As for Roland, after a long time, he had finally collected himself and remembered that Nightingale once said that every witch had a long history of bitterness. If they could reach their day of adulthood, they could even be considered lucky.
While Roland crossed over, it was fortunate that he had become a prince.
The next morning, Roland went to visit Wendy in Nightingale’s room.
After a night of rest, Wendy’s color looked a lot better, and the previously injured arm looked totally healed. Despite her still being weak, she sat up and bowed to pay tribute to the Prince.
“I already know about you, thank you for saving the life of Nightingale.” Roland took a parchment out of his pocket and went straight to the point, “There is no doubt that with Cara as their leader, it will be impossible for you to return to the Witch Cooperation Association. So, it would be better for you to stay in Border Town and work for me. If you agree, you only need to put down your signature on this contract. You will get the same salary like Anna, and every month you will get a gold royal.”
“Your Highness …” Nightingale blinked hesitantly.
Roland knew what she wanted to say. After all, this would change her life. In addition, after Wendy had saved her life in the mountains, Nightingale didn’t want Roland to force her to make a decision immediately. In Nightingale’s view, as long as Wendy stayed in Border Town for some time, she would certainly come to their side.
“I would like it too if I wasn’t forced to talk about this in such a hurry, but some things become a little more dangerous with every day of delay.” Roland paused for a moment, but Wendy didn’t interrupt him and quietly waited for him to continue, “I think I may know a method to how a witch can survive her day of awakening without any pain.”
This remark brought a loud outburst from the two witches who asked with one voice, “What?”
“It’s just my speculation and there is no tangible evidence.” appeased Roland, “But I think I know the reason why witches in the camp suffered less pain compared to their life in hiding. The only difference between both situations was, while they were hiding their identity as a witch, they didn’t use their magic power, but during their life within the camp, they had to use their ability to maintain daily operations. “
Wendy nodded her head, “You’re… that’s right.”
“And in Anna’s case, she trained her ability daily before her day of adulthood, and she even fell into a coma because of overdrawing her magic power. When she finally regained consciousness, she had overcome the most difficult hurdle as a witch, and even without any injury.”
“So, I think this is probably the key to conquer the Demons Bite that attacks your body. I believe that a witch is a kind of magic container, and during adolescence, the witch is always accumulating magic. When this magic exceeds the body’s tolerance level, it causes harm to the witch’s own body, and the Demons Bite itself is dated with the witch’s day of awakening, the witch’s most powerful moment.”
“So if a witch can continually release her magic, constantly keeping her magic on a safe level, maybe the torture the witch would have to go through during the day of awakening would be greatly reduced, or even completely disappear.” Roland paused for a moment to let them think, and then he said, “As the lord of Border Town, I can offer your witches a safe place to use their magic. No one will arrest, send you to a trial, or even put you to death for using it. If my guess is correct, then there is no doubt, that Border Town will be the end of your long pursuit of the Holy Mountain.”
A witch was taught from the beginning that her dangerous capability was given by the devil. After endless suffering, the witch would feel that it wasn’t her own strength but instead that her power was a curse, starting a vicious circle. The more the witch didn’t want to use her magic, the stronger the bite would be. Directly after the crossing, Roland’s attitude towards this force was the completely opposite. After going through the memories of the old 4th Prince and ruling out the existence of a God, he had simply seen the magic as a kind of energy, an energy which was controlled by their own willpower.
Wendy was silent for a long time, but then she asked, “When I sign the contract and agree to work for you, then I want to know first… what will I need to do for you?”
During the past few centuries, because of their unique abilities, some witches were bought by a few ambitious people and were secretly imprisoned, used as consumable tools. Although the Church would look for and punish such behavior, it was still difficult to ban. In addition, they used to be ruthless towards the witches. Once they had lost their value, their fates could be described as a spectacle too horrible to endure.
Of course, Roland had also heard of these cases, but he took a fancy to the long-term interests and believed that this was a win-win situation for everyone. So, he smiled and replied, “The first thing you need to do is practice your ability repeatedly until you fully grasp it — just like Anna.”
Chapter 64 Curiosity
Three days later, in the castle back garden.
“Sister Anna …” Nana pulled at Anna’s gown and called her name to get her attention.
“Yes?” The latter turned around and asked.
“What do you think about Sister Nightingale … don’t you think she has been behaving a little weirdly?”
“Weirdly?” Anna was confused, “Do you mean how she has been dressing herself lately?”
Nightingale stood at Roland’s side, just like the many times before, but this time she was not wearing her usual gown with the strange pattern. Instead, she was now dressed like Anna and wore the strange clothing His Highness had invented. Although Anna did not want to admit it, the new attire accentuated Nightingale’s tall figure— her shapely legs, slim waist, as well as her long curly hair most vividly. Together with her cloak and pointed hat, anyone would let their gaze roam all over her body.
“I wasn’t talking about her clothes.” Nana muttered, “Don’t you think that her tone of voice when speaking with His Highness and the expression in her eyes when she looks at him have become different compared to before?”
“Have they?”
“…” Nana didn’t know what to say, but then she gave up, “Well, sister Anna, later when it’s too late, don’t come to me and say that I didn’t warn you.”
Unable to make head or tail of it, Anna shook her head and ignored Nana, focusing on the two new witches’ bodies instead.
The first one she looked at was named Lightning. Her general size was the same as Nana’s, but she wore particularly unusual clothes. When Anna roughly counted, she discovered that Lightning had at least twelve seamed pockets on her piece of rag-like coat.
As for the other witch Wendy, she didn’t wear the same body-concealing clothes Nightingale wore before, but on her ordinary and casual womens clothes she had the exact same pattern that Nightingale’s previous clothes had printed on them. However, she had something that didn’t sit right with Anna. The other one’s chest was … too grand.
“Since you both have agreed to sign the contract, we can now start with your training for the first time.” Roland was finally at ease and started the training of his two new witches, issuing instructions. “Lightning, you go first.”
“Yeah!” Lightning was so happy to start first that she threw her hands in the air as she stepped out of the shed.
At the moment, only a few snowflakes floated in the air and no wind was blowing, so the little girl gently floated in the air and waited for Roland’s next command.
“Show me your fastest speed!” Roland looked upwards and shouted to her.
“All right, look at me.” she gave him a thumbs up, went into a starting position, and then quickly flew around the castle.