“During the first week I won’t arrange any work for you. Instead, you should use this time to become familiar with the town’s environment and lifestyle. You can freely visit Border Town, nobody will discriminate against you for being witches. They also won’t attempt to capture you in exchange for money — I have completely eradicated the Church’s force across the whole Western Territory, so this place and Sleeping Island are the same, they are both places of freedom.
“I think that all of you already know of the cause for magic devouring your bodies, so by necessity your practice cannot be abandoned. During the day there are no restrictions, everything will be alright as long as you do not forget to come back and eat lunch. After dinner, you have primary education classes, which including learning how to read and write, there will be simple math, and natural knowledge. Tilly may have already told you this, but apart from crossing the day of adulthood, the ability of a witch can be strengthened even further. To do so it is necessary that you master this knowledge, every one of you that are interested can come and attend the classes together with the rest of Border Town’s witches.
“Furthermore, each month you will receive one gold royal as remunerations, as well as have the weekends off and you will also be given paid leave — if you don’t understand what this means, you can go and ask Wendy. In short, everyone’s daily life will be the same as that of the Witch Union’s. Sleeping Island is a home for witches, and the same is true for Border Town.” Roland paused, “Our next task will be to test your abilities, Tilly’s description in her letter wasn’t very clear. But displaying you abilities here will be too much of an inconvenience, so let’s first change to a more spacious location.”
“Please wait a moment, Your Royal Highness, there is something I have to give you first,” Sylvie spoke.
“What is it?”
She untied the package in her hands, and placed several yellow parchments together with a letter on to the table, “Lady Tilly discovered these documents within ruins in the Fjord, she wants to ask if you’re able to understand the letters that the text is written in.”
Puzzled, Roland opened the envelope, it didn’t contain a long letter, so he quickly reached its end, yet the content inside set off monstrous, sky shaking waves within his heart.
A man-made island, set at the bottom of the ocean, after hundreds of years of unpredictable changes due to the rising and falling tides, had an observation mirror that was operable inside, as well as a stone gate constructed within a cliff… all this was simply unfathomable. Why would there exist such an unimaginable remnant in the Fjord? Moreover, the inquiries Tilly made at the end of the letter sent a tingling feeling all over his body — glancing at the parchment, he was indeed a bit familiar with these words.
“Quickly go and bring Scroll over,” Roland instructed Nightingale.
Not much later, Scroll arrived at the castle after rushing over from City Hall. After summoning her magic book, the Prince read it couldn’t help but frown.
When looking at the “Holy Book” Cara had brought back from the ruins in the eastern forest, and the documents found in ruins in the Fjord, he found out that the characters used were exactly the same! This way confirming Tilly’s guess to the letter, these ancient ruins had been built by the hands of the very same group of people.
Even the burning hot sun of the final month of summer was powerful enough to let Roland feel even the smallest bit of warmth, but he now only felt an indistinct cold, both gloomy and chilly, come rising from the soles of the feet.
At the bottom of Roland’s heart, an unease was welling up.
The letter also mentioned that Tilly was trying to translate the words and would like to know whether the Witch Union could provide her with any clue.
