Chapter 48: Girls' talk
'Alice's experiment of God's Punishment Army is almost completed. It was a great success. These extraordinary warriors are capable of competing against demons. However, she has forgotten that even if the God's Punishment Army wins the battle, the victory won't be ours.'
Roland couldn't stop thinking about those words written in the ancient book.
'Even if we win, victory won't be ours? Does that refer to the casualties during those experiments? Holy City of Taquila...Cara probably thought it was a battle between church and witches but that doesn't make any sense since it mentions that the God's Stones of Retaliation doesn't work on those "demons" Also the witches are quite scarce therefore how could the church's numbers decrease while witches' numbers increase.
"?!" As Roland was walking back and forth inside his room while rubbing his chin, he stopped and his eyes widened in realization.
"Is the present church somehow connected to this...civilization before us that seemed to have been wiped out? Wait...experiment, unreasonable reward for capturing 1 witch. It looks like in the end, the people of old civilization split into two groups due to different ideals because of the said experiment. Were they using witches in some way to create the said God's Punishment Army?" Roland started walking at a much faster pace as if he was getting closer to the answer.
'It's possible...if someone discovered this ancient book, it is not impossible for the church to find the book of the other half of the group who came up with the experiment. I will have to wait for Barov to bring me reports regarding the church. Still, this completely changes my look on the world since it seems like the church isn't just hunting witches in the name of god. Wendy has also mentioned how she grew up in an orphanage run by church, judging by her words, it almost seems like they are trying to raise the witches.' Roland thought before he decided to give it a rest and go to sleep.
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All the witches except for Anna and Nana gathered in Nightingale and Wendy's room.
"Wendy, what could His Highness want from us?" Hummingbird asked, still cautious of Roland since his laid-back attitude during the dinner only made her more afraid that he might turn against them.
Wendy laughed as she noticed everyone's cautious faces, knowing that she has been the same.
"He will just ask you to practice your magic. He might even design a special training for you." Wendy explained with a reassuring smile.
"You are the only one who received that special training until now..." Nightingale said with an upset tone while pressing her knees to her chest.
"S-Special training as if...How can you accept that, Wendy?! Men are really, ugh" Lily widened her eyes before saying in disgust.
"W-What? No, it's nothing like that! Do you see what kind of ideas you give them? Are you trying to help His Highness or tarnish his reputation?" Wendy immediately started waving her hand with a panicked expression before turning to Nightingale with an upset expression.
"I am sorry, I didn't mean to do that...The special training is...well, His Highness just supervise her during her training, telling her how she can improve her control over her power." Nightingale looked away and explained with a guilty expression, clearing up the misunderstanding and making most of the witches sigh in relief.
"How can he even help witch control her powers? And why is it only Wendy getting such special attention? I bet it's because of..." Lily said staring straight at Wendy's chest which made the others look too.
"S-Stop looking at me like that, the reason why His Highness helps me is that he said I have a great potential to become strong. And I think he also noticed my desire to become stronger so I can protect everyone." Wendy put her arms around her chest to shield it from their stares before replying.
"How is it possible for His Highness to guide you, it's not like he can use magic, right?" Scroll asked with a curious expression.
"Eeh...Would you even believe if I said he can?" Wendy looked at Nightingale before saying this to her sisters with a forced smile.
"No way!" Everyone shouted at the same time which caused Wendy to laugh.
"But it's the truth I am a completely different person than before when it comes to my power." Wendy said with a smile before getting up from her bed. She swung her hand towards the stand with stretched paper on it.
The girls heard a sharp yet pretty quiet sound and felt only a weak wind inside the room before the paper split in half.
"?! What was that?! I don't recall you being able to do that, Wendy." Scroll asked with a surprised tone.
"It's thanks to His Highness guidance, he said that I should call it a wind blade. Using my power in this way also allows me to extend the effective range since it's not like I am controlling that wind. I only choose its direction but let the wind continue on its own. It might sound difficult to grasp but His Highness explained it extremely well. He used this thing to help me visualize it." Wendy said before showing the others a toy in her hand.
"What is that? A miniature carriage?" Hummingbird asked, curiously looking at what looked like small carriage.
"Yes, His Highness said that as long as I hold it and keep using my hand to drive it, I have complete control over it, however, I can only move it in my arm's reach before I have to take some steps to extend the range, however-" Wendy took the mini carriage and put it on the ground, driving it around with her hand while explaining.
"-however, if I want it to extend its range, I have to push it and abandon my control over it, ultimately doubling or even tripling its effective range" Wendy said and pushed the carriage towards Nightingale and it only stopped after hitting her foot.
"Oh...What an interesting idea. To think that His Highness came up with something like this, no wonder he seems so...different" Scroll admitted that the explanation sounded very easy to grasp and maybe even childish but that was its intention from the begining.
"Seems easy enough to grasp for even someone like Hummingbird" Lily shrugged her shoulders and said with a mocking smile and joking tone.
"H-Hey! I am older than you!" She immediately protested.
"Definitely not mentally, and now that I think about it, not even physically" Lily replied, teasing her once again which resulted in Hummingbird puffing out her cheeks, turning away from Lily.
"It's not like you are physically much older than her" Mystery Moon muttered while looking at Lily's chest.
"?! Like you are the one to talk!" Lily covered her chest and almost shouted at her.
"Hehe...Leaf, we will try to get your toes treated tomorrow as soon as possible. Nana might be able to recover them as long as she spends enough magic. She already accomplished it with chickens but we never tried it on humans." Wendy laughed at how her sisters started arguing as if they were home.
"Wendy...I trust your character and judgment, you have been with the association almost from the beginning. What kind of person is His Highness and can we trust him to not sell us out?" Scroll asked since there was something little bothering her on Roland. It was some kind of hidden danger or something similar.
"Hmm, the best definition and the shortest one is probably from Nightingale... As an enemy...manipulative, ruthless to both his enemies and himself. As an ally...attentive, friendly, maybe even sometimes overprotective. I can assure you that once you spend some time around him and grow on him, he wouldn't sell you even for all gold royals in the world. You also don't have to worry about any kind of inappropriate behavior, I am aware that there have been some rumors circling about the 4th prince, however, those are completely wrong from what I have observed."
"You know how much I can be conscious of those lustful looks." Wendy said with a reassuring smile, successfully comforting most of the witches.
"His Highness will at first treat you as acquaintances before accepting you into our group but you don't have to worry about some cold treatment. Just give him time to get used to you all. His Highness treats most of us as friends." Nightingale added with the strange tone at the end.
"Most of you? What does that mean?" Soraya asked.
"Eh? Nothing...I meant to say all of us, just a little slip up." Nightingale said with a tingle of red on her face before turning away. Echo who saw her reaction knew that there was more to it but the others decided to accept her explanation.
As Echo was planning to ask something of her own, she felt someone's hand on her shoulder. When she looked to the side, she noticed it was Wendy.
"*She spent the most time here out of all of us. I am sure you noticed but she just isn't honest with her feelings so please don't make it harder for her by asking unnecessary questions. If you want to ask something about His Highness, I can provide you answers.*" Wendy whispered with a soothing voice and a friendly smile. Echo nodded her head and started asking a few questions of her own in whispers.
Weekly Power Status
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