Release that Witch

If not for the shackles on her hands and feet, Isabella would have forgotten that she was a prisoner .

After she had told Roland’s witches that the God’s Stones of Retaliation embedded in the walls of the cell could not affect her ability, she had been transferred to an ordinary bedroom guarded by some guards. When she had been sent back to the Western Region of Graycastle, she had got a ”cell” similar to the previous bedroom. It was not damp or cold and had no dirty water flowing on the ground. In this quite spacious room, she was offered a bed, a bench and a toilet in a cubicle. All the windows of the room were blocked by iron strips, but warm sunshine could still get through them into the room. The conditions here were much better than that of the secret jail of Pivotal Secret Authority.

Having outstanding looks, she had thought that she would get some ”normal” treatment of prisoners of war, but nothing had happened. No one had sneaked into her room at night. She had not been humiliated or tortured. The guards at the door never spoke to her except when they delivered meals to her.

The most frequent visitors to her cell were two of Roland’s witches. One was said to come from 400 years ago and another one who was blonde always wore a hood. No matter what they had asked, Isabella had answered them honestly. She had even asked them to bring her papers and a quill to write down some recordings of the secret history and demon documents she had read in Pivotal Secret Temple’s Library.

The witches had never tortured her either, but she could tell that the blonde witch wanted to give her a hard time. She felt confused seeing her leave with a cold face every time when she finished answering all their questions.

She knew that they would not believe whatever she said, and based on what had happened during each of their visits, she was sure that one of them must be able to detect lies. She guessed that the blonde witch was planning to punish her when she caught her lying, but this thought made her even more confused. She just could not think of a reason for this action, as they could do whatever they want to a prisoner.

She felt increasingly oppressed by worry as the time went by.

She wondered why Roland Wimbledon had never appeared during the past two months.

She could think of only two answers to this question. First, the king had not woke up yet. Second, he never planned to meet her. Neither of these was good news for her. She believed that after she confessed all she knew, she would be put on trial and then executed.

Ready to devote all she had to defeat demons, Isabella had no complaints about her current situation, but waiting to die day after day still stressed her out.

She sighed and walked in chains to her bed. She sat down, picked up her quill and spread a blank paper on her laps, thinking that if she could finish writing down all she remebered quickly, she would be able to come to her end sooner.

At this moment, she heard footsteps outside.

It sounded like more than two people were coming to her cell.

Isabella’s heart vibrated.

Her door was pushed open. She put down the quill and turned around. Besides the two witches, here came a gray-haired young man. Based on the previous information she had received, she knew he was Roland Wimbledon, the King of Graycastle.

He woke up?

”Does he come to sentence me?”

Keeping those thoughts to herself, she stood up and slightly bowed to him.

She said with feigned indifference, ”I thought you would never come to meet me.”

To her great surprise, Roland said calmly, ”You’re Isabella, right? You’re the witch who made my God’s Stones of Retaliation lose effect. I didn’t meant to postpone this meeting with you. I had an incredible long dream and just woke up. I fought against Zero in the dream and I defeated her in the end. However, as the winner, I didn’t get everything, her knowledge or skills, as she said.”

”It’s impossible!” Isabella blurted.

Roland asked with great interest, ”Why? I guess I can’t get what she had, as I’m a man who can never become a witch.”

”It’s nothing to do with gender.” Isabella shook her head. ”The trophy a winner will get in Soul Battlefield is memories and lifespan, which can be owned by any human being, and only the creatures who have those two things can step into Soul Battlefield. As for the abilities of witches and magic power, they can’t be absorbed by the winner. Otherwise, Zero would have absorbed me.”

”What do you mean... There’re creatures she can’t invade and absorb?”

Isabella explained, ”Animals can’t get into the Soul Battlefield, as they’ve no intelligence. Even if they did and win, they can never understand human beings’ memories.”

”That may also be caused by the difference between species.”

”As far as I know, among the thousands of souls she absorbed, there’re some demon and some hybrid demonic beast.” She sighed and continued. ”But it happened before I was born. I’ve just heard her mention about it when we were chatting.”

”Demon and... demonic beast?” Hearing what Isabella said, Roland and his witches could not help but look at each other at a loss for words.

”Why didn’t you tell us about this?” The blonde witch shouted this question to Isabella.

”Because this will only increase your anxiety and hardly helps you.” Isabella paused and slowed down to explain. ”Even Zero herself admitted that the memories of the other species were so crazy that they placed a heavy burden on her. She said she had never tried it again after that.”

The king did not seem to be scared. Instead, he smiled and said, ”Interesting. By the way, did Zero mention to you what would happen to the losers in Soul Battlefield?”

”They’ll disappear from this world as if they never exist.”

Roland raised his eyebrow and asked, ”Any difference between the losers who give up voluntarily and those who fight to death?”

”All of them will disappear, but...” Isabel continued after a thought. ”Zero seemed to have said that the memories she absorbed could be divided into two kinds.”

Roland seemed particularly interested in this issue and asked, ”What are they?”

”One kind of memories were disorganized with residual consciousness of the losers. They would affect Zero herself. The other kind of memories were completely open to her. She could read them whenever she wanted.” She paused for a moment and continued. ”She said that it was harder to recall and easier to forget the first kind of memories... She casually mentioned it once. I didn’t ask her for more details at that time, but I’m sure you’re an exception. I’ve never seen anyone like you before, who get no memories at all.”

Roland closed his eyes and knitted his eyebrows, he seemed to be thinking about something extremely complicated. He remained speechless for nearly 10 minutes and then heaved a long sigh, saying, ”I see.”

”What on earth was he thinking?”

Curious as she was, she still kept her mouth shut.

She knew that she should never ask such a question as a prisoner.

Roland said to her, ”Now, let’s talk about you.”