The Return
The Return
Anna was startled. A cluster of green flame rose up and transformed into a wall of fire, blocking those figures.
Roland looked up and found that one of the women was Nightingale after the long separation. Her appearance looked so discomfited that her cheeks were abnormally red. While the frigid wind was obviously blowing outdoors, her forehead was covered with dense beads of sweat.
"Your Highness, please call Nana to come. Hurry up!"
She looked up as she exclaimed in palpable anxiety.
Roland had noticed that the woman on her back had a pale face and her eyes were closed, half of the arm was missing, and the crimson blood was seeping through the cloth that wrapped the open fracture.
"Cardin, go to the hospital and bring Nana here!" He shouted at the guard near the door, with a tight heart.
"Yes, Your Highness!"
Other than the two people, there was a little girl tucked in Nightingale's armpit. She appeared to be nothing serious, and her eyes looked around curiously.
"Are you okay?" Roland went up and untied the cloth belt from Nightingale's back, and removed the woman with the broken arm.
"I'm all right, Your Highness, cough... Sorry. I didn't bring the sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association back," Nightingale gasped, in a weak voice. Apparently she had experienced a long journey that made her exhausted.
"Don't say anything. First, take a good rest," Roland said as he picked up the unconscious woman who had been seriously injured and let Anna hold Nightingale. The five people went back to the castle. Nightingale's room was next to Anna's. He ordered the maid to fire up the furnace and prepare a vat of hot water in the room. After Nana's arrival, he explained about the issue before she healed the wound, and stepped out of the room when he finished.
As long as she was not dead, Nana would be able to recover her from her wound as usual. To keep her life, the problem was not serious. Nightingale also brought back the woman's broken arm to reconnect it. However, the arm had lost blood for a long time. He did not know whether it was possible to connect it back. The next steps would involve undressing to conduct the cleaning and treatment. As a well-educated man in his previous life, Roland consciously chose to avoid it and left the room.
"But how could things go this way?" He thought, "Was the camp of the Witch Cooperation Association attacked by the demonic beasts, and only three people managed to escape? If that was the case, it was surely a great loss."
He was lingering uneasily outside the door. About half an hour later, the door was opened. The first one to get out of the room was the little girl who had come in good condition with Nightingale. She nodded towards Roland, "You're exactly what Nightingale said."
"..." Roland was slightly puzzled, "What did she say about me?"
"A prince who cares about the witches". She gently shut the door, "Unfortunately, the news was too unbelievable. Most people of the Witch Cooperation Association didn't believe her. In fact, I didn't believe her either. But my dad had said that the world is so big with various types of people. I'm Lightning, Your Highness. Nice to meet you," she said as she bowed her head, with her right hand on her left shoulder—that was probably a way of saluting.
But Roland was not concerned about it. He keenly captured the phrase "most people did not believe her". "Has the members of the Witch Cooperation Association been attacked by demonic beasts?" Roland asked.
"Attack? No... Why did you ask this question?" She touched her forehead with her index finger, and then revealed a sudden expression, "Ah, I understand! You're referring to the big sister with a broken arm. She's Wendy. She was hurt by Cara, the leader of the Witch Cooperation Association," Then, Lightning roughly told the whole story.
Roland was silent after hearing this. It was so... unbelievable, he thought. He had really underestimated the brutal oppression of the witches in this world. "Accumulatively over the years, the witches' distrust towards the church and the nobility had reached its peak. According to Lightning's story, the priority by the leader of the Witch Cooperation Association, after gaining enough power, might be to eradicate people like me."
But fortunately, Nightingale had safely returned.
Not only that, but even two witches were brought back to Border Town. As for the project of building houses for the witches, Roland thought it over and decided to let Karl go on. "We may not need it now, but we'll get more witches in the future," Roland thought to himself.
"Are you a member of the Witch Cooperation Association?"
"No," she replied, "Like Wendy and Nightingale, we've already left the Assosciation. It's impossible to go back. Cara must hate us bitterly."
"Will she be able to survive after being pierced by Nightingale" Roland asked, frowning.
"Probably. There's a witch called Leaf, who can increase the effectiveness of herbs several times," Lightning expressed her thought, "With the more usage of hemostatic grass and blood agent, it should not be a problem to save Cara's life. But compared to your witch, the effect is far worse."
"It's really a hassle," he thought to himself, "It isn't a worry to be targeted by the Church, but it may be a bit ironic to be aimed by witches. Fortunately, the adversary's purpose is to find the Holy Mountain, and now they shouldn't have enough time to trouble Nightingale."
"You said it before that you didn't really believe in Nightingale. Then why did you escape with her from the Witch Cooperation Association?"
"Because of the black machine wheezing white gas, and the gray powder able to turn into a stone after making contact with the water, and the snow exploding with a thunderous sound!" Lightning repeated Nightingale's words, "The prince that is kind to the witches may not exist. But she should not have lied about all of these to me. Otherwise the story could not have been made so lifelike—it's an explorer's intuition. By the way, the big block I saw in the yard just now, was it the black machine able to blow white gas? Nightingale seemed to call it... the steam engine?"
"An explorer?" Roland automatically ignored the last question.
"Yes, an explorer," she repeated the word emphatically, "That's why I chose to follow Nightingale here, and the explorer is curious about all of the unknown."
"..." Roland secretly sighed, "Is it the young people's frivolity? In this era, the people pursuits other than survival must be born in a rich family. Look at her tomboy's dress and short golden hair." "Are you sure you're not called Ezreal?"
"Who is that? I'm called Lightning," said the little girl.
Slightly after that, Anna and Nana pushed the door open and came out.
"How's it going on?" asked Roland, "Is the treatment going well?"
At the sight of Nana's nod, he breathed a sigh of relief. "In general, the broken limbs should be connected within six to eight hours. Beyond the time limit, the success rate of surgery would be greatly reduced. Lightning said that they had spent nearly a day rushing towards here from where they were hiding. During this period, the limb's open fracture was in a state of gradual atrophy. The conventional surgery has almost no way to engage with the nerve. I can only say that Nana's treatment ability is really excellent."
The little girl also looked a bit tired. The treatment seemed to have consumed a great deal of her energy. Roland encouraged her, "You have been working hard. After dinner today, you may go to bed with Anna."
"Of course, that includes Tigui Pine too," he thought.