Release That Witch

Chapter 200: The Hunter and The Prey

quot;Freckles!” Someone shouted, “He’s hurt!”

“Don’t move him!” Brian roared. “I’ll check his wounds and you keep shooting.”

He handed his rifle to the recruits who were responsible for it and bent over to the wounded. The wounded man was conscious and asked tremblingly, “Captain, I… am I going to die?”

A short spear squint had pierced his lower chest and it was not clear whether it had pierced through his body. Based on his smooth breathing, his lung was not hurt. In his literary class, the prince had briefly explained the functions of each organ in the human body as well as the emergency measures to be taken if they were injured. In cases like this, the best way he could think of was not moving him until Nana could treat him after the battle.

“Does it hurt?” Brian asked.

Freckles nodded painfully.

“If you’re feeling pain, that means you won’t die.” Brian put his hand on the man’s forehead. “You should be aware of Miss Nana’s power, right?”

“Yes.” Freckles barely managed to smile at him. “Everyone wants… to meet her so… I guess I can finally meet her.”

“That’s right. So hang in there.”

After Brian finished speaking, he returned to the shooting window, and the recruit looked back anxiously. “Don’t we pull out the short spear?”

“Pulling out is easy to cause a lot of bleeding, and when you learn this, you’ll understand.” He paused. “What we can do now is to destroy the enemy as soon as possible.”

…

Standing on a high platform, Roland could clearly see the enemies that rushed towards the town like a tide.

With each bunkers they crossed, their speed significantly slowed. When they passed the third row of bunkers, the enemy’s ventral wing was completely exposed to crossfire by the shooters.

Echo’s use was very obvious. Even when the team was scattered into a long strip, most of them were still following the witch’s command to charge at the center, running on the road.

Each minute, groups of people fell over, helpless to do anything. Facing fortifications that could not be destroyed by swords and spears, Timothy’s militia could only endure their casualties and continue to move forward.

300 meters away from the third row of bunkers were the artilleries. Within this range, this was the death zone covered by grapeshot.

In the sky, Lightning turned the flag a vibrant red.

The firing angle of the 20 artilleries was set level to give off flames and smoke. Roland roughly estimated that the skilled mortar team could fire a grapeshot in 20 seconds and the lesser team in half a minute. Upon first glance, it was similar to the firing rate of the excellent mortar team in the American Civil War, but the result of three rounds per minute for the latter was based on a solid shooting performance with a lot of time spent on targeting and repeated reduction. But there was no need to target and wipe the gun. Thus, their firing rate could be even higher.

But for the enemies, this was a formidable firing rate because grapeshots could cause astonishing hurts on unarmored targets with each iron ball capable of penetrating two to three people. Though pills could cure the pain, it could not resist terror. When witnessing people around riddled, excited greatly and eager to kill as they were, they could not resist this extremely terror of losing lives, let alone they were not so determined. Without pills, they were untrained and unexperienced commoners. After a half of them were killed, escapers appeared in the enemies.

The fear spread among the people like a plague. When the first runaway disappeared, so did the second and third. It was so bad that the front line stopped moving forwards and turned backwards to escape. The cannon team once again reloaded solid shells and fired at the center of the road, as the flintlock squad continued to shoot.

Bodies were piled up on the road.

…

Levin’s anger gradually subsided and he began to feel afraid.

The 20 more people all discovered that witch who caused chaos. She wore so strange clothes that she could be incorporated into the woods when on the lurk. No one would be able to discover her if she did not follow the team to march and lead all to pool together toward the center of the road.

Even so, she had already made huge trouble for Levin—he found that the sounds imitated by the witch were from everywhere, sometimes from the left, sometimes from the right, sometimes from the behind of his head. Besides, their contents were diversified, such as imitating his sound to send orders or some militia’s painful sound.

The moment they wanted to catch her, the lady in white appeared again.

Levin relived the shocking phenomenon where Lehmann Hawes was killed within the blink of an eye.

She held a silver “light crossbow”. With a spark and a loud noise, a man would then drop dead.

The roundup net was instantly torn into pieces. Everyone became terrified as their armors and shields were not working. What was worse, Levin’s iron buckler was shattered into half. The small hole in it showed that his enemy’s weapon could not be any more powerful. Perhaps only two-handed crossbows were enough to go against it. Had he not subconsciously lowered his head, he would be a corpse by now.

However, crossbows could not be shot consecutively.

Levin soon realized his desperation when he found out that the witch in white was not only capable of appearing and disappearing at will, but was also equipped with a fearsome weapon that needed no reloading. Once this thought prevailed, it was as if his anger met the cold wind and was extinguished in a flash.

“Eat the pill and kill her when she shows up!”

Even as he was shouting this order, Levin himself was making his retreat. He ran towards the woods when her attention turned to the militias.

It would be safer to stay with the main army. She would not dare to attack him when he was in a crowd.

The woods were filled with peculiar wild grass that reached his knees. There were also creepers on the grounds. If he was careless, he would definitely trip over them. Stumbling out of the woods, he looked ahead and wanted to join the army. But the scene before him terrified him.

The militias who were still under the effect of the pills were retreating… No, it was more accurate to say they were escaping. Those who were slow or did not react in time were pushed to the ground and mercilessly trampled by the others. They were like roaring horses when they charged forward and they were the same when they escaped. The runaways stirred up all the dust and Levin dared not step forward to stop them.

What happened on earth? Levin was stunned and could not believe that 1,500 people taking the pills had been defeated in such a short time? Were Prince Roland’s army all monsters?

At this moment, he heard someone treading on the grass, he gritted his teeth and pulled out his sword to stab in the direction behind him—at the life-threatening moment, this pull was even quicker than his usual speed, but he could only see a dazzling fire spark. The sword was smashed by something and the sparks were flying. Then he felt a pain in his right hand, which was holding the sword and he lost all sense at his fingertips.

When his eyes turned to his hands, Levin found half of his arm had disappeared, with his red-white muscles and bone exposed like a blooming snake flower. The lady in white approached him without expression and he retreated, before falling over in panic.

With one foot pressed against his shoulder, the witch held a cold weapon against his forehead. From this angle, Levin could see her face hidden under her hood.

So… beautiful.

This was his last thought before the gun was fired.

Chapter 201: Back to Longsong Stronghold

oland considered the effects of the pills and did not instantly order the First Army to chase after them. Instead, he sent Lightning and Maggie to spy on the other side.

The wounded on the defense line were given immediate treatment. Only five were injured by spear throwers, four of whom belonged to the Artillery Squad. It delighted him that the Artillery Squad stayed put even when the enemies were as near as 150 meters away from them. Instead, they laid low and hid behind carriages to avoid the spears and rejoined the combat as soon as possible.

Nana remained behind the battlefield the whole time. When the enemies ran away, she disregarded the noise of the artilleries and rushed to treat the wounded with Viscount Tigui. It was hard to imagine she was a young girl who would faint upon seeing blood just half a year ago.

The five wounded ultimately survived. Surrounded by cheers, many soldiers saluted her as she left the battlefield.

Actually, this battle was much easier than that against the Coalition of Duke Ryan. Without the support of pills, addicted militias were so bad at fighting that someone lay down on the ground after escaping a few kilometers away and were unwilling to move.

The hunting squad rounded them up quickly and escorted them to Longsong Stronghold. The First Army also captured two knights at the same time. Even if the knights did not swallow pills, they had lost all will to resist. Facing the approaching soldiers, they chose to turn themselves in and requested to write to their families for a chance to be ransomed.

They arrived at Longsong Stronghold four days later.

Nightingale easily defeated the remaining enemies in the stronghold thanks to the intelligence extracted from the surrendered knights. The captain was instantly killed and the remaining 100 militias were soon captured by the First Army waiting at the gate.

Roland’s men found the captive Petrov in the castle’s dungeon. He looked weary, perhaps due to his worries and anxiety. But with his status as the Earl of Honeysuckle, he was not treated inhumanely.

After nearly three months, the prince once again met this representative.

“Your Highness, I’m so pleased to see you.” Petrov was finally relieved from his tension and told Roland what had happened. “Those envoys from Timothy…”

“They’re all dead,” Roland said, unconcerned as he leaned his back against the chair. “most of the 1,500 men they brought died on the borders of Border Town. The rest are locked in the stronghold prisons for now.”

Petrov looked surprised to hear that members of the emissary delegation were all dead. “Your Highness, I’m afraid that the new king, no, your elder brother will see you as an imminent threat.”

“So should I just do as I was told and obediently return to the king and allow myself to be used as he pleases?” Roland stared at him.

Petro lowered his head involuntarily. “No, Your Highness…”

“He became my enemy the minute his army to set foot on the Western Region,” Roland said quietly, “Timothy Wimbledon’s actions would only be more desperate in his bid to seize power. He needs lands and titles to repay the nobles who support him. If you’re doing this for fun, you don’t need to manage the stronghold in my stead. Besides, you should be fully aware that your position in the Western Region will only be secure if I become the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle.” He paused. “To prevent something like this from happening again, I need to build an army to defend the stronghold.”

“An army?” Petrov was stunned.

“Yes. An army comprising civilians, instead of knights.” Roland carefully explained his idea. “Choose 300 people to form a team. My subordinates will teach them how to fight. The requirements are that they must be able-bodied civilians aged between 16 to 30 years old. They must not be criminals or believers of the church. During the training period, they’ll live in Border Town, and I’ll provide the weapons. What’s more, your knights and patrol team are only responsible for urban security from now on. More details are here.” Roland handed Petrov a parchment. “You can issue a recruiting notice and screen the candidates according to its content.”

It was the most suitable way to station an army of his own if he wanted to control the defense lines himself. But the First Army was not even enough to defend Border Town, let alone protect Longsong Stronghold. Hence, it was the best compromise to have Petrov select the people and his men train them.

With her ability to detect lies, Nightingale could guarantee the sincerity of the squad. In addition, a new training method and ideological education could quickly help them form their fighting capacity. They would be equipped with soon-to-be-defunct front loading flintlocks, so it would not be a big problem even if the enemies confiscated their weapon. Besides, this army will also be responsible for the transfer of information and intelligence. If someone tried to attack the stronghold, Roland would instantly know.

“I understand.” Petrov nodded.

“I’ll reexamine your recruits so it’s pointless to place spies into my army. It’s a pointless action.” Roland warned. “Those spies of yours were all sent to the mines. If the same thing happens again…”

“No, Your Highness.” Petrov wiped away the sweat on his forehead. “I promise it won’t.”

“Next is the church.” Roland leaned back on the chair, satisfied with Petrov’s answer. “You may not know that Timothy’s men burned down the church in Longsong Stronghold and killed High Priest Tylo. Only ruins were left.”

“They actually burned the church?” Petrov was stunned by the news. “I, I need to report this to Hermes.”

The church ruled that the king and the lords had the obligation to protect local church facilities from destruction. If they were helpless to stop it, they should instantly report it to Holy City. This was the normal reaction of a law-savvy former envoy. Such a matter could not be concealed anyway. The most sincere of believers in the stronghold might have already sent secret letters to Holy City on the same day.

“It should be reported but its content needs adjusting.” Roland lifted his lips. “You only state clearly in that letter that the church was attacked by the army led by Timothy Wimbledon and that they left Longsong Stronghold for nowhere after they’ve looted and burned the church. Besides, attach this to the letter.” Roland pulled out a pill from his pocket and handed it to Petrov. “They would understand if you say that the pill was picked up near the church.”

“What… is this?”

“It’s the church’s secret pills and also Timothy’s target. It’ll make civilians unleash super strength in a short time, but it’ll also gradually kill them.” Roland gave him a simple explanation. “Timothy wants to use these pills to strengthen his army to consolidate his precarious throne. The church will understand his intentions when they see the pill. ”

Whether they would take counter measures was another thing.

“Yes, Your Highness,” Petrov places this pill into his blossom and said.

Chapter 202: The Road to Development

ipping some tea, Roland said, “In addition, I plan to carry out basic education in Longsong Stronghold. It’s a test of whether you can continue to manage the stronghold.”

Petrov paid very serious attention when he heard the word ‘test’. He asked, “Basic education?”

“Yes.” Roland nodded with a smile. Now that the local church was destroyed and the high priest killed, the church’s power had been weakened by more than half. It was a good time to fight for the superior ideological position. He did not expect that all believers could be transformed into potentially qualified workers. It was fine as long as they could further eliminate influence from the church. If Holy City wanted to once again encroach on Longsong Stronghold, he had numerous ways to shut them out, let alone allowing them to build new churches.

“Basic education should be available for all the residents in Longsong Stronghold under the age of 40, regardless of gender. The content includes reading, writing, simple calculation, natural knowledge, and ideological education.” Roland waved his hand, stopping Petrov’s questions. “Don’t worry. The cost will be deducted from the tax paid to Border Town. From this month, you only need to pay 20% of the taxes and the remaining should be regarded as the cost of education. You can recruit several scholars from the king’s city, or hire local knight squires and sorehead nobles, but these people wouldn’t spend much money. 10% of the tax is at least 1,000 gold royals. What you have to do is far more than that.”

Petrov considered this momentarily. “Your Highness, do you mean this money can be used to encourage the residents to receive an education?”

This guy was really smart, Roland mused. He laughed and said, “Yes. Except for children, most people have to make a living during the day, so their education should start at night. But after a busy day when they can finally rest, no one would like to listen to some other people nagging or doing any learning that consumes brain power.”

“So you can use your ways to encourage them to learn, like providing dinner with meat or giving monetary rewards to those who do well in their studies. Of course, a bright and spacious classroom is also essential.” Roland paused and continued, “In short, you must spare no effort to turn this plan into reality for everyone in Longsong Stronghold. As what I told you earlier, it’s also a test for you. A year later, I want more than half the people in Longsong Stronghold to be literate.”

“But Your Highness…” said Petrov hesitantly, “whether it’s the scholars or the nobles, they don’t have the teaching experience necessary to spread literacy, let alone popularizing natural knowledge and ideological education.” He read the few strange words. “In fact, not even I understand any of the stuff. If we let these people teach, I’m afraid that you can’t achieve your goal.”

“I’ve taken it into account,” said Roland, “don’t worry. I’ll send a number of City Hall officials to assist you in implementing this work. Border Town will provide all the books necessary for the education here. The officials are experienced, so they can train the staff before starting their teaching work. You’ll understand after talking to them. They can handle all the specific matters.”

The prince thought that as long as Petrov wanted to continue his control over Longsong Stronghold, he would surely need the staff. This way, news from Longsong Stronghold could be delivered to Border Town at once by the officials from the Ministry of Education.

Noticing no objections from Petrov, he continued, “There’s a third thing. I plan to build a road between Longsong Stronghold and Border Town, to shorten the traveling time for pedestrians and caravans.”

“Your Highness, isn’t there already a road?” said Petrov, confused.

Roland shook his head. How could they call a muddy trail carved out from people’s stamping a proper road? It was less than two meters wide and was full of muddy potholes on rainy days. It was not completely unsuitable for high-speed carriages. “The road I want to build can support at least two carriages side by side. I need the road to be flat and straight. I don’t want there to be pounding even on rainy days, just like the streets of Border Town.”

“Do you mean a gravel road?” This temporary mayor looked surprised. “It’s not cheap to build such a road. We need the masons to dig the gravel and pick out the right-sized stones that can be used together. If we build a gravel road to Border Town, we’ll be spending at least 5,000 gold royals. Your Highness, to be honest, I’m afraid we can’t get so much money if we don’t raise taxes in Longsong Stronghold.”

“The Longsong Stronghold only needs to provide the manpower,” Prince said frankly, “post a recruitment notice in every domain in the Western Region, including Longsong Stronghold and the domains of the major families. Pay the workers with a salary of six silver royals per month. The construction period is one year. I believe many will sign up.”

“It’s pretty a high salary for a handyman to earn six silver royals.” Petrov nodded. “How many people do you need?”

“At least 2,000,” Roland replied.

The monthly cost of hiring handymen would be large. In addition to that, they still have to pay for the masons. From the perspective of other people, it was a steep cost. Few lords would be willing to spend their money to build these things without any rewards. This could be seen from Petrov’s facial expression. But the people of Border Town could now sell steam engines. Their income and expenditure could be basically balanced. Roland did not plan to leave his gold royals in warehouses. There was a saying that if you wanted to be rich, build the road first. Pouring his remaining money into infrastructure was undoubtedly the best choice.

The construction of a high-quality road connecting the stronghold and Border Town was of great significance. Not only could it facilitate future businesses and connections between the two places, but it could also the base for the rapid deployment of the corps platoon. If they did not have a proper transportation route, it would take them at least three days even if they received the news of Longsong Stronghold being attacked. The enemy’s flag would be flying from top of the city wall by then.

“I see,” said Petrov.

“That’s what you have to do now. I’ll immediately return to Border Town. Do a good job, my ‘representative’. Don’t let me down.”

‘Your Highness, how should we deal with those who’re imprisoned?” Petrov asked just as Roland was about to leave.

It was the first time when Rolland did not answer immediately. He was silent for a moment. “Keep them. They won’t live long.”

…

Boarding the Littletown, the prince embarked on his way home.

‘You seem to be in a bad mood.” Nightingale appeared beside him. “Is it because of those civilians?”

“They were all forced by Timothy.” Roland sighed. “If they didn’t take those pills and get manipulated, they wouldn’t be his accomplices and die in a foreign land.”

“It’s not your fault.” Nightingale reached out to hold his arm.

“Of course not,” said Roland, without any hesitation. “If I didn’t stop them, the town will be Timothy’s victim in his pursuit of power. And of course, the main culprit is the church that produced the pills.”

“You’ll destroy the Church and end the dispute, so people no longer have to kill each other for such unnecessary reasons, right?” Nightingale smiled. “Whether it’s the ordinary people or witches, we can all live happily under your rule.”

Roland looked into her shiny eyes and nodded. “I promise.”

Chapter 203: The Home

he sea was like a blue earth, only more flat.

If Maggie were here, she would have been constantly chirping to inform her how far the island was. But right now, all she could hear was the sea waves crashing against the sides of the ship. Although it sounded a little monotonous, for the crew, it was actually a lucky beat, as it meant that today was a good day for sailing.

Oh, now there was another one, Ashes thought. The footsteps were banging against the old teak board, issuing a slightly squeaky sound—someone was coming over to her.

“I don’t expect that you’ve actually settled down in Sleeping Island.” A white-haired old man stepped to her side, resting his hands on the railing. “That place seems spacious but once the tide rises, most of the land will be flooded by the sea, so it’s not suitable for settling down. Why not live in Crescent Moon Bay? It’s the second largest island among the Fjords and there’re still many uninhabited spaces there.”

The one-eyed Jack, Captain of the Charming Beauty, just like his name suggested, had a blindfold on his face covering his left eye. He was also one of the few captains willing to transport goods for the witches—even though the people in the Fjords did not hate witches like the residents on the mainland, they still were not keen on dealing with outsiders.

“Not everyone is willing to deal with witches like you are.” Ashes smiled. “The sea will indeed flood Sleeping Island and that’s the reason why even if its area is the third largest among Fjord Islands, it’s still a deserted island.”

“Being the third largest area doesn’t mean that it has an equivalent inhabited area.” Captain Jack shrugged his shoulders. “If it’s impossible to live there, then size won’t matter. Take Searing Flame Island for example.”

“The witches are the best at altering nature,” she earnestly said, “after all, this island will be our home. As long as we’re free from the oppression of the church, we can create an entirely different world, a… brand new world.” She paused for a moment. “When was the last time that you were on Sleeping Island?”

The captain took off his hat and scratched the back of his head. “It’s been almost a month now and last time I sent a group of witches and a full cabin of pearl rice. To be honest, the way those girls were playing around on the ship made my sailors drooling all over them. It’s really hard for young men sailing at sea, and they’re like volcanos that can erupt at any time, but fortunately, I was able to control them. Otherwise, my precious ship would be in trouble.”

Ashes instantly ignored the last part of his words. “One month is enough for Heaven and Earth to be turned upside down, Mr. captain. I bet that when you see Sleeping Island this time, it’ll be much more different than that in your memory.”

“Really?” Jack whistled. “Then I ‘ll be looking forward to… Wait, what’s that?” He leaned over the ship, staring at in front of him. “Monkey! Get up on the mast. There’s something in front of us!”

The sailor named Monkey swiftly climbed to the top of the mast, and lifted the telescope. “Captain, it looks like an island!”

“Island? What nonsense is this.” Captain pulled out and glanced at his compass. “There shouldn’t be any other island near us except for Sleeping Island.”

“But it’s really an island, captain, I swear!”

“Don’t swear to me. Let me see,” Jack said taking off his hat.

“No, no, Captain, it’s best if you don’t come up here, the wind is too strong.” Monkey continued to observe. “By the name of Three Gods!” He exclaimed incredibly, “This is actually the Sleeping Island! It’s taller!”

…

As the Charming Beauty approached the docks of Sleeping Island, all people on the ship could not almost believe what they were seeing.

The towering island resembled a small mountain located above the sea surface. The mountain slopes were straight and steep with the distance of at least dozens of feet to the top.

It was the first time for Ashes to arrive at the island so her reaction was much calmer than the rest. In the eyes of Captain Jack, this represented a calm and confident character.

“You won.” He sighed. “I never expected that you could raise the level of a whole island. No wonder why those church fanatics hate your witches so much, you’re comparable to the Gods.”

“Uncle Jack, it’s not like that we raised the whole island,” a smiling young girl standing on the pier said, “but we only built a ‘city wall’ around Sleeping Island, and you’ll understand in a moment after you come with us.” Then, she turned to Ashes and bowed her head saluting. “You’re finally back. Lady Tilly has been talking a lot about you.”

Ashes stroked her head. “Don’t be so formal, Molly. I’ll have to trouble you with carrying my stuff.”

“I got this.” The young girl said patting her chest.

Once the sailors transported all the grain to the pier, Molly summoned her magic servant—a light blue sphere with two arms that could be transformed at will. The arms were turned into a net, firmly grabbing all the bags and carrying them in the air. “Let’s go,” she said proudly.

“Oh, what a convenient ability,” the captain said. “Did you see that, men? You can’t even compare to a little girl.”

The pier was built in the middle of the mountain slope. They climbed up the stairs and as they reached the top, Ashes instantly understood the meaning of “building a city wall around Sleeping Island”.

They did not raise the island itself, but rather the outline of the island—turning the whole Sleeping Island into a basin, surrounded by thick edges. This edge was what Molly referred to as city wall. Inside the wall, many stairs were leading down to Sleeping Island itself.

“This… is unbelievable.” Captain Jack curled his lips. “You turned the island into a city. What would happen here when the tide floods? My God, you would be living below the sea level!”

“That’s correct.” Molly laughed. “that’s the reason why we have two piers, one below the sea, and one above sea level. Of course, they can also be considered as one at sea level and one at mid-air.”

As they reached the center of the island, they came across all kinds of houses but unlike traditional wooden or brick houses, these buildings looked as if they were grown out of the ground, as the foundations of the houses were attached to the ground. Without a doubt, just like the wall itself, these were all Lotus’s work.

“Sister Ashes, the house in the most tip of the north is Lady Tilly’s palace. I’ll go with the captain to deliver the goods, and you don’t need to come with me, just going straight to see Lady Tilly,” the little girl said as she waved.

Ashes nodded, said goodbye to the two of them and walked towards the north quickly. She saw a lot of familiar faces along the way, some bowing to her and some waving smilingly. “The homeland of the witches” made her feel more and more hopeful and powerful.

The founder of this homeland was Tilly Wimbledon, Queen of Witches.

Unlike the royal palace, this spacious house had no guards or locked gates. Ashes walked straight through the vestibule and upon entering the hall, she saw a familiar figure in front of her.

She quietly walked behind the other person and used her hands to cover the gray-haired girl’s eyes.

“I sensed you as soon as you reached the door.” The other side laughed. “Don’t forget how I first found you in the crowd.”

Extraordinary witches had the ability to sense magic power, and between two extraordinary witches, the mutual feeling would be even more intense. This kind of magical connection, like an invisible fetter, had resolutely connected herself with Tilly.

“I’m back,” Ashes said softly.

“Yeah,” Tilly replied cheerfully, “Welcome home.”

Chapter 204: Tilly Wimbledon

hey enjoyed a moment of affection, and then Ashes’ attention was drawn to a bunch of diamond-like gemstones in front of Tilly. She asked curiously, “What’re these?”

“Come.” Tilly patted her sides. “I’ll show you something interesting.”

Ashes sat cross-legged next to her and saw her putting on a white silk glove the back of which was embedded with a red gemstone.

“Is this… a tracking stone?”

Tilly did not reply. Instead, she smiled and raised her hand toward the empty place. Suddenly, a lightning appeared from her fingertips, hitting the floor with a cracking sound. As a green smoke faded away, she saw a black spot at the size of a palm on the hit spot.

Ashes could not believe in her eyes. “Did you… obtain a new ability?”

Tilly Wimbledon was an extraordinary witch whose magic power could exert on herself, manifesting as genuine intelligence. It was impossible for her to unleash her magic power like the other witches. That lighting flash just now meant that she now had a brand new ability, but it was impossible for witches to have two types of abilities, which was a common knowledge among all the sisters.

Tilly took off the glove and handed it over to Ashes. “It’s not like I acquired a new ability and it’s actually because of this stone.” She smiled. “It has the ability to change the way magic operates, allowing the magic to manifest in different ways.”

Shocked, Ashes rubbed the gemstone in the middle of the glove. She knew that Tilly would not lie to her—this meant that even non-combat type witches would now possess the ability to fight, significantly increasing the witches’ ability to resist an enemy. “How many these stones we have?”

“Only one,” Tilly said like she had guessed Ashes’ thoughts, “Not to mention that using them is quite difficult. You’ll have to think of magic as something real and concrete, letting it fill in the stone and then release it through the gemstone.”

Ashes tried silently for a long time, but not even one ray of lightning appeared.

“Do you understand now?” Tilly smiled. “We, as extraordinary witches, can already sense magic, so for the rest of the witches, it’s even harder. It requires a tremendous amount of imagination and understanding. As a matter of fact, I’ve asked many sisters to try, but only two to three out of 100 people were able to understand it and release flashes of lightning.”

“Are you saying I’m stupid?” Ashes took off the glove.

“That’s right.” Tilly raised her eyebrow. “At that time I merely used… oh…”

She was unable to continue talking as Ashes suddenly kissed her… When they parted, the latter exhaled a deep breath. “Fine, not too stupid.”

“What about the other stones?” Ashes licked her lips as if she did not have enough. Only in the presence of Princess Tilly, was she able to completely relax. “Do they all possess different types of abilities?”

“They manifest differently.” Tilly corrected with her cheeks still blushing. “They still won’t allow commoners to possess abilities like witches since they require magic to be triggered,” she paused and said then, “which left me with a question.”

“What kind of question?”

“What exactly magic power is?” Tilly said slowly and explained word by word, “For a long time, the abilities vary and manifest with a certain uncertainty, and they also feel different according to the senses of an extraordinary witch. But these strange stones are able to unify all magic power and through them, all witches can release the exact same ability. Thus, I might have been thinking in a wrong direction previously. Perhaps magic itself is an all-powerful type of force, but the witches can only possess one of its forms.”

“Then what about these magic stones?” Ashes asked.

“They can only be used to release, but not to gather magic power. It isn’t clear whether they’re man-made or naturally formed,” Tilly said regretfully, “according to legends, they were first excavated in the ruins and most of them were then spread out among commoners. I was only able to collect this much… I heard that some ancient ruins lied in the forest east of King City at Seawindshire. I really want to go personally and check it out, and we may be able to find more clues about magic and other historical faults.”

Tilly’s words were not making any sense to her again, Ashes thought helplessly. As long as they could manage to live on, who cared about what had happened 400 years ago. “It’s best if you don’t. Currently, Seawindshire is probably one of the most dangerous places in the Kingdom of Graycastle.”

“Why?”

“Before leaving Port of Clearwater, I heard the sailors mention that Garcia Wimbledon had dispatched the whole Blacksail Fleet with Seawindshire as her target—that’s Timothy’s territory. She probably wants to use the advantage of the sea to directly attack his homefront camp.” Ashes persuaded. “Only when the martial law had been lifted, I was able to leave the harbor. If what they said was true, I’m afraid that Seawindshire had already become a war zone.”

“They’re still fighting amongst themselves.” Tilly’s expression became worried. “If this continues, the church will take advantage of it and start an invasion. If we don’t unite, the Kingdom of Graycastle will fall just like the Kingdom of Everwinter and we’ll be swallowed by the church.”

These words startled Ashes, and Princess Tilly soon noticed it. “What’s it?”

“Nothing.” She blinked her eyes. “Just now, you looked a bit like Roland Wimbledon who also said the same words to me.”

“Oh? You managed to see him?” Tilly got interested. “Right, you still didn’t tell me anything about your trip to the Western Region. Come on!”

“Shadow must have already told you that after hearing the news about the Witch Cooperation Association I went to Border Town.” Ashes hugged her into her arms, “After arriving there, I found out that the so-called Holy Mountain search was just a lie created by Roland who had taken command of the Witch Cooperation Association and was secretly recruiting witches…” She then described to Tilly about everything that she saw and heard during her one week in Border Town. “In the end, he told me that we should unite to resist the attack of the church. If one day we couldn’t live at the Fjords anymore, he would gladly welcome us to Border Town at any time.”

“Well…” Tilly thought silently for a moment, then suddenly said, “This man isn’t Roland Wimbledon. He has been replaced.”

“Huh?”

“You’ve mentioned that many witches have gathered around him, right? I guess that a witch is controlling him, or maybe changed her appearance into his.” Tilly said bluntly, “I grew up with Roland, so I’m sure about this—compared with my two other elder brothers and my third sister, he’s the worst at deceiving, and his lies are full of loopholes. It’s impossible for him to pose as another person. As for the weapons you’ve mentioned that can fight against those of the God’s Punishment Army, they prove my point even more… One can hide his character, but can’t fake knowledge. Court mentors had never taught these things, so how did he come to know them?” Tilly said without any hesitations, “No one in this world is born knowledgeable, so that person is certainly not my stupid and annoying brother.”

“Is… that so?” Ashes frowned.

“Having said that, I still have to contact them.” Tilly sighed. “Roland Wimbledon is my brother after all. Even though he’s ignorant and incompetent, there’s still hope for him. Compared with the rest, he was the most harmless. Hopefully, the witches of the Witch Cooperation Association haven’t killed him already.”

“I think that’s highly improbable.” Ashley could not help thinking of Wendy. “I also left Maggie there, and at the end of this month, she’ll come back to bring us news from Border Town.”

“Alright, after all, our current priority isn’t that.” Princess Tilly freed herself from her embrace, going to the garden and opened her arms. “Now that you’re back, we can finally begin with the cleaning project. I want no traces of the church on the island so that Fjord Islands can finally become the home to the witches.”

The sun shone at the back of Tilly’s body, covering her figure with a golden halo. Her long gray hairs fell on her cheeks like golden threads and her face was full of confidence as if no difficulty could ever bring her down.

“I’m willing to serve you, my Queen,” Ashes said with a smile.

Chapter 205: The Microscope

fter defeating the army of Timothy, the town resumed its peace.

Roland made a group of three people from Ministry of Education of City Hall and two teachers bringing Soraya’s reprographic books to Longsong Stronghold. Despite his best efforts, he had finally taken the first step to assimilate Longsong Stronghold.

Although Petrov was not a good battle commander, he indeed behaved excellently in administration. In the short span of two weeks, 2,000 men, under the protection of the knights, had laid a road which reached the town. If not for the fact that the second batch of the 10 groups of furnaces was to be produced, Roland still would not make the decision to build a road between the two places.

This road was named Kingdom Main Street by Roland and with the full authority of the Minister of Construction, Karl, its construction was the same as the town street which used cement as a stabilizing layer. In this time without heavy vehicles, this road surface was strong enough to undertake transportation tasks. And the drainage performance was good, and it could also be improved further if paved with asphalt or concrete.

In terms of construction materials, four steam-driven mills had replaced manpower. Every day they could produce tonnes of the gravel. The weakness of the transport capacity that limited production had been negated. So many stones needed more than 100 people with a carriage to transport and it took one day to get to the construction site. Future generations, it could transport the materials in a slag hauler in a single journey.

In the furnace area, except for four kilns that were firing clay bricks, the other blast furnaces had been assigned to the production of cement powder. Nowadays, whether in quality or stability, the cement that the town produced was better than the original production due to the process of many composition experiments and the iron powder supplied by the mine mountain.

However, large groups of people transporting gravel and cement also had a negative effect on the town. The most serious problem was dust pollution. By the afternoon, with only a light breeze, the dust would fog the air and the street became a thick yellow. Although the townspeople did not mind the situation, for Roland, there was nothing worse than having to close the windows and doors in the summer.

As a result, the carriages carrying the cement and gravel were quickly fitted with covers to reduce the possibility of scattering during transport. Meanwhile, with the help of Leaf’s ability, the street was lined with the greenery and thick shade of sycamore trees in a short few days. Roland also instructed the townspeople to pour water on any dust they saw and the situation improved quickly.

The perpendicular distance between these two places was about 70 kilometers. However, to circumnavigate the Impassable Mountain Range, the total length of the road was around 100 kilometers. The work was predicted to take around a year to complete, and due to the high quality of the surface, the road would be open to new forms of transport such as bicycles and steam cars.

Under his aspirations, developing education and building the road were just a means to connect the two places, like the urban integration that later generations greatly promoted. After the development of the land between the two places finishes, Roland’s plan was for Longsong Stronghold and Border Town to merge into a big city. If he could make the southern uplands become a part of this city too, it would provide access to the sea.

Of course, developing so much land required a growth in population. And in response to any possible war in the future, the city must provide enough workers for industrial production while maintaining self-sufficiency in agriculture. According to Roland’s preliminary calculations, he needed about 100,000 people to immigrate to the city. The Kingdom of Graycastle’s biggest city, the king’s city, had around 20,000 to 30,000 people.

Roland focused on the north of the Kingdom of Graycastle and the Southern Territory. These two places had been through war and when winter came, it was possible that a lot of refugees would head towards the city. Only by supplying food and warm rooms, could Border Town appeal them. Even the refugees of the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart were under his consideration. Thinking of this, he wrote a letter to his business acquaintance, Margaret, asking her to inquire about the situation of these two kingdoms.

…

After writing the development plan, Roland put the folded paper into the drawer and stretched. He then decided to go Anna’s room in order to see how her lens had been cut.

Since learning of the causes behind Soraya’s revolution, he was going to make a microscope that could observe cellular structure.

If the witches could observe the fantastic microworld with their own eyes, maybe it could trigger more witches to evolve new abilities. If nothing else, it would at least trigger their interest in learning.

To make a microscope, two convex lenses that were used to enlarge targets were not difficult. The difficulty was the focal distance of every hand crafted lens. So it was a precise operation to match the eye lens to the objective lens, it required constantly adjusting the distance between the two lenses.

After describing the image-forming principle of the convex lens, he gave Anna several crystals with excellent quality and let her try to slice the optics and measure the focal distance. After three days, Roland was full of anxiety and wondered to what degree Anna had managed.

Arriving at Anna’s room door, he saw Nightingale smiling at him. She stood against the wall, as if indicating that she would not follow. Since she reduced the amount of time that she spent in the Mist, Roland also did not have to guess her whereabouts. When he and Anna were together, Nightingale always chose to stand at a distant location.

Opening the door, he saw Anna sitting beside the table and tinkering with a metal tube.

“How’s it going?” he went ahead and asked.

Just as he was about to speak further, Roland was startled. He saw several instruments that looked like the microscope drawn by his own hand on the table.

“According to the drawing that you gave me, I made several trial products. Indeed I could see details that I couldn’t find at ordinary times.” Raising her head, her fringe slipped down one side. “I used it to observe paper, leaves and ponding, and found they’re different from their ordinary appearances.” After their hot air balloon trip, Anna did not use honorific language when Roland and herself were alone, which made him feel quite relaxed.

“How could you make that?” Roland asked surprisingly, “That diagram is only a rough silhouette.”

“The outline was enough.” Anna laughed. “You see, you can magnify objects using the eye lens and the objective lens and fixing them at the right distance. After fixing them in an iron tube, the main body of the microscope is done. When I tested the lens magnification effect, I found that the objective lens and the observation target must be kept within a certain distance to see a clear image. The slightest flick of the hand would make the image blurred. As you can see from the schematic diagram, the tube is fixed and the table below the target can be moved up and down to get the best possible object distance.” She paused. “The bottom of the sheet is harder to understand. Can you tell me what it’s for?”

Roland looked at the drawing and found that was actually a mistake of his. It was a retroreflector used to increase the ray of the light going through the target. At this time, the mercury mirror had not been invented. Generally the nobles still used bronze mirrors or iron mirrors to check their appearance. There was silver behind a sheet of glass in the imperial palace in order to obtain a better reflected image. Even without a mirror, sunlight was sufficient for the microscope to work.

He carefully made an explanation, and he was shocked by Anna’s great perception. Only using a rough diagram, she could make a complete product. This was impossible.

While looking down the barrel of the microscope, Anna’s neck became exposed. Roland could not help himself but want to kiss Anna. But Anna gently pushed his face away with her hand and said, “Wait, Your Highness, I’m busy right now.”

“Well… Okay.”

Chapter 206: [A Swarm of Worms]

he issue of the mirrors was finally solved by Soraya.

She referred to the mercury brought from the laboratory and painted a bright layer of coating behind the glass, out of fear of poisoning risk from inhaling mercury vapor.

Light reflected much better on painted mirrors than on mirrors stuck with silver scraps. Roland set aside a batch of crystal glasses to make little mirrors and delivered them to every witch to keep. The witches were pleased to see their faces so clearly. Even the imperturbable Scroll smiled. Roland thought that the witches were still feminine in nature, even though they could not get pregnant.

It was a pity that these convenient items could not be sold to the masses at a low price. That was because the laboratory not only needed high priced crystal glasses as the basic material, but also consumed large quantities of glass to make colorless transparent containers. Although Kyle Sichi knew how to make colorless glass, the project had been too heavy to find others to make mirrors. Most apprentices were busy purifying the two acids and soaking guncotton. And chief alchemist was devoted to preparing mercury fulminate with his three students. They could not make other things, but find industrial acid-making process.

In addition to the mirror, the object moves from the finger to move the stage into a knob to control the movement of the barrel; however, Anna would be able to take the hint only if Roland gave some directions about these. With the Blackfire processing, the newly fixed bracket quickly finished. They selected two groups of the highest magnification tube to get the first complete body of the optical microscope.

Taking advantage of the sunny day, Roland gathered everyone in the Witch Union to the backyard of the castle and started the first fundamental biology lesson.

…

When Lily walked into the backyard, she found the plants there had turned more and more luxuriant.

Grapes on the wooden frame had turned a vibrant mauve color. She recalled it had not even been a week since its last maturity. Now and then, Lightning flew to pick some of the grapes and shared it with everyone. And that clumsy bird who had just joined Border Town was perched on the wooden frame, pecking and swallowing the grapes herself.

Roland and Anna were like a pair of lovers talking to each other at the center of the backyard under a tree, but Lily knew they were not flirting. If she went closer to listen carefully, she would hear many indescribable words and theories… like the mention of little balls, a cat which was dead or alive, things turning into waves, and so on. Nightingale stayed away 5 meters from them because their conversation made her sleepy!

Wherever they were, Wendy was always beside Scroll, wearing smiles and tender looks. Sometimes Lily thought Wendy looked at her like she was looking at a child. Lily reluctantly sighed. There was, after all, a huge difference when she glanced at Wendy’s chest and hers.

When she became like Wendy, perhaps she could be regarded as an adult.

When all the witches gathered, Roland put two gray-black ironware that he claimed were microscopes that could see microorganisms on the desk. Lily thought that maybe things would look very different under the microscope. But it was still hard to believe that the world was made of a kind of particle that could form a block of hard stone.

After ordering the guard to bring a bucket of water, Roland placed a few drops of water under the microscope. The water was different from what Lily imagined. The water was not muddy or dirty at all. Rather, it was so clear that it was transparent under the light. Perhaps the particles could only be seen using the microscope.

“Something’s moving in the water!” the other sisters unexpectedly shouted in surprise, “oh, it’s running away!”

“There’s not only one. It seems that there’re many in there.”

“Oh God, are those worms? They all look different!”

“That one looks like a transparent crab…”

Lily’s heart rose to her throat. Were they not particles, but worms instead? His Highness was lying to them! But these worms were so strange because there was nothing in the water at all. When it was her turn, she no longer pretended to be careless. She could not help squinting and putting her head close to the microscope.

Then she saw an incredible scene.

In a narrow iris diaphragm, there were many oddly-shaped things swimming. There were square-shaped things, things with long soft hair, a demonic hybrid of beetles and crabs, and even kernels with feet. No matter how strange they looked, they were all transparent as if they had no skin or hull. Obviously, there was nothing in the stomachs of these worms, too.

“Your Highness, are all these actually worms?” Scroll asked.

“What you’re seeing are some protists and unicellular algae. It’s not appropriate to regard them as worms. They should be categorized as microorganisms,” the prince explained.

“Microorganisms?”

“Yes, they’re independent lives, but their sizes are much smaller. Besides the two kinds of microorganisms you could see with your naked eye, there’re other much smaller microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. According to a present microscope, we couldn’t see bacteria and viruses that cause spoilage of foods and other diseases,” Roland said excitedly, “these microorganisms are everywhere. They’re abundant and not resistant to high temperature. That’s why water needs to be boiled, fish and meat need to be cooked, and bath water can’t be repeatedly used.”

Though Lily could not imagine there being much smaller microorganisms, she could not help getting goosebumps once she thought of how she drank water with these worms in it.

And His Highness said that these little things were the main reason for causing food spoilage?

If the bread and meat porridge could be kept fresh, perhaps… it may work for the water as well.

Coming to this conclusion, she could not help releasing her magic power to envelope the water drops under the microscope.

Something unexpected happened.

She saw a part of the “worms” trembling and their skins quickly became no longer transparent. Covered with purple armor now, root tentacles grew out of their bodies and began swallowing the other unchanging “worms”. No, they did not really swallow it. Lily saw them assimilating with each other at an alarming rate. Their tentacles, like sharp swords, pierced the other microorganisms and absorbed them.

She did not know whether it was just an illusion. She felt that these mutant groups were still changing those invisible lives. Purple spots soon appeared in the water droplets. More and more spots gradually formed into a piece, as if a lavender carpet appeared in her eyesight. The tentacles were arranged one by one, neatly like an army. It seemed like they felt her attention on them, as their tentacles were all lifted as if they were saluting her.

It was the first time that she had seen the true nature of her power.

Chapter 207: Parent Population and Clones

ightingale in her Mist was observing the change in the witches’ magic power.

There were few chances to see such bright and colorful scene in the black-white world. Compared to the time when they were looking for Holy Mountain, their magic powers had increased a lot through daily practice. They could now control their power more accurately. But what was the most comforting thing for Nightingale was the expressions of her friends.

Despite Wendy’s gentle inspiration and Cara’s firm action, they were never able to sleep peacefully, even for one night, in the Witch Cooperation Association. Any little signs of arrest from the church and suspicion of the public could make them wake from their stressful sleep. Even they were looking for Holy Mountain, they were not able to relieve their stress. No one knew Holy Mountain would really be a safe shelter for them. Back then, the witches were usually downcast with numb, vacant expressions.

Now, nobody went hungry and had to worry about the Church arresting them. Everyone wore lively expressions never before seen on their faces. When she saw the relaxed smiles her sisters had, Nightingale shared their feelings. Holy Mountain was real. It was not in the wild, but here.

At this moment, she felt a slight tremor coming from the magic power.

A cloud of purple fog started revolving, sucking in other magic powers like a tiny storm. But only Nightingale saw this scene. She held her breath unblinkingly to see every detail. Comparing Anna and Soraya’s hindsight, it was the first time she saw the gathering of magic power in person.

Lily stood in the middle of the storm.

She was absorbed in observing the micro-world and paid no attention to the change in quality in her magic power.

As the fog became denser and the revolving became faster, the fog became almost solidified. At the same time, the silhouette which produced some waves no longer appeared in a whirlpool shape. In the end, magic power gathered and stopped just as slowly.

Her new magic power was not as hard and glossy as Anna’s cube or as soft as Soraya’s silk. Her magic power was as big as a fist. The main body was an oval with eight pairs of tentacle. Four pairs were upturned and others downturned. Her new magic power looked like… a worm.

…

Roland never thought that the outcome of the first fundamental biology class would be this great or that the first witch who evolved was Lily.

Roland did not assign her many missions, except for instructing her to practice daily and learning a little about her because keeping food fresh was her magic power. After Roland listened to Nightingale’s report, he nodded without speaking. He did not make her stay until the class was over either.

“What? Are you saying that my magic power has evolved?” Lily said in shock, “I didn’t see the particles you mentioned.”

“Of course you can’t see them.” Roland shook his head, smiling. “Particles are thousands of times smaller than microorganisms. Even though we could construct a limitless microscope, we would still not be able to see the particles that form matter.”

“Is that so? I thought I can evolve my magic power after thoroughly understanding the particle theory,” she murmured, “I can’t believe everything in the world is made of those particles. If those particles are what hard steel are made of, they should be collapsing into a pile of sand.”

That was the reason he thought the microscopic particle theory was not the only way to improve the ability to evolve a witch’s magic power. “What did you see?” he said.

“Uh…” Lily gave it a thought before saying, “There were many purple worms that can be summoned using magic power. They can turn other organisms into beings like them.”

“Worms?” he said, “Are they as big as microorganisms?”

“Sort of.” She nodded. “They’re still transparent if you see the water with your eyes.”

“So… Let’s have an actual test.”

…

Unlike Anna and Soraya, it was hard to observe Lily’s magic power with naked eyes.

When Roland saw the microorganisms arrange themselves in an orderly manner in synergy, he was surprised that they seemed to have a sense of collective consciousness.

Next were the partial tests including the function, effective time, and influence of Stone of Magic on these microorganisms.

This test lasted three days. Although Lily would retort and complain sometimes, she still diligently carried out Roland’s commands.

Through the quantities of sample pairs and a discussion with Anna, he had a rough idea of the features of Lily’s new magic power.

In the variant purple worms, it was obvious to see they could be divided into the parent population and clones.

The parent population was the primary variant microorganisms Lily’s magic power produced.

The characteristics of the parent population were similar to Blackfire. As long as there was a magic power supply, they would always exist. The magic power user should stay within five meters or they would disappear. They were also affected by the God’s Stone of Retaliation, instantly dispersing within the scope of the stone.

When the parent population was present, surrounding microorganisms would be assimilated into clones in a short time. It was inconceivable for Roland that the clones were actually the result of the “ability”, like Soraya’s coating, and were no longer bound by the God’s Stone of Retaliation. Simply speaking, Lily could create a magic parent population that could create new and real microorganisms.

The clones have the same feature of assimilation like the parent population, eroding the other microorganisms. But the result of test left Roland confused. The assimilation did not last. In some samples with the same amount of clones, some microorganisms were completely converted. In others, he could see the clones and unaffected microorganisms coexisting.

He could only rely on guesswork for this as he lacked precise observation instruments.

After the discussion with Anna, Roland formed a hypothesis that the number of assimilation was relative to its size.

Lily could not distinguish the types of microorganisms with her power. That was why there were unobservable viruses and bacteria, as well as visible protozoa and single cell algae under the microscope among the clones. The numbers of clones were dependent on the parent population. if the parent population was larger, the number of assimilation would be increased.

Besides, the clones could not continue living in the form of spilled propagation. When the number of assimilation ran out, the last batch of clones could only live for about one day. Boiling the water could kill most of the clones. As new lives, they were not that starkly different than other microorganisms.

But one interesting point was that these clones arranged in a line would gather around the parent population. They seemed to be waiting for orders from the parent population, like soldiers.

Due to the limitations of their observation, Lily’s new ability was still not made clear. Unfortunately, the little girl was now completely puzzled whether parent population and clones had the same influence on viruses, bacteria or all kinds of fungi used in the chemical and food production. Leaving alone the instructions of finishing those corresponding by using her power.

Even so, those clones still had great potential for further development. Even though there was nothing to do, all the deadly bacteria or viruses could be assimilated. Lily’s power could play the role of rapid sterilization. This unreasonable drugs could apparently pave the way for healthcare in the domain.

Chapter 208: [I Am an Idiot.]

ily came back to the room with her wet hair wrapped in a towel.

Although she was accusing Prince Roland of pursuing pleasure, she had to admit that the stuff in the bathroom was… incredibly great. She enjoyed the cold well water that fell on her body from the shower, which washed off the stuffiness and stickiness of the scorching hot sun, causing her body to feel refreshed after a busy day.

However, she felt guilty after taking a comfortable shower and wondered. [Should I apologize to His Highness for being overboard without controlling myself?]

“Traitor!”

“What?” Lily lifted the hair that stuck on her forehead.

“You obviously don’t believe the spherule theory but you’re now the first to evolve a new ability.” Mystery Moon was kneeling on the bed upright while pointing her hand at Lily. “You’re a big liar!”

Lily turned and said, “I still don’t believe it. How could it be that everything is formed by spherule?”

“But sister Nightingale mentioned that your magic power had advanced.”

“It has nothing to do with spherule.” She shrugged, climbed onto the bed and pressed Mystery Moon’s hand down. “His Majesty said that evolution doesn’t depend on acceptance of the spherule theory. As long as we deeply understand our ability, we can still transform the magic power.”

“Really?” Mystery Moon pouted.

“That’s what he said anyway.”

[Mystery Moon was neglected in the Witch Cooperation Association, which has caused her lack of confidence,] Lily thought. Unlike her, food preservation was very important to the Witch Cooperation Association which was facing a food shortage. And she could understand Mystery Moon’s feeling as she noticed that her ability had become useless when she first came to Border Town. She was once afraid of being kicked out of the town, however, it ended up entirely different from what she was worried about. Even Prince Roland, His Highness did not give her extra tasks, he treated her the same as the other witches.

It was probably the reason why Mystery Moon had become bolder instead of cowering and self- deprecating like before. Her fear was mainly due to Cara who never bothered to look at her and even prohibited her to use her magic power in the camp.

“So…” Mystery Moon frowned and said, “what should I do to understand my ability? His Highness mentioned that the magnetic field is invisible and intangible, and even the microscope is useless.”

“Don’t ask me. I don’t know.” Lily yawned. “In fact, I only know what my ability looks like. I don’t even understand… those cells, bacteria, fungal that His Highness was talking about. He even said that he’s going to write a textbook for me,” she reluctantly said, “Pardon me! I can’t even read all the words yet.”

“I also want to be more powerful,” Mystery Moon rolled her body on the bed and said, “I would also like to do more for His Highness!”

Lily sighed. [Mystery Moon is apparently older than I am, but she acts as if she’s younger…] she thought. “You can always ask sister Anna.”

“Ask her?” Mystery Moon stopped rolling.

“Yeah, aren’t you afraid of delaying His Highness? Then, you should just ask sister Anna for advice,” Lily said, “other than Prince Roland, His Highness, she knows the most in the entire town.”

“But, Anna is always busy. I heard that she’s the one who makes all the machines in the town.” Mystery Moon hesitated.

“So, you can ask her when she’s free. Such as after dinner, ask for her help to heat up the bath water, or even invite her to take a bath together. Then you’ll have a lot of time to ask her,” the little girl suggested.

“What you’ve said… sounds really reasonable.” Her eyes lit up.

“Then, let’s go to bed. We still have to wake up early tomorrow.” Lily untied the towel on her head and wiped two more times before she lay on the pillow. “Go and blow out the candle.”

“Uh, okay.” Mystery Moon crawled to the end of her bed and blew out the candle. “Good night.”

…

Lily did not go to the kitchen or the wheat warehouse as she would usually do to practice her ability the next day but she sat in front of the table and started learning to use the microscope.

It was the new task His Highness had arranged. She was to fully understand the types and shapes of various cells and bacterias and record their differences before the textbook was ready. It was not a problem she could not write them down as they could be drawn.

His Highness mentioned that Anna was still trying to manufacture a microscope that could multiply magnification. She would be able to see the tinier microorganism. The magnification effect could reach up to 400 times.

In the future, her tasks would not just be maintaining the freshness of things, but she would also need to learn how to duplicate things. Lily found it difficult to understand this point. Luckily, His Highness suggested several directions to practice, such as commanding them to imitate the appearance of a single cell or instruct them to destroy or improve the cells with consciousness. It, of course, had to be based on the complete knowledge of various microorganisms. Although Lily was not sure if she could achieve it, she would have to at least try.

Not to mention that exploring the unknowns itself was an interesting matter.

Mystery Moon came back disappointed that night.

“What happened?” Lily curiously asked, “Did sister Anna say anything?”

“She said a lot.” Mystery Moon laid on the bed. “However, I don’t even understand a word. She said that the magnetic field is everywhere, and the compass can clearly show the direction because we’re located in a gigantic magnetic field. Does it mean that my ability is useless? Not to mention the principle of the magnetic field, some kind of motion-charged-spherule and magnetic force are interdependent and the magnetic field can produce electricity… Is it true that I won’t be able to progress without understanding the theory of the spherule?” she murmured, “Tell me, am I too stupid?”

“A little,” Lily said with her hand touching her forehead.

“Traitor!”

…

There was another sister from the Witch Union that gained new ability and it made Wendy really happy.

Lily’s evolution had increased the witches learning passion and some of them were still asking Scroll questions after the evening course had ended. Even Maggie was conscientiously squatting on the hanging lamp, listening to the class after hearing that learning could improve her own ability.

All except one person.

When she returned to the room with the “Natural Science Theoretical Foundation” in her arms, Nightingale was lying on her stomach in front of the table, tidying something attentively.

Wendy knew that it must have nothing to do with learning.

“What’re you doing?” she asked.

“Dividing dried fish flakes, do you want some?” Nightingale vaguely said while chewing a piece of dried fish, “I just brought it from the kitchen.”

“So much?” Wendy looked at the table that was piled up with the golden-color grilled dried fish in shock; meanwhile, she could smell the rich honey flavor.

“Uh, the chef noticed that I come here every day so he simply grilled all the rest since it could be kept for a while.” She took out a sack and filled it up with the food. And there were five or six similar sacks which were filled on the table.

Wendy suddenly understood what she was doing—it was dried food preparation. The dried food needed to be divided according to the appropriate quantity and filled it into the carrying sack whenever the Witch Cooperation Association was preparing to leave the town. No matter how hungry they were on the way, they could only eat the set quantity to prevent food shortage. None of the sisters was doing it anymore since they came to Border Town, with a stable three meals a day provided and afternoon tea often served.

Of course, for Nightingale, it was more appropriate to say that she was preparing snacks instead of preparing food.

“You don’t read?”

“I won’t understand it anyway. My head spins even simply hearing those theories and theorems.” Nightingale swallowed the dried fish and smiled. “And my ability is enough for me. It doesn’t matter if it evolves.”

“I see.”

[Nightingale’s eyes sparkled at that moment without showing any compulsion or hesitation. She looks incomparably natural compared to before. It’s impossible for a confused person to reveal such an expression,] Wendy thought to herself, [she had found her goals.]

[She displays her firmness once she understands the path she takes. She was like this when she left her noble family and confronted Cara.]

However Wendy did not ask, and she believed that she would see the answer herself someday.