Chapter 63 Old Story
Nightingale had spent her whole childhood in Silver City, and that was the happiest period of her life.
However, this wonderful time only lasted until the winter she turned fourteen. In that winter, refugees started a riot in Silver City. Her parents went out to distribute food but they never came back. Nightingale and her brother were sent, to the home of her father’s brother, another branch of the Gilen family.
This was also the winter that Nightingale had awoken to her witch powers.
She carefully hid her abilities, but in the end she was still discovered by Mr. Gilen, who immediately separated Nightingale from her brother and used her brother’s life to threaten her into doing his biddings, so Nightingale had no choice. Mr. Gilen sent her to the thieves’ guild and made her undergo their training. Later, he had her do some shady things, like breaking into the homes of his enemies to steal trade contracts or other important things, and eavesdropping on the town hall meetings. She even had to go to some potential competitors’ homes and put poison in their water tanks.
The Gilen’s family business grew bigger and bigger, but Mr. Gilen’s attitude toward Nightingale gradually turned worser and worser. If even the slightest thing went wrong, she would be kicked. Every time when she wasn’t doing something for him, he would shut Nightingale in a room in their house which had its door replaced with iron bars. The part which made Nightingale the saddest and most puzzled was that she wasn’t able to see her brother Hyde. She began to suspect that Mr. Gilen had already killed her brother.
Having had enough of her repeated requests, he finally brought over her younger brother. However, when Hyde saw Nightingale, he had a look full of disgust and said that he never wanted to see her again because as a witch and the devil’s companion, she should go to hell.
Hearing this, Nightingale’s world collapsed, but the nightmare wasn’t over. Mr. Gilen gave her the final blow – the fact that she became a witch was a secret, but he still told Hyde, and even told him that the farther he got away from a witch the better it would be.
After Hyde bid Nightingale farewell, Mr. Glenn grimly warned her that Hyde would inherit their father’s title, but if she wouldn’t continue to obey his orders, he would make her brother die quietly.
In this way, Nightingale fell deeper and deeper into sorrow and despair and turned into a puppet manipulated by the Gilen family. On her coming of age day, she had to complete a task for the family and was on the way home when she met Wendy. Or, more precisely, Wendy found her.
Wendy told Nightingale everything about the Witch Cooperation Association, and told her that there were many people who had gone through similar experiences like Nightingale’s, but these sisters had not given up. Hearing this, Nightingale’s shattered heart suddenly ignited with a new spark of life.
She didn’t need much time to change from confusion to determination. One week after her coming of age day, she had already overcome the torture, forcing her magic to undergo great changes. Her fog no longer hid only her figure, but also kept the iron bars from holding her back.
On the day that she had finally recovered from the afflictions of her coming of age day, she entered her world of fog to step into Mr. Gilen’s bedroom to take a knife and slit his throat. . Mr. Gilen let out some high pitched breaths, and then only the sound of popping blood bubbles could be heard. During the whole situation, Nightingale found out that she was much calmer than expected.
Then, Wendy and Nightingale left the Gilen household. As for her brother Hyde, she ignored him and did not want to see him again.
After this, she and Wendy started their journey towards the Witch Cooperation Association.
When Nightingale came to the end of her story, she waited for a moment, but when she felt that Roland was still immersed in her past, she left the room to retire for the night.
As for Roland, after a long time, he had finally collected himself and remembered that Nightingale once said that every witch had a long history of bitterness. If they could reach their day of adulthood, they could even be considered lucky.
While Roland crossed over, it was fortunate that he had become a prince.
The next morning, Roland went to visit Wendy in Nightingale’s room.
After a night of rest, Wendy’s color looked a lot better, and the previously injured arm looked totally healed. Despite her still being weak, she sat up and bowed to pay tribute to the Prince.
“I already know about you, thank you for saving the life of Nightingale.” Roland took a parchment out of his pocket and went straight to the point, “There is no doubt that with Cara as their leader, it will be impossible for you to return to the Witch Cooperation Association. So, it would be better for you to stay in Border Town and work for me. If you agree, you only need to put down your signature on this contract. You will get the same salary like Anna, and every month you will get a gold royal.”
“Your Highness …” Nightingale blinked hesitantly.
Roland knew what she wanted to say. After all, this would change her life. In addition, after Wendy had saved her life in the mountains, Nightingale didn’t want Roland to force her to make a decision immediately. In Nightingale’s view, as long as Wendy stayed in Border Town for some time, she would certainly come to their side.
“I would like it too if I wasn’t forced to talk about this in such a hurry, but some things become a little more dangerous with every day of delay.” Roland paused for a moment, but Wendy didn’t interrupt him and quietly waited for him to continue, “I think I may know a method to how a witch can survive her day of awakening without any pain.”
This remark brought a loud outburst from the two witches who asked with one voice, “What?”
“It’s just my speculation and there is no tangible evidence.” appeased Roland, “But I think I know the reason why witches in the camp suffered less pain compared to their life in hiding. The only difference between both situations was, while they were hiding their identity as a witch, they didn’t use their magic power, but during their life within the camp, they had to use their ability to maintain daily operations. “
Wendy nodded her head, “You’re… that’s right.”
“And in Anna’s case, she trained her ability daily before her day of adulthood, and she even fell into a coma because of overdrawing her magic power. When she finally regained consciousness, she had overcome the most difficult hurdle as a witch, and even without any injury.”
“So, I think this is probably the key to conquer the Demons Bite that attacks your body. I believe that a witch is a kind of magic container, and during adolescence, the witch is always accumulating magic. When this magic exceeds the body’s tolerance level, it causes harm to the witch’s own body, and the Demons Bite itself is dated with the witch’s day of awakening, the witch’s most powerful moment.”
“So if a witch can continually release her magic, constantly keeping her magic on a safe level, maybe the torture the witch would have to go through during the day of awakening would be greatly reduced, or even completely disappear.” Roland paused for a moment to let them think, and then he said, “As the lord of Border Town, I can offer your witches a safe place to use their magic. No one will arrest, send you to a trial, or even put you to death for using it. If my guess is correct, then there is no doubt, that Border Town will be the end of your long pursuit of the Holy Mountain.”
A witch was taught from the beginning that her dangerous capability was given by the devil. After endless suffering, the witch would feel that it wasn’t her own strength but instead that her power was a curse, starting a vicious circle. The more the witch didn’t want to use her magic, the stronger the bite would be. Directly after the crossing, Roland’s attitude towards this force was the completely opposite. After going through the memories of the old 4th Prince and ruling out the existence of a God, he had simply seen the magic as a kind of energy, an energy which was controlled by their own willpower.
Wendy was silent for a long time, but then she asked, “When I sign the contract and agree to work for you, then I want to know first… what will I need to do for you?”
During the past few centuries, because of their unique abilities, some witches were bought by a few ambitious people and were secretly imprisoned, used as consumable tools. Although the Church would look for and punish such behavior, it was still difficult to ban. In addition, they used to be ruthless towards the witches. Once they had lost their value, their fates could be described as a spectacle too horrible to endure.
Of course, Roland had also heard of these cases, but he took a fancy to the long-term interests and believed that this was a win-win situation for everyone. So, he smiled and replied, “The first thing you need to do is practice your ability repeatedly until you fully grasp it – just like Anna.”