my exam results remain the worst... I don't even understand why Your Highness chose me for this." "Hmm," Candlefire pondered. "Maybe you should ask him yourself." "What?" "Roland Your Highness is Lady Tilly's brother. And you saw how he genuinely cares for the Witches—even Sylvie, who always warns' Stay away from Roland, beware of the Prince, 'changed his tune yesterday and couldn't help praising him," Candlefire shrugged. "You can't expect him to eat you alive when you ask him directly, can you?" "Is that true?" The suggestion seemed plausible.
After a moment's thought, Evelyn decided to follow Candle's advice to escape this torment.