Release That Witch

She referred to the mercury brought from the laboratory and painted a bright layer of coating behind the glass, out of fear of poisoning risk from inhaling mercury vapor.     

Light reflected much better on painted mirrors than on mirrors stuck with silver scraps. Roland set aside a batch of crystal glasses to make little mirrors and delivered them to every witch to keep. The witches were pleased to see their faces so clearly. Even the imperturbable Scroll smiled. Roland thought that the witches were still feminine in nature, even though they could not get pregnant.     

It was a pity that these convenient items could not be sold to the masses at a low price. That was because the laboratory not only needed high priced crystal glasses as the basic material, but also consumed large quantities of glass to make colorless transparent containers. Although Kyle Sichi knew how to make colorless glass, the project had been too heavy to find others to make mirrors. Most apprentices were busy purifying the two acids and soaking guncotton. And chief alchemist was devoted to preparing mercury fulminate with his three students. They could not make other things, but find industrial acid-making process.     

In addition to the mirror, the object moves from the finger to move the stage into a knob to control the movement of the barrel; however, Anna would be able to take the hint only if Roland gave some directions about these. With the Blackfire processing, the newly fixed bracket quickly finished. They selected two groups of the highest magnification tube to get the first complete body of the optical microscope.     

Taking advantage of the sunny day, Roland gathered everyone in the Witch Union to the backyard of the castle and started the first fundamental biology lesson.     

...     

When Lily walked into the backyard, she found the plants there had turned more and more luxuriant.     

Grapes on the wooden frame had turned a vibrant mauve color. She recalled it had not even been a week since its last maturity. Now and then, Lightning flew to pick some of the grapes and shared it with everyone. And that clumsy bird who had just joined Border Town was perched on the wooden frame, pecking and swallowing the grapes herself.     

Roland and Anna were like a pair of lovers talking to each other at the center of the backyard under a tree, but Lily knew they were not flirting. If she went closer to listen carefully, she would hear many indescribable words and theories… like the mention of little balls, a cat which was dead or alive, things turning into waves, and so on. Nightingale stayed away 5 meters from them because their conversation made her sleepy!     

Wherever they were, Wendy was always beside Scroll, wearing smiles and tender looks. Sometimes Lily thought Wendy looked at her like she was looking at a child. Lily reluctantly sighed. There was, after all, a huge difference when she glanced at Wendy's chest and hers.     

When she became like Wendy, perhaps she could be regarded as an adult.     

When all the witches gathered, Roland put two gray-black ironware that he claimed were microscopes that could see microorganisms on the desk. Lily thought that maybe things would look very different under the microscope. But it was still hard to believe that the world was made of a kind of particle that could form a block of hard stone.     

After ordering the guard to bring a bucket of water, Roland placed a few drops of water under the microscope. The water was different from what Lily imagined. The water was not muddy or dirty at all. Rather, it was so clear that it was transparent under the light. Perhaps the particles could only be seen using the microscope.     

"Something's moving in the water!" the other sisters unexpectedly shouted in surprise, "oh, it's running away!"     

"There's not only one. It seems that there're many in there."     

"Oh God, are those worms? They all look different!"     

"That one looks like a transparent crab..."     

Lily's heart rose to her throat. Were they not particles, but worms instead? His Highness was lying to them! But these worms were so strange because there was nothing in the water at all. When it was her turn, she no longer pretended to be careless. She could not help squinting and putting her head close to the microscope.     

Then she saw an incredible scene.     

In a narrow iris diaphragm, there were many oddly-shaped things swimming. There were square-shaped things, things with long soft hair, a demonic hybrid of beetles and crabs, and even kernels with feet. No matter how strange they looked, they were all transparent as if they had no skin or hull. Obviously, there was nothing in the stomachs of these worms, too.     

"Your Highness, are all these actually worms?" Scroll asked.     

"What you're seeing are some protists and unicellular algae. It's not appropriate to regard them as worms. They should be categorized as microorganisms," the prince explained.     

"Microorganisms?"     

"Yes, they're independent lives, but their sizes are much smaller. Besides the two kinds of microorganisms you could see with your naked eye, there're other much smaller microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. According to a present microscope, we couldn't see bacteria and viruses that cause spoilage of foods and other diseases," Roland said excitedly, "these microorganisms are everywhere. They're abundant and not resistant to high temperature. That's why water needs to be boiled, fish and meat need to be cooked, and bath water can't be repeatedly used."     

Though Lily could not imagine there being much smaller microorganisms, she could not help getting goosebumps once she thought of how she drank water with these worms in it.     

And His Highness said that these little things were the main reason for causing food spoilage?     

If the bread and meat porridge could be kept fresh, perhaps… it may work for the water as well.     

Coming to this conclusion, she could not help releasing her magic power to envelope the water drops under the microscope.     

Something unexpected happened.     

She saw a part of the "worms" trembling and their skins quickly became no longer transparent. Covered with purple armor now, root tentacles grew out of their bodies and began swallowing the other unchanging "worms". No, they did not really swallow it. Lily saw them assimilating with each other at an alarming rate. Their tentacles, like sharp swords, pierced the other microorganisms and absorbed them.     

She did not know whether it was just an illusion. She felt that these mutant groups were still changing those invisible lives. Purple spots soon appeared in the water droplets. More and more spots gradually formed into a piece, as if a lavender carpet appeared in her eyesight. The tentacles were arranged one by one, neatly like an army. It seemed like they felt her attention on them, as their tentacles were all lifted as if they were saluting her.     

It was the first time that she had seen the true nature of her power.