"Sir, is there a fire over there? Why is so much thick smoke rising?" Nicholas's old attendant cried out as he looked northwest.
Thick black smoke billowed into the sky from the northwest.
Nicholas had been conducting field research in the Blackfire Land for some time and knew about many of its projects. Hearing this, he immediately replied, "It's not a fire. The Blackfire Brick Kiln Factory is firing bricks. The smoke comes from burning black oil mixed with wood, and it's used to smoke-dry the brick molds."
"Smoking bricks with smoke?" the old attendant asked in confusion. "What kind of logic is that?"
"Black oil possesses magic, and its smoke contains magic too. Once the brick molds are smoked, magic adheres to them and turns them into magical creations. Hmm, if I remember correctly, these are called blackfire bricks, second only to slag bricks."
Nicholas opened his notebook, which was densely filled with records from his field research, including notes from his visit to the Blackfire Brick Kiln Factory.
The old attendant did not accompany him every day, so he had never been to the Blackfire Brick Kiln Factory.
"Slag bricks, I know about those. Sir, Lord Russell's Cigar Castle was built from slag bricks," the old attendant said admiringly. "Though it hasn't been completed yet, Cigar Castle is truly magnificent. Especially that Dragon Coiled Pillar—it's so tall!"
The Dragon Coiled Pillar was a column built specifically for Black Oil Dragon Rosai. At a hundred meters tall, it was enough to overlook the entire Blackfire Land.
It was Rosai's request.
He liked tall structures, but he felt that ordinary castles such as Fluorite Castle had towers only a little over fifty meters high, which was still too short. So Russell had built this hundred-meter Dragon Coiled Pillar for him.