Release that Witch

After the glitters of lights in the back yard went out, Roland met the witch Wendy had mentioned in her report.

She looked pretty young and extremely thin, around 16 to 17 years old at most. Apparently, she did not eat well. Although she had already taken a shower, her tawny hair was straggly and unkempt. What caught Roland’s attention was the black eye mask over her face. Although she had already put on a new one, the eye mask did not really sit well on her face.

“Your Majesty, this is Momo,” Wendy introduced.

Wendy’s words jerked the girl out of the trance, who scrambled to kneel down and bowed even lower. “Your, Your Majesty…”

“Please help her up,” Roland said as he put down the drawing and said mildly, “Don’t be nervous. It’s not a formal meeting or anything. I just want to see your ability.”

Momo looked frightened as she straightened up. “Your Majesty… I’m afraid…”

“I know. Not everyone will be satisfied when they know when they’ll die. Some people will even take it on you after they know the answer,” Roland comforted. “But I just want to know when that is. No matter what the result is, I won’t blame you. I promise.”

Normally, he should have seen Momo after Wendy tested her ability. However, as Momo’s ability was so special, he could not help. His curiosity was too strong to overcome. In fact, after the Battle of Soulagainst Zero, there remained a suspicion in Roland’s mind that he could not confirm.

But now, he finally had an opportunity to do so.

“Your Majesty…” Momo replied through clenched teeth. “Aren’t you… not scared at all?”

Roland knew he would have never thought about when he would die in the past because he had believed such a question was meaningless. Knowing how long he could live would only create unnecessary fear and worries. However, as he was now the king of the state, he felt great responsibility be placed on his shoulders. He had to think further. If Wendy’s report was accurate, the date of his own death could be very useful information. It might be viewed as a “top secret” that would not be so easily divulged in his previous world. He would thus feel very regretted if he did not obtain this informationwhen provided with such an opportunity.

Roland smiled. He knew Momo would not understand his thought, so he said, “Even if I’m scared, the answer is still there.”

Momo clenched her fists. After what seemed to be quite a long hesitation, she replied, “Since you insist, then please excuse my impertinence.”

“Your Majesty,” Wendy said after taking a deep breath. “Please excuse me.”

Roland stared at her for a moment before he said, “… I thought you and Scroll wanted to know it more than anyone else.”

“I can’t be that calm like you. However, like Scroll said, whatever the result is, we’ll always be with you.”

After Wendy shut the door, Roland turned around and asked, “What about you?”

Momo was stunned.

“Do I have to answer?” Nightingale said, whose sudden appearance really startled the little girl. “I want to know everything about you, both good and bad.”

Roland was amused by the big difference between Nightingale and Wendy. “So, let’s begin.”

Momo’s eyes shoveled from Nightingale to Roland in surprise and then took off her eye mask decisively.

When she looked up again, a jet of red flash appeared in her socket.

It was an eyeball made of magic, which looked extremely creepy against the scarred face. Roland could imagine what it looked like when her real eye overlapped with the magic eye. People in his previous world must like this type of strange pupil very much. However, in this era, it would be only viewed as the eye of devil.

“Any luck? Did you see anything?”

Momo looked toward Roland, and her eyes widened. The red flash quavered as though swaying in invisible wind. In a few seconds, the flash was extinguished. She stepped a few paces back andslumped onto the floor.

Roland noticed perspiration on Momo’s face.

“What’s the matter?” he asked as he stood up.

Nightingale strode over to Momo and helped her up. “She lost too much power.”

“Can she only inspect one person at a time?”

“No… I’ve never seen such things before,” Momo said, panting. “I saw a lot of numbers flicker but they all disappeared. They were in various colors… It took a while for them to finally stabilize.”

“What’s that number?” Roland asked.

Momo swallowed hard and replied with some difficulties, “17… It’s red.”

“How come?” Nightinagle asked in surprise.

Roland’s heart skipped a beat. Just like he had speculated, the winner of the Battle of Soul could obtain everything, provided that the winner possessed magic. Only magic couldincrease his lifespan and afford him power. Extraordinaries and hugedemonic beast hybrids all relied on magic to sustain theirphysical bodies. Without magic power, he would not benefit anything from the victory of the battle.

17 years was a lot shorter than Roland had thought. Although he knew the old Prince Roland did not have a strong physique, he had not expected that the latter would be that weak. Had years of debauncherous life consumed him?

“Maybe… I should take another look,” Momo said as she struggled to rise.

“No, that’s fine. Please go take a rest,” Roland said while waving his hand. “You’ll faint if you overuse your power. Plus, we haven’t figured out how your power functions. There’s no point in taking another look.”

“But Your Majesty…”

“I told you that I just wanted an answer. You don’t need to blame yourself,” Roland talked over her decisively. “Have a good rest. From tomorrow onwards, Wendy will start to test your ability and teach you how to control your power. If I want you to take another look, we can do it later. Also, can you keep this just between us?”

Momo stared at Roland for a long time, still quite astonished, and then nodded vigorously.

After the girl left with Wendy, Nightingale returned to the office and walked up to Roland who was standing before the French window.

“Do you regret knowing it?” Roland asked while turning around.

“Are you kidding me?” Nightingale returned gruffly. “I never regret. Now, what are you going to do? You only have 17 years left.”

“It’s better to know it now than later. Plus, this is probably not the final result yet,” Roland said while watching the flickers of lights outside. He found himself strangely calm and peaceful. “The soul container from Taquila may be able to retain minds. Once we figure out how magic power works in general, we can probably even build a new body in the future.”

“But there should be a ‘future’ in the first place,” Nightingale said, frowning.

“That’s right. Therefore, the first thing we should do is to win the Battle of Divine Will,” Roland said slowly.

He currently had no retreat anymore.