Er Mu - Release that Witch

“… This was your plan since the beginning?” Asked Nightingale, surprised.

Roland nodded, “The never ending snowfall will close the road to Longsong Stronghold, and the entire town will be in my hands. We have at least three months to reverse the “witches are evil” point of view. With only mouth-to-mouth propaganda, the effect will be very limited. So, we must rely on real life experiences in order to quickly eliminate the hatred caused by ignorance and misunderstanding.”

That was the reason why he wanted to let everyone think Nana was the cause of Brian’s rescue. He wanted to create a different image of Nightingale.

There existed a legend of a nurse who made an all-out effort to look after wounded people, resulting in the plummet of the wounded mortality rate, from 42 % to 2 %. Thus, the fighters conferred her the title of “Lady with the Lamp”, and the popularity of the whole nurse profession had been elevated to the rank of worship.

Nana’s ability to heal had more to offer than only heal the injured, as long as someone didn’t die on the spot, she could restore him completely like he was never injured. This would be more important and boost the morale more than any weapon upgrade he had presented.

At the same time, thanks to her family’s decline within the aristocracies ranks, her father had to deal deal with hunters and farmers often during the weekdays. Because of this, he had a very calm and kind attitude towards the normal civilians, and he even allowed Nana to visit Karl’s Collage and learn with them. This kind of act was absolutely unthinkable for even the lowest of Barons, they would never agree if their children had something to do with the peasants — in their eyes, these people were the so-called untouchables.

“This … can we really do this?” Even Nightingale, when facing such a big monster like the Church, felt extraordinarily small and weak.

“If we never try to change, we will never know the answer.”

Roland did not expect that he would be able to change the view of all the inhabitants of Border Town, but he at least hoped to plant seeds within the hearts of some and get a small team of supporters. Later, he wanted to relay on this seeds, to let them grow and let them spread.

Within three months, many changes could be achieved.

Nightingale thought about it and then whispered, “Why do you want to step out of the masses and help us witches?”

In order to use their power for the production of resources, make himself more powerful, and have a better chance in winning the throne — of course, all this answers were not suitable to say aloud. Even so, Roland was a mechanical engineer, he had played a good variety dating games, so he could even be seen as a veteran who knew a lot. So with the experience of having lived for more than forty years in two different worlds he knew that this time he had to face a crucial question and give the right answer.

So he thought carefully about his next words and said slowly, “I haven’t told you yet, but I do not care about the background of any inhabitant of Border Town. I hope that one day, in my territory, even witches can live a life as free as any other person.”

This time Nightingale was silent for a long time, and the only sound left was the crackling of the burning firewood. Her face, highlighted by the flickering flames, was like an otherworldly picture.

When she spoke again, Roland had enough time to free himself from the beautiful illusion. “You really don’t have to accomplish all this.” Her voice was small but gentle, “Please forgive me for lying to you before … My sisters in the Witch Cooperation Association have been living the life of refugees for far too long. They do not expect so much, their only goal is to have a place where they can live in seclusion. Even living in this castle would be enough.”

“How would that be different from living your life within a cage?” Roland shook his head, but then he suddenly come to an understanding. His eyes became wide open when he looked full of shock at Nightingale, “What do you mean … Are you saying that you are willing to bring your sisters back here?”

Nightingale sighed and avoided looking directly at the prince, “When I do this, you will become the enemy of the Church.”

“Their arm has been stretched too far and has become too thin.” Roland didn’t mind the future road, due the slogan “the power of the King is granted by the God”, the Church and the mortal power will conflict sooner or later. As for Border Town, we only have to live through the next months, then they will not be able to do much to us. Here we are thousands of miles away from their seat of power. What do you think will happen when the Bishop of Longsong Stronghold holds a military trial to come to crusade me? My father would never allow this to happen, this would be a much too great of an attack against his Royal power. “

“…” Nightingale didn’t know how to answer, she gave him her salute and left. When Nightingale was out of the room, Roland let himself fall onto the bed, and took in a deep breath to relax. There were some things he didn’t tell her. For example,he didn’t tell her that the center of the church’s power was a thousand miles away. In accordance with the world’s news circulation speed, they would probably only be able to react in late spring. In addition to the distance there was also his identity as a prince, so a big possibility would be that they would only send envoys to ascertain the situation.

As a result, Roland thought that they would only arrive after half a year. By then, he himself would already have a solution to break their strength.

Thus, the biggest risk of his plan wasn’t the church, but rather the witches themselves.

This point was only known by himself.

Although at the moment the witches were at a disadvantage, the current situation would not last forever. The power of the witch did not rely on blood heritage, so there was no pattern to who would awaken, it was all random. This meant that they could not be eradicated, so their number could only increase.

The Church relies on their God’s Eye of Retribution, and for the moment they can still maintain their advantages over the witches with it, but it can only offset their magic. However, the witch awakening not only gives them a wide range of ability, but also boosts their physical power and mental reaction speed. Even their appearances would become more beautiful than ordinary people.

They essentially could be regarded as a “New Mankind.”

The more brutal the oppression becomes, the more intense the resistance will be. How much damage would be caused to Graycastle if the witches started and lead a riot? Because the Church gave birth to the hatred, once they lost control, it would be likely that the hatred would turn against all the residents of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

Roland didn’t want to see that happen.

So, he needed to start from Border Town, and lay down the structure to contain both sides. Later, he would need to extend the structure to Longsong Stronghold, and in the end to the whole kingdom.

He was creating a world in which common people and witches could coexist.

During the night of the new moon, the silhouette of Gerald Wimbledon could be seen near the walls of the City of Graycastle.

After his few months of stationing at Hermes came to an end, he was now finally back, he thought. The long journey left him totally exhausted, but he was still vigilant of his surroundings. He reined his horse to stop and motioned his deputy to go and inquire about the situation.

If everything went as planned, the Scholar Ansger should have had all of the guards replaced with guards loyal to Gerald. When his deputy gave the signal, the replaced guards would let down the side door of the drawbridge.

Gerald was wide-eyed, and was staring forward, out of fear that the guards would overlook the signal.

The truth was that he hadn’t waited very long, but for Gerald it felt like time froze and he had to wait forever. When his eyes had already ached to their breaking point, he finally saw a short flicker in the distance — two short flickers at the bottom of the wall, and then three times above the wall as the answer, signaling that everything was going as planned. Gerald had to take a deep breath before giving his troops the signal to march forward.

Seeing this, he already believed himself to be only a step away from the throne.

Gerald rode shoulder to shoulder with his deputies through the side door in the wall.

Behind him were more than twenty men of his cavalry following him. No one spoke a word, the only sound which could be heard was the pulling of the reins to move the horses slowly forward.

The walls of the City were built out of stones from the Fallen Dragon Mountain. Under the illumination of the torches, the brown and dark-red stones made the wall look like it was overflowing with blood. The entire wall was twenty feet wide, and during the construction of the biggest wall in the world at that time, more than a thousand hard laborers, masons and slaves had to die.

In the minds of the people this city was known as an impregnable fortress, but now Gerald and his men were easily crossing the walls, conquering the city with units from within. Somehow, he had to think of the Church’s new Holy City; would their more ambitious and absolutely impregnable walls also fall due treachery from within?

“Your Highness, I have already waited a long time for you here.” Gerald could hear Ansger’s voice through the gates. There, the scholar was already waiting for him with a small troop. Seeing Gerald appear, Ansger quickly dismounted and bent down to bow.

Gerald pushed his distracting thoughts aside. He was probably too excited, making it impossible for him to restrain his emotions, but he let his imagination run wild, “You have done well! Did you also replaced all the palace guards?”

“I was going to, but then an unexpected problem appeared in the plan. Your Silver Knight who had already agreed to help was unexpectedly transferred to the south exit three days ago. Until now, we haven’t had time to switch the new guards with our guards.”

Gerald frowned, this meant that he could not take twenty soldiers with him into the palace. Gerald himself wouldn’t be stopped, but the guards would never let this many armed people into the Royal Palace.

“Let it pass, split the team into two parts and come with me to the Palace door. Keep the door under good guard and don’t let any outsiders hinder me on my way,” he hesitated for a moment to make up his mind. Although the plan had changed, the situation was still under his control. Naturally at night guards would stand outside his father’s chamber, but as long as someone could distract them for a moment, he was sure to cut them down with his sword.

Inside the city.

Everything looked the same as it had been when he left. Although he was now walking through the city at night, he was still able to recognize every street. This was his territory, there existed no doubt. Everyone jumped off their horses and marched rapidly forward in the direction of the palace. When they arrived at the door, his more than twenty soldiers spread out according to the new plan, lurking outside the palace. It was just like Ansger had said, except the guards were surprised as to why the Prince wanted to speak with the King so late at night. However, after hearing Gerald’s bluff about having to discuss important matters, they directly opened the door and let him enter.

After all, he was the eldest son of the King and the first heir to the throne.

Ansger and Gerald went together through the garden and the halls of the Palace. In front of the Palace was the residence of Wimbledon III. Ansger raised his torch and waved side-to-side with it. Immediately after that, a guard appeared out of the shadows and knelt on one knee, pleading, “Your Highness, please come with me.”

Gerald became irritated, he smelled blood.

Didn’t Ansger say that they had replaced all the palace guards? He looked through the shadows of the flames and took a good view at the man, he was indeed a familiar person — a knight who supported Gerald in the fight for the throne. This gave him a little peace of mind.

“What happened, had someone entered the castle?”

“It happened earlier this evening, Your Royal Highness. His Majesty had summoned a maid for this evening, but she came exactly at the moment of the changing of the guards.” the other replied, “Please be assured that we have handled the situation well.”