She had also borrowed the books, “The History of the Kingdom of Graycastle” and “A brief History of the Mainland” from Roland. The first one almost unequivocally recorded the Kingdom’s establishment, development and major events. Such as the name of each king and the marital status and whereabouts of their children. The family with all their branches were described in such details, that it nearly looked like a detailed genealogy.
“The brief History of the Mainland” focused more on the evolution of the four kingdoms, their alternations in handling their powers and the inner and outer political struggles. However, they still put very much importance into the ruling families.
Yet within the History book about the Church, there wasn’t mentioned any of the Popes’ names, or it could be said that it was the same thing they had done with God’s name. They just replaced their former names with the title Pope. So throughout the whole book, it just looked like there was only one Pope during all of the hundreds of years of history. This wasn’t consistent with common sense, instead of calling it a record, it would be better to say it was a deliberate delusion.
At this moment, Nightingale suddenly appeared within Wendy’s room. When Wendy discovered her she put down her book and looked at the other one with interest: “It’s already so late, and you’re only now free to talk to me?”
Nightingale rubbed her tensed neck, and went to the bedside to sit down, “I just finished my job of bringing Nana home, how did you fare with Lightning?”
“On the way she was nonstop talking about her father, yet when she hit the bed, she immediately fell asleep, I didn’t even need to read some stories to her.” Wendy shrugged. “She always acts like she is already a big girl, but in truth, she is still a little child.”
“In your eyes, everyone is still a child,” said the Nightingale teasingly and took the book Wendy had previously in her hand. “His Royal Highness had said that you shouldn’t read at night, especially that you shouldn’t read when sitting in bed. The lighting isn’t good enough and will hurt your eyes.”
“Yes, your Royal Highness did say that.”
The two of them talked for a long time. They talked about the time when they traveled together from Silver City to the Impassable Mountain Range, what happened when they heard about a soon to killed witches, how they survived the Months of Demons. Nightingale had a lot to say, so much so that Wendy was only occasionally able to throw in one or two sentences. During the last five years, this two were so inseparable that they had developed a tacit understanding between each other. So the time passed slowly until finally the candles were about to extinguish. Seeing this Wendy began to laugh and asked, “How is it? Can’t you sleep because of Lightning’s actions today?”
“What are you talking about…?”
“What else can it be,” Wendy smiled and shook her head. “Veronica, we are witches, you should know what that means.”
“…” Nightingale kept silent, and even after a long time she didn’t know what to say, “Well.”
This fate, there was no witch who could escape it. Wendy put away her smile, sighed and then said, “Roland Wimbledon it the kingdoms 4th Prince, and we have to do everything possible to ensure that he will take over the throne. Then when he rules the kingdom, he will be able to present us sisters with a shelter against the Church.
But that would also mean that he has become the King, and then there will come the time, where he has to marry a Duke’s daughter or the princess of another kingdom. Then they will get children, maybe one or several. If it’s a boy, he will inherit the country, and if it’s a girl she will be married off to another noble family.”
Here Wendy paused for a moment, giving Nightingale time to prepare since she had to say words, which no witch wanted to hear, “Veronica, we are witches, witches cannot give birth to children.”
“Even with the most optimistic outcome, where there is no difference between a ordinary people and us witches, where we can freely walk along every road through the kingdom even after the death of His Highness. With occasional cases of outstanding witches gaining the right to enter the upper ranks of society, maybe even get canonized as nobles. There will still always be the case that we witches will never be able to have any descendants. And without any descendants, we are unable to continue the family’s glory, so the nobles won’t even consider marrying any witch. So we will gain some things, but at the same time, an important part will be taken from us. ‘This is our fate,’ she whispered, “I wish I didn’t need to tell you this.”
“I see,” Nightingale whispered.
…
When Nightingale had finally left, Wendy didn’t feel so good. But she believed that Nightingale would still be able to overcome this setback, after all, she had already crossed so many difficulties, she surely will also be able to cross this threshold.
Of this, Wendy was convinced.
Chapter 92 Army Rearrangement
“With this, our service period is over, right?” asked Cat’s Claw who was clearing the square of the burning debris of the bonfire, and then continued with a voice full of regret, “I really don’t want to go back to the mines and work in a hole. I have to say, I already miss the Months of Demons, a little.”
“Yeah, and I don’t want to deal with those stones again either,” Jop immediately agreed, “The most important thing is that the difference in salary is too much. When we were assigned to the artillery, we had meat every day and a salary of 15 silver royals each day.”
“Don’t say such foolish words,” said Van’er while holding a torch high to illuminate the surrounding “His Highness provided all this food to us so that no person would starve to death during the Months of Demons. You only need to remember what happened the previous two years, not even half of the people from the old district were able to survive! Did you already forget this? I’ll say it once more, it’s unlikely that the team will be dissolved, His Highness just put us into the artillery team and burned so much gunpowder to train us, do you think that was all without reason?”
“But the Month of Demons is over, so, why would His Highness still need the artillery?” asked Rodney while leaning on a broom.
That’s because the artillery isn’t meant for the demonic beasts, Van’er thought, but in the end he said out loud, “Soon we’ll know more, tomorrow we’ll hear the answer,” he yawned then waved his hand impatiently, “Okay enough, quickly clean everything up, I’d like to go back to bed soon.”
The next morning, the teams were assembled and Van’er’s previous statement was confirmed.
When everyone was there, Iron Axe went in front of the lined up team and said loudly: “You have completed the first stage of the task — which was to defend Border Town against the demonic beasts. After three months and six days of fighting, you all earned His Highness’ recognition! Because of this, the militia will be promoted to His Highness’ regular army, but in case you don’t want to fight any longer, you just need to stand up and leave now. His Highness had said that everyone who leaves now, will get all of your outstanding payments, and additional a payment of twenty-five silver royals as… “Iron Axe had to think for a moment, then he said,” right, retirement fee.”
From the three hundred militia members, no one moved, only the Cat’s Claw raised his hand and said: “Report.”
This was also one of the odds rules the Prince had introduced during the training, no one was allowed to whisper in private if they wanted to say something they had to shout.
Iron Axe nodded, “Speak.”
“What do you mean by being promoted to the regular army, do we become knights?”
Van’er couldn’t stop himself from laughing, but he quickly set up a serious face again.
Becoming Knights? That would mean becoming part of the aristocracy, not only getting an estate and a squire, but also their own territory. By asking this question, he had really lost a lot of face for the artillery.