Release That Witch

After the hanging basket fell to the ground, a witch, who seemed to be about 30 years old and had red hair dropping down to her waist, stepped out of the basket and came forward. "Hello, welcome to Border Town. I'm Wendy." Then she looked at Ashes with a joyful smile. "I'm glad you're here, too."     

[Is she the witch that Ashes mentioned? It seems that they have known each other for a long time,] Sylvie thought, looking them over.     

"Hello, I'm Anna." Sylvie's eyes lit up when she saw her blue eyes, which were as pure as lake water. Besides, she was even more surprised by her magic power—strong, powerful, and almost faultless. A square made of black, white, and gray turned slowly and even changed the track of magic from all directions.     

[What an amazing power!] It was Sylvie's first time to see such oppressive magic.     

"Hi, I'm Lightning!" It was the little girl that had been flying beside the hanging basket. Then Maggie fell on her shoulder.     

"Coo, coo!"     

After Ashes briefly introduced the witches from Sleeping Island, Wendy invited them with a smile to step into the hanging basket.     

"The huge airbag above our heads is called a hot air balloon. We can go anywhere we want in it as long as we provide constant hot air for it." She had a slight pause and asked Ashes, "Aren't you going to town? His Highness would be glad to see you."     

"He wouldn't welcome a person who intended to take his witches away." Ashes smiled. "Take care of the children, please."     

"Well..." Wendy pursed her lips regretfully. "Don't worry. I'll take good care of them."     

"Hold on tight," Anna shouted, "The Cloud Gazer is due to take off."     

Sylvie only felt a tremble from her feet when the hanging basket left the ground. She stuck her head out, seeing Ashes and Molly waving to them. As the hot air balloon was rising, the scenery got smaller and both of them just looked like a fingernail. Anyway, a new life was coming soon.     

Wendy's magic seemed to control the wind. The hot air balloon moved towards the Kingdom of Graycastle under her control.     

It was Sylvie's first time to overlook the ground from the sky. Although the earth and mountains could not impede her view, it was still a novel experiment to keep such a large field of view in sight. She tried to summon the Eye of Magic. However, what she had not expected was that many sights came flooding back—steep cliffs hidden in the depths of the sea, underground rivers connected with the sea, animal remains buried in the mud, changes of rock formation underground, etc. Those sights caused Sylvie to have a splitting headache and her magic power was weakened sharply, so she had to stop her Eye of Magic instantly and gasped against the hanging basket..     

"Are you okay?" someone asked. She opened her eyes and saw Wendy.     

"Um, just a little... dizzy."     

"You'll feel better after taking a few deep breaths," Wendy said with a smile, "Many people feel uncomfortable when they're far away from the ground."     

"Thank you, I'm feeling better." Sylvie nodded.     

The atmosphere on the way was more harmonious than she had originally expected. As Ashes said, Wendy did not treat them differently just because they were newcomers. Although Anna did not talk much, she could answer them carefully. Lightning seemed to be close friends with Maggie. Her personality was so lively that she always flew into the hanging basket to chat with others, together with that fat pigeon.     

With Maggie acting as the link between both sides, the rest of the four people began to relax and asked Lightning about the situation in Border Town. Afterwards, the little girl simply hovered at the hanging basket and told the story of how they defeated demonic beasts and invaders and some incredible inventions made by His Highness, in which everyone was absorbed.     

After a while, the hot air balloon reached the sky above the castle.     

For its size alone, the town was consistent with "Border"—small and remote, whose area was less than one-third of Sleeping Island. However, townspeople were so many that groups of people could be seen here and there, such as the central square, the periphery of the city wall, and the riverside. They went through the crowd just like a flowing river.     

The hot air balloon landed in the courtyard of the castle. When they stepped out of the hanging basket, Sylvie jumped when she heard a sudden explosive sound, so did the others. Honey came back to the basket hurriedly and, just popping half her head out, asked, "What happened?"     

Wendy laughed. "Don't worry, it's a gun salute to welcome you."     

They went through the corridor covered with green shade and came into the hall. Sylvie finally met Tilly's brother—he was sitting in the seat of honor. His appearance had some similarities with Princess Tilly in that both of them had gray hair, an easy expression, and no pendants on his body. Though his look was not nearly as delightful as Lady Tilly's, his expression was so contemplative that he could easily attract their eyes only sitting there.     

"Welcome to Border Town. I'm the Lord of the Western Region, Roland Wimbledon. Presumably, you already know my name," He got up and said with a smile, "Tilly Wimbledon is my sister, so you can feel at home, just think of the town as Sleeping Island."     

Sylvie could not help casting the Eye of Magic, and then she was stunned.     

To her surprise, the darkness did not appear, even though he did not wear a God's Stone of Retaliation and had no signs of magic—he was consistent with what she found with her Eye of Magic and he was not pretending or was controlled, which could only mean that the man before Sylvie was Roland.     

Regarding this situation, Tilly only told her to pass on the message to Sleeping Island.     

...     

She was untidy in her brain and did not listen to what Roland said at all. To fulfill Lady Tilly's entrustment, she had imagined what words and expressions to use when talking with him, and she was even ready for being imprisoned. To her surprise, all of them were totally ineffective. Then she would finish the only task that let Maggie take the message back to Sleeping Island by the end of the month.     

[How could it be that a true noble is determined to protect witches and has become the leader of the Witch Cooperation Association?]     

Such a huge change put Sylvie in a trance. It was not until His Highness arranged bedrooms for them that she came to herself.     

"This is the situation. The Witch House is under construction, so I'm sorry that you can only stay in the castle. But it'll help you to quickly integrate into the town life." Roland said, "As a formal gift to welcome you, a wonderful banquet is waiting for you. Enjoy it, please."     

Sylvie was relieved when she found out the result that she would be living with Wendy. During the time she spent with Wendy, she found that Wendy was a really nice predecessor and easy to get along with. Besides her, it seemed that another witch called Nightingale was also living there.     

[I hope she'll be an easy-going person too,] Sylvie thought.