Release that Witch

...

Passing through a mountain path guarded by numerous guards, No. 76 could see the red brick wall looming in the snow forest.

Judging from the outposts set along the path, No. 76 was sure that she would not have been allowed to enter such a restricted area if she had acted alone. Senior Witches were finally treated in a way befitting their position. At least, such a massive display of guards would not be disgraceful to these promoted people.

Although she did not understand why a witch so gifted would build her home on the North Slope Mountain Ridges.

Furthermore, No. 76 still was not fully convinced about what Wendy had said. Anyhow, it sounded too incredible to her that a witch could experience awakenings twice so soon after she had come of age. She knew that even though the number of times a witch awakened did not represent one’s strength or ability, yet the perseverance, intelligence, and perception one required to achieve awakenings twice were much more than she could imagine. Even in the entire Union, there were hardly any witches who was as exceptional as this one. She was really surprised to meet such a witch in the kingdom of the common people.

As they walked close to the walls, No. 76 noticed something strange.

”Is this really where the witch lives?” Looking over the top of the walls, No. 76 could only see a few roofs put up with canvas. There was no castle or stone tower here, not even a one-story house.

”Here we are.” Wendy knocked on the gate of the yard, ”The backyard of North Slope Mountain is the research and development center of all kinds of mechanical equipment in Neverwinter. Apart from studying, Anna often spends her time working here. To ensure her safety, His Majesty has blocked the entire mountain path to prohibit unauthorized people from entering.”

”It’s only an institute...” No. 76 frowned secretly. ”The guards on the path don’t belong to Anna but are sent by the king. It looks like he’s watching her rather than protecting her.”

”Sister Wendy.” A lively little girl opened the door. ”I’ve been waiting for you for a long time!”

”Good girl, where’s your sister?”

”She’s doing a machine tool test with Sister Anna.”

”This is...?” Amy asked.

”Lucia’s sister, Ring White.” Wendy introduced, ”She’s now a probationary clerk for the Witch Union and hasn’t awakened yet.”

”How are you?” The little girl greeted politely. ”Please come in.”

”Lucia White also spends a lot of time here working with Anna and she’s responsible for the research work on metal materials,” Wendy said as she led everyone inside the yard, ”By the way, her ability also evolved when she came of age, and the improvement of her magic power is quite dramatic, like Anna’s. She’s among the few witches who could drive a Sigil of God’s Will.”

No. 76 almost stumbled over the threshold as she heard this.

”Wait, what she’s talking about?”

”Sigil of God’s Will?” No. 76 could not believe her ears.

Luckily, someone soon asked, ”What’s a Sigil?”

”A Sigil of God’s Will.” Wendy repeated with a smile. ”It’s a weapon that requires a tremendous amount of magic power, most people find it hard to light the four Magic Stones on it. His Majesty has hung it on the wall of the castle’s hall for everyone to test their magic powers. If you join the Witch Union in the future, you have the chance to experience it yourself. At the moment, only four members of the Witch Union are capable of lighting the last Magic Stone on Sigil. Everyone is now guessing who the fifth will be.”

”Hang it on the hall? Only four witches?”

No. 76 felt like she was listening to a fantasy. Even hearing the name of Sigil of God’s Will was enough to surprise her, let alone caring about where they found it. In the Taquila age, the Sigil was the exclusive weapon for the Three Chiefs of the Union. Expect for Transcendents who spent all of their time on training, there was no one who had the required magic power to drive the golden thunder.

”But here they actually have ’only’ four witches who could activate the Sigil? Don’t be ridiculous! Does the Witch Union possess even more Transcendents than the Union?”

”Moreover, from what Wendy said, both Anna and Lucia aren’t Extraordinary witches now. Then how could they advance to become Transcendents?”

”What sounds crazier to me is the way that the king of common people deals with the Sigil of God’s Will. Since there are witches who can activate it, he must have seen the tremendous power it could cast. Then why has he placed such a precious weapon in the hall for all the witches to play with? The Sigil is a war trophy for the slaughter of a Senior Demon. Does this guy not have any common sense?”

No. 76 suddenly felt a slight pain in her brain.

The information that Lucia was also a Senior Witch had numbed her.

No. 76 had seen three promoted witches in just one morning. All she wanted to do now was to ask someone why a border city ruled by common people would harbor so many Senior Witches. What was more mind-blowing to her was that they did not have any awareness of how to be a superior. For example, Lucia had been introduced by Lightning and had already integrated herself with the witches of Wolfheart. Anna was much calmer, but No. 76 could see from her face that she did not have any complaints about being managed by an Original Witch, Wendy. Through their conversations, you could see that Anna and Wendy had an affinity and trust between them.

When No. 76 could not hold back her curiosity any longer and be about to blurt out her questions, she heard someone finally mention this point.

”May I ask how many people in the Witch Union have evolved abilities that are new?” Broken Sword’s question was as sweet as the sound of nature to No. 76.

But shortly after that, No. 76 was shocked by Wendy’s response. She saw Wendy counting the number with her fingers. ”Well... one, two, three... nine, ten, just ten.”

”10...”

No. 76 was so overwhelmed she had no energy to be shocked.

If the information provided by ’Black Money’ was correct, there were only about 20 witches that lived in the Western Region of Graycastle. In her plan, she merely viewed Neverwinter as her first stop, her target was Sleeping Island in the Fjords, as it was the place that had the most witches.

But she did not expect to find 10 Senior Witches here.

”Was this a mockery of the incompetence of the Union?”

Drawing a deep breath, No. 76 no longer stayed close to them but put the ring before her eyes, taking advantage of the time when they were showing their abilities.

The beam of orange light shining from Lucia was almost twice as wide as that from Maggie. And the beam of light from Anna was much more eye-catching, almost as wide as her trunk and was nearly the same as the uninvited guest who sneaked into the Foreign Affairs Building that night.

Undoubtedly, neither of them were the Chosen One.

It seemed that the ’wall of light beam’ in the castle belonged to another person.

But was this possible? Was there any witch that was more exceptional than Wendy’s genius, Anna, and had even experienced awakenings twice?

At the moment when No. 76 was wondering, the gate of the backyard was suddenly pushed open and a blue-haired woman came in.

”The anticorrosive results you asked for have arrived. These are the test samples.” She placed several glass bottles in front of Anna. ”Aluminium alloy sample No. 1872 had the best result like His Majesty had predicted.”

”Thank you for your hard work, Agatha.”

”Goodbye then.” The witch, whose name was Agatha, nodded and turned away without paying any attention to the rest. Her demeanor gave No.76 an impression of the imposing manner that a superior would have in the Taquila age. But the moment Agatha turned around, No.76 felt like a thunderbolt flashed in her heart!

She realized that she had seen this person before.