Er Mu - Release that Witch

Thus, at present, it is not the right time to declare the truth.

After finishing all political affairs, Roland and the witches entered the hot air balloon, and lifted off, leaving the castle front yard and heading into the sky, in the directions of the snow-capped mountain.

“Your Royal Highness, if we assume that it was indeed the Church who has been fighting against the Devils four hundred years ago, does that make them good or bad?” Since discovering the existence of the Devils, it seemed that Sylvie had become preoccupied by some troubles.

“Of course they are still bad,” Roland didn’t even get to open his mouth before Nightingale gave her answer. “Have you ever seen a good person hunting a witch for no reason? In the case that we really were the Devils minions, all of us sisters would know about it. But there isn’t even a bit of relationship between us witches and the Devils, the demonic bite is also a complete myth.

However, the other person still observed Roland, seemingly waiting to hear his answer.

He thought for a while then started to speak, “First of all, it is still not confirmed that it was the Church who had fought against the Devils. If they had indeed made such great sacrifices, for what reason would they conceal all the information about it and destroy the past? This news would have been the best way for them to expand their base of believers. I am afraid that we can only answer the questions truthfully if we are able to find more clues about the past. Also, good and evil cannot be distinguished so easily; it is always dependent on the place you are standing at.” Roland paused for a moment to give her a smile, then he asked, “However, I believe what you really wanted to know was, if I would go to the Church to fight with them against the Devils, isn’t that right?”

“I…” Sylvie wanted to say something, but in the end, she couldn’t deny it.

“The Church and I are incompatible, even if there were any witches, I would not be able to stand on the same side as them,” he said, “That is even more now that I have all of you by my side.”

“I also want to speak,” Nightingale said, showed a complacent smile. “Even if it was the Church who had fought the Devils before, they still lost, or might even have suffered some other kind of crushing defeat. In His Highness words, ‘if you do not know who is going to win or lose, for what reason would you want to rely on the losing side’?”

“… I see,” Sylvie nodded gently, and her uneasiness seeming to loosen up somewhat.

Time passed. And when dusk fell, the group of people were vaguely able to see the contours of the snow-capped mountain.

It is indeed incomparable huge, Roland thought, even I have seldom seen such a towering peak with my own eyes. There doesn’t exist any other similar mountains within the mountain range, it’s as if the earth doesn’t have any inclination to rise in general, leaving only one road leading to the skies. The overcast mountain wall occupied more than half of the horizon, if we’d wanted to bypass the mountains by land, I am afraid we would have to spend several months to do so.

The selected camping site was located at the top of a mountain nearer to the sea, making it easy for them to observe the movement around them. Furthermore, it was also far enough from the Concealing Forest, to ensure that it would be impossible for any beast to sneak up on the camp.

After gnawing at their rations, everyone began to set up their tent. Due to the limited weight capacity of the hot air balloon, they were only able to take a single large tent with them. Therefore, Roland showing a noble character and unquestionable integrity, offered the witches the use of the tent and decided that he would sleep in the basket while Maggie decided to take a tree — since, if she turned into a bird, she was able to sleep while standing.

He discovered that in the end, he was still too thin skinned, making it impossible for him to crowd into the tent to sleep together with the witches. Even when Wendy and Soraya suggested that they would take the basket so that the Prince could sleep in the tent, he still refused them.

While they were arranging their accommodations, Sylvie was the only one who was warily staring at Roland, her gaze was so intense that in the end he didn’t know whether he was supposed to laugh or cry.

After arranging the night vigil, every one of them entered the tent one after another. Due to the uneven bottom of the basket, Roland had some problems falling asleep. Thus he sat on a rock while facing the sea, stared blankly at the moonlight that was sparkling on the sea’s surface.

At this time, he heard some subtle footsteps coming from behind.

When the Prince turned around, he discovered that it was Anna.

Previously, back when he had been attending school, he’d always had some anticipation that “maybe something is going to happen” within his heart when he went on social travel. And even though most of the endings ended with delusion, this never prevented him from looking forward to the next event.

However, when it came true, Roland found out that contrary to his expectation, his heartbeat sped up even more. Feigning as if nothing was out of the ordinary, he lifted an eyebrow and asked, “What happened, can’t you fall asleep?”

“No,” Anna said bluntly, “I merely want to accompany you.”

“That’s it?” He coughed twice, “Thanks.”

“It should be me thanking you,” Anna said as she smiled. The silver moonlight sparkled on her face, emitting a faint radiance; her peaceful blue eyes seems to be deeper than the sea, “Those words you said to Sylvie… although she did not thank you, I could still see that her mood had become a lot better.”

“Are you happy for her?”

“No,” she shook her head. “I’m happy about my choice.”

Roland asked startled, “What… choice?”

Instead of answering, Anna closed her eyes and kissed him on the cheek. After a long time, she whispered, “Good night, Your Highness.”

This can be regarded as “something has happened”… right?

Seeing her back disappear into the tent, Roland stretched his body to his heart’s content, the moment he intended to return to the basket to sleep, a pair of invisible hands took hold of his face. The area in front of him was obviously empty, yet he once again felt a soft touch, but this time, it was on the other side. “I also thank you, Your Highness, for doing so much for us witches.”

…

In the early morning hours of the next day, everyone packed up their camping belongings as they prepared to set out on their journey once again.

Roland also discovered a new detail: Even if they slept in the wilderness, the witches’ appearance wasn’t affected in the slightest, something which obviously wasn’t the case for himself. Even without taking a look in the mirror, he still guessed that his hair appeared to be a mess, and due to his insomnia, his face lacked color, and his skin was covered in a layer of semi-dry sweat, which felt sticky whenever he touched it. All this together most likely gave him a dispirited and downcast look in everyone’s eyes. Only after he had washed his face and rinsed his mouth with some drinking water from his leather bag, was he finally able to bring some relief to the ill feeling he was having.

Roland was already beginning to miss the water system with its spacious shower in the castle.

An hour later, having followed lightning’s directions, Cloud Gazer arrived at the predetermined location — the side of the snow-capped mountain. As they hovered over the vast sea, the people in the group could all see the scene behind the mountain.

It was just like Lightning had said, the landscape at the back of the snow-capped mountain was covered in a red mist, and with the atmospheric pressure of the fog being very low, its color became deeper the closer it was to the ground. In order to see farther, Roland had the hot air balloon continue to rise so that they could see a part of the flat and dry land which was spread out at the end of the horizon.

“Is there anything you could discover?” Roland asked into the direction of Sylvie.

The latter shook her head and said, “No, it’s too far away. It is beyond the scope of the Eye of Truth.”

“Then let’s wait for Soraya to draw a picture of the scene before approaching it further,” Roland ordered.

While they were waiting for Soraya to draw the picture, Roland used an observation mirror to look at the coastal line. Aside from the cliffs and the rocky beach, there weren’t any wharfs, docks, or other human-made buildings. It seemed that even though there were Devils here, they weren’t going to build ships to attack Graycastle from the sea. Observing this let him feel somewhat relieved.

With the hot air balloon slowly approaching the land, Sylvie was finally able to see the actual situation and gave her report. Probably a bit more than ten miles away from the sea, she could see a pile of black stone buildings, with a triangular form reminiscent of a spire.

“That’s just like what we saw from the mirage at the barbarian wasteland,” Wendy, unable to restrain her emotions any longer, exclaimed aloud, “This really is the Devil’s territory!”

“But the height is clearly wrong,” Soraya said with a frown, “The spires in the mirage were as high as a hundred feet. Furthermore, they weren’t covered by a red mist. They are supposed to be higher than all the surrounding hills.”

“Maybe, at that time, you saw the Devils’ City, and what we see here, is closer to a Devils’ Town?” Anna guessed.

Therefore, we can conclude that the Devils possess a kind of intact and unique urban system, and that they also belong to a higher evolved species that is keen to expand its territory and kill? Roland thought to himself, please, there mustn’t be too many of them, “What can you say about the inside of those spires?”

“Uh… most of those towers are empty, while some of them are filled with some kind of liquid… hold on!” Sylvie became shocked, at first unable to believe what she was seeing, before shouting, “Quickly leave, the Devils found us!”

“They discovered us?” Roland once more raised his observation mirror, but everything was still dark red, making it impossible for him to see everything clearly.

“They began to move,” Sylvie yelled nervously. “Before, they were all buried in the ground, and only the pipe on their back was exposed. Over there… there are Devils that began to fly up!”

“Wendy, retreat at full speed!” Roland commanded.

The wind began blowing strongly frm the side, the sudden movement of the hot air balloon made the basket slant to one side while the taut ropes all issued a creaking sound.

However, Sylvie’s following warning caused everyone’s heart to turn cold.

“Two Devils are rushing in our direction, and they have mounts that can fly!”

To hell with it! These guys have flying mounts!? Roland stared with wide eyes toward the red mist. This is simply against common sense, if they are able to carry a tall and bulky person on your back, how large are these mounts?

Before long however, he already caught sight of two black spots which came into his field of view. Looking at the demonic beasts through his observation mirror, he was only able to see the saddle at their hip, their sharp fangs, and their hairless body, with a basic form which was similar to birds. If he wasn’t mistaken… then they were actually two mixed species of demonic beasts!

“Head down to the ground, we are landing as soon as possible,” Roland squeezed those few words through his gritted teeth.

For now, this was the main idea. He had never thought that the Devils possessed the ability to pursue them through the air, and furthermore, the only one who could fight while flying was Lightning. But when he looked at her pale face, he knew that there was no hope for her to win this battle. Once they caught up, even if the other side merely went for a collision attack against the balloon, they would still be able to take the lives of all of the witches — even if the coating would be robust enough to resist the impact and the bite of the demonic beasts, under the resulting violent shaking, it was most likely that they would all fall out of the basket and drop into the sea like stones.

And at this height, there was no difference between hitting solid ground or falling into the sea.