Release that Witch

The group of people stared at her, dumbfounded. After a long silence, the prince cleared his throat and asked, ”Isn’t the red fog extremely toxic? There’s no way for us to approach it right?”

”It’s only toxic to witches. According to the Quest Society’s research, normal humans, plants and animals can all survive underneath the red fog. In addition, fire can speed up its rate of dispersion,” Agatha plainly replied.

”Weren’t you the one who said even normal people could fight the Devils? Well, prove it for me to see! The winged hybrids can be lured away by our flying witches,” She said as she pointed to Tilly, ”The rest of the people can stand by waiting for us to rouse the devils and lead them into a trap. If what you said is true, taking this stronghold should be a piece of cake.”

Roland chuckled and shook his head, ”I forgot to mention this earlier, this investigation trip was done via hot air balloon, not the flying witches you assumed — this kind of flying device can only carry a dozen people, I’m afraid there’s no way we can carry a whole troop of normal soldiers. In addition...” he paused, ”This plan you came up with is highly susceptible to risk. We have no idea just how many devils are lurking around. Close quarters combat will result in casualties, not to mention the dangerous job of luring the Devilbeasts. I refuse to put my people in such danger.”

”How could anyone have a foolproof plan for fighting the devils?” Agatha fumed. ”Every time the Blessed Army mobilized its people in the past, everyone went in with the expectation of a bitter battle to the death. As I thought, he’s delusional! In order to achieve an end goal, casualties are an eventuality. Only a naive rookie who’s never experienced the cruel reality of war would worry so much about every single individual life.”

Though extremely disappointed, she still controlled her feelings, managing to hide her doubts. In the afternoon, after attending his presentation of this so-called new weapon, everything will become clear.

Only now, Agatha no longer harbored any real expectations.

They were just a prince who’s only fought before on paper, a bunch of witches with support abilities, and finally some fragile and useless ordinary mortals. Even with the most powerful of weapons, how strong could they possibly be?

Perhaps from the moment the Union collapsed, humanity had already been destined for destruction.

”You often spoke of the Battle of Divine Will, why do you call it that? Isn’t it simply a war to repel the devil invasion,” Roland took a new piece of paper, raised his quill and asked.

That’s what everyone called it. The history books never recorded the initial reason for the war,” Agatha answered in a disheartened tone, ”It’s not wrong to call it a war to repel the invasion, after all, the devils did only come to the Land of Dawn from the stone gates...”

”What stone gates?” Scroll couldn’t help but interrupt.

”The Gates of Hell that rose from the ground.” Agatha sighed. ”On the eve of the Bloody Moon, the Gates of Hell shall open, engulfing the world we know. That’s what was written in the history books — either way, these damned stone gates would appear every few hundred years. The first horde of devils used them to come to the Land of Dawn and rabidly attempted to murder us all.”

”So the pattern of their invasions is also related to this?”

”They needed the red fog to survive, in order to leave the fog they had to depend on their own handheld reservoirs — the leather pouches, metal containers and demonic beast hide tanks. This is also the reason we were even able to have the second or third Battles of Divine Will. Only when the stone gates appeared could the devils build their fog generating Obelisks, which were usually taller than even mountains and had a wide area of diffusion. A single one is enough to cover the entire Fertile Plains,” she explained slowly.

”If another Battle of Divine Will erupts, the devils will definitely construct an Obelisk in the middle of the plains to serve as their base. After it’s complete, they’ll use their fortresses at the boundaries of the fog to initiate their attack. This time, I’m afraid there’s nowhere left for humanity to run.”

”If that day comes, everyone can at least escape to Fjords to weather the storm.” Tilly shrugged her shoulders.

”Are you talking about those few islands in the middle of the Swirling Sea? How many people could a tiny land like that possibly sustain? It’s nothing but a place of desperation where one waits for their eventual demise,” Agatha snappily retorted.

”Alright, everyone cheer up a little, at least we now have a decent understanding of the devils we’re up against,” the Prince shrugged and said, ”By the time the third Battle of Divine Will begins, we won’t be unprepared. Let’s call it a day here. Anything else we can discuss after lunch.”

　　...

Agatha finished her sumptuous lunch and followed Wendy back to her room.

Life in the wastelands was a lot more... luxurious than she imagined. Both the variety and taste were far superior to that of any feast in her memory. She thought that perhaps this was because she was born in an era of war; those days, be it in her own stone tower or at the fortress of the Union, food consisted solely of bread, jerky and vegetable soup. Yet here salt, butter, and honey were all plentiful, as well as some delicious spices she didn’t recognize. Even though she wanted to maintain her image, she nevertheless couldn’t help but devour an entire plate of fried mushrooms as well as two huge pieces of honeyed steak.

However, the more she ate, the angrier she became. She both loathed herself for succumbing to the temptation of delicious food, bringing shame upon Taquila, and loathed the Prince for being so short-sighted as to be wasting time savoring delicacies while the humanity walked towards its doom!

Thinking of this, she couldn’t help but harden her tone and say, ”I’m already familiar with the castle halls now. You needn’t bother with the hassle of escorting me back from now on.”

”It’s not a hassle at all. I’m delighted to do these things... ” Wendy smiled. ”Also, if you want to talk about anything, I’m always here. Bottling your feelings up in your heart will only make them fester.”

”Didn’t he say he was going to show us the new weapons in the afternoon? Why’d he leave all by himself after eating?”

”You mean Roland? This... is probably because he’s taking a nap,” Wendy covered her mouth and whispered, ”That’s His Majesty’s habit, usually after lunch he’ll always sleep for at least an hour. His Majesty often says the body is the foundation of all efforts. Without enough rest, it’s impossible to fulfill the duties of a lord.”

”An afternoon nap! What kind of habit is this! A whole night isn’t enough for him!?” Agatha angrily thought, ”This is obviously nothing but a lazy person making excuses, yet you actually wholeheartedly believe him!’

”Be it normal witches or Senior Awakened Witches... why is it that you all have such confidence in him?” she took a deep breath, ”Is it just because he gave you a safe haven? Do you really believe that he can win against the devils - no, even against the Church that has been suppressing you all?”

”I can’t speak for the other sisters,” Wendy gently replied, ”but I myself do believe in him. Because His Majesty is capable of making the things that no one else imagined, or even dared to imagine, happen. To me, he’s someone who’s made countless miracles happen.”

”Mira... cles?

”When witches everywhere were being hunted to death, he saved the Association; when everyone saw us as demons, he created a place where we could coexist in harmony; in a single short year, His Majesty has managed to use an army of peasants to fend off the Months of the Demons, and defeated Duke Ryan who had a territory several times of his; even the mad empowered army of Graycastle wasn’t able to take a single step past our border.”

”But these are merely the battles of mortals, compared with the war between God’s Punishment Army and the devils, they’re completely different.” Agatha shook her head.

”Of course it’s not just this,” Wendy continued, ”His teachings and theories allowed four sisters to evolve their abilities, and has unceasingly created increasingly powerful weapons, which allow knights and even ordinary people to win against Extraordinaries... these are all miracles that I’ve personally witnessed, not just the wild rumors of a tavern, nor the bombastic descriptions of historical records — they happened right in front of my eyes.”

”One day he’ll become the King of Graycastle, and lead us to defeat any and all of our enemies.” Her eyes were filled with mirth yet her voice was full of confidence.

”That’s what I believe.”