“I was born in the Kingdom of Endless Winter, but this has nothing to do with the color of my eyes. The moment I became a witch, my eyes turned into this pair of eyes you see now.”
“Kingdom of Endless Winter? That’s a long way between your kingdom and the Kingdom of Graycastle. There are even two other kingdoms between them, so how did you come to Silver City?”
“When I was young I was sold the Church, and then…” She paused. “I’ve been wandering from the monastery in the Old Holy City all the way to the Kingdom of Graycastle. Until I meet her, finally ending my wandering life.”
“She?” Theo asked curiously.
“Tilly Wimbledon,” Ashes answered, suddenly showing a warm expression on her face. “She took me in.”
The guard’s heart beat faster, when he had previously heard her saying the name Tilly, he had never thought that it was any sort of famous person. But now with the Wimbledon family name attached to it, the meaning became entirely different. Tilly Wimbledon was Roland Wimbledon’s sister, the 5th Princess of the Kingdom of Graycastle. So, when he asked her his next question, his voice quivered. “She, is she your leader?”
“Leader?” Ashes nodded. “To me, she is so much more; she is the most important person to me… someone that no one else could ever replace.”
When the night fell, the two lit up a bonfire.
Ashes took off her sword, raising it a little bit out of its cover, showing that the edge of the weapon was close to the width of her waist and also that it was covered with many marks of previous clashes. The grayish sword didn’t have any edge that was usually seen on a blade, and it weight alone was enough to squash any one person. For most people lifting this sword would already be an impossible task, but in her hands, it seemed to only be as heavy as a light blade.
How many blacksmiths had she robbed, in order to get enough material to forge a sword like that, ah, Theo thought, if the Prince and his witches delay for much longer, it is entirely possible that I will become the next victim of that sword.
“I heard that the Lord of Border Town is also a… Wimbledon,” he decided to find something to talk about. Otherwise, the waiting time seemed to be especially hard for him to bear.
“Roland Wimbledon,” she muttered, “I have seen him before.”
“What?” Theo opened his mouth.
“I was sheltered by Tilly and began to work as her guard in the palace. So there naturally was the opportunity to meet several of her brothers and sisters.” Ashes seem to already have a good understanding of the 4th Prince, “incompetent, arrogant, without any learning or skills. It was hard to believe that he was Tilly ‘s brother. Also… in some areas his courage wasn’t so small.”
To the end of her sentence, her tone had become colder.
Theo could not keep himself from shuddering. He had heard a lot of rumors of the Prince previous behavior. For example, he would always brag, was also fond of using cunning plots and things like molesting someone else’s maid. Although he had never used violence or threatened the other side, it was still hard to avoid someone in his position. Surely, he wouldn’t…
At this moment, Ashes suddenly stood up, staring into the direction of the road, “Someone has come, and they are more than one.”
Theo followed her gaze and he could also slowly see the outline of figures gradually appearing from the night’s darkness. The one who took the lead was the witch personally responsible for His Royal Highness’ security, Nightingale.
Chapter 157 Ashes (Part 1)
When Ashes saw the people appear, she immediately knew that they were witches. She could feel the magic on their bodies, showing that Theo had not lied. But that wasn’t all, she could also roughly determine their strength, especially from the witch leading them. Her magic felt like a sharp knife — just by focusing on her, she could already feel a faint stabbing pain.
“My name is Ashes. I’m so glad to meet you sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association.” Ashes put her sword aside and approached the four witches to embrace one after another… No, she thought, there are five of them. Ashes raised her head, looking at the black spot circling above them in the sky, “Doesn’t she want to come down?”
“She acts as our lookout,” the witch in the lead answered laughingly, “I am Nightingale,” then she pointed at the other three witches, “They’re Scroll, Leaves, and Echo.” Then she pointed upwards, ” and the little girl in the sky is Lightning.”
When Ashes looked at Scroll, she was startled. The feeling of magic she got from her body was feeble, it seems like her body was constantly hidden behind clouds. Getting such feeling gave her a big surprise, “An extraordinary?”
Hearing her question, Nightingale became curious. “Are you able to see the magic?”
“No, not seeing but feeling,” Ashes explained, “Since their body got changed by magic, extraordinary can detect the form and flow of magic. I think this sister must feel it the same way as I do.”
Scroll nodded and said with a smile, “Indeed, it allowed me to find a lot of companions in the vast sea of people.”
“Do you know how rare such extraordinaries are?” Nightingale said.
Hearing that the other’s concern was about the frequency of extraordinaries, rather than “What are extraordinaries”… Ashes thought to herself, how could it be that the Witch Cooperation Association had already heard about an extraordinary? This term is strictly banned by the Church. After all, their abilities are directly affecting their own body and with this aren’t suppressed by the God’s Stone of Retaliation. Any person who got into contact with an extraordinary was the number one enemy for the Church.
“There will be one extraordinary witch for everyone thousand other witches,” Ashes was still thinking about the previous issue, but her face was still unreadable like always, “So far, with the addition of Scroll, I have seen only three people.” After pausing for a moment, Ashes asked, “By the way, I remember that the name of the leader of the Witch Cooperation Association was Cara. How is she?”
“She is dead,” Nightingale shook her head, “She died during the search for the Holy Mountain.”
“… That’s a real pity,” Ashes expressed her condolences in a small voice, but what she really was concerned about at the moment was that the other side hadn’t shown much sadness when Nightingale had answered her question. “Who is your new leader right now?”
“Let ‘s go back to town first,” Nightingale just smiled, “You will see him soon.”
…
They walked into the town like any ordinary civilian, giving Ashes the feeling that there was something wrong. How could it be that the witches of the Witch Cooperation Association are able to just walk along the streets while holding torches? And what was even more unexpected was that the town wasn’t dead after nightfall. Behind the paper windows of many residences, she could see the outline of weak fires, like candles burning. Listening carefully, she could even hear many children reading aloud.
Candles, although this kind of item can’t be called expensive, shouldn’t be easily affordable with civilians’ limited savings. They wouldn’t be able to buy many of them, so they couldn’t easily be used. Seeing that the town actually had this many residents lighting up candles at night was such an incredible scene to look at. Also, judging by the constant word-for-word reading, are they all trying to teach their children how to read?
However, since the others didn’t mention this strange behavior with a single word, Ashes was too lazy to ask herself. Anyway, here isn’t the place where we will live in the future, the only thing I have to do is to take you away from here as soon as possible.