Release that Witch

”Ancestor?” Roland blurted out, ”What the hell?” He noticed everyone staring at him astonished. Roland cleared his throat and said, ”No, I mean... who knows if it’s true.”

Then he felt his left shoulder being gently pinched.

”Your Majesty, it’s true, and I can prove it,” the Chief lowered his head and said. ”But you are the only one who can see it.”

When the rest of the astrologers heard what the Chief said, they got up and left the room on their own. Roland thought for a moment and nodded to the witches and the guards, saying, ”I’m fine. You guys go as well.”

He would still have Nightingale with him as a last line of defense in case of any emergency.

The Chief Astrologer, Dispersion Star, entered a chamber next to the hall. After a long time, he returned to the long table with an iron box in his hands. He respectfully placed it in front of Roland.

”What’s this?”

”It is the instruction left by your ancestor. He’d expected that this kind of thing would happen.”

”You mean closing the Astrological Station?” Roland asked surprised.

”Yes, Your Majesty, and such a thing did happen before,” the Chief said with a wry smile. ”Although astrology and alchemy are both called the academics of sages, they are different. Alchemists can bring big profit to the kingdom while we have little output. Besides, the Astrology Association consumes many gold royals every year to purchase high-quality crystal and hire craftsmen. In order to prevent frugal future generations from dismissing the Astrology Association, your ancestor engraved the instruction and demanded that nobody interfere with it.”

Roland opened the box. Unexpectedly, what he saw was a stack of gold sheets. It seemed that the Wimbledon Family had been willing to spend heavily on preserving this instruction.

He laid out the gold sheets on the table and counted. There were eight of them. Each one was about 3 millimeters thick and 2 palms wide, heavy in his hands.

What the Chief Astrologer said just now was engraved on the first sheet. ”Nobody should interfere with the members of the Astrological Station in looking at the night sky, where lay mysteries which can show the fate of the world.”

The latter part of the words caught Roland’s attention and he became lost in thought.

In fact, this association itself was very strange. If the astrology really worked, King Wimbledon III must not be replaced by the church without any preparation. Instead, he should kill the High Priest first. Just now even the Astrologer of Dispersion Star himself had mentioned the Astrological Station had ’little output’... that meant he did not regard the divination as a product. Now he seemed helpless, totally different from the first time Roland had met him when he had looked like a church scoundrel.

As for the ancestor who had expended considerable funds and manpower to establish such an association and engraved instruction on the gold sheet at all cost to deter post-generations from closing it (for it had no practical use), Roland did not believe that he was simply an astrophile keen on studying things outside of the planet while his kingdom was so underdeveloped. Obviously, the astrologers must hold a task that had nothing to do with divination, but was very likely related to the latter part of the sentence.

He checked the other gold sheets again and again, only to find records of the basic star observation methods and the history of the Astrology Association. The last sheet even recorded the principle of enlarging crystal lenses and referred to a supreme commander. It seemed that the ancestor of the Wimbledon Family had also been Chief Astrologer of this association at the time. Roland recalled the Wimbledon Family history but could not think of anything related to the description on this sheet.

He picked up the first sheet again, pointing to the latter part of the sentence. ”What does this mean?”

”I don’t know,” the chief shook his head as he spoke.

Roland felt a pinch on his right shoulder before the Chief had barely finished his words.

He could not help chuckling, saying, ”Listen, the man is more flexible than the rigid rule, and this order left by an ancestor was probably correct while he was alive, but the times have changed, and I don’t want to be bound by this rule from hundreds of years ago. I’m the king of the Kingdom of Graycastle, and I can do what I want. Do you understand?”

”What? No, you -” The chief stared at Roland.

”You yourself know it clearly. You’re only wasting money. You remain ignorant about the mysteries of the fate of the world. Besides, when my father was murdered by the church, you couldn’t even give him a warning. Why should I keep you here to stare at the sky? You can’t exchange the stars for gold royals. So, please pack up and come with me to the Western Region.”

Hearing Roland’s words, Dispersion Star, who already had an unfavorable opinion of Prince Roland, who had been intractable and unscrupulous in the King’s City, suddenly looked dour.

After a long time, the chief said reluctantly, ”You’ll probably regret knowing this secret.”

”How do I know if you don’t tell me?” Roland smiled. It was really advantageous sometimes to intimidate others by pretending to be like the foppery Prince Roland. With these old men, this was the only way to get an answer for it was impossible to ask Iron Axe to grill them.

”We’ve been undertaking a mission that lasts for hundreds of years. It began when the first lord Wimbledon arrived in this region.” The Chief calmed down and said, ”This secret can only be revealed to the successor of the royal family when he becomes King, and has reached the age of 30.”

”Why?”

”Because your ancestor thought that the successors might be too confused and panic if they knew it ahead of time and lead to the decline of the Kingdom.” He hesitated for a moment and confessed, ”In fact, we’re looking for the Star of Extinction.”

”What’s that?” Roland asked in surprise.

”A scarlet star, or the Bloody Moon. When it comes, the world will fall into a disaster beyond redemption.”

The prince suddenly felt a shock and began to wonder. The coming of the Bloody Moon had been mentioned not only in the ancient book of the remains but also by Agatha of the Union. Why did a secular association also pay attention to this? Did the Astrology Association have inextricable links with the Union? ”Please be specific!” Roland demanded.

”What I know is all from the former Chief,” Dispersion Star said in a deep voice. ”It’s said that there’s a red star floating in the night sky. When it comes out like the crescent moon, the world will be destroyed. What we’re going to do is to find it before it becomes a crescent moon. If its orbit can be found, we can predict the doomsday in advance. This is also the intention of the horoscope.”

”Become a crescent moon?”

”Actually, it’s natural that you don’t know the star image,” the chief explained. ”The stars are always following a fixed path, such as the sun and the moon, and they appear at a fixed time. When they disappear, it doesn’t mean they’re gone. They just temporarily move to a position where we can’t see. We call this path Orbit. In fact, most stars have an orbit of their own.”