Release that Witch

“Scram! Dirty beggar!”

Someone pushed hard against her, but she did not move a bit. Instead, it was the assaulter who was the one to stagger two steps back.

The man’s arrogant expression disappeared from his face and instead instantly turned into one of shock. A moment later he abruptly turned around and left with his tail between his legs.

During this whole time, she remained unaffected and kept on moving through the crowd. When they saw the worn-out woman, most of the people stepped out of her way while frowning. In this way, she was able to slowly move further in the direction of Grayastle’s inner city gate.

Although there were traditionally no walls separating the inner city, the people had erected a symbolic gate made out of wood and garlands to better control the sea of people.

On both sides of the gate stood two neatly arranged rows of armor-wearing warriors, all of whom had an exquisite armor that was dazzlingly reflecting the shimmering sunlight. With their spread-out eagle wings on their shoulders it gave off the impression that they desired to fly off into the sky. The iris flower decoration hanging over their chests together with their heroic and handsome faces had gathered their own group of rich housewives that were shouting and quarreling over them.

The warriors were all wearing red capes that fell down to the ground. They seemed to be a red wall if you were to look at them from behind. It was these handsome and mighty warriors who were responsible for dividing the crowd, forming a wide and vacant road which was only usable by the more influential families.

Many banners were flying in the wind alongside the road, and a lot of the strip-shaped golden-colored flags were hanging from the flagpoles, giving off a quite, solemn and respectful presence. The banners were embroidered with many different designs, but most of them were covered by the tower and the pike. She knew that this pattern represented the Royal Family of the Kingdom of Graycastle, who was also the organizer of today’s ceremony.

Today they held the royal ceremony to celebrate the day of adulthood of the 5th Princess, Tilly Wimbledon.

Since it was made public one week ago, this matter had already created a great public buzz, so much that everyone in the city already knew about it. In addition to the local aristocracy of the Kingdom of Graycastle, the envoys from the other kingdoms had also come. They were all carrying plenty of gifts and marriage proposals in the hope of earning the favor of 5th Princess.

Even the Church had sent an Archbishop to preside over the ceremony. The ceremony would be held at the city center of the Square of Dawn. At that time, the royal family would start to give away meat porridge and thick soup, which was also the reason why the event had attracted so many people.

However, she hadn’t come for the food.

Her goal was the Archbishop.

If she was able to kill an Archbishop under the watchful eyes of the King. It would make it impossible for the Church to cover up the incident, ending up in a great loss of face for them. Tasting such a sweet flavor of revenge made her feel endlessly excited. Touching her chest, she reassured herself that the snatched knife was still there. Although the knife was of poor quality, it would be enough to kill a mortal.

At this moment, the crowd suddenly released a burst of overwhelming cheers, interrupting her from her thoughts. Looking in the direction of the Inner City, she discovered that the rows of the Knights from the Kingdom of Graycastle had begun to slowly march forward. The Knight in the front was the dressed in the shiniest armor, like a flickering flame his gold-embroidered red cloak fluttered behind him as he walked.

The Knights were followed by a carriage which was being dragged by four fine horses that moved side by side. The Royal Family’s emblem was carved into the wall of the carriage and its wheels and frames were plated in gold. On the roof of the carriage there floated a scarlet burgee, while a gold-embroidered silken fabric was hanging over each corner of the carriage. At first glance, the whole carriage looked like a flowing golden ocean.

Mixing herself in with the crowd of people who were following along the carriage, she was also able to set foot on the Plaza of Dawn. The inner area of the plaza was isolated by a row of guards, only allowing the aristocracy to get a close look at the ceremony taking place. She estimated that she would have to stop here for now. But, as soon as the Archbishop stepped into the plaza, she would immediately dart over, needing only a few breaths of time to reach him, leaving it impossible for him to escape from her grasp.

One young person after another jumped out of the royal carriage and slowly moved onto the central stage. They were most probably Wimbledon III’s five children.

Within these people, she also detected the 5th Princess Tilly Wimbledon.

There was no doubt that the 5th Princess was the protagonist of the day. Her eyes were full of intelligence and clear like two gems; her light makeup together with her long braided gray hair gave her a refreshing and simple impression; standing within that group of brothers and sisters she looked outstanding; the pattern embroidered on her dress wasn’t complicated at all, and it was perfectly matched together with her temperament. But what was most incredible was that she had actually looked all over the rows of people, even directly into her eyes, smiling and nodding slightly, as if the Princess was greeting her personally.

This definitely hadn’t been an illusion. In that short moment, an incomparable feeling of closeness was born inside of her, like they were friends who had known each other for years, warm and sweet. It wasn’t born from any blood relation or by being of similar social status, but rather it came from… the resonance of their magic.

She unconsciously released the strong grip on the handle of her knife, and instead began to quietly watch as the woman that was walking on the stage. Not long after the ceremony, she was found by two guards who had been tasked with escorting her to the palace.

As long as she herself didn’t want to follow them, the guards would have never been able to stop her. But she did not ask anything from them, she just simply began to follow the two further into the inner city, until they finally reached the magnificent palace that stood at the end of the road.

Within a secret room of the palace, she met with the 5th Princess for the first time.

“…So it was like this.”

“It’s an unfortunate story, and afterward you’ve eventually come to live within the Kingdom of Graycastle.”

“Do not worry. In the future, you will not have to wander around any longer. From now on you’ll be staying with me.”

“I will give you a good makeup and make sure that they will not be able to recognize your face.”

“I have heard that the monastery was destroyed by a fire and that all the children have gone missing. Only ruins and ashes are left of the buildings.”

“Do you have a name from before that time?”

“In that case, from now on your name will be Ashes.”

…

When Ashes opened her eyes, the first thing that caught her eye was Maggie’s face.

The other side blinked a few times and then she came up and embraced Ashes, “You finally woke up goo!”

Ashes tried to move her lower fingers, only to discover that she wasn’t hit by the weakness or numbness that she had expected. Furthermore, she also felt that there was no pain coming from her waist.

“How long have I been asleep?”

“One afternoon,” Maggie said, “Nana said that your medical treatment was already completed and you could wake up at anytime. But when you wake up your body will feel very tired and you will first have to rest for a while. However, when you wake up for the second time you should feel much better and all of your energy should already have recovered.”

Ashes began to pat Maggie’s head and slowly sat up on the bed and opened her clothes to examine herself. Only to discover that her abdomen was now completely intact. The huge wound was gone as if it only had been a nightmare, and now after she had woken up, it had disappeared into nothingness.

“She is … how did she heal me?”

“I think that you would prefer not to know about it,” Maggie begun, but when she saw the determination in Ashes’ eyes she decided to continue, “They put the scattered… goo, parts of your body back into their places, and then filled the stomach wound back up. When everything was back in its place, Nana began to release her magic, restoring your stomach back to its original state. The more parts they collected, the faster she could heal you, and if something was completely absent, she would be unable to grow it back again.”

Ashes felt goosebumps all over her body, “All of the dirt and grass my body parts was stained with, were they also…”

“When Nana was healing you, all the dirt was discharged out of your body. It seems that her ability can distinguish between what is useful and what is harmful.”

Hearing this, she felt relieved and tried to stand up from her bed, testing how much power her body had recovered by now. The result was that it was completely opposite to what Nana had previously said. After waking up, she couldn’t feel any traces of weakness from her body. Instead, it felt as if she now possessed even more power than she’d had in the past.

After putting on her black robe, Ashes took a look at the sky outside of the window and then started walking toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Maggie asked, confused.

“I’m going to see His Royal Highness,” Ashes answered without looking back.