Er Mu - Release that Witch

As the top was torn off, she wasn’t in need of a torch to see clearly. After circling the bottom of the tower, Lightning had still not discovered anything that was exciting. Apparently, over time all traces of items had been erased by nature. In addition to the remnants of the old walls, there was nothing else left on the ground. Behind a still standing wall, she discovered a hole in the ground, which should be the place of the former stairs, but every trace of them had already been erased.

The access to the basement seemed very conspicuous, it was built in the southwest direction of the floor, facing the entrance of the stone tower. Lightning suspected, that if she moved along this path into the Wild Lands, she would discover the ancient Tower City Taqila.

At this time, the rain begun to fall from the sky, hitting Lightning on the nose. To keep herself dry and no better option, she entered the hole and slowly walked into the channel that extended underground, when she turned around a corner, she was stopped by a wooden door. Although the door wasn’t completely corroded, it still looked dilapidated, as long as it was only touched a little, the door would surely be torn apart.

Soon, the outside rain turned into a downpour, and the crackling sound of the rain hitting the ground gradually became one, turning the chaos into an inseparable sound. Where she stood now, she was safe from the rain, but the water began to flow down into the hole. To avoid getting her shoes wet, Lightning lifted her feet from the ground and began to slowly float upwards.

Suddenly, she could vaguely hear a cry, mixed with the rain, it was almost indistinguishable.

The sudden sound let all her hairs stand up, and the young girl began to look panicky around. But within the narrow passage, she couldn’t detect anything besides the scattered stones. With the help of the faint light coming from outside, she opened her bag and took out a torch and flint from inside. Wanting to use some fire to take a better look.

At this point, the cries sounded again, but this time it actually seemed like it had come from behind the door. Lightning couldn’t help it, she flinched and quickly turned around. Losing her hold on her torch, dropping it to the ground, where it with a loud splash entered the water.

This time the sound had been much clearer, she could faintly distinguish that it was a woman’s voice.

Was someone in the basement? Thinking of this idea, she began to sweat, how can this be! The Stone Tower has already been left here for over four hundred years. Furthermore, it is also deeply hidden in the forest. In addition to myself, who else can have arrived here?

“Help me…”

When the sound could be heard for the third time, she was sure that the sound actually came from behind the wooden door. Also, it sounded like someone was in distress. Lightning swallowed her saliva and carefully placed her hand on the door, gently pushing against it. The wet and creamy wooden door immediately fell backward, smashing with a muffled bang onto the ground.

Exposing a tall figure directly in front of her!

Lightning felt her blood freeze in her veins, the silhouette looked exactly like the Devil’s in Soraya’s painting! In the dim light, the Devil seems to be watching her, it’s massive body slightly bent forward, holding a huge ax within its hand which only had three fingers. In the reflecting light, she could clearly see the blood stains on the ax body. For a moment, the bloody images of these horrible monsters killing her sisters came to her mind.

“Ahhh!” Her scream echoed through the basement, she threw the flint she was still in her hand into the direction of the Devil before she turned around and flew with her fastest speed out of the channel, directly into the rain, fleeing into the direction of Border Town.

Lightning did not notice that when the piece of flint smashed in the devil’s chest, it created the sound of a crisp crash. The area where it had hit, began to crack, quickly spreading until they covered the whole body. The Devil’s body covered by cracks broke into many fragments, turning into white dust, which then disappeared in the wind.

After taking a look at the steam engine, Roland and Margaret returned to the office in the caste to continue their discussion and clear up all the details concerning the business contract. In case that such negotiation included haggling over the price, it was usual that the fight between both sides would need around one or two days to reach a conclusion.

Furthermore, it was generally the Finance Minister who was responsible for negotiating the contract, the Lord would only get to see the final numbers when he placed his signature. Only that the opposite side had already accepted the price, with this agreement Roland also ended up saving a lot of effort.

“I expect the first batch of saltpeter will come in a month. It will be the amount of three sailboats full, and I will also follow them to Border Town.”

After giving the amount, Margaret quickly wrote some numbers on a parchment, “Calculated in gold royals at the actual market price, the value of the saltpeter will be around three hundred and fifteen gold royals.”

“Until then Border Town will be able to produce two steam engines,” Roland deliberately lowered the quantity, “they will have a total worth of a thousand gold royals. You can decide for yourself whether you want to make up the difference with gold royals, or you can also pay us using other resources.”

“What kind of goods do you need?”

“Iron, Copper, Lead, Green Vitriol,” Roland said, “those are all common minerals, but the first three goods I don’t need them as raw ore, but as already processed ingots. In addition, I need 10 sets of crystal clear glassware. Since they don’t need to have any carving on them, it won’t matter if they are in the form of a canteen or a wine cup. But they must be the best quality products of King’s City Alchemy Workshop. If the price exceeds the difference, I can fill it with gold royals or it can be deducted from the price of the two steam engines delivered the months afterward.”

“It seems you want to treat me as your dedicated trader,” Margaret said, “though I do not have a mine, I know a few peers who specialize in the ore trade, but I would have never expected with so few nobles living here, you would still consume such an enormous amount of saltpeter. Furthermore, Border Town was established next to the North Slope Mine, yet you still have to buy so many ores. This simply isn’t in line with my business sense. Your Highness, your territory is simply too inconceivable.”

A major trait to industrialize production is its great hunger for raw materials, in exchange for the fast output of finished products. So, Roland continued, “Later on, Border Town will be in even greater need for more goods, so I think it is for the best if we can reach a long-term trade agreement from now on.”

At this moment, Margaret suddenly became startled and was looking with a face full of surprise behind Roland. When he saw her unusual behavior, he subconsciously turned his head and discovered Lightning, who soaked through to the skin by rainwater was pressing herself against the window, while still floating in the air. Her a face was pale from fear and she franticly pushed against the glass, trying to come in. Her hair stuck as strands to her forehead, and the water from the rain was continuously flowing over her face. In general, she looked as if she had just stepped out of the river.

Roland quickly stood up to open the window. As soon it was possible, Lightning flew into the room, directly into Roland’s arms and her face that was filled with panic soon relaxed, confusing the warm body she felt with memories from her past.

“Nightingale, quickly go and call Nana,” Roland ordered anxiously.

“Yes.” Came immediately the response out of the empty room besides him.

What happened to her? In the air, she shouldn’t have encountered any demonic beasts, or any of the Devils. Or could it be, do they also have the ability to fly? Roland roughly checked Lightnings condition, and after he didn’t find any obvious signs of trauma, he finally felt a little relief.

“Your Royal Highness, she… is she the one you have called Lightning?” Margaret spoke with a muzzled voice, slowly coming closer to the Prince, taking a carefully look at this little girl in his arms.

Hearing her question, Roland’s heart began to beat faster, damn, how could I have forgotten about her? He ended up loudly shouting, “Sean!”

The guard immediately walked into the office.

“Excuse me, Miss Margaret, there is no other way. You will now have to stay here for a while,” the Prince turned to her while still holding Lightning.

“She is a merchant from King’s City, so bring her to an empty room on the first floor and take good care of her. Without my command, no one is to let her out of the room.”

“As you command!”

“What? No, Your Highness… Please wait,” Margaret suddenly realized what was happening,”I have no ill will towards witches, not to mention that she even is the daughter of SirThunder, I would never tell the Church about this.”

“It is just a safety measure,” Roland interrupted. “Later on, I’ll come to see you to verify if you’re telling the truth.”

…

“Your Highness, she’s woken up,” Nightingale said, after opening the door to his office.

Roland nodded and followed Nightingale into Lightning’s bedroom. There was still steam rising from the bucket beside the big bed, and her drenched clothes hung over the edge of the bucket. The bedside was surrounded by a group of witches, while Wendy was sitting on the bed gently combing the little girl’s hair which until now was still not completely dry. But her previously pale face now had got some of its red color back. Her head laid against two pillows, while her quilt was pulled so high that only everything above her mouth wasn’t covered and her eyes were staring at Roland since the moment he had entered the room.

“What is the situation?”

“She hadn’t received any injury, her coma was caused by exhausting too much of her magic,” Nightingale replied. “Wendy helped her to clean her body, and when she got into the bed, she didn’t wake up for a long time after.”

Roland went to bed and looked at the girl with a gentle smile, “What happened to you, that you would fly back through the torrential rains in so much panic?”

“I found the ruins,” Lightning lowly muttered, “but the Devil was already there.”

Hearing this, all the expression of the surrounding people immediately change.

“Did you enter it?” Scroll asked.

“No,” Lightning shook her head and continued to tell the story, “The Devil stood in the doorway of the basement, and I could hear people crying for help, but I was too scared, I could do nothing besides escape, I didn’t even try to save her.” Her voice shrunk to a whisper, “Am I not qualified to do the work of an Explorer?”

“No, you handled it well enough,” Roland encouraged her. “Good Explorers know how to read the situation and do not take unnecessary risks. When you couldn’t save her, escaping was definitely the right choice.”

“She had to be a witch,” Wendy thought aloud, “nobody else could reach the depths of the Concealing Forest except for another witch.”

“No, even a witch wouldn’t be able to go there,” Scroll shook her head in disagreement, “That is a ruin from four hundred and fifty years ago. Without a map, which indicates the direction one has to travel, the task of finding the location of the Stone Tower in such a vast sea of trees would be extremely difficult, unless…”

“Unless what?” Roland asked.

“Unless someone had already been living there,” Scroll said slowly.

“You mean that they didn’t come from the kingdom and found the tower, but instead they are already living there from four hundred and fifty years ago. One generation, after another, living a life in seclusion?”

Within his heart, the Prince had already rejected this speculation. Living for the whole time in the Concealing Forest, shouldn’t be possible! Besides a variety of terrible insects and poisonous plants, there was no stable source of food… only in case you were Bear Grylls, it would be possible to live for such a long-term in the forest. Not to mention, in that part of the world, they would have several months of snow every year. Also, with the constant threat of the demonic beasts and Devils about, living in the Concealing Forest was simply suicidal.