Chapter 544 – Moon Harbor

Chapter 544 – Moon Harbor

Moon Harbor sat nestled within the embrace of a crescent-shaped mountain range.

Its back rested against verdant hills, its face turned toward the open sea.

Moon Harbor had no city walls — the mountains and the sea were the city’s natural boundaries.

The seaward slopes of the mountain range had been developed into terraced residential districts, layer upon layer.

The houses all had uniform red rooftops that gleamed more brilliantly than rubies under the sunlight.

But the most eye-catching sight of all was the red Mage Tower perched on a reef island within the harbor, and the dazzling crimson jewel that shone atop it.

Mo Lan had once read in a book that all the rooftops in Moon Harbor were made from tiles cut and polished from the shells of Windstill Red Shells. The Mage Tower of Moon Harbor’s lord was even more impressive — its entire surface was clad in the shells of century-old Windstill Red Shells, and at its peak sat a jewel produced by a millennium-old Windstill Red Shell.

It was precisely because of these red tiles, shells, and the jewel atop the Mage Tower that Moon Harbor had never once been damaged by ocean waves since its founding.

All storms ceased at the harbor’s edge.

Legend had it that Windstill Red Shells were the rubies of the sea. Seeing them today, the reputation was well deserved indeed.

With so many Windstill Red Shells here, did that mean the love story between Moon Harbor’s lord, Duchess Alexandra, and Merfolk Prince Simons wasn’t just baseless rumor after all?

A gossip-hungry expression spread across Mo Lan’s face.

Supposedly, several decades ago, Moon Harbor had been nothing more than an ordinary little fishing village, constantly battered by ocean waves.

Back then, Alexandra had been merely a fisherman’s child in that small village.

When her parents went out to sea to fish and encountered a storm, they never returned. She waited on the coastal rocks day after day. She never saw her parents come home, but she did meet the young Merfolk prince, Simons, who had come ashore to play.

Simons helped her find her parents, who had been lost at sea, and the two became friends.

Later, Alexandra was found to have a high affinity for water elemental force. She went to study at a mage introductory school in a nearby town, then later traveled to the Mage Tower of the Kingdom of Borgnia to study magic, eventually becoming a personal disciple of the Royal Duke of Borgnia.

Starting from her advancement to mage apprentice, she continuously participated in peerage examinations, and finally, during the beginner mage stage, she earned the title of Viscount with her own domain.

When choosing her domain, she refused any proper Viscount territory and asked her Instructor only for the bay where her hometown fishing village was located.

Other mages would stay at the royal capital’s Mage Tower as long as they could, doing everything possible to advance their magical rank. Only Alexandra, after receiving her domain, rushed back to her hometown to develop her territory without a moment’s hesitation, only occasionally returning to the Mage Tower for magical advancement.

In time, Alexandra’s Viscount fishing village became a Count’s small town, then a Marquis’s city, and finally the present-day Duke’s Moon Harbor.

Many said that Alexandra had returned to her hometown for the sake of Prince Simons, heedless of her own future prospects.

While today’s Moon Harbor was one of the most prosperous ducal territories around, the Moon Harbor of that era had been a poor, remote backwater constantly ravaged by storms — a place so godforsaken that not even mages were willing to set foot there.

Furthermore, after reaching Peak level, Alexandra had built her Mage Tower on a reef in the middle of the harbor.

Rumor had it that on the night before the tower’s construction, many Merfolk were spotted around the reef island. They had physically transformed what had been a small reef into the sizable reef island that stood today.

The millennium-old Windstill Jewel at the tower’s peak was also said to be a token of love from Merfolk Prince Simons.

By building her Mage Tower on the reef island, Alexandra could be together with Simons.

As for the love story between Alexandra and Simons, any book about Moon Harbor contained an overflowing abundance of tales, each one different from the last. The details were so rich that Mo Lan often felt the authors must have installed surveillance cameras beside Alexandra and Simons.

However, Grand Duchess Alexandra had never publicly acknowledged her romantic relationship with Prince Simons.

Whether the truth matched what those books described, Mo Lan didn’t know. But she did know that Windstill Red Shells were a specialty found deep within Merfolk waters.

Deep in Merfolk waters, storms swirled year-round, and even the finest magic ships crafted by the Dwarf race couldn’t venture into those depths.

In other words, Windstill Red Shells were exclusively a Merfolk product — only the Merfolk who naturally inhabited those waters could easily harvest such vast quantities.

While Windstill Red Shells were rarely seen elsewhere, they were everywhere here. Moon Harbor’s lord definitely had an excellent relationship with the Merfolk — that much was certain.

From her vantage point in the sky, Mo Lan took in the entirety of Moon Harbor and noticed some details she had never come across in any book before.

The location of Alexandra’s Mage Tower had been quite well chosen. Together with the red shell buoys that divided the shipping lanes within the bay and the red-tiled houses on shore, they formed a pseudo-natural magic circle. Its effect was — calming the waves.

The concept of pseudo-natural magic circles had been developed by mages through their study of natural magic circles.

Mages had discovered that certain locations, without any alchemical runes or rune circuits — containing only specific magical materials — could still influence elemental force and produce effects similar to an Alchemy Magic circle. They called such locations natural magic circles.

Pseudo-natural magic circles were magic circles that mages created by imitating natural ones.

Like natural magic circles, these required no external power supply and could draw energy from the environment on their own. However, they demanded higher-quality magical materials than ordinary magic circles.

Mo Lan had seen this particular pseudo-natural magic circle with wave-calming properties in the main tower of the Alchemy Branch, which was why she recognized it at a glance.

The magic book that documented this pseudo-natural magic circle said it had been inspired by the calm zones within the storm belt of Merfolk waters.

Judging by this pseudo-natural magic circle alone, Alexandra didn’t seem like some lovesick fool who would spare no effort and resources to build her Mage Tower out at sea just to be with her lover.

A Mage Tower was a territory’s protective umbrella, but the open sea was no place for humans to tread.

Alexandra had built her Mage Tower here most likely because she wanted this pseudo-natural magic circle to protect the entire bay — not just the portion on shore.

The people of Moon Harbor depended on the sea before them for their livelihood, and the harbor’s coastal waters were also part of Alexandra’s domain.

Mo Lan gently angled her broom handle downward, lowering her altitude. She admired Moon Harbor’s streets and alleyways as she flew toward the seaside boulevard.

That was the most bustling street in all of Moon Harbor — perfect for a first-time visitor like her to broaden her horizons.

“Hello there! Witch Knight!”

From an attic window on the second floor of a small house on the hillside, a little girl poked her head out and waved excitedly in greeting.

Mo Lan turned her head in surprise, meeting the little girl’s sparkling eyes. “Me? Witch Knight?”

Was this some newly popular nickname for witches?

The little girl nodded. “Witch Knight, could you please help me deliver this little cupcake to the red-haired boy in the attic at 29 Champagne Avenue? His name is Jack. But I don’t have any money — I can only give you a packet of bear cookies that my mom baked. Please, pretty please~”