Er Mu - Release that Witch

“Ah, that’s still better than getting one’s neck cut off,” Garcia panted heavily, “But you seem to forget the screams you made when being burned by the evil fire. I do not think you’ll be able to hold on any longer than me.”

“…” After a moment of silence, Zero said, “Ever since I’ve become a Purified, the Church has given me a lot of support to improve my abilities. From increasing my knowledge to teaching me fighting skill, to feeding me with Judges to improve my ability. Those Judges, even knowing that they would be sacrificing themselves, were still glad to enter the Battlefield of Souls. Here, in the World of Conscious, they honed my skills in life and death struggles, reassuring me that they accept their death before transmitting all of their insight and experiences to me.

Garcia did not interrupt her words. Even if the other was stalling for time, she also needed a break.

“I have swallowed up an extraordinary, and her strength was impressive — I nearly lost a Battle of Souls. But in the end, I relied on the Devil’s weapons to prevail over her and then got everything from her. Due to the different characteristics of magic, I can’t actually turn into an extraordinary or use the abilities of the witches I swallow. However, here in the World of Consciousness, these differences don’t matter to me. In the last two hundred years, I can’t even remember the number of people I have swallowed, but there have only ever been a few individuals who could threaten me. All their pain, happiness, sadness, and delights they’ve had in their life, became part of my own personal experience…” She paused, “Including their death.”

“What exactly do you want to tell me?” Garcia cautiously asked.

“The difference between you and me,” replied Zero calmly. “The assimilation of so many souls has made my will matchless. In case you want to know the number of death I can survive, I think I can bear at least hundreds of death by now.”

“In that case, I will have to help you to verify it.” She scoffed. But inwardly her heart sunk… When looking at her demeanor, it doesn’t seem that she is merely bluffing. From the time at the pier, where she cleanly and easily killed all their personal guards, it could be seen that this Purified possessed fighting skills that went beyond her age. If that’s the case, I need to use even more powerful weapons… quickly, what can I think of that can easily kill even an experienced super witch?

“The Battle of Souls isn’t a contest to decide who has the greater imagination,” Zero said, as if she already seen through her, “You cannot make yourself impervious to sword and spear without foundation, nor can you summon the weapons which destroyed heaven and earth from the legends of ancient times… Things you cannot understand you also cannot create, what we have seen and understood is the key to success.”

“Then I’ll just cover the whole garden with strong snow powder, even you will be unable to avoid it,” Garcia declared coldly, “Even if I die, at least I will drag you down with me!”

“Even if killing me doesn’t have the least bit of importance?” The Purified looked at her with eyes full of pity. “In that case, let me show you the real power of the Church.”

Suddenly a red light appeared behind Zero and condensed into a ferocious looking war chariot. Its shape had such extreme dimensions that it immediately crashed against the walls of the garden. To Garcia, the two sharp metal spears at the top of its head looked like the report given by one of the Wolf King’s personal guards — a kind of never before seen ballista which was attacking the walls. Both its range or power are at unprecedented levels. Don’t tell me that this monster in front of me, is what the guard has been speaking about.

Then she heard a loud hum.

The thick and solid spear directly broke through the layer upon layers of barriers Garcia had set up, not even bothering to spend any power to tear her in half as she was immediately sent flying backward. As she flew she could see her own organs and blood being left behind.

In unbroken succession, the war chariot continued to shoot those spears, thus soon after being restored, she again suffered the same death. She didn’t even have enough time to create the snow powder and take the enemy down with her. Under the constant pain, her consciousness gradually became blurred, the earth began to shake, cracks appeared in the sky, lightning flashed, thunder rumbled, and the garden burst into a blazing fire.

“A strong will can only delay defeat, it cannot change the outcome. Close your eyes now,” Zero said, “You’ve held it for long enough, rest in peace.”

The moment her voice fell, the whole world broke apart.

…

“Is it over?” Isabella curled her lips, “Shouldn’t it be done in an instant? You’ve already changed back into your original appearance, but for quite a while now you haven’t said a word… I thought you really failed this time.”

“I found some fascinating things in her memory,” Zero opened her eyes, “This way of thinking… makes me sigh.”

“Oh? There are still things which can make you sigh?” Isabella said carelessly, “That kind of strange alchemy powder should be something you have found out, right?”

“Well, the alchemist called it strong snow powder and the composition is quite simple. All the needed components are the most common things in the workshop.”

“If it’s like that then let us go back to the Holy City to report, we have already fulfilled all the orders given by His Holiness O’Brien,” she spat out. “This battle will continue for at least three to four days, but now without a leader or witch to guide them, those remnants won’t count as a threat to the God’s Punishment Army.”

“Let’s go,” Zero nodded.

“Hold on…” Isabella shouted for her to stop.

“What happened?”

Was it an illusion? Obviously, there’s no change in her appearance from before. But why do I feel that the look from her light red eyes has become somewhat different? Isabella carefully studied her counterpart but then shook her head, “No… it’s nothing.”

I guess I’m just overthinking things.

A grand celebration banquet was being held in the main hall of Border Town’s castle.

In addition to the witches, the high-ranking staff in City Hall and the First Army all fully attended this feast. There were the nobles Barov Mons and Carter Lannis, and also Iron Axe and Kyle Sichi who were from a civilian background. Especially for the latter, Roland had to spend a lot of effort to persuade him to come out of the laboratory and attend this according to him “meaningless” banquet.

To include his subjects in this joyful event, besides giving a public speech he’d also ordered the kitchen staff to bake a large amount of white bread by using the leftover refined starch from manufacturing explosives, and distribute the bread to all of the town’s people. As long as they were in possession of an identification card, they could get a limited amount of delicious food at the City Hall. Even while the First Army was on their way home, most of the town’s inhabitants had already learned of their victory in battle.

Of course, they may not necessarily understand the purpose and significance of the expedition, but as long as there was free bread it counted as a day of celebrate for them.

This was also Roland’s first time imitating those “lofty” banquets hosted in King’s City.

There was no barbecue and no large pieces of stewed meat, all the food was cut into small pieces and splendidly arranged on spotlessly white plates. At the edge of the table stood several basins that contained all kinds of seasonings, so that they could flavor their food according to their own taste, similar to the buffets of later generations.

“Welcome back,” Roland said, carrying two glasses of wine to Anna, “The journey must have been hard for you.”

“You already said that at the pier,” Anna took one glass, “And my answer is still the same, ‘it wasn’t hard’.”

When their glasses faintly touched each other, her eyes were filled with a sweet smile. Seeing this, Roland had to struggle to resist the impulse to embrace her on the spot. Instead, he went on and exchanged a celebration cup with the other witches.

“What about me?” Lightning shouted.

“You’ll also get your share,” Roland said, calling over a waiter from whom he then took a glass of cider for her, “Work hard.”

“I demand to drink white!” The little girl looked at him with big eyes.

“Uh huh…” After thinking about it, Roland finally decided to fulfill her wish. After all, this kid’s curiosity had always been quite high, so if he refused her all the time, maybe she would learn from Nightingale and sneak into the kitchen, but she’d be stealing wine instead, “Alright, but only one drink.”

“Yeah!”

When Roland handed her a weak white wine mixed with ice and grape juice, she suddenly approached and gave him a kiss on his cheek.

“Keke… Is this the custom from the Fjords?”

“Sure,” Lightning nodded seriously, “That’s what my father told me!”

Because it wasn’t the first time they saw it, the other witches of the Witch Alliance didn’t feel that it was too strange. However, Sylvie’s eyes became round from shock before throwing an accusatory glance at Roland, and saw he was moving along while wearing an awkward expression — does there really exist such a custom of kissing the head when celebrating heroic deed in the Fjords?

Then it was time to exchange a toast with the ministers.

When it came to the chief alchemist’s turn, the man leaned over and whispered, “Your Highness, since you gave me the ‘Intermediate Chemistry’ I have already read it twice, but, there are still a lot of things that I can’t understand.

“If you are talking about that sub-atomic constitution of matter, that part involves a lot of physical knowledge, so you have to read another book to understand it.” Roland pointed out, “So, I suggest that you first read the ‘Elementary Physics’ before going through the remnants of the Intermediate Chemistry again. This way, many of your doubts should be answered.”

“That’s what I was going to do, but…” he hesitated for a moment before continuing, “Your Royal Highness, why are the colors used on the cover of each ancient book different? Does it have any special meaning to it?”

“That is…” Roland pondered for a moment, “The color represents the requirements and time needed to comprehend it.”

“It was like this?” Kyle mused, “From green to purple. So, it seems that the deeper the color, the more profound is the knowledge recorded within. In that way, ‘Advanced Chemistry’ must surely be black?”

“No, it is orange.”

“Ah,” Kyle got startled, “Why?”

Roland smiled, “Who knows?”

…

Halfway through the banquet, Roland stepped out of the hall and went to the castle terrace. Standing in the gently blowing evening breeze, he couldn’t help but feel a slight chill. Half of autumn has already passed he realized, so in other words, it wouldn’t be long before the lengthy winter would cover the whole Western Territory with snow and bring about the Months of Demons.

But the situation during this year and the previous year had become as different as black and white. The trade with Margaret’s Chamber of Commerce had brought in a lot of floating amount of money, and in exchange for food and materials many of these gold royals were paid to the people in the form of a salary. According to statistics from the convenience market, the recent sales of products has shown a lot of growth, from which some of the goods would significantly improve the people’s quality of life. Sales for products such as steak and eggs was growing especially quickly.

There was no doubt that this was a sign of the gradual improvement in the living standards for the people. In particular, the indigenous population had all received new free housing, while their salary, compared to before, had also increased a lot. Nowadays, they had even started to buy food which they usually could only enjoy during festivals. The newly introduced population was still at the stage where they were busy saving money in order to purchase a house, but when they manage to settle down the market was bound to usher for a new peak in sales.

What exactly do people need? Sometimes, eating and drinking one’s fill was already enough to be grateful to their Lord and follow him until their death.