Chapter 495: On Top of the Sealine
As the Charming Beauty nosed toward the harbor, Tilly came out onto the deck and saw the dock crowded with witches who had come to meet her.
“Lady Tilly, you’re finally back!” Molly reached her first, carried at speed by the Magic Servant.
“That’s cheating!” Honey protested.
“Where’s Orbit? Open the door—let us through!” Shadow shouted.
“My ability is not a transportation service!”
Laughter swept through the crowd. Tilly looked at their faces—open, unguarded, genuinely glad—and felt the anxieties she’d been carrying dissolve. Whatever else was uncertain, this was real. This was home. A place built by witches, for witches.
Camilla Dary waited for her at the dock’s edge. “You were gone so long I began to think you wouldn’t return.”
“No chance of that.” Tilly stepped ashore. “I just didn’t expect the Months of Demons to stretch out so far. How has Sleeping Island fared?”
“I won’t say it was easy, but since you trusted me with it, I wasn’t going to let you down.” Camilla placed a hand on her chest. “I’ll give you the full report later. For now—” she glanced at the crowd of witches pressing forward— “I’d better step aside before they get desperate.” She lowered her voice, eyes glinting. “I’ll leave you to them.”
As a high noble from King’s City, Camilla was a natural at managing complicated situations—one of the main reasons Tilly had been able to leave the Fjords for months without Sleeping Island falling into disorder. Tilly shook her head in mild exasperation, passed her Chief Butler, and raised a hand to the crowd. The witches closed in at once.
“Your Highness, did you meet your brother? How did he receive you?”
“I heard the town also has a witch organization—will they come live with us?”
“Is it true people there don’t need to worry about food and clothing? New houses for everyone?”
“I’m just glad you’re back. We all missed you so much.”
Tilly answered each question in turn, working through the crowd, until Shavi landed nearby with her arms full of books and every head turned to stare.
“What are those?”
“Ancient ruin documents?”
“The pages look new—legends, maybe?”
“Or play scripts? I haven’t seen a performance in so long.”
“What do I do if I can’t read?”
Tilly clapped her hands for quiet. “These are gifts from His Highness Roland Wimbledon. Reading and writing pamphlets, basic mathematics, natural science. Knowledge—all of it.”
A beat of puzzled silence.
Camilla, standing nearby, looked genuinely surprised. “You actually intend to spread this to everyone?”
“It’s the only way to develop our abilities.” Tilly nodded.
Roland had mentioned once that universal education was not a small undertaking—it pulled workers from their livelihoods while they studied, demanded money for teachers and schoolhouses, and produced no immediate return. Its benefits emerged slowly, accumulated over years. Most rulers considered that an unreasonable proposition. But the changes it produced were more profound than almost anything else—she had seen this with her own eyes in Border Town. Before she’d gone to the Western Region, she could not have imagined that a town of common people could carry that kind of energy, that brightness.
Back in the keep, as she was setting out Scroll’s teaching methods to adapt for Sleeping Island’s conditions, a knock came at the door.
“Thunder wants to see you,” Ashes said.
“It’s been a long time, Your Highness.” Thunder’s smile was unchanged—broad, genuine, slightly too large for a formal greeting. “How did it go? Did the Western Region give you your answer?”
“Honestly, no.” Tilly settled into her chair across from him. “He kept something back—some reserve toward me that didn’t fully open. But given what the situation has become, questions about how he feels toward his sister seem less urgent.” She paused. “By the way—do you know anything about demons?”
“Monsters from hell?” He raised an eyebrow. “I’ve heard the stories. Epics and legends—brave knights, spears dipped in dragon’s blood, that sort of thing.”
“They’re no longer just stories.” She exhaled. “Not anymore.”
His expression shifted. “What do you mean?”
She gave him the full account—the Witch Union, the Battle of Divine Will, what Roland had revealed about the cyclical war between demons and humanity. That the four kingdoms the world called home were built on land once called Barbarian Territory. That an ancient witch from four centuries ago had been found, still alive, in a Border Town cellar. That every ruin scattered across the known world bore the fingerprints of the witches who had come before.
Thunder listened in complete silence. When she finished, he sat still for a moment—then erupted.
“How can this be? The ruins at every site I’ve visited—all witch-built? A four-hundred-year-old survivor, alive and walking around in that little town? The mysteries you’ve uncovered in a single journey outweigh everything I’ve found in a lifetime of sailing!” He was on his feet without realizing it.
“Aren’t you frightened?” Tilly asked.
“Of course I’m frightened—but the hunger to see it burns so much hotter.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Damn. I want to go to the Kingdom of Graycastle and stand in front of that living relic with my own eyes.”
He wants to go to meet Agatha, Tilly thought with a complicated feeling, not to see his own daughter. She didn’t quite know how to feel about that.
“You’d probably have earned the title of greatest explorer in the Fjords,” she said. “If not for what you found on your most recent voyage.”
That stopped him. He looked at her. “I was getting to that.” He sat down again. “I sailed to the east of the Sealine again.”
“The Sealine?”
He caught himself. “You’d already left for Border Town the last time I returned with this. It’s a cliff of seawater—a wall that splits the ocean into two surfaces at different heights. Boats can sail right up it, as though climbing a wall.”
“That’s impossible.”
“That’s what I thought.” The old pride in his voice. “But I’ve been over it twice now. And this time, I stayed long enough to watch the tide come in.” He leaned forward. “You can’t understand what I’m describing until you’ve seen it—the current gradually quickens, then quickens more, then suddenly rushes downward like a waterfall’s edge. If Molly’s Magic Servant hadn’t been reinforcing the Courage, it would have broken the hull in half. I turned the bow directly into the current; the wind and the water reached a balance point, and the ship held position—not advancing, not falling. Suspended at the edge.”
“What happened to the sea below?”
“That’s the part I can’t fully describe.” His voice dropped. “The Swirling Sea filled. You can only see it clearly from the top of the Sealine, standing at that height and looking down. The sea level below rose, and the wall itself—which had been over two hundred meters when I first measured it—shrank to barely a hundred as the lower sea climbed to meet the upper. That’s what the tides are. Not the pull of something far away. The water simply… moving between one level and the other.”
He stopped. The room was quiet.
“I stood on the edge of that ship and watched the world rearrange itself, Your Highness.” He spread his hands, at a loss for once. “I don’t have the words for it.”
Chapter 495: On Top of the Sealine
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
As the Charming Beauty slowly approached the harbor, Tilly walked out to see that the dock was filled with witches who had come to welcome her.
“Lady Tilly, you’re finally back!” Molly rushed up to Tilly first with the help of the Magic Servant.
“Wow, how sneaky!” Honey complained.
“Yeah, where’s Orbit? Open the door so we can go over too!” shouted Shadow.
“Stop it. My ability isn’t for you to harass Lady Tilly!”
The crowd immediately erupted into a fit of laughter. Looking at everyone’s genuine smiles, Tilly felt her worries from the past few days disappearing.
No matter what, this was her real home, a kingdom built by witches.
Camilla Dary greeted her on the dock. “You’ve gone for so long that I was even worried you wouldn’t come back.”
“No chance,” Tilly said with a smile. “I just didn’t expect the Months of Demons to last so long this time. How has Sleeping Island been?”
“Of course, since you entrusted me with it, I wouldn’t let you down,” said Camilla with one hand on her chest. “The situation has improved overall. Using the Sleeping Spell was a good idea. I’ll report the specifics to you later, but now… I’ll hand you over to the witches.” She blinked. “Otherwise they’ll eat me alive.”
As a great noble from King’s City, Camilla was very skillful at managing things and played a key role in recruiting witches for Tilly. She was the reason why Tilly felt confident leaving the Fjords for a long time and investigating the Western Region.
Tilly shook her head helplessly, passed the Chief Butler of Sleeping Island, raised her hand to the crowd, and was heavily surrounded by a sea of witches.
“Your Highness, did you see your brother? How did he treat you?”
“I heard that the town also has a witch organization, so will they come and live with us?”
“Is it true that in that desolate little town, people don’t have to worry about food and clothing, and they all live in new houses?”
“I’m so glad you’re back. Everyone really missed you.”
Tilly responded to their questions and concerns one by one until Shavi flew onto the dock with a pile of books, and everyone directed their attention to these “priceless treasures”.
“What’re they?” someone asked curiously.
“Documents from ancient ruins?”
“They don’t look like ancient documents. The pages are new, so they’re probably legends.”
“Or maybe they’re play scripts? Honestly, I haven’t seen a play for a long time.”
“Um… but what should I do since I can’t read?”
Tilly clapped her hands to silence everyone. “This is His Highness Roland Wimbledon’s presents for you—they include reading and writing pamphlets, basic mathematics, and natural science! Simply put, these are full of knowledge!”
“Knowledge?”
Most of the witches looked confused, while Camilla and some other noble witches were surprised. “Do you actually want to spread knowledge to everyone?”
Tilly nodded. “This is the only way to improve our abilities.”
Roland once mentioned that universal education was not easy to achieve and needed a great amount of money and time—when people put their jobs on hand to learn, it meant that the domain would temporarily lose some laborers. Also, encouraging them to study required the support of money, which, combined with teachers’ salaries and the cost of building school houses, was not a small amount. Most importantly, it would not have instant profits like businesses and needed to be carried out in the long term by the ruler.
However, it brought profound changes, even more so for witches and normal people. Tilly had already witnessed this at Border Town. Before she went to the Western Region, she could never have dreamed that a group of commoners could have such vigor and vitality.
After returning to the keep, when she was about to arrange the plan for universal education according to Scroll’s methods, Ashes knocked on the door. “Thunder wants to see you.”
“Ah, it’s been for a long time, Your Highness.” Thunder smiled as widely and genuinely as usual. “How did it go? Did your trip to the Western Region address your confusion?”
“Honestly, I didn’t get my answer.” Tilly shook her head with a smile. “He was still reserved towards me. But in our current circumstances, these issues aren’t so important for the moment… by the way, do you know about demons?”
“Monsters from hell?” asked Thunder, raising his eyebrows. “I’ve heard a lot about them in epics and legends, where brave knights killed these terrifying enemies with spears dipped in dragon’s blood.”
“This time, they’re no longer just enemies in books.” She sighed.
“Um… what do you mean?”
“I don’t know if those dragons exist, but demons… are real.” Tilly briefly explained the Witch Union and Battle of Divine Will to him. “Where the Four Kingdoms settle on is used to be Barbarian Land, so if we lose again, humans will have nowhere to retreat.”
“How could this be?” Thunder exclaimed after listening to her silently. “All the ruins in different locations are the works of witches, and an ancient witch from 400 years ago was discovered in Border Town? This, this is unbelievable! The mysteries you uncovered in one journey are more than I did in a lifetime!”
Tilly was shocked. “Aren’t you afraid?”
“Afraid? Of course, I am…” he said excitedly, “but compared to the burning desire for exploration in my heart, this fear means nothing! Damn it, I wish I could go to the Kingdom of Graycastle to see this living fossil with my own eyes!”
Princess Tilly wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry—his motivation to go to the Western Region was to see Agatha instead of his own daughter. She did not know how to feel for Lightning.
“If not for my recent expedition, I’d probably have to give you the title of the greatest explorer of the Fjords,” said Thunder after a fit of exclamations, “but… I also found something quite amazing.”
“Please, go ahead.”
“I sailed to the east of the Sealine again.”
“Sealine?” asked Tilly confusedly. “What’s that?”
“Ah, I forgot that you were still in Border Town the last time I returned.” He stroked the back of his head. “It’s a cliff made from seawater that splits the
sea into two surfaces, but boats can still sail freely on it like… spiders climbing a wall.”
“What? That’s impossible!”
“I had the same reaction as you did the first time I saw it, but the Sealine does exist.” said Thunder with great pride. “What’s more incredible is that I sailed on the Courage over the Sealine and was lucky enough to witness the tide rise—you have to see it to believe how majestic it was. The flow of the sea water gradually quickens and eventually rushes downwards like falling off a cliff. If Molly’s Magic Servant hadn’t protected the boat, the Courage would have been snapped into two!”
“I turned the rudder to steer the bow directly towards the current, which formed a delicate balance with the wind. The Courage couldn’t move forward, but also couldn’t be brought down the cliff by the current.” He panted as if he were reliving the excitement. “Of course, the Sealine isn’t a real cliff. We all know what a waterfall looks like, with water dropping straight down, splattering droplets everywhere and creating a loud rumbling sound—but there, there wasn’t any of that except an accelerating current. I was sure that even if the Courage fell over the Sealine, it would have returned to the lower side, just like how it climbed up.”
“What happened next?” asked Tilly impatiently.
“And then the Swirling Sea was filled—I could only clearly see this standing on the Sealine,” said Thunder with a low voice. “By the name of Three Gods, I don’t know how to describe my shock at that moment. The height of the Sealine shrunk from over 200 meters to about 100 meters as the sea below rose up. This is the reality behind tides!”