Er Mu - Release that Witch

Calling Anna over, who had been resting in the cottage, Roland asked, “How are you? Did you sleep well?”

Looking at the bewildered Anna who emerged, Roland smiled.

The witch Roland saw now and the witch he saw yesterday looked like two completely different people. After a thorough cleaning, her long flaxen hair draped over her shoulders like a shawl and had a soft and shiny luster. Although her skin hadn’t been maintained due to her rough life as a commoner her youth made up for it, and the light dusting of freckles which were on the bridge of her nose added a youthful vitality to her face. Her body was still thin and looked as if a strong breeze could push her down, but her cheeks with a rosy color and the bruises and marks on her neck were much faded from yesterday. Roland suspected that witches received an improvement of their physical capabilities in addition to their magic. At least Anna’s recovery rate had to be much faster than the average person’s.

“Originally, since you experienced so many terrible things, you should be allowed to rest a few days, however our need at this time is very urgent, so I’ll compensate you later,” Roland said before telling the girl to turn around in a circle. “This dress, does it fit well?”

Anna now wore clothes he had carefully selected from a variety of styles, all in order to satisfy his lewd tastes. The full protective clothing that the iron workers wore was too thick and not suitable for her, while the robes many mages wore in games appeared to be elegant and classy, in real life they restricted the mobility of the wearer and would quickly be turned to ashes. As for maid dresses, hey, is there any better clothing than this?

Even if this world had no modern maid outfits yet it was not a big problem, the usual maid clothes were what the later generations were based on after all. So Roland directly took a set of clothes from Tyre and cut it to Anna’s size, shortened the skirt, changed the long sleeves to short sleeves, made the the round neck collar become folded and then tied it into a bow, thereby creating the new witch uniforms.

This was matched with a witch hat (customized), black boots (ready), as well as a knee length cape (ordered). In the past, Roland could only see this type of costume in a movie, but right now, one stood in front of him, looking so much like a witch from earth lore.

“Your Highness, you … What do I need to do for you?” Anna asked.

Anna really could not keep up with the ideas of the great man in front of her, she felt that she was losing her ability to judge the situation. Being dragged out of the dungeon with a bag over her head, she believed she would soon be liberated of her cursed life. But after taking off the headgear, Anna found herself not seeing the gallows or the guillotine, but a magnificent room. Then a bunch of people flooded in, undressing and bathing her. From her armpits to toes, nothing was left unpolished.

Next, it was the dressing room, Anna did not expect that she would have needed all these dresses to serve someone. She also never knew that clothes could actually be so comfortable, as they laid gently on her body, it was possible to feel the slightest friction.

Finally, a white-bearded old man had entered the room, and after he ordered everyone else to step out, he had placed a contract in front of her. At this moment Anna realized, the man who had had said he wanted to hire her in the dungeon was actually this kingdoms 4th Prince. When he said he wanted to employ her, it was not a joke. The contract clearly stated that if she worked for the prince, she would be paid a gold royal every month.

Of course, Anna knew what receiving a gold royal a month meant, her father, who had worked in the mine all day, had had his pay determined by the amount of ore he was able to mine, but the best haul he ever had was only worth one silver royal. One hundred silver royals could be converted to a gold royal, and even this depended on the purity of the silver royals. So, was her job to accompany the prince while sleeping? When she was bathing, Anna had heard the maids whispering, but she didn’t think she was worth this price. With her blood tainted by the devil, she was a person full of filthiness. After she was exposed everyone knew her real identity, even if the prince’s curiosity was compelling to this extent, even if he did not fear the devil, he did not need to pay her any remuneration at all.

That night, however, no one came, and she fell asleep peacefully. It was the softest bed Anna had ever slept in, so she just laid down and immediately fell asleep. The next day when she opened her eyes it was already noon, lunch had already been served in her room, delivered were bread with cheese and meats. Before, she had obviously been ready to die. She had even decided to willingly give up her life to atone for her “sins.” Those were her original thoughts, but after tasting the luxurious meal, Anna could not help it, tears started running down.

Sauces and seasonings were mixed within her mouth, a strong hint of a spicy flavour mingled with a sweet taste, attacking, again and again, her taste buds… Suddenly, she felt that the world was a little bit brighter.

Anna felt that if she could eat this food every day, then even if demons attacked her body, she would have more courage to resist, right?

Now standing in this garden which resembled an old temple, nothing like her prison cell, Anna secretly made up her mind. Since the other party needed her, so whether it was to wear strange clothes, or even using the incredible devil’s power, she was willing to try. So she repeated her question, but this time, she did not hesitate.

“Your Highness, what do you need me for?”

“Right now, I want you to learn to control your own strength, try it over and over until you can send out your flames and receive them back freely.”

“You mean the devil’s-”

“No, no, Miss Anna,” Roland interrupted her, “this is your power.” The witch blinked with her eyes, her beautiful, big blue eyes.

“Most people in the world have the misconception that the powers of the witches belong to the devil, that they are incredibly evil, when, in fact, they are wrong,” Roland bent his body down and met her eyes with his own on an equal level. “But you already figured that out, right?”

Roland remembered Anna’s chuckle in the dungeon, would a person who felt they were evil have laughed with such self-mockery?

“I did not use my power to hurt anyone else,” she murmured, “Except for that looter.”

“Self-defense is not a sin, you did the right thing. People fear you because they do not understand you, they only know that with training witches can become strong fighters, but they do not know how to become a witch. Unknown power is always scary. “

“You’re not afraid,” Anna said.

“Because I know your power belongs to you,” Roland laughed, “but if that looter had such an incredible strength, I wouldn’t calmly stand in front of him.”

“Well, let’s get started,” he said.

The fire rose up from under her feet but soon faded away.

This was already her twenty-third attempt.

And she had failed again.

On Anna’s forehead beads of sweat constantly arose, but she just used the back of her hand to swipe them away, and the crackling sound of rising flames immediately sounded out again.

With no stops to rest, the end of an exercise was followed by the start of the next one. The witch uniform lied at the side, neatly folded, If Anna had not insisted on doing so, her new uniform would have already been burned to ashes.

Fortunately, with Roland’s identity as the 4th prince, getting a few spare robes for her to use was not difficult. He had his maid Tyre deliver a whole bucket of robes, gathered by the maids for Anna to use.

The twenty-fourth practice had finally been effective, the flame was no longer rising from her feet. Instead, it appeared on her hand. She gingerly moved her arm, to try and have the flame go to her fingertips, but the flame suddenly shook twice and rose up her arm setting her sleeve on fire, even spreading from the sleeve to engulf the whole robe.

Anna dismissed the flame but her robe was already completely burnt, so she turned to the bucket and got a new one.

This wasn’t the first time this had happened, but whenever it did Roland would look away, so that his eyes were staring at other places, even if Anna herself didn’t care about it.

As a matter of fact, if it weren’t for Roland’s strong objections, she would probably have taken off all her clothes and practiced in the nude, in broad daylight! But even if Roland were to get a good view of her great figure that way, he wouldn’t be able to calmly work with a naked girl, especially when the girl turned into flames and her body gave off an entirely different kind of charm.

Roland shook his head, leaving his dirty thoughts behind. For the moment, it seemed that it was not easy to master the power of magic. The actual goal he had set for Anna was that she should control the flame to such a degree that she could release her flames from her palm or her fingers without destroying her own clothes. However, he also wanted the flames to have a high enough temperature to melt the iron ingots that were in the yard.

After Anna’s thirtieth attempt had failed but before she could make the next one Roland stopped her and told her to take a break.

Anna looked at him in a startled fashion but she gave no other response.

Roland had to walk over, he even had to pull the girl by her hand, leading her to the chair and forcing her to sit down.

“You are tired; when you are tired you should rest. Do not be too impatient, we still have some time.” He helped her wipe the sweat off of her moist forehead and said, “let us consume an early afternoon tea.”

Roland knew that the nobility of the Kingdom of Greycastle did not have the habit of drinking afternoon tea and this world’s productivity was so poor, for ordinary people it was hard to have the opportunity to taste such delicate food. The people in this world were not familiar with three meals a day, not to mention a fourth meal. As for the noble sons, they generally gathered together around this time to have some fun in bars or casinos.

The prince himself had to temporarily take over for the maid and cook if he wanted to create the custom here since they weren’t familiar with it. Since he had to prepare some light refreshments and they didn’t have any tea he was forced to substitute ale, it would be important to get some tea in the future..

So in the castles rear gardens, in a wooden cottage, the first afternoon tea party of the Greycastle Kingdom was held.

Anna looked at the dishes of exquisite snacks, not believing her eyes. Since when could something to eat look so good?

Although she did not know the specific name of the cake she ate, it was pure white in appearance, and the bright red collection of fruit could make people feel their appetite increasing. Especially seeing the edges of the pastry decorated in an exquisite pattern, all of this forced her to change her world view once again.

Roland proudly observed Anna’s bewildered expression, she looked like a country bumpkin, but also slightly frightened. Although the strawberries on the cream cake were marinated in sugar and didn’t even taste fresh, there was nothing left of the cake.

Roland found that appreciating the witch’s face while she ate was more satisfying than doing so himself. Roland watched Anna, who was carefully placing the cake into her mouth, her blue eyes almost releasing a ray of light, and her hair gently swaying in the wind. Seeing all this his heart suddenly nearly burst and he thought to himself, It’s not good to cook anything worse!

Well, the cultivation of feelings as well as talent was also very important.

Watching Anna while she practiced and accompanying her to enjoy the afternoon tea became Roland’s daily life, not showing any interest in the government affairs. Barov helped him to take care so that everything was clear and orderly.

Three days later, Barov delivered the information of the border town’s industry that he had asked for to Roland’s office. This was an absolutely unbelievable moment, the former fourth Prince actually had never the patience to see such a big pile of complicated reports.

As a matter of fact, even now he didn’t have it. Roland needed only to read two lines of text until he he started to feel dizzy, and he directly said to Barov, “You will read it to me.”