Release That Witch

The next day after Anna woke up, Nightingale came to bid farewell to Roland.     

"Though we don't know why, Anna is probably the first witch to have spent the Day of Awakening without pain," Nightingale said excitedly before leaving. Having lived with Roland for a long time, she got used to the word "awakening" to describe the transformation of witches. "I'll bring my sisters in the Witch Cooperation Association to Border Town. I hope you'll accept them, just as you have accepted Anna."     

That was exactly what Roland prayed for. Anna's ability alone helped the town to improve the hot forging process so that the town could see the dawn of the Industrial Age, let alone the ability of a bunch of witches? Of course, considering Nightingale's safety, he asked her to stay, hoping that she could go to the Impassable Mountain Range after the Months of Demons.     

But Nightingale was obviously too eager to wait. "Many of my sisters will face the difficult period during the winter. If I could tell them the news earlier, maybe more of them can survive the awakening. Don't worry, few demonic beasts can sense my whereabouts."     

"Then, when is your Day of Awakening?" Roland finally asked.     

Nightingale mounted her horse and said, "The end of the winter or early spring." She waved to Roland and rode off. "Don't worry about me. That pain becomes lighter and lighter these years."     

Her reply made Roland lost in thoughts.     

He had been thinking about the reason why Anna got through the Day of Awakening successfully. After all, Anna said after awakening that she did not feel the slightest pain, which was a total reversal of Nightingale's notion—"A witch gains her power from the demon, and thus she is tainted and evil." Such notions were rooted in people's mind, as they saw the witches would suffer terrible pain on the Day of Awakening. And when the witches died in the awakening, their blood and flesh would be dried and their skin would be burnt, which became the irrefutable evidence of their depravity.     

However, Roland never believed in that notion.     

He had probed the memory of the real Prince Roland, but yet failed to find any evidence of the existence of God or demon. Since power was not endowed by God, then it should not be regarded as a standard to distinguish between good and evil. In fact, even if the gods existed and frequently interfered in the secular world, believers should be endowed with power after they chose their camp, and not the other way around.     

According to the description of Nightingale, the magic power gathered in the witches' body. Then was it possible that the vessel was damaged because the magic power could not be released? Roland thought it was quite possible, as the witches, faced with most people's hostility and oppression, had to hide their ability and pretend to be normal. Therefore, they had few opportunities to use their magic power before they reached their adulthood.     

Of course, Roland would not think that his castle happened to be a wonderland. He had already talked to Anna, knowing that she experienced insufferable pain before. If anything was different during this year, then it was the fact she used her ability almost every day since she came to the castle.     

And what Nightingale said before she left implicitly confirmed his assumption—Nightingale often used her ability of invisibility as it was hard to be noticed, and she had also been forced to train her ability; what's more, she could use her ability without any misgivings now. And that was why the bite on the Day of Awakening had little effect on her.     

After Roland returned to the castle, he immediately asked Nana to strengthen her training. If no one was hurt while defending the town, she would have to heal a variety of small animals. If the assumption was proved through Nana's training, it would have an earth-shattering effect on the witch community, as the curse of demon would change into the endowment of God. As long as he could ensure that his domain was safe and open to the witches, they would come here endlessly.     

Anyhow, everything got back on track after this incident.     

Roland urged the production of Steam Engine II, which could also help Anna to familiarize herself with the new ability.     

Another shed was put up in the castle backyard, but to shelter snow this time. He felt that it would be safer to build his experimental base in his own territory.     

According to what Nightingale said, a witch's ability would be stable in her adulthood, and she might generate new derivative skill. Though he had not seen Anna's new skill yet, her way of controlling flame was completely different now.     

No, whether it could be called as a flame was uncertain now, Roland thought. If the former flame could be barely understood with common sense, the green flame now was utterly unexplainable.     

He named it as "Heart Fire".     

Because it could exist away from Anna, and change its shape at Anna's will, just as what she was doing now.     

A flicker of flame stood on the iron plate two meters away from her, swinging slightly back and forth, as if it was saluting. But Roland knew that it was controlled by Anna. Normally, it kept a temperature close to that of the body; once Anna wanted to heat it up, it would instantly rise to a higher temperature and the color would change from green to dark green. Similarly, it could also change into a large cluster of flames; in addition, it could move at a slow speed.     

Unfortunately, it could not be far away from Anna; through repeated testing, it was confirmed that the Heart Fire would disappear if it was five meters or more away from Anna.     

Another feature of Heart Fire was that Anna could summon a lot of flames, though she could barely control two flames simultaneously until now.     

Recently the border was quite calm. Demonic beasts still appeared outside the wall, but without demonic hybrids, it was hard for them to break through the defense line. As Roland said, the beasts became stronger and quicker, but they were just beasts. The demonic beasts were led to the middle section of the wall, so that the Militia of about 100 soldiers could cope with the situation.     

So in addition to the daily routine inspection, Roland spent a lot of time on construction.     

He had set aside a site on the south of the castle, and planned to build houses on it for the arriving witches. As the investor of the project, he appointed Karl to be in charge to build a number of two-story brick houses. A reasonable and pleasing layout, easy entrance and exit, convenient drainage system and other issues had to be taken into consideration, as he strove to create a well-planned neighborhood.     

He even considered distributing the witches to live in the old and new area of the town, so that they could live together with the common residents. Later he thought it over and deserted the plan. That might be helpful to speed up the common residents' understanding of the witches, but it might cause irreparable consequences, before the misunderstanding was cleared up. After all, the different view of witches only existed within the Militia right now.     

What's more, Roland could not guarantee that all of the witches brought by Nightingale would be pure and harmless—most of them had suffered the pain and torture of the world, so Roland was afraid they were much more sophisticated. After all, witches like Anna and Nana were rare.     

Therefore, if the witches lived together, it was more convenient for centralized management. Relevant rules and regulations had to be drawn up before their arrival. Roland had no experience to refer to. After all, he was neither the personnel of Superpower Office of National Security Agency, nor was he the founder of the Avengers, how could he know how to manage a group of people with super powers! He had to work out a temporary system by referring to the personnel management system used in companies, and planned to modify it slowly while putting it into practice.     

Of course, Roland knew that this plan was full of flaws. Anyhow, as a pioneer, who else could he rely on? If he chose to hide and be conservative in Border Town, maybe he could touch the threshold of industrialization in decades. But being a mortal man, how many decades could he afford?     

If he wanted to lead the town to the next era and be the pioneer of the reform, he had to have an adventurous spirit.     

Just when he was writing his thoughts on the parchment, Barov opened the door and walked in.     

Shaking the snow off his coat and saluting to the prince, Barov said, "Your Highness, a messenger of Longsong Stronghold has come."