Release that Witch

…

It was the morning of the next day when he woke up from the Dream World.

Roland excitedly swung his fists in the bed as he found out that his guess was right. Every household in the Apartment of Souls has a gate leading to a memory fragment, just like his, and the world behind each gate was a place on which the loser living in the room, had once placed their biggest hope.

Given that, Princess Garcia must have left her last memory in the Port of Clearwater, the location of her lifetime’s work and the starting point to compete to be the new ruler of Graycastle.

Due to the fact that Garcia could have hung up the phone at any time, Roland had not entered the gate to further explore its inside world. After all, he had been in an embarrassing position and it would not have been a pleasant experience if the martialist had considered him an underwear thief. Before leaving her room, he had tactfully asked her about the memory portal by complaining about the useless iron door in his own room, but her response was quite cold, even boring.

It meant that either she was telling a lie or she still did not notice the weird iron gate.

If the latter was true, it deserved to be thought through.

Perhaps, except for him, all of the people in the Apartment of Souls had no access to those sealed memories and he might be the only one that could see and open the memory portal.

It was simple to prove this thought. Next time he would ask Zero to clean up the lumber-room, and at that time, he would know the answer.

Anyway, it would be an exciting discovery.

Since the demons swallowed by Zero held the key, it was not necessary for him to explore each household thoroughly. The demons had become the residents of the Apartment of Souls. Finding them and entering their memory fragments might help him find some useful information about the Battle of Divine Will.

…

When he went to his office, Wendy had been waiting for him for quite some time.

There was a stack of resumes on the desk, which was the detailed information about the four witches from the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Although he had known the general situation from Yorko, he was also willing to conduct a whole review of it, especially those things happening in the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

Roland read each page of the document co-written by Wendy and Scroll. In the end, he fixed his eyes on the name of Annie.

He felt quite familiar when he first heard of Annie. After Nightingale reminded him, he remembered the resentful history between the Bloodfang Association and the witches of the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

However, Annie was a quite common name, especially among the poor people in the lower class. At least, five or six out of 100 girls were named Annie, so it was normal to repeatedly hear the name. But the resume clearly recorded that she had indeed looked for the Bloodfang Association, and that she had not only been rejected but also almost sold to the nobles, so she was probably the ”sister Annie” mentioned by Iffy.

”I have to say that such a coincidence is really filled with dramas.”

A week ago, he had received a confidential letter delivered by a carrier pigeon from Fjords. The letter read that Tilly and the other witches had started their trip. They should have done half of the trip by now. He did not know what the scene would be like when the two met.

Although the reunion was not all about joys, and Iffy would certainly have a mixed bag of feelings of happiness and guilt, would Annie forgive Iffy who had betrayed her?

Roland secretly sighed and hoped that the time would heal the trauma between them.

He closed the resume and looked up to see Wendy asking, ”Which places have you decided to show them around today?”

”Your Majesty,” Wendy replied, ”I want to give them a tour of North Slope Mine, the steam engine assembly plant as well as the Chaos Drinks plant.”

The proposal was put forward by Wendy that the Witch Union would lead new witches to show them around Neverwinter. As far as she was concerned, this method would let newcomers be familiar with the local life and eliminate some unnecessary precautions and misunderstandings at the same time. After a two-day visiting tour and one-day resting, they could voluntarily choose to sign a contract or not, which had become a usual practice for the Union. Since Roland left the management of the witches to Wendy, she gradually got to the right track.

Judging from the visiting spots she had picked, these places all demonstrated that witches could collaborate with the subjects and also proved to them that the assistant witches could cast their abilities for other purposes, not only for fighting.

Roland nodded in satisfaction and said, ”So I leave all this matter to you. Please take Lightning and Maggie with you. If something unexpected happens, they can help you control the situation.”

After all, Wendy was not good at fighting and he also thought that every new witch would not be as nice as Anna. If there were two assistants flying in the sky to keep them alerted and Wendy had a revolver, she could deal with most unexpected emergencies.

”I see.”

”By the way, what do you think of the guide?” He changed the topic.

”You mean No.76?”

”Yeah.” Roland took a sip of tea. Usually, he would not spend his precious time on a normal slave, but Yorko spoke highly of her. Additionally, after hearing the story told by his old friend, he also respected such a lady that would sacrifice her own life to save others. If there was no problem in her identity and background, he would like to offer her a good job.

”She gets along with the four witches, especially Amy who considers her as a relative. As for me, if No.76 were vicious, she wouldn’t have saved others’ lives at the expense of her own life at the critical junction.”

”We have the same thought. What if she is appointed to be a clerk of Witch Union? I remember that there are only three or four people in your office. If you have more subordinates, you’ll find it easier to manage the organization.”

This position did not have extra requirements. The salary was acceptable and the job was quite easy. As long as she got on well with the witches, she was eligible to do the job.

Wendy smiled, ”I’ve no problems if she’s willing to take the job.”

”No, Your Majesty,” Nightingale abruptly appeared and interrupted him, ”don’t offer her any job at present.”

Roland was stunned, then asked, ”Is there anything wrong?”

”I... I can’t tell,” she hesitated for a while and continued, ”but I can feel something isn’t right.”

He took a weird look at Nightingale and kept silent for a while before saying, ”I got it. Put this job thing aside.”

”Yes, Your Majesty.”

After Wendy bowed and stepped out his office, Nightingale anxiously held Roland’s hands and asked, ”Sorry, You Majesty. Am I going... too far?”

”For the sake of safety?”

”Yes.”

”That’s what you should do.” He tapped the backs of her hands and comforted her, ”You’re responsible for the internal security of Neverwinter and you’re not the one to blame if you’re extra cautious about that. But no records in your documents suggest that something is wrong with her. What on earth is the problem?”

Hearing that, Nightingale relaxed a bit. ”No.76 didn’t lie and my ability can also prove it. But...” She paused for a moment and spoke out her doubts. ”I think that she doesn’t behave like a normal slave when she’s faced with strangers, so it would be safer, if I’m given more time, to observe her.”