Release that Witch

After the smoke caused by the battle dissipated, the forest returned to silence.

The witch’s long braids had unraveled, and her hair spread like white petals over her body.

Blood streamed down her back and quickly formed a dark red puddle, slowly immersing into the ground and melting the cold, hard soil. After that, the air was filled with a smell of iron.

Nightingale squatted and untied the blindfold on the witch’s face. She found the face looked unexpectedly young, probably similar to her own age. However, the scars by her eyes destroyed her overall beauty—her eyes looked like they had been repeatedly burned by red-hot iron, and her skin was red and wrinkled, so she had lost the contours of her eyes.

This was undoubtedly caused by men. Nightingale gently touched the wrinkled scars; as for whether she suffered these wounds before becoming a witch or after serving the church, no one would ever know. However, this was no longer important because from now on, she couldn’t hurt any more witches and wouldn’t suffer any more torments.

After searching the Saint’s body, Nightingale found a letter, a seal and an emblem in the pocket of her robe lining. The emblem was a circle split by a cross with a clenched fist in the center.

She carried nothing else—no gold royals or jewelry.

”Perhaps she never enjoyed anything in her life,” Nightingale couldn’t help but think.

”Hey, look at what I caught.” Lightning’s voice sounded from the air. She looked up and saw the little girl carrying a struggling man, whom she threw onto the ground.

The man groaned in pain and rolled around, trying to get up, but he was hog-tied, so all he could do was to twist around helplessly.

The man’s outfit revealed that he was probably the Priest who was sitting in the other carriage.

”Where’s Maggie?”

”She’s guiding Ashes to chase the runaway Judgement Army.” Lightning walked over to the Saint. ”This is the witch trained by the church?”

”Uh-huh,” Nightingale said softly. ”She won’t ever hunt us again.”

”From her appearance, it’s difficult to believe that she saw us as enemies who must be killed... ” The little girl sighed.

”If not for the church, none of this would have happened.” Nightingale turned to glare at the captive man. When he saw the witch lying in a pool of blood, his eyes immediately widened, and he tried to say something but couldn’t because of the cloth gag in his mouth.

She took out the cloth. ”Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

”Ahem... you, you’ve killed the Pure Witch of Bishop Tayfun, reckless devil! You’ll sooner or later be hung by the church at the city gate and left to the crows!”

”Even if we didn’t kill her, being caught by the church is no better,” said Nightingale, ”and compared with this, you’d better worry about yourself first.”

”Even if I die, I’ll have the salvation of God, and you guys will only sink into Hell and be tortured forever!” He yelled.

”That’s why I have to block his mouth,” Lightning said.

Nightingale stuffed the cloth back into his mouth. ”Let His Highness deal with him. He said that the Iron Axe is very good at interrogating such kinds of people.”

...

By the time Maggie brought over the two witches from Sleeping Island, it was already afternoon. Ashes jumped down from the back of the beast and landed steadily next to Nightingale. ” You’re not hurt, are you?”

”Everything went well,” she said. ”How about you?”

”Obviously, not a single man escaped.” Ashes laughed proudly.

”Is she dead?” Andrea landed and looked at the Saint. ”I thought you’d keep her alive.”

”The enemy was a witch, so hesitating would have been extremely dangerous,” Ashes twitched her mouth and said. ”If I were you, I wouldn’t keep her alive either.”

”Gee, you have no mercy for your own kind.”

”She isn’t our kin, but a puppet controlled by the church,” the Extraordinary said casually. ”Besides, sometimes our own kind can be even crueler than others. I’ve never seen demonic beasts or demons imprison and torture people for several years.”

After saying that, she took off her blood-stained gloves and offered her hand to Nightingale. ”Your actions and performance were amazing, and you did the right thing in this situation.”

”... ” The latter stared at her for a moment before holding her hand. ”Thank you.”

”Who would have thought that someone like her would comfort me,” Nightingale thought. ”She probably didn’t want me to feel guilty for killing a witch.”

”I think this victory is worth celebrating,” Lightning said.

Maggie agreed with a ”Coo!”

Andrea rolled her eyes, reached out her hands, and placed them on top of the others’. ”I have to clarify that if it were only your hand, I wouldn’t touch it, so this’s for Nightingale’s sake.”

”OK, I get it,” Ashes said, raising her eyebrow.

Then, the five witches raised their hands to the sky, looking like an unwavering tower in the cold wind.

...

Next, they needed to collect the information carried by the emissary delegation and hide the traces of their battle. After properly dealing with these issues in the forest for two days, they arrived back in Border Town three days later.

After landing in the castle backyard, Nightingale was immediately surrounded by her sisters.

”I heard you were hurt. Where is the wound?” Nana asked.

”She has been waiting for you for a long time. Why did you come back so late?” Lily asked, annoyed.

”Does it... still hurt?” Lucia asked urgently.

”This batch of herbs was made especially by me. They can’t only stop bleeding, but also calm swelling, so their effect should be pretty great,” Leaf said with a smile.

”How could you be so careless to scurry into the church alone! You might not be this lucky next time!” This was Wendy’s voice.

”It’s alright as long as she can return safely.” Scroll chimed in.

Seeing their concerned faces warmed Nightingale’s heart, and she didn’t understand how the Church’s witches lived, but she knew what it was like to belong to the Witch Union. There was no doubt that this was worth devoting everything to.

Then, she saw His Highness Roland.

Lightning jumped into his arms and stuck to him like a gecko.

Maggie also flew onto Roland’s shoulder, rubbing his cheek.

Although Nightingale wanted to do this too, she knew that she wasn’t a child, so she held back the impulse to embrace Roland, walked up to him, and said with a smile, ”I’m back.”

”Uh-huh, I’ve waited for you for a long time.” The prince smiled his familiar smile. ”Take a hot bath and get some rest. I put a few bags of honey grilled dried fish in the office drawer.”

”OK, then I’ll go help myself.”

Nightingale smiled.

She reassured herself that she had done the right thing.