Release That Witch

Chapter 308: Terror

or the past few days, Theo had been in touch with His Highness on a daily basis.

Although he had witnessed numberless incredible incidents since becoming Roland’s guards a year ago, the new order he had received again blew his mind, making him feel… bewildered.

To advertise the bombing of the palace of the king’s city and spread the rumor that it was actually a punishment Roland Wimbledon imposed on Timothy Wimbledon?

When the militia who used to attack the Western Region had retreated to the king’s city, Theo had heard “warnings” from those soldiers. At that time, he had simply thought their warnings were another Roland’s bluff or distraction strategy. He had believed that the prince’s real intention was, as what Garcia had done, to attack and loot other cities before winter while Timothy was busy with defense work.

However, the subsequent order from Border Town alarmed him. It appeared that his Highness did mean to attack the king’s city, as he had instructed him to make preparation for pre-war political propaganda. The latest order specifically stated that Roland would launch an attack on the first day of mid-autumn, which was exactly the time previously “warned” by the Militia.

The order read, “Advertise the bombing of the palace and tell the public it’s a punishment”. This meant His Highness would directly attack the inner city of King’s City. Theo wondered how it could be possible. The city wall of the king’s city was the strongest one throughout the Kingdom of Graycastle. It was as thick as two residence buildings putting together. Even bombarded by the cannon invented by His Highness, it was still impregnable. Apart from the fortified castle, there were numerous knights, guards and recruited militia defending the king’s city. The prince would need to have an army of at least 10,000 people to penetrate the defense line.

As for employing witches to launch a sudden strike, it was also a too optimistic and unrealistic tactic. There were incessant God’s Stones of Retaliation in the palace, and those in halls and bedrooms were giant in size. They would immediately render witches powerless once they entered the room. This was also why nobody had retaliated for the massive witch-hunt Timothy was conducting so far. After all, it was impossible to assassinate a royal family member in the palace.

The strategy would also bring another potential problem. If a witch did manage to murder Timothy Wimbledon, the church would probably benefit the most from its outcome… With simply a little instigation, the church would be able to condemn Prince Roland for colluding with Devil’s minions to usurp the throne. By that time, nobles would have also united together to resist Roland’s army. With that being said, Theo believed that as smart as the prince was, Roland must have already foreseen these prospective difficulties.

So, how would His Highness break into the inner city?

“Your Excellency, did you wish to see me?” Just then, Hill Fawkes pushed the half-open door and entered the living room.

Theo spread out his hands. “I’m waiting for a new order. Please take a seat.”

“… OK.”

Perceiving the surprised look of the former acrobat, Theo smiled wryly. Normally he would clearly communicate the order to these people, but this time, he felt hard to hand His Highness’ task in advance. If the palace was not bombed, not only would he look very absurd to issue this order but it would also compromise the prince’s integrity at the same time.

On the contrary, if His Highness did succeed, the shock created by this operation would be revolutionary. These people would build greater confidence in Roland’s plan, for they would witness what a dangerous threat His Highness could pose to Timothy’s ruling without even physically being here. It would be a much more earthshaking blow than oral advertisements.

In this light, Theo decided to pick a middle way, which was to ask Hill to wait for the bombing in the inner city. If the prince did implement his plan, then so much the better. If the plan failed, he would just say the messenger got held up with something on their way.

“Have some tea.” Theo smiled. “Don’t have a questioning look all the time. The most important thing for an intelligence agent is…”

“To conceal himself, Sir.” Hill took the teacup and said, “I’ve seen many members of the patrol team on the street recently. It looks like that the number of the guards on the city wall has also doubled. Does it… have something to do with His Highness’ order?”

“That’s right. Timothy…”

No sooner had Theo finished his last sentence than a thunderbolt roared above the mansion. Windows rattled at the powerful sound. Although the shock was quite fugitive, Theo could clearly feel the ground was shaking. Hill was caught fully unprepared and the teacup in his hand fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.

Hill was dumbfounded. “I’m sorry, Sir… but what, what just happened?”

“Follow me,” Theo answered gravely.

As soon as the pair ran out of the mansion, their attention was diverted to a streak of black smoke around the palace area. Apparently, that was the cause of the previous thunderbolt. Theo had seen His Highness’ cannons and flintlocks, so he knew only alchemical powder could create such severe damage. He also believed regular cannons could not generate such an intense shock. It was more like the offspring of the explosives that had been used to attack armored demonic beasts earlier.

Hill gaped in disbelief, looking perfectly incredulous. “So His Highness’ warning is indeed true?”

“Yes.” Theo was relieved. He turned around and put on an unfathomable look. “This is also the new order issued to you by His Highness.”

Timothy’s face went livid. He looked at the fallen chandelier, too frightened to pronounce a word.

“Your Majesty, ahem… Your Majesty, are you OK?” The prime minister was choked by thick ashes in the air. “Hell, what just happened outside?”

Timothy was silent. His dry throat forbade him to make a reply promptly. A silver armored knight had just been crushed by the chandelier. The knight had just been about to report to him on the recruitment of refugees when the chandelier plunged and broke his neck. Timothy could not imagine what would have happened if he had paced one more step forward…

At this thought, all his hair stood up on its ends.

“Was that an earthquake?” The treasurer had yet to fully recover from the shock. “We’ve got to get out of the castle right now and go to an empty field.”

“That’s right, Your Majesty. It isn’t safe in here!”

“Shut up, all of you!” Timothy growled. The moment he yelled, he noticed that he almost lost his voice as if somebody were pressing on his neck. “Knight Weimar, take me to the basement right now!”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Although a little nervous, Steelheart Knight was overall calm compared with the other ministers. He helped Timothy up and led him downstairs.

While they were walking, the new king noticed the ground was littered with broken glass. Through the broken windows, he saw the Hall of Sky Dome next to the castle was completely gone, except a few lonely stone pillars enveloped in smog. This was definitely not the effect of an earthquake, but of an explosion generated by a large amount of snow powder!

Timothy realized that it was almost suicidal to slip out of the castle now, for God knew where else Roland Wimbledon had deployed snow powder. Therefore, the basement built with thick, sturdy stones was the only safe place.

“Damn it!” Timothy cursed within himself. He wondered how his fourth brother possessed those alchemical weapons. Could it be possible that Garcia had given Roland the ingredients and asked him to wage a war against him before she had left Port of Clearwater, so both he and Roland would be consumed by the battle?

Even if that was the case, how did Roland manage to ship snow powder to the palace? Even an extraordinary witch could not possibly do so!

“You take the knightage to conduct a thorough search of the palace, especially of places for hiding snow powder, such as the drainage system, the garden and the barn!” As soon as Timothy stepped into the basement, he gave his order to Steelheart Knight. “Once you’ve found someone that appears suspicious, arrest him immediately, no matter he’s a noble, a guard or a servant. I want you not to miss a single soul!”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The new king did not realize that his back had been covered with cold sweats until Knight Weimar departed.

He could not believe that Roland had indeed succeeded in hiding snow powder in his palace unnoticed!

It did not matter what method he had used. If he could hide snow powder in the palace, he could definitely put them in the castle as well.

“You aren’t as safe as you’ve excepted. By then, every civilian will notice that your throne is hanging by a thread.”

Timothy shuddered at this warning.

Terror started to slowly creep in and in the end seized him after his fury gradually dissipated.

Chapter 309: An Exploration of Knowledge

oland received an encrypted letter from the king’s city.

It was most likely a letter from his guard, Theo, for the letter was delivered by a carrier pigeon.

After taking the note off the bird’s paw, Roland walked to the window and started to peruse its content in the bright sunlight.

“Your Highness, your plan was an astounding success.”

“As the access to the palace was soon blocked, I did not know how profound the impact of the bombing was until later. By the evening, almost every resident in the king’s city has been talking about the incident. It’s the only thing people are now discussing. Where there’s a little knot of people, rumors follow, no matter it’s a hotel, an inn or the square. Nothing has ever created such a great commotion, not even the death of the previous king. Because of your warning earlier, now many people are of opinion that Timothy died in the accident, and that you’ll soon come to the king’s city to ascend the throne, becoming the new sovereign of the Kingdom of Graycastle.”

Roland felt relieved as he read this paragraph. No news could be better than the success of the bombing operation and the safe return of the witches.

He made himself some tea and returned to the mahogany desk to continue to read the letter.

“Nonetheless, based on the information I’ve collected so far, the great nobles outside the king’s city have yet to have any reaction to this matter. On the contrary, the palace soon came up with a countermeasure. Therefore, I conjecture that Timothy Wimbledon may still be alive.”

“Further, someone boasted that the attack was out of God’s will, for some residents saw a pale, white object descend from the sky and plunge into the palace. In view of the above-noted, my preliminary plan is to proclaim the bombing as a God’s Punishment for the atrocities the usurper committed. I believe many people will buy this explanation.”

“My employees are all excited about this operation. They’ve collected quite a bit information on some of the most obnoxious crimes Timothy committed. Combined with the recent incident, the argument will be convincing. I hold that within a month, the rumor about Timothy’s wicked acts will be circulated all over the city and reach every citizen through Rats in the Black Street.”

“In addition, I’ll continue to closely monitor the movement of the barrack at the eastern suburb. From the current situation, however, I assume Timothy will leave it as it’s for the time being until he develops a strategy to defend the city.”

There was no signature at the end of the letter. Roland folded the encrypted letter and put it into the drawer after finishing reading it. He breathed out a long sigh.

If the “Easterly Wind No.1” could prevent Timothy from sending out his troops, that would be perfect.

It would be a huge waste of population to form a drugged army. The later Timothy commenced the war, the greater chance he would have to increase his manpower.

Roland raised the teacup and sipped the scented black tea. The next thing he should do was to wait for the return of the witches.

He had felt a little strange and uneasy with Anna’s absence and the intact dried fish in the drawer in the past few days.

Just then, Carter pushed the office door open.

“Your Highness, two fleets arrived at the dock.”

Roland was a bit surprised. “That’s the fleet of Margaret’s Chamber of Commerce’s, isn’t it? She just missed a show… Hang on, there’re two fleets you said?”

“Yes,” Carter replied with a smile, “some members of the emissary delegation you sent to the South Region for recruitment have just come back. The dock is now packed with the refugees they brought. The City Hall is currently busy in screening them according to your procedure. I mean the plan you implemented with Miss Lily…”

“The quarantine protocol.”

“Yes, that’s it. This is to eliminate the possible existence of the demonic plague…” The chief knight coughed in embarrassment. “There’re around 400 to 500 people coming here.”

“Really?” Roland could not help smiling. He was satisfied to see some progress in his plan. It seemed that Lotus had to arrange accommodations for more people. “Let’s go and take a look.”

Kyle Sichi put down the thin book. The sentence “I see” fell from his lips and gradually turned into a repetitive murmur.

“Mentor?” Chavez asked with some concerns.

Kyle had not been asleep for two days since he received “Intermediate Chemistry”. He had been reading the ancient book almost day and night. Chavez had once stolen a glance at the contents, but they were too profound and difficult for him to comprehend.

“I’m very well,” the chief alchemist answered vigorously. His voice was the most passionate one without a hint of weariness. Although there was a thin layer of crust at the corner of Kyle’s eyes, his pupils were glistening with excitement. The chief alchemist did not by any means look like a person in lack of sleep.

As a common rule, a student was not allowed to interrupt his mentor while the latter was conducting research on alchemy. Therefore, Chavez did not speak until now. “I don’t really get… this book. What’s an atom, and what’s an electron?”

“You’re now a qualified alchemist, and you don’t need to regard yourself as a student any longer. We’re currently what High Highness refers to as colleagues.” Kyle paused for a second and then continued, “As to your question, I don’t have an answer, either. In fact, His Highness also gave me this book when he handed ‘Intermediate Chemistry’ to me.”

Chavez looked at another book placed on the desk. The cover indicated the name of the book was Natural Science Theoretical Foundation.

“Mr… Sichi.” Apparently not accustomed to this way of addressing, Chavez stuttered. “It seems the book has nothing to do with alchemy… no, I mean with chemistry.”

“I thought so, too.” Kyle stroked his beard. “However, after I skimmed through a few pages, I realized that I actually know nothing about the world.”

“What?” Chavez was stunned at Kyle’s conclusion. The sole research subjects of alchemists were the constitution of objects and the nature of elements. If they were considered as ignorant, the rest of ordinary people would be no smarter than monkeys.

“I mean ideas.” The Chief Alchemist was exhilarated and… contented at the same time. “We don’t really think out of the box but simply regard alchemy as an exploration of substances. We think it bears no relations with the rising and setting sun or the decline and flourish of a flower.”

“Isn’t that so… The movements of the sun and stars are the research subjects of astrologers’. As to plants,” Chavez commented somewhat contemptuously, “only farmers and pharmacists care about them.”

“That’s why we’re ignorant of the world.” Kyle shook his head. “This book connects everything together from the beginning. Stones, flowers, grass, thunders and flames all consist of the same thing and follow a certain set of rules. These rules don’t only apply to chemical reactions, but also apply to the rise and set of the sun, the bloom and fading of flowers. The rules are so accurate and consistent that as long as the conditions at the starting point are the same, the results will be identical. Chemistry, after all, only takes a very small part.”

“… How, how can it be possible?”

“I also feel it incredible.” Kyle spread out the periodic table of elements and explained, “Intermediate Chemistry asserts that each element has a specific shape, consisting of a big sphere and many small ones surrounding it. The big sphere determines an element, whereas the number and the layers of the small spheres determine the element’s property. This table here organizes all the elements based on this rule. The tabular arrangement is as orderly as a line of soldiers. Even I haven’t completely figured out what His Highness was actually trying to convey. The prince believes that one can know the property and the reaction mechanism of an element even without actually seeing or touching it. Its underlying reason is that the nature of a chemical reaction is the loss and gain of small balls. The reaction itself won’t affect big balls. That’s also why during a chemical reaction, elements won’t disappear but will just transfer.”

Chavez contemplated for a while and asked, “Do you… believe it?”

These theories were just so abstract as to be verified through experiments. Chavez wondered how the author of the book got to know all of these.

Kyle smiled. “I don’t know. That’s why I couldn’t answer your previous question. No matter you believe it or not, the point is, that the book has told us to view things from a perspective that we’ve never thought of… It shows me another realm beyond chemistry.” Kyle paused for a moment and then said, “Unfortunately, His Highness did not write all the elements down. He probably doesn’t understand what he has exactly missed.”

Chavez did not quite understand what Kyle had just said. He felt bewildered as if he had once again become that new apprentice who, for the first time of his life, had come across alchemy terminologies and overwhelmed by this foreign language.

Yet he was not worried. As long as he followed the guidance of his mentor, he would eventually learn the so-called “connections between everything”. He had much more time to study than the chief alchemist.

After a while, Chavez broke the silence. “By the way, why are the books given by His Highness labeled with different colors?”

The chief alchemist uttered an exclamation. “I, I didn’t notice that. Did he just randomly label them?” However, he soon shook his head. “No, they can be random if they’re only in black and red. These pigments are particularly hard to make, so it can’t just be a coincidence. That means His Highness did it on purpose, didn’t he?”

Elementary Chemistry was in blue, Natural Science Theoretical Foundation blue, Elementary Mathematics green and Intermediate Chemistry (Remnant) purple. These colors did not pop up when being singled out. They became quite eye-catching, however, when being put together.

“Perhaps for some aesthetic reasons?” Chavez presumed.

Chapter 310: The Pure Witches

tanding on the top of a hillside, Mayne looked out over Wolfheart City.

In merely three months, it completely changed. The last time he had come here, its city wall built with neat, white snow stones from the Kingdom of Everwinter had been like stain-free white teeth of a new-born wolf, but now the blood-stained, damaged wall looked brown and mottled. Broken parts of it were hastily mended with the local black rocks or even wooden frames and plates.

Looking from afar, this rough, dirty wall was like dreadful fangs of an old wolf who had gnawed many animals and become a real predator.

The church’s forces camped at a place around 2,500 meters away from Wolfheart City. Less soldiers of the church came here this time. In case that the Queen of Clearwater would sneak attack the old Holy City, the church reserved some forces to guard it and only sent 800 God’s Punishment Warriors, 5,000 Judgement Warriors and 5,000 transport corps men here to conquer Wolfheart City, but Mayne was fully confident in capturing this city, with the secret weapons and the pure witches.

“Your Eminence, ‘Siege Beasts’ have been set in place, ready to attack,” a priest ran to the top of the hillside and reported to him

“What about the pure witches?”

“They’re ready, too.”

He lifted a telescope in front of his eye to observe the battlefield. Two “Siege Beasts” were crouching 1,000 meters away from Wolfheart City, hiding themselves well under a thatched shed and surrounded by planks. It was hard for anyone seeing with naked eyes from afar to notice those two ferocious-looking weapons.

In front of the “Siege Beasts”, stood the God’s Punishment Army formed by soldiers converted from the most pious believers of the church. They remained upright and motionless in the autumn wind. All the enemies who had fought against them had been overwhelmed by their might. As they were unable to act independently in battles, they were controlled by their commanders who mingled among them under the guise of God’s Punishment Warriors. As for these commanders, even the church people, except the pope and three archbishops, had no idea who they were.

“Good, now you can return to your position and wait for the attacking horn.” Mayne nodded with satisfaction.

“Yes, Your Eminence.”

Now it was time to summon the Supreme Pontiff’s Pure Witches.

Thinking of them, Mayne could not help but knit his eyebrows. Totally different from the other witches raised up by the church, they behaved as they pleased even in the army. If his own pure witches acted like this, he would punish them by whips, but he could not treat these two pure witches like that, as they held equivalent positions to him in the church. After all, Supreme Pontiff had only ordered them to assist him in this battle, not to follow his order.

No matter how they behaved, he still needed their help to eliminate the enemies.

He walked down the slope to the pure witches’ tent outside the battalion. Just as he had expected, he found no one in the tent when he lifted up the door curtain.

“Where did Zero and Isabella go?” he asked a Judgement Warrior stood at the door.

“The two ladies are interrogating prisoners and should be in the east of the battalion. There’s a flat open space. You’ll see it when you walk in that area. Do you need me to call them over?” said the guard.

“I won’t come here if you can invite them out. And it’s a captive game again… Haven’t they got tired of it yet?” Mayne complained inwardly and said to the guard with a gloomy face, “no, I’ll go there to have a look.”

…

He soon came to the place mentioned by the guard.

Surrounded by lots of Judgement Warriors, two women stood in the middle. In front of them, there were three captives whose hands were tied behind their backs. One woman leaning forward was whispering something to the captives with a soft and intent look on her face. Her white hair and corners of her white robe danced in the wind, making her look like a pure elf. The other woman who got a great body, blonde wavy hair and a dulcet voice chuckled now and then.

Mayne said to the chief justice beside him, “Order all the Judgement Warriors to leave this place at once, including the ones in charge of those captives.”

“Yes, Your Eminence.”

The blonde witch noticed this. She said something to the other witch and then quickly walked toward Mayne.

“Your Eminence.” She slightly bowed to him and continued, “Why do you drive away all the audience? The trial will begin right away.”

He nodded back to greet her and said, “Lady Isabella, the full-range attack on Wolfheart City is about to begin. At this moment, there’s no point in interrogating captives. Besides, they’re just scouts we caught along the way and can offer little valuable information. If you can, I hope you two immediately come to the front line.”

“Relax, now that we’re here, it’s impossible for any important enemy to escape. As for the trial… I can’t stop her. Given that, how about you watching it here? It won’t take a long time, anyway,” Isabella said while spreading her hands.

“The same trial game?”

“Well, the rules are basically the same.” She smiled. “Zero just loves this kind of games.”

“So, start it immediately.” Mayne tried his best to suppress his anger to put on an expressionless face, but he swore inwardly. “Damn! What the hell is this trial game? It should be called the cat-and-mouse game. In this game, a captive has to get out of a certain area set by Zero or defeat her to get a slim chance of survival. These seemingly easy tasks which are actually something the captives could never complete are thrown out by Zero as baits to lure the captives into her traps.”

It was not a fair game at all, and what the pure witch did was far from a good, pure deed. This was the reason Mayne had ordered to send away all the Judgement Warriors who were in charge of protecting and monitoring the pure witches. He was afraid that watching this would shake their faith in the church.

He made up his mind that when he became a pope, he must strictly teach these witches to obey orders.

At this moment, Zero had already untied the ropes binding the captives. She stretched out her arms to show that she did not carry any weapon, but the captives had a long sword, a bent blade and a light crossbow placed in front of them.

“Come on, fight or escape. Follow your own heart. Only deities can make a decision,” she said with a calm face and a gentle tone.

One of the captives clenched his teeth and picked up the crossbow to shoot at the pure witch close at hand in a sudden. Immediately after that, he grabbed the sword to strike at her, planning to leave her no time to react. He had done all those actions in just one smooth motion, which indicated that he was not just an ordinary militia fighter.

However, his sword did not hit the pure witch. Zero easily evaded the sudden strike by swiftly moving two steps backward. When he lifted up his head, he was agape seeing the witch holding the arrow between her lips, as if it were a common twig.

Zero spat out the arrow and said with a smile, “Go on, please.”

The captive’s eyes widened in fright. Seeing his trembling hands, Mayne was sure that most of the courage that he had just plucked up was gone now and all the remaining courage, if any, was only enough for his last strike.

As the archbishop expected, after a moment of hesitation, the captive gave full vent to his feelings in a loud roar and dashed toward the unarmed witch, with a sword in hand.

There was nothing at all skillful about the captive’s desperate last strike. Mayne could know what would happen next, even with his eyes closed. Having spent only half a month with Zero, he was impressed by her amazing ability. She was not an Extraordinary, but could definitely compete with Extraordinaries in terms of combat skills. She was not extremely powerful or resilient, but incredibly skillful.

Even without magic power, she would still make an excellent fighter.

Zero edged to one side to avoid the captive’s sword and then took a chance to grab his head with her slender hands. Making use of his forward momentum, she slightly twisted his head, and the captive collapsed suddenly, looking as if all his bones were removed.

Zero turned around to look at the two remaining captives and said, “Now, it’s your turn.”

Chapter 311: Common People Fight against Unearthly Power (Part ?)

aving seen what had happened, a remaining captive immediately turned around to escape, which disappointed Zero.

She transformed into a beam of dim light and entered the captive. He stopped running and rolled his eyes at once. It was not the first time for Mayne to witness this uncanny ability, but every time he saw it, he could not help but get cold feet.

As the dim light shone out of the captive’s body, his image was twisted and distorted. In the end, he changed into Zero.

Mayne could tell that this was not possessing or killing, but as for what had happened exactly in the process, he thought that only the pope and those people who had experienced it had a clear idea.

Zero took a deep breath and then walked to the last captive.

At the age of 14 or 15, he was the youngest among all the three captives. With the panic in his clear eyes, this boy clearly could not believe what he had seen.

“Now, you’re all alone, Al,” Zero whispered.

Hearing this, the boy who was trying to pick up the bent blade with trembling hands was stunned. “Wh-Why…”

“Deities have told me everything. You’re a farmer’s child living in the suburbs, but the King of Wolfheart forced all the people in your village to move into the city to repair the city wall, make military supplies and deliver food for the army. They didn’t treat a young boy like you differently. They grabbed you for military service in the scouts team and then abandoned you to your fate.” She reached out her hand to touch his cheek. “The best evidence of this is the fact that you weren’t allowed into the city by the guards the first time you went back to report. You delivered to them the information about our actions, but the captain of the guards just asked you to leave and to follow us again, after hearing your report, right?”

“I…” He opened his mouth but failed to say anything.

“They would never let you in, because all the people in your family, your parents and brothers, were dead at that time. They were just like you, being enslaved and abandoned by the king. If the guards let you in, the whole scouts team would know those bad, disgusting deeds. When your father was mending a breach in the city wall, he fell down from it and died. Your mother went to the supervision team to ask for a reason, but only received a flogging punishment. Because of this, now her life is hung by a thread. Without deities, this world will remain to be evil and ugly. Are you sure you still want to serve such a lord?” Zero said.

Al’s eyes widened in shock. Unable to resist the grief, he cried, “It’s… impossible. You’re lying!”

“Deities never lie.” the pure witch shook her head. “You know in the bottom of your heart that what I said is true. You know that your tragedy is caused by the fact that the noble would never regard you as equals and would treat you like their livestock. We, the church, however, want to end this kind of tragedies and build a new world which is under the supervision and protection of deities.”

Al fell heavily onto his knees and dropped his head, wailing. “Wh-What should I do?”

“Follow your own heart. Only deities can make a decision.”

The boy sobbed. “I was wrong. I’ll tell you everything I know. I’ll do anything as long as I can save my mother.”

“Good boy.” Zero patted his head. She took a plant which was full of slender leaves out of her pocket and handed it to him. “Eat this and have a good sleep first. It’ll stabilize your emotions.” She tore off half a leaf and chewed it in her mouth. “Eat it just like me. When we occupy Wolfheart City tomorrow, you’ll probably meet your mother again.”

Mayne frowned when he recognized the plant. It was sleeping fern used to made Dreamland Water. It did no harm to a witch, but could violently poison and kill a common person. Only coltsfoot could neutralize its toxicity. As he expected, quickly after the young boy ate it, his face turned green. He gripped his own throat and looked at the smiling pure witch in disbelief. He hissed and scratched his skin with his nails. Soon his blood spilled out, covering his neck. After struggling for nearly 7 minutes, he went limp and stopped breathing.

“It’s a pity that deities don’t forgive your sins.” Zero smiled and walked to the archbishop. She bowed and said, “Your Eminence, what do you think of this trial? Did I act like Her Eminence Heather?”

“Why did you delude him to eat sleeping ferns?” Mayne asked in a deep voice. “If it was Heather, we would get one more devout believer instead of a dead body. Why did you put this lost sheep that you brought back to death?”

“If his family members did die as what I’ve said, he’ll become a pious believer. Unfortunately, I didn’t know what happened to them. I made up the story to deceive him.” Zero shrugged, showing no emotion. “Once he found out the truth, it wouldn’t be a good thing for the church. That’s why I must kill him. Trust me. I serve the church wholeheartedly.”

“If you do, you should wait for orders inside your tent.” Mayne retorted inwardly. Not wanting to get involved in this trial thing any longer, he turned his head and said, “We’re about to attack. You two should get ready at once. According to our plan, the King of Wolfheart and the Queen of Clearwater…”

“Must die, Your Eminence.” The pure witch interrupted with a smile. “I may not be able to complete such a task alone, but now that Isabella is here, none of them can escape from the Kingdom of Wolfheart.”

“Woo, Woo…!”

The attacking horn resounded to the skies. Under black clouds, the church launched the second siege battle in the rustling autumn wind.

Over 1,000 meters away from the city, the spear holders of the “Siege Beasts” started to shine with magic power. When they shone like the glaring sun, a spear was thrown out with a deafening roar, looking as if it were hurled out by a giant. It flew toward the city wall at such a high speed that the human eyes were unable to capture it.

After traveling a long distance, the iron spear still maintained its momentum. It smashed into the snow stone city wall and continued to knock down the militia soldiers hiding behind it. Three rounds of spear shooting shattered the city gate and heavily damaged the wall area near it.

Working at a similar speed to a catapult, the demons’ siege weapons could shoot several times farther than the man-made armament. As the city’s defending soldiers were unable to see the moving trails of the extremely fast spears, they had no idea where they were going to attack. Given that, they did not know how to fight back, either. Before the church’s army came to the city, its outer defense line was already teetering on the brink of collapse.

In a sudden, an earth-shattering boom reverberated somewhere behind the city wall.

A huge fire ball shot up into the sky. All the soldiers nearby felt the vibration under their feet, and then the section of wall tumbled down in the fire and black smoke, leaving a gap in this mottled city wall.

Hearing the quick sounds of the horn, Judgement Army and God’s Punishment Army started to charge toward the city wall. They looked like golden and red waves, remorselessly swamping all the enemies who dare to stand in front of them.

Being only flesh and blood, the defenders of Wolfheart now had to fight against those unearthly soldiers.

Chapter 312: Common People Fight against Unearthly Power (Part ?)

quot;Common people can’t compete with demons. That’s why the church creates God’s Punishment Army,” Isabella thought.

God’s Punishment Warriors were extremely powerful, without pain or fear, making the best soldiers to fight against demons. They could not act independently, but this was not necessarily a shortcoming during battles.

It was impossible for the city’s garrison formed by common people to stop such a strong troop.

Especially now, without the city wall’s protection, they could never defeat the church’s elite soldiers in close combats.

The golden waves arrived at the gate of Wolfheart City. Judgement Warriors dressed in golden started an intense fight against the assembled garrison. Among the gold waves, there were some red spots which were God’s Punishment Warriors wearing red clothes. They walked from the collapsed section up to the top of the wall as easily as on the flat ground and began to kill the soldiers of Wolfheart, who were still trying to hold their position in the front line.

Isabella turned around and asked Zero, “Are we going to help them?”

Zero yawned and answered, “No, my magic power is limited. I’ve got to leave it to the important enemies.”

Isabella twitched her lips, saying, “Come on, you can fight with swords, hammers or crossbows. They can’t defeat you anyway.”

Zero shook her head and said, “With or without me, our army will easily win the battle. I don’t want to do such a meaningless thing.”

“Well.” Isabella decided to change the subject. “Why did you do that?”

“What?”

“Seeing you fool with the boy captive, the archbishop got a really stiff face.” Isabella seemed a little worried. “He’s probably the next pope and he doesn’t seem to like this kind of trials. Aren’t you worried he’ll give you a hard time.”

“Lord Mayne may be angry seeing that. That’s because he’s not yet become the pope.” Zero seemed to pay no heed to Isabella’s advice and continued, “As soon as he steps into the library on the top floor of Pivotal Secret Temple, he’ll understand that it’s the only way to please the deities.”

“What… way?”

“Fooling.” Zero smoothed her snow-white hair blown into a mess by the wind. “Deities will never come to this world, nor will them protect the people in this world. Instead, they set an imaginary goal for us, forcing us to strive for it and long for it. Isn’t this just like my trial game? At least, I gave the captives a clear goal, but deities gave us nothing. They even don’t promise that the goal they set for us is real, or, all of this thing is just our crazy, twisted imagination. No matter what, we’re still willing to risk everything… Tsk, tsk, this is really fooling.”.

“What’s Zero talking about? How come I can’t understand a word she’s saying?” Isabella was confused and asked with a frown, “Have you been to the library?”

“Not yet,” Zero shrugged and explained, “His Holiness O’Brien told me these things. He’s no magic power and is getting near to the end of his life. It’s said that a common people tends to review all his life experiences in head and find someone to talk to, as his life moves to its end. The pope even plans to let me absorb him before he dies.”

“You can’t…”

Zero interrupted. “I won’t, of course. It’ll enrage Lord Mayne. Relax, I know what I can’t do.” She smiled meaningfully and added, “But there’s another possibility. What if the pope defeat me? When that happens, I’ll lose my body to him.”

“I don’t think so. If you lose, nothing will happen, I suppose.” Isabella heaved a sigh, thinking that Zero was indeed a strange person. She guessed that Zero’s weirdness might have something to do with her ability. By absorbing so many people, she had experienced all kinds of feelings in this world. As a result, she was seldom keen on one thing, and all she did was for fun, unusual fun.

Isabella moved her eyes back to the battlefield. Some drugged men suddenly appeared on top of the city wall, dashing toward God’s Punishment Army. Most of them got pierced through by God’s Punishment Warriors’ spears. Only a few made close to their target. At this moment, here came another explosion noise. Flying dust and smoke enveloped the gap area at once.

Isabella thought, “This is probably the alchemical weapon they’ve seen in the previous siege battle. It may be good enough to suppress demonic beasts, but will never stop God’s Punishment Army. Without pills, those people could hardly get close to God’s Punishment Warriors.”

At the gate area, the golden waves were blocked, too. A large fire flared up at the gate, stopping the Judgement Warriors outside from entering the city. Some warriors got inflamed in the fire. They immediately rolled on the ground, but still failed to put out the fire on their bodies.

Isabella said, “Oh, it seems some big shots have come to the gate. The density of God’s Stones of Retaliation increases several times, and there’re two high-quality stones.”

“So, let’s go to the battlefield,” Zero stretched her body and said.

“But they’re not the King of Wolfheart and the Queen of Clearwater.” Isabella glanced at the inner city area and continued, “The best stones are still in the castle. Are you sure you’re going to join the fight now?”

“Isn’t the army in trouble? A bitter victory is completely different from an easy victory. I’ve got to reduce loss for His Holiness O’Brien.” Zero tilted her head and with a serious look on her face she added, “As what I said before, I serve the church wholeheartedly.”

…

Wolfheart City’ outer defense line finally collapsed in the afternoon. God’s Punishment Warriors controlled the gap in the city wall, and Judgement Army swept into the streets of the city to eliminate the remaining defenders of Wolfheart.

“Our targets started to move.” Isabella looked at the castle. “They seem to head for the dock on the inland river.”

The two big shots who came to the gate to organize resistance turned out to be sons of the King of Wolfheart. Zero absorbed both of them and confirmed Isabella’s speculation by reading their memories. The two people wearing best-quality God’s Stones were the King of Wolfheart and the Queen of Clearwater.

Besides, Zero and Isabella also killed an exotically-dressed fallen witch. Right after her death, the number of drugged militia fighters who dared to fight against God’s Punishment Warriors decreased dramatically.

“They probably want to leave by boat. Let’s go to fulfill the mission that His Holiness gave to us,” Zero smiled and said.

The King of Wolfheart and the Queen of Clearwater acted with caution. They had changed routes several times on their way to the dock. When they arrived at the dock, they boarded a small, single-masted merchant ship instead of a great blacksail ship.

No matter how hard they had tried to cover their tracks, their each and every move had been captured by Isabella.

As soon as they stepped on the deck of the small ship followed by a score of guards, the pure witches outflanked them on both sides of the ship. The guards sensed danger at once. Without a word, they simultaneously drew out their swords, jumped off the ship and lunged at the witches.

Zero fought with skills and ease. She snatched a long sword from a guard with empty hands and used it to fight against the swordsmen. She precisely controlled her strength and used the sword to poke, strike, chop or block. She was so dexterous and quick in action that none of the guards could predict her next move. Each of her movements was well-timed and proper-angled and every strike of hers killed a guard. Soon, a dozen of guards fell down, dead.

Seeing this, the King of Wolfheart drew out his sword, ready to fight till death.

“Isabella!” Zero shouted.

“Got it.” Isabella summoned her magic power and formed around herself a lightless realm which could only be seen by Eye of Magic. She was able to see black zones created by different God’s Stones of Retaliation, where magic power effects would be eliminated. Those black zones were slightly vibrating at different rates, looking like rippled water surfaces. She made her own dark zone vibrate at the same rate as that one around the king did, and then connected her zone to the king’s. The ripples of her zone quickly canceled out that of the king’s zone, leaving both zones flat and smooth.

At this moment, Zero instantly transformed into a beam of dim light and entered the King of Wolfheart.

Seeing the King of Wolfheart twist and change into the pure witch, the Queen of Clearwater was unable to conceal her shock any longer. “Why can you use magic power faced with God’s Stones of Retaliation?”

“Because God’s Stones don’t work the way you think them do… but you don’t need to know this, as your end is coming soon,” Isabella replied and then stopped the vibration of Garcia Wimbledon’s black zone.

Before her voice faded away, Zero darted at Garcia.

Chapter 313: Battle of Souls

haven’t felt such warm sunshine for a long time.

Garcia stood in a garden and took a deep breath. She smelled rosemary in the gentle breeze.

Even with her eyes closed, she knew that she was not in the Kingdom of Everwinter. That place had nothing except cold winds, frozen soil and no-scent coltsfoot, and the backyard of the castle was constantly filled with stench from the sausage and the meat hung up to dry. This place was obviously not her Port of Clearwater, either. Winds here were not humid or salty, and she could not hear any sound of sea waves washing up on the beach.

“It must be the backyard of the palace of Graycastle,” she thought.

However, when she opened her eyes, she found it was somehow different from the place she remembered.

Sitting by the central flowerbed, she touched the rough stone bricks. Once in her childhood, when she had been playing hide-and-seek here, she had stumbled over some brick and broken her forehead, blood spilling out to cover her whole face. She remembered that her father had already had the bricks replaced by smooth cobbles to prevent similar accidents from happening again, but after that she had been unable to hide herself here any more.

She also remembered that the moment she had fallen, Gerald and Timothy had been there, too. They had been scared seeing what had happened to their sister. In order to comfort her, they had taken turns to imitate the way she had fallen and had deliberately hit their heads onto the bricks beside the flowerbed. Because of these stupid actions, they had been beaten by father afterwards.

Garcia had thought that she had already forgotten this experience, like a secret deeply buried under a tree. However, coming back to this place revived her memories at once. When this experience was dug out, she found that she could still clearly recall every detail of it.

She felt as if she traveled back to her childhood.

In a sudden, she heard a strange voice coming from behind. “So, this is your world. It’s a nice place for you to sleep forever.”

Following the soft, dreamlike voice, Garcia turned around and saw a woman dressed in white step out from the back of the flowerbed. She had long white hair, a perfect face and a pair of light red eyes, looking like an angel.

The Queen of Clearwater pulled her face and said, “You’re the church’s witch.”

“My name is Zero. It’s not appropriate to call me a witch. I’m a pure witch, different from those fallen ones,” the woman said with a slight smile.

Garcia said coldly, “Pure witch? You’re just the church’s plaything. What’s this trick? Is this scene a mirage you create? Is this your ability?” She paused to pick up a stone and squeezed it in her hand. “It’s not real! You can’t deceive me!”

The queen’s roar reached far, but nothing changed after that. The stone did not break. Instead, its hard edges grazed her hand. When she released the stone, she could still feel the pain in her hand clearly.

“Well, apparently, you’re not ignorant of witches’ abilities. It’s much easier for me to explain.” Zero lifted her dress a little and slightly bowed. “Welcome to the world of consciousness. I call it Soul Battlefield. We’re going to fight against each other here. The winner gets everything, and the loser loses everything… just as the oracle in the Holy Book says.”

Soul… Battlefield?

Garcia was stunned and suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest. Before she had noticed, Zero had conjured a spear from nowhere and thrust it into her chest, making her feel hard to breathe. She opened her mouth, trying to shout, but failed to make any sound. At this moment, Zero turned the barrel of the spear and pulled it out, let Garcia’s blood gush out and splash on her body. The queen knelt down, trying to cover the wound with trembling hands, but the massive loss of blood quickly made her black out.

The next moment, Garcia found herself intact and standing in the same place, and the pure witch was leaning on her erected long spear and watching her from a distance, looking as if she had never left that place.

Garcia panted heavily, thinking, “What happened just now? Is it just an illusion?” However, when she lowered her head, she saw a pool of blood at her feet.

“This is the rule, but consciousness isn’t immortal.” Zero spread her hands. “The pain of each death is real to you. It’ll consume your willpower and strength. When you can’t bear it anymore, the real long sleep will befall you.”

She continued to explain in a gentle voice, “After each death, your body will be restored to its original state. Most people were able to withstand three to four times at most, but some strong-willed people I’ve seen could survive seven to eight or even more times. I’m looking forward to seeing how many you can take, but I’ll understand if you decide to give up. After all, continuous deaths are an unbearable torment even for me. It’s not a cowardly choice to quit this battle especially when you’re doomed.”

With these words, she threw away her spear and drew out a long sword from her back. She jumped up, flying toward Garcia with the sword in hand.

Garcia’s eyes were widened in shock. “It’s impossible for the pure witch to hide such a big weapon in her white dress, so they must be… conjured from the air?” In a sudden, some words that the witch had said flashed upon her mind.

“So, this is your world…”

“I call it the Soul Battlefield.”

“Consciousness isn’t immortal… it’s real to you.”

The sword struck down, but hit on a large iron shield, instead of cutting Queen of Clearwater in half. The rebound force was so strong that Zero could hardly hold the handle of the sword. After a loud crash, the sword flew out of her hand, and she involuntarily moved backward for quite a long distance. Meanwhile, Garcia was also knocked down by the impact.

“I’m doomed?” the queen grated her teeth and sneered. “You said that this is ‘my world’, did you?” She rolled to get up and conjured a hand crossbow. When she was shooting at Zero with it, a crucifix rose behind the witch to trap her.

With bolts shot into her tummy, the pure witch revealed a look of suffering on her face. She panted for a while and then said slowly, “I, I’m really surprised… ahem, usually it’s hard for a person to perceive the rule of this world, let alone motivating his consciousness to fight back. Queen of Clearwater, you’re definitely a tough opponent even for Lord Mayne.”

“Thanks for the compliment.” Garcia picked up the spear on the ground. “If you didn’t talk so much crap, I wouldn’t realize the wonders of this world so quickly. Well, next, how many holes should I pierce your body?”

The pure witch smiled bitterly, saying, “It’s up to you.”

…

When Garcia thrust the spear into Zero for the 10th time, the witch finally died. The queen intentionally avoided the vital parts by starting from her limbs and tummy. In the beginning, Zero had given out sad shrills but then she had gradually quieted down in the process.

“Now, this witch will come back to life, but I won’t lose. This is the palace of the Kingdom of Graycastle, my world. I can conjure anything here according to my will,” Garcia thought.

Soon, as a beam of white light shone through Zero’s body, all her wounds were gone. She opened her light red eyes again.

Garcia raised the spear, ready to kill the witch one more time. However, out of her expectation, Zero easily got rid of the ropes that tied her to the crucifix. She kicked the spear away and came close to Garcia. Before the queen realized, she lifted her hand and cut. Garcia lost all her feelings at once.

In front of Zero who had nothing in her hand, a headless body feebly fell to the ground.

How… is this possible?

After a dozen seconds, Queen of Clearwater came back to life again. She covered her neck with her hands and staggered backward in fright, thinking, “Did the witch cut my head off with just her hand?” She looked at the broken hemp ropes on the crucifix and then at the blood on her own hands, convincing herself that what had happened was true.

Zero smiled and said, “If you don’t understand the rule of the consciousness world, how can I get a real fight? You look confused. Are you wondering how did I get rid of the ropes which were as thick as a finger? The answer is simple. As I told you, in this world, the winner takes all… Among all the people I’ve absorbed, there’re some supremely powerful witches. They’re strong, fast and not afraid of God’s Stone of Retaliation. Maybe you’ve never heard of them before. The church calls them Extraordinaries.”

Zero opened her arms, saying, “You can’t defeat me by conventional means. If you want to survive, you’ve got to try harder… Now, it’s my turn.”

Chapter 314: Total Annihilation

his was the first time for Garcia to witness what an Extraordinary could do.

The weapon in her hand was just an ordinary sword, but its strikes were unbelievably heavy and powerful. After resisting several such strikes with her shield in hand, Garcia was unable to lift up her arm anymore. At this moment, Zero poked the sword from the ground to the sky to break her chin.

When she recovered this time, she decisively abandoned this strategy of passive defense and conjured a ballista in front of her. She pulled the trigger to shoot several jars of black water of the Styx’s River instead of iron spears. Zero struck to break the earthen jars and got soaked in the black water downpour. The fire crystals immersed in the jars fell out and covered all over her body. They started to fume and burn as soon as they contacted with the air, turning the pure witch into a pillar of fire.

When Zero came back to life again and begun to move at a super-human speed around the flowerbed, Garcia’s trick could not work anymore. Now that she was unable to aim her ballista at the fast-moving witch, she tried to hinder her movement by rising a stone wall and steel bars covered with sharp thorns in the garden. She changed all the flowerpots into explosives filled with snow powder and sometimes created sinkholes in the ground to trap the witch.

By doing all these things, Garcia had killed Zero for several times. Gradually, her breath was getting labored and heavy and beads of sweat were sliding down from her forehead. Suffering from frequent dizzy spells, she felt as if she were standing on a shaky ground.

“Well done.” Zero recovered and clapped her hands, instead of taking this chance to launch an attack. “You’ve really impressed me a lot by fighting till now. but I forgot to tell you something. In this world of consciousness, you can change your world according to your will as you did just now, but it consumes much more energy than conjuring things out of the air… It feels like recovering from a death. You must feel weak and tired now, and the next time, you may fall asleep forever.”

“Huh, it’s better than stretching out my neck for your sword.” Garcia panted and continued, “You seem to forget about the screams you made when you were burnt by the fire crystals. How many times have you died? Three or four? I don’t think you’ll hold on any longer than I do.”

“…” Zero remained speechless for a while and said, “Since I became a pure witch of the church, I’ve been well trained in literacy, basic knowledge and combat skills. To enhance my ability, the church even fed Judgement Warriors to me. Knowing that they would sacrifice themselves, those warriors still came into Soul Battlefield without hesitation. In this world of consciousness, they fought till death just to improve my skills, and then were absorbed by me voluntarily, giving me all their feelings and experiences.”

Garcia guessed that Zero might be trying to delay the time, but she did not interrupt the witch, as she also needed some rest now.

“I’ve swallowed an Extraordinary. Her power filled me with awe. I nearly lost in that Battle of Souls, but in the end I managed to defeat her with the demons’ weapon and got all the things she had. Due to the differences in magic types, I can’t change into an Extraordinary, or get the ability of any other witch I absorbed, but it’s not a problem for me in this world of consciousness. By absorbing countless people in the past 200 years, I’ve become so strong that no one can threaten me now, and in this way, I’ve experienced all kinds of pains, happiness, sorrows and pleasures of this world…” Zero paused for a while. “And all kinds of deaths.”

“What… is your point?” Garcia asked with a frown.

Zero calmly replied, “To show you the gap between you and me. With all the souls in me, I’ve got extraordinary willpower. To make it more clear, if you judge one’s willpower by the death times she can bear, you’ll see that I can bear at least 100 times of death.”

Garcia sneered. “Well, I’ll help you verifying it.” Meanwhile, however, her heart sank… She could tell that Zero was not bluffing about it. Having witnessed the witch easily kill the guards at the dock, the queen had to admit that she did demonstrate combat skills that were not consistent with her age. “Given that, I’ve got to use a more powerful weapon to fight against her… Come on, I have to be quick! What weapon can easily kill an experienced Extraordinary?”

Zero seemed to be able to read through Garcia’s mind and said, “The Battle of Souls isn’t about imagination. You can’t make yourself impervious to blades and spears or summon some legendary weapon of destructive power out of the air… In this world, you create weapons to fight with based on your own knowledge and experiences instead of imagination. You can’t summon those things that you don’t understand.”

Garcia sneered. “I’ll spread snow powder all over the garden. When that happens, you can’t escape any more, and I may end up dead, too. However, at least, in this way, I can destroy you along with myself!”

Zero looked at the queen with pity, saying, “What a meaningless result you strive for. In this case, I’ll show you the real strength of the church.”

Several beams of red light shone behind Zero and then cohered as ferocious-looking chariots. The giant chariots even crushed the wall of the garden. On the top of each chariot, two sharp iron spears stuck out, reminding Garcia of what a guard of the King of Wolfheart had reported. He had said that the church had been using some strange spear throwers to attack the city wall and that those weapons which he had had never seen before had turned to be far stronger and shot much farther than the other weapons of their type. Garcia wondered whether these giant weapons in front of her were the strange spear throwers mentioned by the guard.

At this moment, she heard a “Zoom” noise.

A thick spear broke through the barriers raised by Garcia and easily tore her in half, sending her body parts flying backward. Before she lost consciousness this time, she could even see her own inner organs and blood spill all over the ground.

She died and recovered again and again, while the chariots kept shooting long spears at her. In this process, she could hardly get a chance to create snow powder to kill both her enemy and herself. Constant tearing pains started to make her out of consciousness. Right at the moment, the ground began to tremble and the sky started to crack. Lightning flashed, thunder rumbled and a large fire broke out in the garden.

“A strong will will only delay your failure. It won’t change the result.” Zero closed her eyes. “You’ve struggled for long enough. Now, rest in peace.”

After these words, the whole world collapsed.

…

“Is it over?” Isabella twitched her mouth. “Should not it be completed instantly? I saw you change back into yourself a long time ago, but you’ve not said even a word… I thought you failed.”

Zero opened her eyes and said, “In her memory, I found something interesting. Some of her ideas… amazed me.”

Isabella asked with a casual air, “Oh? Is there anything in the world still able to surprise you? What about that strange alchemy powder? Did you find it?”

“Yes, the alchemists call it snow powder, made from common raw materials in their workshops. Its composition is quite simple.”

“Good, let’s hurry back to Holy City to report to His Holiness O’Brien.” Isabella heaved a sigh of relief. “The battle here will last for at least three or four days, but without the leaders and the witch, the remaining troops can’t stop God’s Punishment Army now.”

“Let’s go,” Zero nodded and said.

“Wait …” Isabella stopped her.

“What?”

Isabella looked at Zero carefully and then shook her head, saying, “No… nothing.” However, she could not help but think, “Is it an illusion? She looks the same as before, but why did I feel that there was something different in her light red eyes?”

Perhaps I’m just thinking too much.

Chapter 315: A Celebration Party

oland held a splendid celebration party in the hall of his castle in Border Town.

Besides the witches, all high officials of City Hall and the First Army attended it, including noblemen such as Barov Mons and Carter Lannis and civilians like Iron Axe and Kyle Sichi. Roland had tried every possible way to persuade Kyle to come to this, in his words, “meaningless” banquet.

In order to share his happiness with his subjects, the prince gave a public speech and ordered his kitchen to bake a large sum of white bread with the left refined starch for the people of the town. Today, everyone who showed his or her ID card to City Hall, could get one piece of this delicious bread there. In this way, most people of the town knew the victory before the return of the First Army.

They might not understand the purpose and significance of this expedition, but as long as they could get free bread, it was a day worth celebrating.

This was the first time for Roland to organize an “elegant” banquet, following the fashion trend of the king’s city.

It was similar to a buffet in the modern times. Instead of serving chunks of grilled or stewed meat, all the food was diced or sliced and delivered to the table in white plates. Besides the dishes, different sauces were placed in a big bowl for the guests to use according to their preference.

He walked toward Anna, with two glasses of fruit wine in hands. “Welcome back. Thank you for your hard work.”

Anna took a glass of wine, saying, “You’ve already thanked me at the dock. It’s my pleasure.”

When they clinked glasses, Roland saw the happiness and sweetness in the girl’s eyes. He resisted the urge to hold her on the spot and then toasted to the other witches.

“What about me?” shouted Lightning.

“You shall have some, too.” Roland beckoned to a waiter and took a glass of cider for her. “Thank you for your hard work.”

“I want white liquor!” the little girl looked up and said.

“Uhm… All right, but only one glass of it.” After a little thought, Roland agreed to her request. He thought that if he continued to refuse her plea like this, this curious little girl would follow Nightingale’s example and sneak into the kitchen to steal liquor for herself.

“Yes!”

The moment Roland handed her a glass of low-alcohol white liquor with ice cubes, the little girl suddenly came up and kissed his cheek.

“Ahem… Is this a social etiquette of the Fjords again?”

“Yes, my dad told me that!” Lightning nodded vigorously.

The witches of the town, who had seen similar things happen before, did not seem to heed this action, but Sylvie and all the other Sleeping Island witches stared at this in surprise. After that, they all looked at Roland with accusing looks in their eyes, seriously doubting this strange Fjords etiquette of kissing the lord during a celebration party. Feeling quite awkward, the prince turned his head aside to avoid their eyes.

After that, he moved to toast to his officials.

When he came to Chief Alchemist Kyle Sichi, he leaned toward him and whispered, “Your Highness, I’ve read “Intermediate Chemistry” twice, but still can’t understand many parts of it.”

“It expounds microcosmic composition of substances and involves lots of physics knowledge. You have to read it together with another book to get a clear idea. I suggest that you read ‘Elementary Physics’ before you read the incomplete chemistry book. In this way, you can find answers for many of your questions,” Roland explained.

“That’s what I intended to do, but…” He hesitated. “Your Highness, why do the covers of the ancient books have different colors? Do the colors suggest anything?”

“Well…” Roland continued after a little thought. “The colors represent different levels and different degrees of difficulty.”

With a thoughtful expression on his face, Kyle said, “I see. The covers change from green to purple, and the deeper the color is, the more difficult the content of the book will be. Given that, the cover of ‘Advanced Chemistry’ must be black, right?

“No, it’s orange.”

“Ah?” Kyle was greatly surprised. “Why?”

Roland smiled and said, “Who knows.”

…

Halfway through the banquet, the prince walked out of the hall and came to the castle terrace. In the evening breeze, he felt a touch of coolness and then realized that half of the autumn had already past and before long the Months of Demons would bring a long, cold winter to the whole Western Region.

He was happy to have witnessed many good changes of the town in this year. After the deals with Margaret’s Chamber of Commerce, the town was awash in liquidity. Most of those gold royals were distributed to the subjects as wages, except for some used to buy food and goods. A recent survey conducted by the Convenience Market showed remarkable sales increases in all kinds of goods of the market, especially those goods which could significantly increase life quality, such as steaks and eggs.

No doubt, the statistics suggested that the living standard of the people was improved, especially that of the locals. Now that they had free brand new houses and much higher incomes, they started to buy good food for daily meals, which they had only been able to enjoy in festivals in the past. As to the newcomers of the town, they were still saving money to buy houses. Roland believed that when they settled down, the market would see a new sales peak.

What did the people need? In some era, they would be grateful and loyal to their lord, as long as they could eat and drink well.

Just like in this era, most people were easy to be content.

“Your Highness, be careful not to catch cold.” Nightingale appeared behind him with a thin leather coat in her hand. She tossed it to Roland and then took out a piece of dried fish. She stood beside him, asking, “What’re you doing here?”

“Nothing.” He smiled and put on the coat. “I just wanted to see my domain in a sudden.”

“The town still seems bustling.” Nightingale pointed to the square lit up by firelight. “It’s getting late now, but there’re still so many people outside.”

“Because tonight is the first night of the new drama ‘Dawn’.” Roland smiled. “It’s the first show after the troupe comes back here. The audience has waited for several months. They just can’t wait any longer to see Miss May and Ms. Irene again.”

He suddenly thought of the fact that Miss May would soon become Ms. May Rannis. To his great surprise, his chief knight had quickly won the affection of Star of the Western Region. He had been dumbfounded for a long while when Carter told him about it with an expression of absolute honesty. By tradition, a chief knight’s marriage needed his lord’s approval. As Carter’s lord, Roland would never object to such a happy thing. Carter and May’s wedding would be held after the Months of Demons this year, on the same day of the city-building announcement of Border Town.

Nightingale was also moved by the lively scene, saying, “When I sneaked into the town for the first time, it was still a dull, backward place, but now I can feel the joy of the people even when I’m standing inside the castle.”

“The people’s life is getting better day by day.” Roland looked up at the cloudless, starry night sky, thinking that he still had a lot of things to do, such as expanding education, establishing public health care system, strengthening cultural construction, encouraging births, etc. All these things would thrive his Western Region and give him enough strength to unify the Kingdom of Graycastle.

“What about us?” Nightingale tilted her head and asked, with a crafty look in her eyes.

“You’ll be getting better, too.” Roland patted her head. “I promise.”