Release That Witch

Scroll, clenching her teeth, repeated the question.     

This time he was sure he was not experiencing a hearing problem and thought, [This witch is really concerned about my marriage?] He then said, "Are you sure all witches are unable to bear children? Is this due to... any specific reason? Something that could lead to a misunderstanding? For example, the previous Holy Mountain."     

"I hope so," she said with a sigh, "unfortunately, there's no documentation of a witch bearing a child and there're countless examples that confirm the theory. Whether it be a normal relationship or taken by force, there has never been a conception in the Witch Cooperation Association or any of the other organizations."     

[Reproductive isolation]... was the term that emerged in Roland's mind. [Was it possible that witches had evolved into the next form of human being, preventing them from reproducing with the older version? Or, perhaps, it was the magic power they stored in their bodies?]     

[However, now was not the time to speculate,] he thought, [The current problem was its possible influence. Will it prevent me from entertaining the idea of marrying a witch?]     

Roland immediately thought of Anna.     

Although it would be a pity if he couldn't have kids with Anna, the basis for Roland's love for any children would stem from his initial love for Anna, and this love was not going to decrease if they could not have children. Not to mention that, as a person with a modern soul, having a blood-related next generation was not as important to him as it was for the past generations. He believed himself to be an individual entity and since children were not actual clones, they were not a continuation of himself but other independent humans.     

Therefore, he would totally accept a witch that could not bear him any blood-kin.     

In this case, the only real problem would be creating an heir. However, it was still not a too difficult-to-handle task for Roland who had gone through their world's long history. All he needed to do was build an empire that did not require an heir. There were a few choices for that specific implementation and he had time to consider it later.     

Roland was surprised to find that it was actually extremely good news as a whole.     

He had been thinking about how he could create a social framework that included the New Mankind Witch could live in peace with the normal human and together progress. He had been pondering this since he had that late night conversation with Nightingale. However, he did realize that the witches and their future generations would still be able to form powerful groups, even with the development of the God's Stone of Retaliation. This stone would not close the gap between human and witch abilities. Even with the newly developing technology, the witch's superior intelligence would still give them an advantage.     

But, now he had been told that the witches could not procreate. This had largely prevented the formation of family organizations and increased the population gap between the witches and the ordinary humans. The thought gave him hope that both parties could progress hand in hand, at the same time.     

Perhaps he had been thinking for too long, Nightingale could not help but grab his arm.     

Roland retrieved himself from his thoughts and patted Nightingale's hand on his arm to comfort her and, after clearing his throat, said, "I thought so before and I still think so now."     

"..." Scroll was stunned momentarily. "What?"     

The hand on his arm suddenly tightened.     

Roland could not help but laugh. He had been the one who thought he had heard incorrectly and now they were thinking they had misheard him? He coughed before repeating. "Yes, I'm still willing to marry a witch."     

...     

Scroll left with a strange expression on her face, satisfied and yet, slightly sad, and this confused Roland.     

After hearing this he turned around and asked Nightingale who was still standing beside him, "Is she okay?"     

Nightingale did not answer but looked at Roland with a smile instead. The sun outside the window was streaming in and enchantingly shone on her fair face and smooth hair.     

"Well." Roland looked away. "I'll just take that as a sign you're both in a good mood."     

Then they all heard a knock coming from the door to the office. "Your Highness, a knight from Longsong Stronghold is here. He says that he has some information for you."     

"Bring him to the hall, and I'll be right there."     

When the prince entered the hall, the waiting knight quickly walked over and knelt down on one knee. "Lord Petrov has sent me to inform you that Timothy Wimbledon has sent his emissary delegation and they've already arrived at Longsong Stronghold."     

"Emissary delegation?" Roland muttered. "How many of them arrived?"     

"A total of around 50 people."     

[It seems to be the persuasion team,] Roland thought, [It's futile to me if he's just being diplomatic.] He asked, "When did they arrive?"     

"Yesterday afternoon," the knight answered in a low voice, "Lord Petrov ordered me to inform you as soon as possible."     

It only took him a day to arrive and he had probably been on the road all night riding by torchlight. "You must be tired, and get a good night rest here before you return." Roland looked at his guard and ordered, "Reward him with a gold royal and take him to the hotel."     

After the knight left, Roland wanted to ignore the matter since a team of 50 people would not really be a threat to the town and it was simply a show for persuasive purposes, besides he only had to let the leader in. However, Petrov was taking it seriously so it would be better for Roland to keep track of the emissary delegation's whereabouts.     

After thinking about it, Roland summoned Lightning and Maggie. He asked them to fly to the stronghold to look at the situation, one after the other.     

After only two hours, both of the witches had completed their investigation and returned to the castle.     

"Nothing was discovered, " Lightning reported, "There was no army of 50 knights along the way, actually, not even a single knight was found."     

"Not even a single one, coo!" Maggie confirmed.     

[It looks like they needed to have some fun and relax their tired bodies after the long travel to the city.] Roland relieved them. "Both of you just continue to investigate along the path once every day before the emissary delegation arrives." He paused. "By the way, how's progress on the map?"     

"We've put about hundreds of pieces of it together and it's almost filled up Soraya's room," Lightning said, "she already moved the map out into the backyard. Would you like to take a look?"     

"Sure," Roland said with a smile.     

The castle's backyard had become a botanical garden and there were all sorts of exotic plants growing there since Sean had brought some crops seeds back from Port of Clearwater. Leaf had put up an elevated wooden shelf in order to leave the bare ground and flowerbeds for the vining plants. The grape vines crawled up to the shelf and even halfway up the castle wall. Along with the grapes, there were apple trees, and sugar cane hanging on the back wall to the castle. The witches would gather here and eat fresh fruit and chew on sugar cane. Unfortunately, the success of this garden was due to Leaf's influence, so they were not a good example of what could be freely cultivated.     

The map was located in the middle of the yard, five to six square meters and comprised of the various pieces of parchment that had been put together.     

"We're here." Lightning held onto Roland's waist with one arm and they slowly floated above the map. "Can you see that palm-sized grayish-brown square? From an aerial perspective, Border Town looks like this."     

"The blue-colored place to the east and the south... could those be the ocean?"     

"Yes, however, we would need to cross a mountain to reach it."     

Roland was slightly worried. This would be considered normal if Barbarian Land were 10 times bigger than the Kingdom of Graycastle, however, he had not expected the Western Region to be so small once the entire map was completed. Graycastle was simply caught in the middle of the borderlands created by the natural barriers, the Impassable Mountain Range in front and an ocean behind. No... Not only the Western Region. He filled in the unfinished portions in his mind, using the Impassable Mountain Range, that divided the mainland, as a wall. The Kingdom of Graycastle and even the entire "mainland" would be just a small plot of land behind the wall.     

...