Er Mu - Release that Witch

What was happening? Roland was full of wonder. He was convinced that Mr. Pine was clear about the situation that his own daughter had unfortunately become a witch. So it would be normal if Mr. Pine humbly asked him to hide the message, or he would just allow Roland to solve the problem. But Roland had really not expected that Mr. Pine would be so aggressive and wouldn’t act according to aristocratic etiquette.

As to why the guards let Nana come in without questions was only because of Roland’s standing orders. Nana would come every few days to play with Anna, so the guards were already used to her coming.

After considering for a moment, Roland gave the order to have a maid bring Nana over to them.

No matter how rude the other side behaved, he was still Nana’s father so it was only right to let the two meet and talk. If he showed any intention to send his daughter to the church or generally to abandon her, it wouldn’t be too late to take measures against him.

Nana and Anna both came together into the hall.

At the moment Mr. Pine could see his daughter, the impertinence seen in his eyes immediately vanished. He opened his arms wide in the direction of Nana and shouted loud: “Dad is here, so come to me!”

But the little girl was just hiding behind Anna, only exposing half of her head, “I’ll be sold to the church by you, right?”

“Oh… You silly girl, what are you talking about? Naturally, I would never take you to the church, so let us go home together.”

This reaction somewhat confused Roland. According to Nightingale’s story, Nana was seen by her father when she was using magic. Breaking out into a panic, she immediately fled to the castle in search of Anna. All along the way, she was followed by her murderous looking father.

But as it now seemed he was only looking with eyes full of love and care at his daughter, completely unlike the usual feelings of hate with which witches were typically confronted with.

So, had it only been a misunderstanding?

For a moment Roland hesitated, but then he decided to take the bull by the horns and said, “Mr. Pine, your daughter became a witch, you surely know that.”

“Your Highness, what are you talking about? I don’t understand you.” Mr. Pine angrily stomped his feet and then went toward Nana, trying to grab her hand. However, Anna stepped in front of him, blocking his view of Nana.

“Father, I have become a witch… I’m so sorry…” whispered Nana.

Hearing Nana mention it once more, Mr. Pine became somewhat anxious, “Don’t talk nonsense! How would you become a witch? What has that guy Karl taught you? I shouldn’t have ever let you go to the college, there they only teach that rhetoric church shit!”

Hearing him talking like this, Roland suddenly began to understand the situation. It seemed that Nana’s father tried to cover everything for his daughter up. Did he misunderstand Roland’s intentions?

So because of this, he was so restless until he could see Nana.

“Anna.” he gave her a sign with his eyes. Anna understood and nodded. Then she stretched out her right hand, in the direction of Nana’s father who still tried to reach his daughter. Flames began to spew out from her palm, direct near Mr. Pines head, nearly burning him.

Mr. Pine was shocked as he immediately stepped away from Anna. Nana also began to panic and hugged Anna’s arm trying to stop her, “Sister Anna, don’t attack my father!”

“Your Highness, this is a —!”

“As you can see, she is also a witch, just like your daughter,” Roland spread out his hand and said, “The reason why Nana has free access to the castle isn’t what you think. Can we all calm down and talk about the future?”

At this moment, Mr. Pine felt like he had awakened from a dream-like state, “Ah” he needed to start twice, “Your Highness, I ……”

“Sit down first and then we can speak,” Roland pointed to the table nearby, “also have a cup of tea.”

Well, he sighed, my reputation was so bad, they even fear to let their children be near me. Now Roland fully understood Mr. Pine’s rude behavior at the beginning, he had only shown his concern for his own daughter. When he had seen his daughter run into the prince’s castle, and the guards were already used to her appearance, he couldn’t think of any good reason for it.

In case Roland was in Mr. Pine’s position, he was afraid he would have tried to tear down the castle empty-handed.

As for why he had denied back then that his daughter was a witch, his intention was very apparent — he feared that the prince would say ‘Nana has fallen, so she needs to be purified.’ So he tried to convince himself and everyone else, that his daughter wasn’t a witch so that no one would care about her.

Mr. Pine hesitated for a long time, but in the end, he still sat down and drank a whole cup of tea at once. After that, he wiped his mouth and looked a little embarrassed, “Sorry, my behavior was coarse. Excuse me, since when do you know that my daughter has turned into a *hic*… witch?”

“Since before the winter. I wasn’t the first one who had found out that she has awakened, it was her teacher Karl van Barte. Due to her and Anna being friends, he sent Nana to me, so that I could look after her and that I could protect her.” Explained Roland carefully, “the last one and a half month, she came to the castle to learn her ability without fear of discovery. By the way, your daughter’s ability is to heal. “

“Is that right…” Mr. Pine scratched his head, “So that was the reason why the cat could suddenly run and jump again.”

“Cat?”

“*cough* *cough*, in fact, it doesn’t matter. When I came home, I saw a boy who was sitting in the doorway with a cat which was hit by a carriage in his arms. I planned to hide the cat from Nana’s view so that she wouldn’t be frightened. I didn’t think that she had seen me and would immediately run to me looking for the cat. It was very obvious that the cat had been hit, and her leg was broken, ” he looked at Nana and Anna, “So you were friends? “

Anna didn’t say what she thought, but Nana quickly nodded her head.

Mr. Pine seeing his daughter’s reaction his expression softened a bit.

Upon seeing this Roland asked: “You do not seem to think that the witches were people tempted by the devil and had become his spokesperson.”

“My daughter is undoubtedly not a wicked person!” He categorically denied this possibility, “No matter what she has become, I have no doubt about this!”

Anna’s father and Nana’s father were entirely different kind of people. Roland couldn’t help but feel that he now could somewhat understand why Nana was always so carefree, always having a smile on her face. Such a family, for a child it was just like a warm cradle.

“I also do not think so, Mr. Pine,” then Roland said bluntly, “Your daughter’s ability to heal other people is of great significance for me. I want her to stay in Border Town, helping me to fight the demonic beasts during the Months of the Demons.”

Hearing this, Mr. Pine hesitated, “Your Highness, I am afraid I will have to refuse your request. When the demonic beasts come, it will become very dangerous in this town. I cannot leave her in this small town.”

Since the Pine Family didn’t belong to the territory under the jurisdiction of Border Town, so even he as a prince, couldn’t directly command them to stay. But as long as Mr. Pine was willing to sit down and talk, Roland was sure that he could convince him.

“The danger isn’t as great as you think, Mr. Pine. If something is dangerous it will also always offer some opportunities.” In his head the 4th Prince went through all the information his assistant minister had collected once more “I heard that you inherited your title from your father? He became a Knight through merits gathered from battle, awarded the rank of Baron and given his own territories.”

“That is true.” confirmed Mr. Pine.

“It was at the time of the Months of the Demons. A small group of demonic beasts unexpectedly broke through the stronghold defense near the Redwater River and were running rampant. When Nana’s father was on patrol, he encountered the rampaging demonic beasts. Instead of avoiding them like most people would do, he notified the stronghold, asking for reinforcements, and began to siege the demonic beasts to save the nearby town — even though he had no relationship with the town.” While speaking, Roland observed the expressions of the other people, “But Mr. Pine, you should know the things which happened at that time better than me. Your father called for the militia from the town. Then, with his attendants and the militia he fought the demonic beasts and won. That large battle was fought to stand up for the innocent.”

“Yes.” his tone was a bit agitated, apparently full of longing for his own family history, “There was also an unusually big one, some parts resembled a deer’s and some parts a bull’s. It was a fusion of both of them. It legs were thicker than my father’s torso, and when it was ran, the ground trembled. If I were in his position, I really wouldn’t have known how to beat the monster.”

“But he did it. My father stood near a shallow trench, luring the furious demonic beast over. It accelerated and was trying to take advantage of its speed at the moment of their collision. My father laid down in the shallow trench and wedged his sword between two stones so that only the sword tip was visible. The seemingly unbeatable idiotic beast couldn’t stop, and its belly hit the tip of the sword. The entire stomach was cut open; Black blood and some intestines flowed out of its belly. It was so much that my father almost drowned within the trench. Even today, the spoils of that battle, the great horn of the demonic beast, hangs above my family’s fireplace.”

Roland, who was sipping his tea leisurely said: “It was an admirable fight, he followed the knight’s code of faith, compassion, and bravery. Later he got his knighthood and a manor in the fiefdom of Joe Kohl, who was still the Lord of the Longsong Stronghold at that time. Twenty-five years ago Joe Kohl was promoted to the rank of a Duke by his Majesty Wimbledon III, becoming the part-time guardian of the southern border. With this, the whole southern border territory was placed under his jurisdiction. Unfortunately, after his promotion, Joe Kohl became an eyesore to his former supporter Duke Ryan. “

“Your Highness, you might know well that,” Mr. Pine’s voice sounded somewhat frustrated, “even when the ranks of Duke Ryan and Joe Kohl were different, their levels of power were already even. Kohl’s blood could be traced back to a branch of the royal family, so his ancestry wasn’t worse than that of Duke Ryan’s. “

This was a political scheme. Roland sighed, Wimbledon III actually tried to check and balance their level of power.

In order to understand this complicated relationship, Roland had to call for his assistant minister for explanations.

The noble and feudal jurisdiction were extremely confusing. In theory, the higher nobility has the right to issue orders within the territory of the lower nobility. But the actual situation was much more complicated. Duke Ryan and Joe Kohl were an example of this. Although he was placed in the western border territory under Duke Ryan, Joe Kohl, as the king’s directly announced count, he had no less prestige and power than Duke Ryan.

When Joe Kohl became the Duke of the southern territory, his power in his old territory became even stronger. This was a method of the royal family of Graycastle to hold the power stable.

“But when you inherited the territory of your father, the trade, and the agricultural production gradually faded” Roland slowly said, “But now, there is a new opportunity in front of you.”

“What is this new opportunity…?”

“Surely you had heard of the famine two years ago. The stronghold was withholding the food for the next months because of the reason that the amount of ore mined by the inhabitants of Border Town was too small. This year, we are faced with the same dilemma again. The unexpected collapse of the Northern Slope Mine didn’t leave any route of retreat for the people of Border Town. We must block the demonic beasts at the new city walls. Perhaps the fight won’t go smoothly, but as I said before, facing this dangerous task also means a new opportunity for us.”

“……” Mr. Pine had to first understand the meaning of what the prince said, so he only frowned and didn’t immediately give his answer.