Release that Witch - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 Training (Part II)
The fire rose from under her feet, and soon faded.

This was already the twenty-third round.

And she had failed again.

On Anna’s forehead already beads of sweat arised, she used the back of her hand to wipe them away, immediately after that flame tossed up and issued a Zizi sound.

She did not stop to rest, the end of an exercise was followed by the start of the next one. The witch uniform lied at the side, neatly folded, if she had not insisted on doing so, her uniform would already been burned to ashes.

Fortunately, since Roland was the fourth prince, getting a few spare robes was not difficulty. He let his maid Tyre deliver a whole bucket of robes, gathered from the maids for temporary use.

The twenty-fourth practice had finally been effective, the flame was no longer rising from her feet, instead they appeared on her hand. She gingerly raised her arm, to let the flame move to her fingertips, but the flame suddenly shook twice, rising above her arm, setting the sleeve on fire, even going down the sleeve engulfing the whole robe.

Anna called the flame back, her robe was completely burned, and so she turned to the bucket and got a new one.

Whenever this happened, Roland would turn away his line of sight, so that his eyes were staring at other places – even if the other side wouldn’t care about this.

As a matter of fact, if it wasn’t for Roland’s strong resistance, she would probably have taken off all her clothes, in bright day light. But even if Roland would get a good view of her great figure, he couldn’t calmly face a naked girl – in particular, when the girl turned into flames her figure gave of a completely different kind of charm.

Roland shook his head, leaving the dirty thoughts behind. For the moment, it was not easy to master the power of magic. The actual goal he set for Anna was, that she should control the flame until such a stage, that she could release her flame on her palm or her fingers but without destroying her own clothes on her body, however the flame should have a high enough temperature to melt ingots of raw iron.

When the thirtieth practice failed, Roland stopped her.

“Take a break.”

Anna looked at him in a startled fashion, but gave no response.

Roland had to walk over, he even had to pull the girl by her hand, leading her to the chair and forcing her to sit down.

“You are tired; when you are tired you should rest, do not be too impatient, we have a long time,” he helped her wipe the sweat off her wet forehead, “let us consume an early afternoon tea.”

*

Roland knew that the nobility of the Kingdom of Greycastle had not the habit of consuming afternoon tea; this world’s productivity was so poor, for normal people it was difficult to have the leisure to taste the delicate of food — three meals a day were not popular, not to mention a fourth meal. As for the noble sons, they generally gathered around this time to have some fun in bars or casinos.

Not having this custom, he created it right away, they had to have light refreshments ready, not having any tea, they had to use ale to replace it – it’s important to get some afterwards, the prince himself had to take over the position of the maid and cook.

So in the castle back garden, in a wooden shed, the first afternoon tea party was held.

Anna looked at the dishes of exquisite snacks; she could not believe her eyes. Since when could something to eat look so good?

Although she could not recall the specific name of the cake, but it was pure white in appearance, and the bright red fruit collocation could make people feel getting a much bigger appetite, especially the pastry periphery was also dotted in an exquisite pattern, all of this forced her to change her world view once again.

Roland proudly watched Anna’s bewildered expression, there was nothing left from the strawberry cream cake, she looked like a country bumpkin but also a little bit frightened. Furthermore this strawberries were marinated in sugar, the taste wasn’t even fresh.

It was more interesting than eating, to appreciate the witch’s face. Roland looked at his counterpart, who was carefully placing the cake into her mouth, her blue eyes almost released a ray of light and her hair was swaying in the wind, seeing all this his heart suddenly nearly burst – it’s not good to cook anything worse!

Well, the cultivation of feelings was also very important.

Watching Anna while she practiced and accompanying her to enjoy the afternoon tea became Roland’s daily life, not showing any interest in the government affairs, Barov helped him to take care, so that everything was clear and orderly.

Three days later, Barov delivered the arranged information of the border town industry to Roland’s office. This was an absolutely unbelievable moment, the former fourth Prince actually had never the patience to see such a big pile of complicated reports.

As a matter of fact, even now he didn’t have it. Roland needed only to read two lines of text, until he felled dizzy, he directly said to Barov, “you will read it to me.”

He spend an hour listening to Barov, until he found the mistake, “why were the border town’s annual winter taxes and trade revenues zero?”

Since the winter temperatures were low, the decline in the harvest could be understood, but what was the meaning of directly returning to zero, had the local people the habit of hibernation?

Barov coughed, “Sir, did you forget? In the winter months it’s the time of the ‘Months of the Demons’, the town has no ability to guard the border, all the residents must move to Longsong stronghold. But rest assured, certainly your safety is in the first place.”

“Months of the Demons”? Roland recalled, there seems to be such a phrase, he had heard it before. He didn’t took the mentioning of ghosts and the legends of wicked witches into his heart, he considered it as uncivilized world nonsense. But now it seems that the evil is not a fantasy, since the witch really did exist. Then…… Other popular legends like ghosts?

When he got his court teaching, the history master would explain the ‘Month of the Demons’ in detail. Every winter, after the first snow fall and the sun went behind the mountains, an intense darkness without light would descended, at that moment the gates of hell would be opened.

The evil spirit from hell would erode the living creatures and they would become the slaves of the devil. Some of these animals would change into powerful demon beasts, with only one goal, to attack humans. Witches were mostly born in this season, and their power would be far stronger than usual.

“Have you seen it? The Gates of Hell, “Roland asked.

“Your Highness, how can ordinary people see it?” Barov shook his head again and again, “don’t say nonsense, the mountain simply cannot be climbed, even close to the mountains you will be affected by the evil breath, getting mild headache pain, severe cases can even loss their mind. Unless……”

“Unless what?”

“Unless the person is a witch. Only a witch can see the Gate of Hell, because they have fallen and became the devil’s minions, naturally they don’t need to fear the touch of evil. Speaking of witches, Barov looked back into the garden.

“That evil monster, have you ever seen one?” Roland knocked at the table.

“Well, I didn’t see them. Like your highness, this is my first time I came to the kingdom’s border. In the center of the kingdom, in the castle, only few people could encounter the real evil.”

Need to migrate once a year, how should he develop this place? He originally thought that the border town was barren land, but still had potential for development, but now it seems to be a dream.

“When we can resist the evil beasts in the stronghold, when they can be killed, when they aren’t invincible, then why can’t we defeat them in the border town?”

“Longsong stronghold has the great wall, also the elite troops from duke Ryan are station there, it is nothing like this border town, this small place definitely cannot be compared,” Barov explained, “from the start, the establishment of the border town was in order to provide an early warning to the stronghold, therefore the town was set between the northern slope of the mountain range and the Chishui River.”

So, his town was only cannon fodder to block the enemy, the only path they could cross, Roland laughed grimly.