novelThe Ancient Book and the traces it gives (1)
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Chapter 100 The Ancient Book and the traces it gives (Part 1)
Just as Wendy had said, the next morning directly after breakfast a maid came and brought them to Roland's office. There the Prince handed them a fine piece of parchment. Taking into account that some of the witches were illiterate, Scroll read its contents to them. Followed by them signing it with their fingerprint.
Roland knew that it was hard for them to understand the meaning of each line written in the contract, but this wasn't important, after some time they would begin to understand what he wanted from them. He also knew, even if this was a slave contract, they would still have put their signature under it. But Roland didn't think that it was good to lose his principles just to get some small benefits. Since they chose to follow this road, we have to look to where it is leading them to. At the moment everything he made was the laying of a foundation to form a positive cycle for the future. A long-term investment which should end in a win-win situation for both sides.
After receiving the signed documents, Roland gave out the training plan he had developed yesterday evening, and explained to each of them personally what they should do. When he had finished this he called Leaves, Scroll, and Soraya back into his office.
After closing the door, Nightingale showed a royal salute, startling her sisters.
"I've been thinking all night long about the story I've heard yesterday from Wendy, " Roland opened the curtains, letting bright sunlight flood into the room."She said you had encountered a terrible monster and only seven of you were able to survive. Even your Witch Cooperation Association Mentor, Cara, died within the wilderness. So I want to know what you have encountered, was it a mixed species or a demonic beasts?"
Leaves was the first to speak: "They weren't demonic beasts, they were Devils coming from behind of the Gate of Hell. They possessed a tall body and were able to ride on demonic beasts, they were also able to use magic, just..." She hesitated for a moment, "Just like us."
"They were Devil's?" Roland frowned, turning his view to Soraya, "Were you also present at the scene?"
The spoken to nodded hesitantly.
"You can draw the scene, right?" asked Roland and gave her a piece of paper.
Soraya closed her eyes, remembering the painful memory, but regardless she still took the paper and went to the table.
Following this, she began to fully display her ability, taking her magic pen in hand. The pen started to release colorful light, which flew from her hand directly onto the paper. A lifelike picture gradually took form on the paper, and during the whole drawing process Soraya never opened her eyes once.
When Roland stepped near the table, he discovered that the picture's imagery looked very realistic - no, he had to correct himself, this wasn't a painting, but an image taken from a real-life scene. Her ability was just like a camera, reproducing the genocide in the wild from a first-person perspective.
When she had completed the painting, Soraya's forehead was covered in sweat, clearly indicating that the memory was a nightmare to her.
Nightingale, went to the table too, taking a look and asked, "Are these the Devils you had encountered?"
"Yes, those are, " Leaves pointed to the nearest one from the perspective the picture was taken, "The Devil wearing metal gloves, was able to summon lightning attacks, while the other one was unusually strong, he could throw a spear several times faster than an arrow shot from a bow. More than a dozen sisters died under their hands. But they weren't able to use their special attack the whole time, it was in such a moment of recharing when I was able to kill them."
"You were able to kill them on your own?" Roland asked.
"Cara's magic snake had ripped open Ironhand's pipe, and he eventually died from that wound. I used the same method, to kill the other one with a crossbow. The pipe seems to store some red gas, and if the gas leaks out they die."
Well, this thing seems to resemble an oxygen tank, how is it possible for creatures in the wild to have something like this? Roland asked himself in confusion. But directly saying that they have to be aliens, is a little too premature. Looking at their clothes, they are patched together out of pieces of leather and animal skins. This shows that their level of civilization can't be much further developed than ours is.
Whether it was by using magic or technology, that they were able to cross to other planets, already shows their strength - while the people on earth are still fighting against each other all the time.
Of course, we cannot rule out the point, that it's just an innate skill of an exotic civilization. Roland thought, for now, the important point is to remember, that "The Devil" is not an invincible enemy, they can be killed.
"In addition to the Devil, we also saw a city floating in the sky, " Leaves added, "No matter how far we moved into its direction, it always stayed just in front of us. Lightning has mentioned something similar to it in her stories, I think she called it a mirage."
"Can you also draw a picture of the city?" Roland asked in Soraya's direction.
She nodded, summoned her pen once more, and begun to paint a city floating in the sky just as Leaves had said
Roland viewed the picture carefully, but he was unable to get much information from the vague scenery. Even if the city displayed in the picture really is only a mirage, it still means that somewhere within the wildlands there has to be the real one. There seemed to be red clouds above the city, maybe this is the gas that is needed by the Devils. This explanation is much more reasonable than thinking about aliens, after all, the vast wide lands behind the Impassable Mountain Range is a complete mystery zone, where for a long time no one had set their feet into, so detecting a new race isn't too surprising.
"I heard from Nightingale and Wendy that Cara decided to look for the Holy Mountain after she read about it in an ancient book, " Roland asked."Scroll, have you also read the book?"
Scroll hesitated for a moment but then she answered."Cara didn't allow anyone to read the book, but... I have still seen a little, but the text was quite messy yet... also incredible."
"Can you make a copy of it and show me?"
"The text written in the book isn't true, Your Royal Highness, that the Holy Mountain doesn't exist confirmed this, " she sighed, but still raised her right hand, "I hope you won't get confused by the book's content."
Suddenly a book out of golden light appeared midair, the book flipped open and its sides turned with an incredible speed, when the book came to its end, it fell directly into Scroll's hands."Your Highness, I hope you are the only person who will read it. I don't want to see any of my sisters become like Cara."
Roland took the book out Scroll's hands and comforted her, "I got it."
When the other witches left the office, Nightingale quietly appeared sitting on the couch. She had lifted up her robe, as usual, and placed both her feet on the table and chewed happily on a dried fish.
"You don't want to see it?" Roland with a smile on his face, asked.
With a scoffing voice, she answered."I'm not interested in anything that lunatic loved to look at."
Roland shook his head, sat himself back behind the table and carefully opened the book. The pages felt just as if the book has become a reality.
Just like Scroll had said, most of the content was messed up. It seemed as if the text wasn't written in the common language, at least the grammar wasn't the same. Within the book a blood moon was mentioned, as well as a huge stone gate, but nowhere did he find any trace of the Holy City. In fact, apart from some words he was occasional able to understand, the meaning of many other words wasn't clear for him. Most of the Book's content he just couldn't read - in the end his summary was: Even if I knew every word, I'm not sure if I would be able to understand it completely. I'm not sure if it is because of the short peek Scroll was only able to take, or if the book was just recorded this way.
Rolland skipped through the long passages, jumping straight to the end. Even so, the book was quite thick, it had very little content and most of its sides were blank. But when he turned to the last page, he suddenly saw a readable text. The previous neat writing became illegible, as it had been written down in a hurry, but the content was understandable and cleared many questions.
The first sentence still written in neat handwriting was "We have failed. Mortals cannot overcome the Devil."
TN:
Fanart Contest
We would like to start a fanart contest to both celebrate Chapter 100, and take the good opportunity that the chapter offered. So, do we have any Soraya's within our readership? People who want to present us with a picture of one of the two scenes described in this chapter, or any other remarkable scenes from the first 100 chapters?
Rules:
Artists can submit as many pieces of artwork as they want.
All mediums are accepted. (Drawings, paintings, digital artwork, etc. ).
No plagiarizing.
Submissions must be related to Release that Witch.
Any scene within the translated chapters will be accepted.
Timeframe: October 17th to November 17th.
Submissions have to be sent to (no zip-files, exe-files).
Voting will occur between November 18th and October 31th.
Results will be published on December 1st.
Prizes:
First Place: Three free chapters whenever you want them. *
Second Place: Two free chapters whenever you want them. *
Third Place: One free chapter whenever you want it. *
* Please give me notice and understand that it will not be instantly released.
All contributors have the opportunity to introduce themselves, and provide a link to their website, deviantart page, portfolio, or anything else in order to promote themselves.
I wish you all good luck with your drawing 🙂
*goes into the corner and prays 'please have at least 3 submissions'*
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