Chapter 99 Night talk
The witches were unable to sleep at this time, after having suffered for so long, they still couldn’t believe that they were so welcomed by the Prince. There were no fetters and no guards, the Prince even allowed everyone to live within the castle, sleeping in such spacious rooms.
Wendy had already guessed that her sisters would feel uneasy, so she together with Nightingale had went to collect all of their sisters and meet in one room. There they sat on the ground in a circle, happily chatting and calming their emotions.
This is the manner that a leader should have, Leaves thought to herself, if it were Cara, who was absolutely scrupulous, she would never have noticed their condition, or even if she had noticed, she wouldn’t see a reason to comfort her sisters.
“Sister Wendy, His Royal Highness... what shall we do?” Hummingbird asked timidly. “Our abilities are much worse than what you and Sister Nightingale can offer.”
This caused a feeling of resonance within her other sisters, who nodded to support her.
Wendy seeing this began to laugh, “Let me think, well... the first thing you all should do is to practice your ability.”
“Practice our ability?” Soraya asked hesitantly, “Does His Royal Highness want me to draw portraits of him all day long?”
“Probably,” Wendy patted Mystery Moon’s head. “You too, even if Cara forbade you to use your ability in the camp, His Highness doesn’t. Instead, he even encourages you to use and discover your own ability.”
“But my ability brings problems to our sisters,” said Mystery in a very low voice.
“Even if that is the case you still need to practice,” said Wendy categorically. “It’s to save your lives.”
“What does life and death have to do with training our abilities?” Leaves couldn’t help herself from asking.
“Yes, the witches with His Highness method were able to safely survive the Day of Awakening,” Nightingale interjected before Wendy could answer. “From now on, we can bid farewell to the demonic bite, all of us sisters can easily pass the Day of Awakening.”
All the witches were now staring at Nightingale, and for the moment they couldn’t believe what they heard. “Are you speaking about what happened to Miss Anna?” Scroll asked in astonishment, “but last time you didn’t tell us how she was able to accomplish it.”
“Yes, at that time it was still only His Highness speculation, but in the meantime, it was also Nana’s Day of awakening – all day long she wasn’t hurt.”
“Then this method is...” Scroll couldn’t speak any further, it was just too unbelievable.
“As long as we can consume all of our magic power daily,” Nightingale continued to explain, “I’m able to see how the magic power within your bodies changes, due to regular usage, your body is able to adapt to the magic and your magic reserves will also increase – while at the same time the suffering during the demonic bite will also be reduced. When it is close to your Day of Awakening, as long as you consume all your magic and keep your magic reserves empty, the demonic bite won’t cause your body any harm.”
“I think everyone can even faintly feel it,” Wendy added, “While we were always chased by the church, we always hid in the furthest parts of town, not daring to use our abilities. So every winter we lost many sisters. But this year, while living in the camp in the Impassable Mountain Range, besides for Ari and Ami everyone else was able to safely live through the Day of Awakening.”
Thinking about this, Leaves took a deep breath, when she had encountered the demonic bite while traveling through the wilderness, it’s duration was exceptionally short. “In other words, the Holy Mountain is not a piece of land...”
“Yes, the Holy Mountain isn’t a place,” Wendy nodded. “As long as we can accept ourselves as what we are, not thinking of ourselves as the devil’s subordinate, and when no longer hide our abilities, we are our own Holy Mountain.”
“Wendy had even asked His Highness if he allowed her to go to the Witch Cooperation Association camp when the Months of the Demons had ended, to tell you the news.” Nightingale looked at Wendy and softly said, “Like this, even if you hadn’t found the Holy Mountain, you could still live freely within the mountains.”
“Since everyone is here now, it is unnecessary to mention this,” Wendy smiled and shook her head, “It isn’t important if you are needed by His Highness or not. Even if it’s only for the reason to keep yourself safe, you need to practice every day.”
“If this is really the key to release us from the demonic bite, can it be that other witches were already aware of this?” Scroll asked and after thinking for a moment, she answered her own question “We weren’t the first Witch-Society. The Kingdom of Dawn and the Wolfheart Kingdom had already their own societies. We even sent them letters inviting them to accompany us on our search for the Holy Mountain, but we never received any reply from them.
Leaves gently sighed, she had the same thought but didn’t say it. Since Cara found the ancient book in the ruins at the eastern border of the Kingdom of Graycastle, she firmly believed in the Holy Mountain and took us all with her on her endeavor. At this point, the society started their long march into the exile, almost across the entire kingdom. During the journey, we meet many new sisters, but we also lost a lot of them. If from the beginning we had hidden ourselves within the ruins, would we have found the key?
“We can try to contact the witches hiding in other cities,” suggested Nightingale, “this was His Highness plan anyway. He wanted to let other witches know of this safe haven by releasing rumors. Like this, it would surely greatly release their worry.
“In the end, I still don’t understand the point why His Highness should accept all of us witches?” asked Echo, clearly confused. The southern witch had clearly suffered worse than most of the other witches. First, she was sold by her own people to a businessman of the Port of Clearwater, who then took her all the way to the capital selling her once again to the King. She was forced to learn the royal etiquette and how to dance. She even had to learn how to skillfully please a man. If it weren’t for the Witch Cooperation Association who rescued her, she would probably already have been sold for an exorbitantly high price to the hands of a Duke or Minister. Until now, her speech had still her own southern accent.
“Maybe he is just the same like those who previously wanted to buy you,” said Lily with a sneer, “Men are...”
“Don’t talk about things you don’t understand, Lily,” said Nightingale resolute and clearly unhappy. “His Highness, Lord Roland, is clearly different from all those you spoke about, after all, some of us are already living here for quite a while.”
“Let’s end it here for today,” decided Wendy and said while still wearing her kind smile, “It’s already late, so everyone should go back to their rooms and try to get some sleep. Even if your ability really isn’t useful to His Highness, he still said that what he wants is for all of you to be able to live a life in Border Town that is as normal as possible. If you want to know what His Highness will ask you tomorrow, it is,” here she deliberately paused for a moment, “I want you to accept this contract.”
After Scroll and Leaves had finally returned to their own room and closed their door, the former said: “It’s getting late we should sleep now.”
“Well.” Even before His Highness had asked about her ability, he had already arranged a room for her and Scroll together. Even so, he had said that this was only a temporary arrangement, and if the construction within the town was finished she could get her own room. But in her view, this bed was spacious enough for three people, so it wasn’t really a problem.
She took off her coat, got under the quilt and was immediately wrapped by an indescribable soft and comfortable feeling. After feeling so much pleasure from finally having a comfortable bed to sleep in, Leaves couldn’t help herself and began to happily croon while burying her head into the pillow. After a long time, she softly asked: “Do you blame Cara for what we had to face?”
Scroll kept silent for a very long time, then she sighed and finally spoke, “No one can predict the future, no matter what she later did, at least at the beginning she really wanted to find a home for us witches. Where we could live in peace, without having to have anything bad in our minds. But this is all is of no importance, you should sleep now, child.”
With this she closed her eyes and murmured, “Good night.”