“Treasure map?” Roland asked confused. He could vaguely remember that there was a triangle occupying more than half of the drawing. One of the three edges pointed at the Holy City Taqila, one at the stone tower in the Concealing Forest and one at the foot of the Northern Slope Mountain… hold on, at the foot of the Northern Slope Mountain? Suddenly a lightning spark flashed through his brain, “Don’t tell me…”
“I don’t think it was pointing at the foot of the Northern Slope Montain, rather it was pointing here,” Anna said slowly, “This is a place which contained a lot of God’s Stone of Retaliation underground.
…
Even after a careful search, besides a large number of indestructible God’s Stone of Retaliation, they hadn’t been able to discover anything else that was of value within the cave.
Not to mention remains of ancient books, there weren’t even chiseling tools used for the stone staircase left behind, which was very strange. According to the current level of technology, if they wanted to chisel out a staircase in such a steep cliff, it absolutely would be a tremendous and arduous undertaking. Things such as accidentally falling or losing tools should have been frequent occurrences. But for the current scene, besides the stones, and even more stones, it seemed as if the cave had been thoroughly cleaned before they’d left.
When Roland returned to his office, he immediately called for Scroll, and had her reproduce the Knight’s drawing on top of her ‘Book of Changes’.
Similar to the pattern in his memory, the southernmost point was indeed located at the foot of the Northern Slope Mountain.
If Anna’s guess is right, can it be a map left behind by the Church, contains new veins of God’s Punishment Stones? However, why would they spend all that time and effort to dig out the stairway to the bottom only to abandon it afterward? If the Church had already built a church in Border Town four hundred and fifty years ago, I am afraid that the current Border Town would look completely different from now. In accordance with the God’s Stone of Retaliation selling price and its usage, it is unlikely that they would willingly give up the natural resources in this mine.
Nowadays the Holy City of Taqila had already become a forbidden region, that was fully out of reach. Perhaps the only remaining possibility for finding the answer lies hidden within the stone tower… or perhaps it will remain unknown forever.
Chapter 274 Exam
After dinner, Candle entered the castle hall quite early.
On every nightfall, Teacher Scroll would give lessons in the room, but unlike the aristocracy colleges in large cities, the students who attended the lecture were witches from the Witch Union.
But she wasn’t the first person to come to the “classroom”, when she entered Evelyn was already sitting at the long table and waving to her.
“Has His Highness assigned any duty to you recently?” The moment Candle took her place, Evelyn couldn’t stop herself from asking.
She recalled the time they had only just arrived, and she had drily addressed the other party as ‘milord’. While secretly laughing at the bottom of her heart Candle answered, “There is, he gave me the task to cast my ability on a few strange lumps of metal, so that they would remain at room temperature, but I don’t understand what use that would have.”
“Yes… It’s like that,” Evelyn’s eyes became dull, “So far, His Highness had not asked me to do anything.”
“He didn’t provide you with adjusted practice content?” Candle asked in wonder.
“No, I’m practicing according to my own wishes,” Evelyn shook her head and said. “He only occasionally comes and asks me to taste a new wine.”
“Maybe that is just that what His Highness is looking for, all your life you’ve been in pubs, and so you’re very familiar with the taste of the drinks. There aren’t many witches like you.”
“There is no need for a witch who can taste wine at all,” she protested. “A salary of a gold royal is enough to recruit a specialized winemaker.”
“Uh…” Candle patted the other side’s shoulder, “I think His Royal Highness certainly must have a plan.”
“Scroll also tried to comfort me this way, but even I do not know what to do with my ability. I cannot simply rely on air to turn water into wine… Don’t tell me he just wants to make the tastiest type of wine to sell? But commoners are only able to afford ale of poor quality, while all the nobles have their personal preference which doesn’t have anything in common with one another.” Evelyn laid her chin on the table and continued in a depressed tone, “And the wine His Royal Highness gives me to taste is becoming more and more… hard to drink. I already suggested that he adds water or fruit juice, but he seems to only want to make the strongest wine possible.”
For a moment, Candle didn’t know what to say, regarding this point, she and Evelyn were both sitting in the same boat. After reaching Sleeping Island, most of the time they could only do some trifling chores — along with the daily increase in fish oil, solidifying candles had become unnecessary, while Tilly completely forbid any sort of drinking in general.
Even during the early tense phases, their supplies were often allocated according to a person’s ability; sometimes Candle would only receive some unsalted grilled fish. During this she never had the feeling that there was any problem with this approach, to the contrary, she was even willing to forgo her food for those witches who needed to consume larger amounts of their magic. However, that the other witches began to divide themselves into groups and even somewhat excluded her had made her feel a little uncomfortable.
Fortunately, Lady Tilly had still looked after them extremely well, even apologizing for the method of distribution, and going so far as promising that after the supplies became more plentiful, they would start to make adjustments, this way the less-favored witches didn’t feel the rejection that clearly anymore.
But in Border Town such a situation had never occurred — all the witches sat together at the same table, and enjoyed the meal together with His Royal Highness. And the clothes they put on and the treatment shown to them didn’t hold any differences… but the most important difference she’d been able to see during their daily life, was that regardless whether their ability was formidable or not, they all regarded each other as a one group. Although it had only been two short weeks since she’d come to Border Town, she had already experienced this point very deeply.
They really considered each other as sisters.
Something which made Candle feel very envious.
When all the witches had come and sat down, Teacher Scroll entered the room while carrying a stack of white papers, “Today, I won’t teach you any new content. Instead, I will conduct a comprehensive exam of what you have learned until now.”
“What is that?” Lightning asked as she raised her hand.
“Googoo?” Maggie also asked.
“You have been studying for three months now, and His Highness believes that it is time to test the results of your learning.” Scroll said cheerfully, “All the questions have been arranged on these papers and are separated into three parts, kingdom language, mathematics, and nature. Altogether there are sixty questions, every answer gives a point while every mistake lowers the score… Of course, if you do not understand the problem, you just have to raise your hand and ask your question. I believe that all of you have already mastered the primary writing and reading skill, or else even if you’d known the answer, you would still be unable to answer.” Scroll paused for a moment before continuing, “By the way, His Highness had said that only those who have answered more than half of the question correctly, will be able to enjoy ice cream during the weekend’s afternoon tea. If your score is below this limit, you will lose your afternoon tea qualification.”