Release That Witch

It took her nearly half a month to return to the camp in the Impassable Mountain Range from the Barbarian Region. In order to avoid the demonic beasts, she had to carefully hide between sturdy tree trunks and confirm there were no demonic beasts before running to the next hiding place. Though her heart was burning with anxiety, she had no other choice but to march slowly in this way. Once she was detected by the demonic hybrids, she would not be able to escape by herself.     

More than a dozen sisters had been ruthlessly killed by the demon. The other sisters, who belonged to non-combat type, fled in all directions when the demon Ironhand jumped into the crowd and began his massacre. But Leaf did not know how many of them were able to survive and return to the camp. She dared not to even think about it at all.     

As she always had to hide herself during her journey, she consumed her magic power quite quickly and was only able to walk about a dozen miles every day. In addition, she had to save some magic power to survive the night. Since she ate up all the food she brought, she had to transform some wild fruits to make them edible. The emblem of Witch Cooperation Association had run out of power and stopped to give warmth, so she had to wrap herself up with barks. Thinking of young Shino who died before her maturity, Leaf could not stop her tears from falling.     

What's worse, on the evening of the fourth night, she suffered the Demonic Torture in a trunk. She completely forgot about it after the continuous attacks these days. A terrible pain quickly spread from her chest to her whole body, as if she were being torn apart. For an instant, she nearly became unconscious, and she had to bite her tongue hard to resist the pain. Under the constant torture, Leaf thought of giving up several times. However, she thought about the 20 sisters who might still be alive, or be waiting for her at the camp. She also thought about those that were seriously wounded and could only be cured by her. All of these made her grit her teeth and persevere on.     

Luckily the Demonic Torture did not last long this time. When she finally struggled from the torture, she found there were bleeding cracks all over her body, and her blood had wetted the trunk. Afraid that the smell of blood would attract the demonic beasts, she had to take off her clothes and rush to hide in another tree despite the pain and fatigue. At the same time, she made green leaves grow on a bare branch with her magic power and made clothes out of leaves to keep warm. With the magic power, the branch became her needle while the leaf veins were her threads.     

On her way back to the camp, she did not get to eat any cooked food or drink any warm water. When she entered the Impassable Mountain Range, even though she added two more layers of green-leaf clothes and tightly wrapped her hands and feet up, her toes still suffered frostbite. This was due to the rapidly falling temperature and the heavy snow that went up to her ankles. She walked and paused all the way, dragging her feet which could not feel anything, and finally arrived at the camp.     

When she saw the familiar figures of the sisters, she fell head down and fainted.     

When she woke up, it was already two days later. Having been exposed to low temperature for a long time, her feet were too severely injured to be healed by herbal medicine. The sisters had no choice but to cut off two necrotic toes from each of her feet to stop the spreading of gangrene.     

Leaf did not care much about it. She was lucky enough to be alive, compared with those sisters who could never return. But seeing the white bandages on the arms of those wounded sisters, she could not help but feel extremely sorrowful.     

When they started off, there were 42 sisters; but now, only six of them survived.     

The sisters tried to comfort her, and then Scroll, the oldest witch, told her what happened to them after they had fled.     

When Leaf was fighting the demon, the non-combat type of witches seized the opportunity to escape toward the camp. On that night, they were attacked by the demonic beasts—a group of demonic boars. Unable to resist, they had to flee again. Those sisters chased by the demonic beasts had little chance of survival, but they could do nothing about it. The next morning, under the attack of another demonic hybrid wolf, only eight witches escaped successfully. Fortunately, when they entered the Impassable Mountain, the beast finally left.     

A few days after they returned to the camp, two sisters began to suffer the bite of the magic power. Maybe because of the terrible experience and the bleak future, neither of them were able to survive. Since none of the combat witches came back, everyone thought that they must have died in the hands of the demon, so no one expected that Leaf would come back.     

"So... where are the other sisters? Red Light, Windseeker, and Respected Mentor, what happened to them?"     

Leaf shook her head, "I'm the only one who survived."     

"Is that so..." Scroll replied softly, having already guessed the answer. "Have a good rest, and..." she hesitated for a moment, and then she said, "Leaf..."     

"What?"     

"Before you woke up, we had a discussion. In case Cara won't come back, I hope you can take the position of our mentor."     

Leaf was stunned for a moment and closed her eyes to consider. Well, after these heavy blows, the Witch Cooperation Association would probably fall apart immediately if there was no new mentor. The dream of the association was to seek the Holy Mountain, a place of freedom and peace. But now the dream was broken. No, even "Holy Mountain" was a lie, as it did not exist in the Impassable Mountain Range, or in the Wild Places. In this case, should the association still exist?     

Those thoughts were getting on her nerves. Even without looking at the sisters, she could feel the expectations in their eyes. They needed someone to tell them what to do and to lead them on their journey.     

"Let's... go and look for Nightingale," said Leaf, after a long silence.     

"What? Nightingale?"     

"You mean we are going to Border Town?"     

"What if she lied to us?"     

"Wendy is also there."     

"Maybe she's been dead for ages."     

Hearing what Leaf said, the sisters raised questions eagerly. Scroll clapped her hands to calm them, and then asked Leaf, "What if Nightingale also lied?"     

"You can wait outside the town, in some safe place." Leaf opened her eyes, "Let me go first to find out whether Nightingale was telling the truth. If she lied, I will take over the position of the mentor. But if... I die in the town, Scroll, please lead the sisters to seek freedom."     

"But, I..."     

Leaf forced a smile, "I know your ability is unsuitable for fighting, and not very helpful for the daily operation of the camp. But now I understand that the strength of the ability is not the most important standard for the position of the mentor." The mentor should be a guide, instead of being the strongest one. Unfortunately, it was too late for her to understand it. If Wendy, who was patient and cautious, was their mentor, would the result be different? "You, as well as Wendy, were the first witches to join the association, and also the elder sisters. When we came to the Impassable Mountain Range from the eastern part of the kingdom, you behaved in an experienced manner and were cautious. No one is more qualified than you to become our mentor."     

Scroll fell into silence for a while, and then said, "What if Nightingale was telling the truth?"     

"Then the Witch Cooperation Association should not exist anymore." Leaf slowly said, "Border Town will be our new 'Holy Mountain'."