Corundum’s steps were like precise clockwork gears, quick and orderly, carrying no hesitation because of her resolve.
Willoria followed behind, her footsteps leisurely yet elegant, like watered-down watercolor paint.
Stained Glass City always had a slightly warm, gentle breeze, and its sky remained the same crimson as when they arrived.
The wind blew against Corundum’s sharply defined vest, unable to stir even a ripple; the same wind blew against Willoria’s soft dress, and the lace of its hem curled up layer upon layer like waves.
Light gray bricks, bright brass, and colorful stained glass receded behind them with their steps.
Along the way, the buildings changed from tall and orderly to scattered and sparse.
Bare-chested dockworkers carrying cargo gradually grew more numerous among the passing crowd, and prey freshly caught from adventures, goods brought back by merchant ships, and brass claws driven by gears to seize them all appeared one by one in their view.
And so they arrived at the docks.
Unlike what Willoria had seen in her previous life, the docks of Sailanda were not simply a riverbank with posts that secured boats with ropes.
It was more like a parking lot—light gray wax-steel composite material drew large rectangular frames of varying sizes, spaced apart and arranged in order like parking spaces.
Inside the frames was uneven raw wax, and the Molten Flow Boats docked at the port stayed in the “berths,” with half of their hulls embedded in white wax mixed with seven-colored wax.
Just as they arrived, white smoke began to rise from the wax in one “berth,” and the dockworker standing beside it began to drive away anyone who came too close.
The two young women exchanged a glance, tacitly stopped, and watched from a safe distance.
The uneven wax inside the frame began to become soft and transparent.
More and more smoke rose, until clusters of flame ignited on the wax.
After that, the wax quickly melted into a pool of candle liquid that was transparent with a hint of white turbidity.
Through the blurry gray-white and the dancing flames, a massive object glowing red was slowly rising to the surface.
Then the candle liquid began to boil, and countless huge bubbles rose from the bottom of the pool to the surface, bursting one after another.
The massive object underwater drew closer and closer, until the originally gray-white candle liquid was reflected bright red.
The flames on the surface swelled sharply and blazed fiercely.
“A bit nostalgic… I remember the first time I saw a Molten Flow Boat berth,” Willoria said with some emotion.
“Is that so.”
Corundum’s expression was calm; it was impossible to tell what she was thinking.
Amid their words, a massive, glowing, blazing, streamlined bow—crimson and crystalline like red coral—broke through the boiling, bursting bubbles and burning flames, slowly emerging from the water like a blue whale surfacing.
Following the bow, its graceful spindle-shaped hull, interwoven with copper-purple and iron-black, also slowly revealed itself.
After half of it emerged, the entire ship gently and naturally lowered its bow, letting its goldfish-tail-like, soft and flowing stern rise out of the water.
A few wisps of molten candle liquid, half-boiling, slid down the hull into the water.
“Dream of the Hot Night.”
The black-haired, blue-eyed girl raised her smooth chin, gazing up at this crimson, beautiful, massive vessel.
No Molten Flow Boat in this dock could compare to her.
“It was once the largest Molten Flow Boat in Sailanda, 107 meters long and 15 meters wide, and it set the fastest record from Stained Glass City to Birmingham.”
Willoria also could not tear her violet eyes away.
“But more importantly, it is still the only remaining first-class Molten Flow Boat with its bow completely encased in Flame Crystal, capable of melting all wax within 360 degrees ahead at once.”
“This gave her unmatched agility, so much so that she escaped pursuit by a Candle Serpent and tore several scales off it to bring back to the city.”
“Did you bring me here to show me this?”
She looked at her potential partner.
“Are we going to build a ship like this?”
“A Molten Flow Boat with Flame Crystal comparable to the ‘Charlemagne’s Crown’?”
She had to admit she was tempted.
Among all the ships she had operated before going bankrupt, none could compare to the Dream of the Hot Night.
She had always dreamed of gathering the funds to obtain such an unparalleled ship.
But such a ship was priceless and had no market.
At the time, she was not of Candle People royalty and had no power to place an order with the shipyard.
They cared more about economic efficiency—the Flame Crystal completely covering the bow, known as the “Charlemagne’s Crown,” was simply too, too expensive from purchase to maintenance.
Even if it carried any amount of cargo or traveled any dangerous route, there was a risk of loss, not to mention the possibility of it being accidentally scrapped.
In fact, she had heard that the ship’s owner was considering retiring it because too few people were willing to rent it.
But Willoria saw Corundum slowly shake her head.
In her deep blue eyes, something like a flame seemed to be burning.
“We’re going to the dockyard.”
That was all she said.
The dockyard echoed with the loud clashing of gears and the humming of metal friction.
Molten Flow Boats of various models were placed within, being repaired by workers moving up and down.
And in a rather remote corner of the dockyard, a mass of darkness so thick it could not be dissolved draped over an area like a curtain.
Corundum led Willoria inside.
Only when they drew close did Willoria realize it seemed to be a barrier with no substance yet capable of blocking light.
They could pass through it effortlessly and enter the space it enclosed.
Inside the barrier was very bright, with tiny star-like points of light embedded on its inner side.
A Molten Flow Boat was parked in the center of the barrier, its brass-colored shuttle-shaped hull shining brightly like a drop of golden rainwater.
It was not a large ship, clearly much inferior to the Dream of the Hot Night.
To put it plainly, its size was even a bit less than half of hers.
Its bow was definitely not fully encased in Flame Crystal, with only a shining blue piece at the tip.
She was the Brass Loom, a famous ship and an excellent exploration vessel.
But if it were only that, it would not make Willoria pay such a great price.
She therefore cast an inquiring look at the captain.
The other party, as if expecting it, pointed to the ground below the Brass Loom.
Then the Candle Princess noticed that on the ground lay many slender pure white objects, almost equal in length to the Brass Loom.
Their material was very close to jade, and their shapes all presented a certain arc, like one slender, graceful wing after another.
Because their color was too close to the white wax ground, she had not been able to see them at first.
“Those… aren’t all of them Flame Crystal, are they?”
Willoria could tell their curvature would fit a Molten Flow Boat perfectly.
“Can they cover the entire hull of the Brass Loom from bow to stern?”
Even the lowest-grade Flame Crystal was priceless and unavailable.
Exploration ships had to go deep into the Tide and face the chaos of the Tide in order to hunt the blood needed to make Flame Crystal from those giant beasts whose body length was measured in tens of meters.
This caused most Molten Flow Boats to add only a relatively tiny piece compared to their hull.
For such a large amount of Flame Crystal to be prepared for such a small ship, even the “Flame Emperor” Charlemagne himself would be stunned speechless.
“Yes,” Corundum added.
“They are also White Glow Flame Crystal, which can extend and amplify Candle People magic.”
That meant seven times the average rarity and three times the crafting difficulty.
The amount of Flame Crystal now shown to her was equivalent to ten to twenty times what a ship of the same size would need.
But that was not the most important thing:
“If I’m not mistaken,” Willoria swallowed, “the design flaws that most Molten Flow Boats suffer from due to Flame Crystal coverage will not affect this ship at all.”
“It will be able to move in all directions without blind spots, and in theory it won’t need to make any U-turns or turns?”
“Yes.”
“And I can directly manipulate the wax within 10 meters around it through the smoke crystal, form shields, control ocean currents, and create illusions and phantoms?”
“Within 30 meters, radius.”
“After your firmament covers it above, you can provide it with city-level magical protection, firepower equivalent to twenty heavy cannons, and the special effects of the sky you dreamed of!?”
Willoria’s breathing became rapid, and her heart pounded.
“What I dreamed of was a [starry night sky], whose effects include erasing light and concealing form.”
“Also, humans who dream of the sky all have a basic ability: to make things float ignoring gravity.”
“It can disappear like a fairy, and like a rabbit, shoot upward with a dash!”
“A ship!”
“A Molten Flow Boat!”
“Correct.”
Even Corundum, usually so cold, now curved her lips into a smile.
And Willoria even spun around on the spot, her skirt blooming like a flower:
“It will be the greatest exploration ship known!”
“It can dive into the [Mysterious Realm] that no chart has ever depicted, to verify the truth of those sensational legends.”
“It can dizzy the giant octopus that loves to stir the candle substance.”
“It can race the Candle Dragon and use its agility to make it concede defeat.”
“And it can plunge straight into an incoming Tide and come out unscathed!”
The girl clenched her fists tightly, pacing back and forth like an opera singer performing a lyric poem.
She saw hope—not a small, cautious patchwork on the world, but an attempt to draw back the curtain on a brand-new era:
“It can single-handedly tear apart a fully armed pirate fleet without a scratch!”
“It will take us to places we never dared imagine, even the depths of the Tide, the bottom of the Clockwork!”
“It’s not suited for cargo, but it will be the greatest exploration ship of this century!”
The ideal she had long been dismissed as ignorant for having was once again placed before her.
“So, Miss Willoria,”
This time, the black-haired, blue-eyed girl deliberately chose to address the Candle Princess by her given name.
She took out a deep blue velvet box, in which a ring lay.
“Will you marry me?”
“Yes!”
The Candle Princess lifted the petite girl up and spun her around once, twice, and again.
“Please do marry me!”
“Please do be my wife!”