Perfikot noticed the situation and quickly bent forward to look, but couldn’t discern much. All she saw was the bow of the Morgan approaching the last segment of ice that hadn’t yet exploded. Follow current novels on novel⁂fire.net
This meant she had no time to make adjustments, nor could anyone reach the Morgan before it collided with the ice to re-detonate the explosives.
Even her Alchemy Puppet couldn’t manage to re-detonate the explosives in time.
At that thought, Perfikot’s face turned pale. Fortunately, she held her composure and loudly called to Foster, "Signal the frigate, strike the last explosion point! Hurry!"
As soon as Perfikot’s words fell, Foster had already turned around and darted towards the signal flare set on the deck of the Morgan, hurriedly igniting it.
An orange signal flare rose from the Morgan’s deck, signaling the frigate anchored not far away.
A lookout, who had been monitoring this side from the frigate, immediately reported the situation to the captain, who didn’t hesitate to give the order, "Main cannon, fire! One explosive shell!"
On the deck of the frigate, the artillery crew who had been standing by immediately pulled the cannon breech, and with a loud bang, a shell shot from the barrel, quickly covering the relatively short distance between the frigate and the Morgan, accurately hitting the ice surface.
"Boom! Bang!" A massive fireball rose, accompanied by an explosion, it seemed the cannon had ignited the explosives.
However, that was no longer important, as the last segment of the ice surface ahead was finally blasted open.
The captain of the Morgan saw this and, despite the smoke still lingering in front of him, firmly grasped the helm and steered the Morgan through this last stretch of the route.
As they sped through, Perfikot looked back to see that the place where the Morgan had been frozen was now refrozen, even parts of the path they had escaped through were sealed again.
Clearly, if the Morgan hadn’t advanced at full speed or if the plan hadn’t gone so smoothly, it would have been frozen again.
"A close call indeed, but having a backup plan for everything was the right choice." Perfikot gently patted her chest, and the color returned to her cheeks.
Admittedly, the failure to detonate the last explosion point did scare her a bit.
It wasn’t about fearing danger to herself but worrying about not being able to rescue everyone on board.
If the Morgan hadn’t broken free and collided with the ice, damage to the hull aside, just the difficulty of escaping again after being frozen would be even greater than before.
After all, every explosion point’s location was calculated, and Perfikot couldn’t precisely set up the explosion points based on the blast radius. The distance between two points had to remain within a certain range to blast wide enough for the Morgan to navigate through.
This meant if the Morgan were frozen, she would likely be within the blast radius of the last explosion point, making it possible for the explosion to hit the ship.
Luckily, the pre-arranged contingency measures worked as intended, and the frigate’s cannon timely blasted open the ice surface, preventing the worst-case scenario.
"But it’s still very dangerous, ma’am." The old butler, somewhat naggingly, displayed a fearful expression: "Those are new model naval cannons on the frigate! Had the shell landed inaccurately, you’d be within its blast range."
As a Knight who had truly participated in wars, Foster had seen what happened to those hit by cannon fire.
Perfikot simply shook her head and said, "Grandpa Fu, don’t be so worried, I adjusted the cannon specifically last night, and its accuracy is assured. Moreover, I had the artillery crew calculate the firing elements, and the explosion points were set based on their firing tables.
Though there’s always some risk, they’re not going to hit us with their shells.
You know there are hundreds of people on the Morgan, and the captain of that frigate couldn’t bear that responsibility.
Frankly, Grandpa Fu, since this trip, you’ve been nagging about safety concerns more than you have in the past three years, which is unnecessary. If it were genuinely dangerous, I’d use the Puppet, and only do things I’m confident in myself."
"Perhaps you’re right, ma’am." The old butler couldn’t help but reflect on whether he had brought up the topic too many times.
"Alright, let’s go into the cabin! It’s really too cold outside." Perfikot turned away from the ship’s side and headed towards the Morgan’s cabin.
Even just standing at the bow for this brief period, she felt almost frozen through, and even with thick fur clothing, she could only ensure her body was warm, but not her hands, feet, or exposed face from freezing.
Perfikot was eager for a hot drink to warm up now that she had witnessed her plan’s success.
"By the way, Grandpa Fu, remind me to add antifreeze to my research plans." As they walked along, Perfikot reminded Foster, "This temperature can freeze the hammers of smoothbore guns; if it gets colder, I can’t imagine. It’s crucial to have frost protection."
"Yes, ma’am, I’ll remember." Foster took out a small notebook and jotted down Perfikot’s instructions.
Finally, returning to the cabin, after taking the hot drink handed by the Morgan’s crew, Perfikot soon felt her body warming up.
"Ah! Truly, a hot drink is the best way to warm up when it’s cold." Perfikot praised the drink, then handed the cup to a nearby sailor, signaling for another.
While the sailor refilled her cup, the captain of the Morgan, having passed the helm to the helmsman, personally came over to express his gratitude to Perfikot.
This time Perfikot not only saved the ship but also salvaged his career.
For the captain especially responsible for passenger liners, incidents would greatly affect him, and sailing without accidents is their most valued career history. A stain could ruin their lifelong prospects.
So the captain’s gratitude towards Perfikot was sincere.
While the captain was thanking Perfikot, some passengers on the Morgan also came over, with a tall-looking man representing them. He approached Perfikot, bowed, and said, "You must be Lady Brandelis, thank you for saving this ship. On behalf of the passengers onboard, I express our gratitude to you."