Release That Witch

"And me!" yelled Nana.     

"Coo!" Maggie followed close at Nana's heels.     

Roland just stood there, fetching the witches from the hot air balloon basket and all of the Witch Union witches hugged him one by one. Seeing this, Tilly couldn't help but laugh. "Ah! You are really good with the girls."     

"And do you want a big hug from your brother?" Roland joked.     

"No, thanks," she smiled and shook her head, "I can still remember that you once took me up and threw me onto the hard ground.     

Roland turned off this dialogue with a shrug of his shoulders, as if saying, "I didn't mean that. I was innocent." Then he moved his eyes to the girl in the arms of Ashes. The girl seemed young and had sea blue hair and a figure as slim as Anna’s. Her eyes were tightly closed and her slender eyebrows looked slightly upturned. Her skin was so fair that a mole which looked like a tear stain in the corner of her eye was particularly eye-catching.     

She looked like a sleeping beauty rather than a prisoner trapped in the stone tower basement.     

However, her beauty wasn't the focus of Roland's attention. Her purple robe with exquisite patterns was the thing that intrigued him. As in this era, dyestuff was rare, especially purple dye, he believed that this gorgeous purple robe with beautiful and complicated white stripes and sigils must be a magic robe which could only be seen in movies.     

He assumed it must be a piece of orange equipment.     

"Is she still alive?" Roland asked.     

"Yes," said Nightingale, "She is alive, yet she has exhausted all her magic power, a similar situation to that of Anna when she entered adulthood. Still she's a little different from Anna for her magic power is regained very slowly. It may take three or four days for her to fully recover."     

"I see, so let's call her Sleeping Beauty for now," Roland nodded and said, "I'll make a room for her on the third floor of the castle, giving her time and space to recover. The other girls, let's go to the lobby. I wanna listen to the story of your trip."     

...     

Having heard what Tilly and Nightingale said about the trip, Roland was surprised and somehow broke into a cold sweat for them.     

Provided that Silvio had eye of truth, he thought it was still dangerous to go far below the ground, hunting a strange and huge demonic beast. Roland believed even he himself would be hesitant under such circumstance, but Tilly was decisive. She managed to pick up the right people immediately and lead them to fulfill the task... Now he realized that Tilly became the leader of her witches not only because of her identity as a princess.     

"What did you think at that time? Did the maggot have something to do with the demons?"     

"I don’t know, but I guess yes," Tilly said slowly, "because in Barbarian Land, some witches of Witch Cooperation did encounter demons riding demonic hybrids whose wings were cut off. Those hybrids seemed tamed by the demons and followed their orders. Behind the snow-capped mountains, you also saw those flying beasts. They are totally different in form compared with the demons. Maybe they are another kind of demonic beasts."     

"Based on what we've seen, I guess the demonic beasts are demons' pets and servants. Their relationship is similar to that between human beings and their hunting dogs. The demons could somehow tame those beasts and drive them to complete some difficult tasks by giving them orders?"     

"It… sounds right." Rolland nodded, but still felt confused. "The demonic beasts only attacked the human communities in the ‘Months of the Demons’, but the moss and weeds on the Siege Beasts' shells suggested that they didn't just live during that one month and they could possibly stay alive for decades. Limited by the Red Mist, the demons couldn't expel all the human beings and fully occupy Barbarian Land in a short time, but they should have been able to keep sending demonic beasts to harass the Four Kingdoms all the time instead of just in winter."     

Another question was how come a demonic hybrid could be tamed. He could never forget the smart demonic wolf-lion hybrid that attacked Iron Axe during the first year's "Months of the Demons". It could learn and analyze, set a goal and plan out how to achieve it. It was nothing like those so-called clever animals that acted upon conditioned reflexes repeatedly and far more intelligent than most animals and beasts. If all the demonic hybrids were long-living and intelligent, they could not be tamed and enslaved by another species.     

"Compared with the underground demonic beast, the ones Miss Nightingale encountered outside the stone tower were more worrying," Tilly sighed and said, "because they could remain invisible to us in daytime and we could hardly detect their movement, let alone fight them. It’s a pity that we know little about demonic beasts and have no idea of how to deal with such horrible enemies."     

"I wouldn’t believe they actually exist if Nightingale hadn’t seen them with her own eyes," Roland said, "Luckily, such kind of demonic beasts have never appeared in the Western Region... If a few of them came in every winter, Longsong Stronghold would have been ruined by now." Roland said.     

"According to the historical records, the longer the ‘Month of the Demons’ is, the stronger demonic beasts will be. This year, it began to snow in fall. That means a long 'Month of the Demons' and we will confront with powerful enemies." Tilly said.     

The word "we" said by Tilly warmed Rolland's heart. He was happy to see that she had already regarded the town as her close ally, of course, for the sake of the witches. Now it wasn't that important whether she had accepted himself as a brother.     

"Based on the current situation, the line of defense must be under the oversight of Nightingale." Roland suggested.     

"No, let's give that position to Silvio this winter," Tilly said, "because Nightingale would work overload. She needs at least half a quarter of an hour to merely make a tour around the eastern and western city walls, while Silvio can observe the entire city wall area, staying inside the castle. When she detects demonic beasts, she can immediately notify other witches in the castle. "     

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Roland nodded.     

"That witch..." Scroll hesitated, "I have some reservations about her. Before we can confirm her identity, she is a potential enemy."     

"I understand and I will put God's Locket of Retribution on her for the time being," he said, "and I hope she won’t misunderstand us."     

...     

Roland went into Sleeping Beauty's bedroom where Anna alone was taking care of her.     

"How is she?" Roland asked.     

Anna shook her head, "She's sleeping all the time, giving no response."     

"I see." Roland went close to her bed. The lady lay quietly, still with her eyes tightly closed. Only her eyebrows were somehow lowered and seemed relaxed a lot. Nana and Lily had used their powers to help her, now all they could do was waiting.     

"It's incredible for someone to be frozen for so long, having absolutely no trace of freezing in the body." Roland said with amaze.     

"That's no surprise to me. In my case, I feel at home with fire," Anna chuckled and said. "Her ability must be related to this freezing."     

"I heard that you're the one who cut apart her frozen coffin." Roland patted her head. "You nailed it, Anna."     

"Actually, it wasn’t only because of me," she said seriously. "This witch must have gained mastery of her magic power. It looked like that she had frozen herself in very low temperature at first, and then wrapped her whole body up with ice crystals which were at normal temperature. By doing so, she could prevent melting and preserve her life. That was tricky."     

"Ice crystals at normal temperature..." That sounded ridiculous, but Roland understood. He knew something about a summoning type witch's ability and this was merely an embodiment of her magic power, just like Anna's Blackfire which could be changed in form and temperature.     

Anna paused a bit and continued, "When I cut into the surface of the ice crystals of the Frozen Coffin, the whole thing collapsed instantly, as if she had deliberately left flaws in it." That means she was expecting this to happen."     

"You mean…" Roland said.     

"She’ll definitely wake up," Anna answered.     

.