Nightingale was walking through the ‘fog’.
When she was looking outside from inside the fog, the outer world was only bicolor, black and white.
The lines which were originally the borders of things were no longer very clear.The borders of straight lines, broken lines, and curved lines became ambiguous, like a picture painted by a child..
This kind of feeling was somewhat hard to put into words; Nightingale took a long time to become familiar with how to distinguish between the borders. If Nightingale used her power correctly, she wouldn’t be bound by anything while walking through the fog. Even for something like a wall, just looking at it from a slightly different angle would be enough to find a way through, but when looking at it in the real world, there would definitely not be an entrance.
In the fog, up and down, front and back were no longer a fixed concept, they transformed into each other, or you could even say they overlapped. For example, what Nightingale was just doing. She entered the castle, which was under the watchful eyes of the guards, without being noticed. Then, within a step, the lines around her changed unpredictably, and she stepped through the ceiling out of nowhere, arriving in Anna’s room.
For her, this was an entirely free world without any rules.
Nightingale was able to relax only in the world of ‘fog’. Even though it was silent and lonely, she would never encounter any threat there.
Most of the time, the world in the fog was black and white, but occasionally she could see other colors.
For example, when she was looking at Anna.
The difference between a witch and an average person was their magic powers. Nightingale could see this force flowing and fading in a witch; this was the only color in the world of fog.
She had never seen anyone like Anna before, with such a full and intense color – an aquamarine luster surging within her, in its center it was close to incandescent, she was almost unable to look at it. All this made Nightingale very confused, because in general, the color would show the witch’s ability and magic power. In her time in the Witch Cooperation Association, she had seen a lot of witches with the fire ability when they used magic. The luster within them was always the color of orange or red like the cloud of a living fireball, but regardless of size or brightness, other witches couldn’t be compared with Anna.
If this wasn’t already difficult to understand, another point was even more incredible.
Within her was such an enormous amount of magic, how could she still be alive?
Within the whole Witch Cooperation Association, Nightingale had not found anyone with such an astonishing amount of magical power. Even if it were an adult witch, she would be a dwarf in comparison with Anna. If Anna were to become an adult…
No, Anna would never have this opportunity. Nightingale had to sigh, because the stronger the magic power was, the stronger the bite would be. She could not even imagine what would happen when the time came for Anna to face her trial; she would likely face a terrible ordeal. The pain of feeling that her organs were torn from the inside out didn’t let people lose consciousness until they gave up their resistance, accepting their death. They would be repeatedly subjected to constant pain.
She walked out of the fog, letting her temporary depressed feeling fade away, and cheerfully said,
Good morning, Anna.
Anna had already become accustomed to the other side’s unwanted behavior of suddenly appearing. She nodded her head, but did not answer, and continued practicing her flame instead.
Nightingale rubbed her own nose and then went to the side of Anna’s bed.
Nightingale had already seen this kind of practice many times. She had even been watching when Anna had just started practicing. Accidentally igniting her clothes in the back garden shed, she always had a bucket full of clothes beside herself into which she could change. Later, she was able to make her flame skillfully dance at her fingertips; then, even Roland no longer supervised her practice, but instead tore down the shed in the garden and turned it into a place to enjoy afternoon tea and sunbathe.
Even so, according to the prince’s orders from before, Anna continued to carry out her practice for one to two hours every day – but now in her own room.
I brought fish cake, do you want to eat it with me?
Nightingale took out a cloth from her bosom, opened it and divided the fish cake into a piece for each of them.
Anna nodded after she smelled the fish cake.
Go wash your hands before you eat it,
Nightingale laughed. Fortunately, Anna didn’t hate Nightingale, after all, it would not be good for Nightingale to speak to herself. All in all, Anna was obviously very concerned for Nana but didn’t express her concern very much. In fact, when she was not in front of Roland, she rarely spoke.
In contrast, Roland talked too much. He always had a lot to say. For example, when eating a meal, he would have so many rules – such as ‘wash your hands before eating.’, ‘don’t eat too quickly.’, ‘Don’t pick it up and eat it after it has fallen to the ground.’, and so on… he could give a long statement for everything .
At first, she was very impatient, but later she learned that it didn’t matter because here she was the peasant and he was the master. After all, it was the 4th Prince’s castle, since she lived here and ate his food, she reluctantly began to listen to his speeches. Now, she was also getting used to these rules. She didn’t know why, but when she herself, Anna, Nana, Roland and Carter would compete for places in line for hand-washing, she would feel an inexplicable hint of fun.
Anna reached into the bucket filled with well water and cleaned her hands, and then she lit a flame to dry them. After that, she took her piece of fish cake and sat at the table, cutely taking a small bite into her little mouth to slowly chew it.
You really don’t want to go back with me?
Nightingale asked her once more.
There, we will have a lot of sisters; they will take good care of you. Here, you can only live and do something within the range of the castle, don’t you feel bored? Although they are called the Impassable Mountains, you can find lots of material to survive, and there we would all be one big family, everyone there has gathered together for the same purpose. Your magic power is so strong, they will happily welcome you. This winter, I’m afraid this winter will be your last…
When she spoke until there, Nightingale trailed off. perhaps it was already too late, she thought, even if they were back in the camp, for Anna to have such strong magic power, it would be almost impossible for her to get through adulthood. The only thing Nightingale could do for Anna was to stay by her side when she died.
How was your life as a child, before you joined of the Witch Cooperation Association?
Nightingale was startled by Anna’s question, after all, she rarely asked any questions.
I… used to live in a big city in the eastern part of the Kingdom. Actually, it wasn’t far from the capital.
Did you have a happy life?
Happy? No, she was unwilling to remember her daily life at that time, she had to depend on others, and was despised and mocked. When they found out that she had turned into a witch, her life became even worse than that of a cat or dog. She had a chain tied around her neck and was forced to work for them. So remembering this, Nightingale shook her head and whispered,
Why are you asking this?
I lived in the old town areas.
Anna once more told her own story.
My father sold me for 25 gold royals to the church, but since His Highness had let me out of the prison, I’m living a very happy life here.
But, you cannot go out of the castle, and except Roland Wimbledon, the other people outside still hate witches.
That isn’t important for me, and he also said that he would change all this in the future, can’t he do that?
That will be tough. As long as the church hasn’t fallen yet, they will always speak of the witches as evil.
Anna didn’t refute immediately and became silent for a long time. It was even so long that Nightingale thought that Anna would never talk about this point again when she suddenly asked,
Where did you have a better life? When you were with the Witch Cooperation Association or living here with us?
You… What did you say ah?
this question caught Nightingale totally off-guard,
Well, of course…
It would be with the Witch Cooperation Association, right? To tell the truth, she wasn’t really interested in the search for the Holy Mountain, but was interested in the place where all her friends were living.
As for Border Town? If she hadn’t heard that a witch was in danger, she would never have come to this town!
So the answer should be very obvious, but why couldn’t she say it the first time?
Then, Anna begun to smile. Nightingale had rarely seen her smile, her eyes were shining like a lake in which the morning sun was reflected, glistening. Inexplicably, she felt at ease – even if she wasn’t in her own world of the ‘fog’.
I heard Roland saying that the Witch Cooperation Association was looking for the Holy Mountain in the Northern Mountains and that the Holy Mountain was a secure home for all of you, but for myself I think I have already found my Holy Mountain.
This castle was her Holy Mountain. Nightingale realized that although Anna wouldn’t live for much longer, her soul already arrived at the place where most witches longed to be.
At this moment, from the other side of the door, running footsteps could be heard. Nightingale listened carefully, they belonged to a panicking Nana.
Then the door was opened, and it was really Nana Pine who rushed in.
While tears ran down all over her face, she jumped into Anna’s arms.
Wh-What should I do? Sister Anna, my father has found out that I have become a witch!
