Er Mu - Release that Witch

“Why shouldn’t it be believable?” Theo asked curiously.

“An organization formed by witches would be as flashy as the moon during the night. If it were true, the church would undoubtedly flock to it. So, if I were a witch, I would naturally never go to such a place, in case the news was a fake, then there would be no reason for me to go. As for getting rid of the demon’s bite, my man, are you serious? The witches are the Devil’s messenger, even the witches themselves would snort disdainfully at hearing such a pack of lies.”

“Then come forth according to this statement,” Theo disagreed.

“In the end, the customer always has the final say,” the young man just shrugged his shoulders, “It doesn’t matter to me, just don’t come to me afterward and say that I didn’t warn you. This job will cost you twenty gold royals.”

“One-time payment?”

“Yes, the Wild Rose does not take deposits, nor anything other than money.” He spread his arms, “this business relies entirely on sincerity.”

Theo sighed, but then he took out a small money bag from his pocket. Turning it around and letting nineteen gold royals fall onto the table, he then took another moneybag from his belt and put another one hundred silver royals on the table and pushed everything to in front of the young man. The latter just checked the authenticity of one of the gold royals and afterward swept everything into his own bag.

“Will the news reach the witches’ ear?”

The moment he had received his money, the little man’s face became a lot friendlier, “The Wild Rose has accepted your commission, it’s nearly impossible that we cannot get the accepted jobs done. Just like I had previously said, the competition within Silver City is cruel. In case we would ever try to deceive our customers, or if anything was to happen to them, our reputation would definitely fall. If you don’t want to rush back towards the West and wait for someone else to take the bait, you can always stay here for the next few days, it won’t be long before you will hear the news spread all over the place.

“Of course, only for as long as they are willing to speak about it. I’ll keep it short and wish you success on your hunt, and if you ever manage have catch one, don’t bring them to the Church. You can make more money by selling them to the aristocrats. And if you cannot find the right person or you’re too afraid of being found by the Church, you can always come back to us, we will only take a small introduction fee.”

With this offer, the young man stood up, took the bag and left the tavern. It didn’t take long before the person responsible for keeping the young man safe also stood up and left. In the next fifteen minutes, Theo just waited and drank his cup of beer, then belched and also left the pub.

With this, the task given by His Highness has finally come to an end, he thought. Fallen Dragon Ridge, Redwater City, Silver City, he had visited them all. Always searching for the local street rats, letting them spread the news up to the last corner of the city. There were always such hidden organizations, even the King’s City was no exception to this. Such organizations were able to reach places and spread news, he could never contact using the legal ways. How successful they were only depended on how much money the customer had already offered.

The only difficulty in this job was to find the contractor, he had to say, as an outsider it was quite difficult to get their trust. Only if he used the right phrase would they try to talk him, but to receive the sentence, he had already had to pay at least five gold royals. Theo lamented within his heart, if I hadn’t already had similar experiences in King’s City, I am afraid I would never have been able to leave the Fallen Dragon Ridge.

On the way back to his inn, he noticed that there was something not quite right.

Someone is tracking me.

Although the other party was very subtle, as a professional bodyguard, Theo immediately became aware of the other’s existence. He pulled out the dagger at his waist, and turned at the next corner, entering an unknown alley.

Are they from the Wild Rose? He had purposely turned his money bag inside out when he had paid the nineteen gold royals, this way he wanted to avoid the other side becoming greedy. In general, hundreds of silver royals weren’t enough for them to go after an already accepted customer.

He pressed his back against the wall, counting the ever-approaching footsteps. The moment the other person was about to pass by the ally he fiercely rushed out from his hideout, instantly pressing his dagger against the unknown person’s neck.

“Don’t move!” Theo lowly hissed.

But he would have never expected that the other one would just turn into fog, disappearing.

It’s a witch! The moment he realized it and wanted to shout out, was the moment he received a severe blow to the back of the neck. Immediately becoming dizzy then losing all of his strength and unable to keep himself from falling to the ground.

When Theo regained his consciousness, he could still feel a stabbing pain from the back of his neck.

Damn, that brute of a woman had hit him really hard. He opened his eyes and tried to move, only to discover that his hands were tied behind his back and his legs were tied to the legs of the chair he was sitting on.

“He woke up,” suddenly the voice of a woman could be heard.

“What is your name?” One person stepped in front of him and raised his chin. “I suggest that you do not lie, or tomorrow you will already have become just another floating corpse in the moat.”

Theo had to blink to see clearer, the woman in front of him was wearing a veil, and her body was shrouded in a robe, apparently, she didn’t want him to be able to recognize her appearance.

“Theo,” he answered truthfully, at the same time he secretly looked around.

It was a narrow room, and his surrounding was covered in dust and pieces of plaster from a broken statue, even though it was once complete, now merely one-half of it was left. The accumulated dust and plaster had already begun to turn brown as if it had already been abandoned for a long time. The room was without windows, so no sky could be seen and he could only speculate on how late it was. The only light in the room came from an oil lamp hanging on the wall.

“From the Fallen Dragon Ridge to Silver City, such a long way,” continued the woman in a cold voice, “Why are you looking for us?

“I am not looking for you, it’s the Witch Cooperation Association who is looking for you.”

“What is an Association?”

“It’s a group of witches just like you. They had entrusted me with the task of spreading their news.”

“Nonsense,” the woman snapped, “I do not know where you had heard their name, but they are located far to the East, in the Seawind Region. Do you think that just by randomly throwing names into the room we would believe you?” The Women drew a knife from her waist and Theo had to discover that it was the knife that he had previously used. “I’ll give you one last chance, don’t challenge my patience!”

“What I said was the truth!” He stated in a loud voice, he wanted to continue to shout, but in the end, he didn’t dare, so he said with a suppressed voice, “They had originally intended to go into the Impassable Mountain Range, trying to find the Holy Mountain, unable to find the Holy Mountain, they had to settle down in Border Town, only to discover that the symptoms of the demon’s bite had disappeared. When they realized this, they naturally wanted to save other witches, I swear I did not lie!”

“Then why would they send you?”

“’Cause I helped them, I helped them when one of their members was chased by the Church’s Army of Judges, I helped her by distracting her pursuers. Their mentor is called Cara, and there are also Wendy and Scroll, they asked me to go! ”

After listening to his explanation, the masked woman turned silent, she put the dagger back to her waist and stepped behind him. Soon, Theo could hear how the two women whispered behind his back.

Fledglings, he commented in his heart, even though the two of them act like criminals, it is still clear that they are entirely new to interrogating.

During an interrogation, it is absolutely taboo to ask questions that had only one answer, in the case that they didn’t get their answer, the questioner only had the choice to kill or not to kill? If they decide to kill, they will lose any further possibility of receiving any more information, if they didn’t kill, it’s is equivalent to losing their threat of dying. This would severely damage the interrogator’s position of power, and the effectiveness of the next threat would be substantially reduced.

If he were the interrogator, he would start the torture with the fingers, for every lie one finger would be cut off. So even if there were an error in judgment, it would become a big problem. Under this threatening atmosphere the enemy’s heart would quickly collapse, but without professional training, it would be very tough to carry out such a trial.

As long as he would show a frightened look, the interrogator would become unsure, which is equally to exposing that they just cannot tell whether he was lying or telling the truth.

And Cara, Holy Mountain, and the Witch Cooperation Association were reliable and genuine information, which would further strengthen the persuasiveness of his information.

It didn’t take long before the masked woman appeared once more in front of him, “When was it that they entered the Western Territory?”

“Two or three months before the Months of Demons, and directly after the end of winter, they returned to the town, claiming that they had found the Holy Mountain.

“How many people are they?”

“Up to 40? I’m not sure of it, in addition to Cara, there are almost no other witches who decided to show themselves,” Theo decided to add another bit of information, “Cara the Snake Witch, have you heard of her? She has the ability to summon magical snakes, one of them is called ‘nothingness’. With her, she can quickly erase every toxin. I have seen it myself, it was very powerful.”

“You actually do not fear the witches?” The woman’s voice seemed to be a bit puzzled.

“Why should I be afraid, the witches are very… beautiful, they don’t possess claws like demonic beasts, and furthermore they don’t hurt ordinary people. If I feared them, I would have never gone so far to spread the news.”

“If someone went to Border Town, how could they contact them?”

“Some of them can naturally see magic, so if there is a witch, they will find her.”

“Shadow, what do you think?” The masked women looked into the direction behind Theo.

“I’m not sure,” the witch, known as Shadow, hesitated. “Shouldn’t we wait for our sister and then make a decision? She surely will know what to do.”

“All right.” She nodded and took a clean chair, sitting herself in front of Theo.

“Who is your older sister?”

“The guide,” the masked woman’s attitude had softened a lot compared to before. Probably his statement that he didn’t fear the witches, changed her thoughts and feelings a lot, “she will take us away from here.”

“You will leave? Where will you go to?”

The spoken too just shook her head and didn’t answer.

“You are not a witch from Silver City, right?” Theo continued, “Your accent is not the same as the accent of the King. Silver City was near the capital, so the inhabitants here are proud of imitating the king’s accent.”

She hesitated for a moment, “I… am from the South.”

Witches from all over the Kingdom have gathered here, and soon they will be lead away from here… Theo thought to himself, there is no doubt, they are another witch organization. They are also attracting witches, just like the Witch Cooperation Association had done before. However, in the end, where do they want to go?

At this moment, from outside the sound of footsteps could be heard.

“Sister came back!” Shadow shouted cheerfully. With the creaking sound of the door opening, Theo began to hold his breath.

“Is he the one who has been using the underground channels to spread the news?” The newcomer’s voice was mature and steady. “What have you asked him?”