Er Mu - Release that Witch

The third document, was currently in the state of being written, and was the most complex and far-reaching plan — it was the plan to establish Border Town as a city.

It was related to the problems created by the expansion of Border Town and the later merger with Longsong Stronghold. When that time came about, there would definitely be a demand for new laws concerning the governance of these two places, and both the judicial system and the public security system would have to be implemented. However, if he wanted to make these points watertight, merely relying on his own knowledge wouldn’t be enough, thus Roland intended to draft a list first, and later discuss all the details with City Hall Premier Minister Barov.

After finishing the introductory part, Roland felt some pain in his wrist from all the writing so he went to the window to take a break.

Today’s weather was very gloomy, and from morning to afternoon he had yet to see the sun. The sky was consistently being covered with dark clouds, and gave the impression that torrential rains would soon be coming. The chilly autumn wind swept over the castle backyard and Roland heard the olive leaves rustling.

At this moment, a black spot appeared on the horizon, flying in the direction of the castle.

“It’s Lightning,” Nightingale’s voice came from behind him.

“She probably went to the Concealing Forest to pick some mushrooms again,” Roland said with a smile. Usually, when they weren’t on investigation duty, the goal of Lightning and Maggie’s practice was left up to themselves. Therefore, it was entirely reasonable for them to not come back to the castle to eat lunch. According to the two, they would often be somewhere in the woods looking for some eggs and honeycombs, or catching some strange animals to barbecue and eat. It was likely that all explorers would ultimately transform into Bear Grylls.

Although the bird kissing mushrooms mainly grew on trees, he could not help but always think of the story called: ‘The mushroom plucking girl’.

“Your Highness, your… smile is a little strange.”

“Keke, I had to think of a little short story, do you want to hear it?”

“Ok?”

Roland cleared his throat, “Once upon a time, there was a little girl, she liked to gather mushrooms… Wait.” The shadow was slowly growing, but contrary to what they expected it didn’t fly over the castle, but instead lowered her altitude and went straight to the window of their office. Feeling shocked, Roland opened the window only seconds before Lightning directly flew into the room without stopping.

“Y-Your Highness!” Hardly had she landed when she already started to shout in excitement, “I found a witch!”

“A witch?” Roland asked full of curiously, “Where?”

“In the Stone Tower hidden within the Concealing Forest,” Lightning pointed to Maggie, who flew into the office just at that moment, “She can testify!”

“Googoo!” Maggie agreed.

“Stone Tower?” He frowned, “Carefully tell me what happened, from the beginning to the end.”

After listening to Lightning’s narration, Roland could not help but suck in a mouth of cold lump. This fellow is too bold, actually only taking a pigeon along she dares to explore a ruin which contained Devils. But what’s even more frightening, is that there is still a witch sealed inside these ruins. Of course, there is also the possibility that she could be an ordinary person sealed away by a witch… In any case, this is incredible news.

“What was the cry of help?”

“It is coming from this thing. I found it on a table behind her,” Lightning pulled a palm-sized square box from her pocket, at first glance it looked just like a small make-up mirror. However, when she opened the lid, Roland saw a red gem embedded inside of it, and when Lightning pulled a trigger next to it, the anxious sounding voice of a female suddenly appeared in everyone’s ears.

“Save me…”

Hearing the voice, Roland’s body began to shudder, the sound seemed to flicker, sometimes appearing near sometimes coming from far off. It was indeed somewhat horrifying, if he imagined himself hearing this distressed voice after entering a dark underground chamber, he would certainly turn around and flee without any hesitation.

“The gem contains magic,” Nightingale appeared behind them and said in astonishment, “Within it, I can see a weak magic whirlpool, just like inside a witch’s body.”

Well, it seems to be a magic machine which continuously repeats previously spoken words. With this, the probability that the other person is a witch has increased. “Did you find any other stones inside the basement of the Stone Tower?”

“I didn’t take a closer look, also, many parts of the room were flooded,” Lightning shook her head. “At that time, I only thought about coming back and telling you about this news as soon as possible.”

“Never do something like this again, especially if you want to go to a dangerous place, you should first ask for permission,” Roland patted her head, then looked over at Nightingale, “Call Iron Axe and all of the members of the Witch Alliance over to the office. The exploration of the relics will be scheduled earlier than planned.”

After the others arrived, Roland informed them about Lightning’s discoveries from beginning to end. “A transparent crystal coffin in the basement of an ancient ruin, without any sign of corrosion even though the environment is damp and moist, a magic stone which regularly released a call for help, and Devils broke into countless pieces upon contact… What do you all think about this?”

“You mean she could be a witch?” Anna pondered, “If she is still alive, we can probably learn more about what happened four hundred years ago.”

“It is also possible that she isn’t a witch, or even from that era,” Scroll said after a moment of hesitation, “Furthermore…”

“Furthermore, she might not necessarily be on our side,” Leaves added.

This sentence left Roland slightly shocked. Indeed, if these remains had been left by the Church, it is more than likely that the other side could be a member of the Church. Also, according to Lightning’s description, she was wearing a gorgeous gown, which could mean that she was a high-ranking member. In the case that she was an ordinary person everything would be alright, but if she really is a witch, then dealing with her would be quite tricky.

Looking at the fights Ashes and Nightingale had been in, it could be seen that it was impossible to predict the kind of attack a witch could perform beforehand. Furthermore, there was no clear dividing line to rank witches by strength. The extraordinaries might be unable to contend against witches with unique abilities even when they were wearing the God’s Stone of Retaliation, and if combat witches were surprise attacked by support witches the situation would be equally worrying.

No one can guarantee that her ability won’t pose a threat to the Witch Alliance if she held any malicious intent towards us… unless, we wake her within the influence of a God’s Stone of Relation.

“You’re all crazy, how can you even think that she won’t be on our side?” Lily, grasping her forehead, could no longer sit still and decided to interrupt, “She should be from more than four hundred years ago, how could she still be alive today? It goes without saying that witches all die young, even if they possess the strong body of an extraordinary witch, they might never exceed a hundred years of age. All of you are thinking too much. Most likely it’s just like I said, the moment we free her, the person inside will be just like the Devils and turn into dust.”

“The reason why most witches die young is because of the so-called Demonic bite,” Roland corrected, “A witch’s physical fitness is generally much greater than the average person. Thus their actual lifespan should also be longer.”

“The average person’s lifespan is forty to fifty years, ah,” Lily grunted, “Do you think everyone can live as long as a turtle can?”

The reason why the average lifespan is merely forty to fifty years is because of an inadequate food supply and the low level of medical care; as long as the standard of daily living is increased, it should quickly increase by another twenty years. However, what she said is by no means utterly unjustified, Roland conceded, even if I add those twenty years, there still remains a gap to reach four hundred years… Even if we were turtles, I’m afraid we could never live for that long.

“But she is still alive, really,” Lightning cried aloud, “If you could’ve seen her, you’d immediately understand why I say so. Compared with the dead Devils she looks entirely different, her skin is smooth, and her lips are full of color. Tell them Maggie!”

“Goo! What Lightning said is true!”

“Alright, don’t fight,” Wendy stood up and interrupted. “No matter if she is still alive or already dead, it’s worth a try.”

“Are you sure?” Scroll asked unsure while knitting her brows.

“If she really is one of those Church’s witches, as long as we hang a God’s Stone of Relation around her before she wakes up it should be all right. Moreover, we also have Anna and Nightingale, so I believe she won’t be able to cause much of a problem.” Wendy calmly said. “The key point is, it is possible that she might know about the incident that occurred more than four hundred years ago. The possibility that she can bring light into the darkness is worth the risk of rescuing her.”

Indeed, gathering more information about the Devils is very critical for the survival of Border Town. Moreover, any news the Church desired to hide so much will surely be extremely unfavorable for them. Thus, if we can take hold of this knowledge ahead of time, there’s a chance that it might help us take the initiative in the future battle.

Soon after, Anna and Nightingale also agreed to Wendy’s view, so even though she still thought that it was wrong, Scroll no longer opposed them and the Witch Alliance came to a consensus.

“The First Army?” Roland looked toward Iron Axe.

“At most, you can send up to fifty people,” the latter started to talk, “Your Highness, you already sent out several squads to assist City Hall to recruit refugees from the other regions, by now there are only around 500 left in Border Town. Even though Timothy has encountered Heaven’s wrath, there’s still a chance he might become desperate and launch a large-scale assault on the Western Territory. Thus, the First Army needs to have enough soldiers to guard against a possible attack from King’s City.”

“I understand,” Roland said while nodding. A size of fifty people is a little small, if they happen to have to face a long-range attack from the Devils who can throw their spears from out of view, the damage caused could be quite serious. If I want to make up for this, in addition to Lightning’s and Maggie’s air surveillance, Sylvie’s magic eye ability will also be essential. The ideal force to send out would be a ground force, supported by a team of witches stationed in a hot-air balloon. The witches will be responsible for observation and close combat battles, while the First Army will use their flintlocks to suppress the enemy over a long distance.

But then, the witches from Sleeping Island will also learn about the existence of the Deep Sleeper in the ruin. Roland thought through all the possibilities again and again, but in the end, he still decided to bring Sylvie along. After all, during this rescue mission, their safety would still be the most important consideration.

Just when he planned to arrange the rescue plan, Mystery Moon exhaled loudly before exclaiming, “Heavens… What is happening?”

Hearing her cry, everyone followed her gaze and looked out of the window, only to freeze up immediately.

Roland not daring to believe what he saw opened the window, then was finally forced to accept what he saw, beyond any of their expectations white flakes had begun to fall from the gloomy sky. They were hiding the sky and covering the earth, but completely lacked any sound. He stretched his hand out, catching a handful of white drops, which made an ice-cold sensation spread through his palm.

It’s snow.

This is not normal… According to his knowledge, it would only snow in the Western Territory during winter, but now, it wasn’t winter yet!