... Spear Pa.s.si solemnly signed her name at the end after she read both contracts several times.
One was the Memorandum of Unification and the other Memorandum of the Witch Union.
The first contract agreed that Spear would lead Fallen Dragon Ridge to give allegiance to Roland Wimbledon after Timothy Wimbledon"s rule was overthrown, and in response to the request of the new king, she would surrender her power, and Roland would guarantee her position as the Lord of Fallen Dragon Ridge and other rights. The memorandum categorized those to three categories which were human affairs, administrative and finance. Although such a categorization was new but easy for her to understand of which her daily routine was also included too.
Spear thought about the second contract for a long time before she made up her mind, as this time the union was to serve Prince Roland without any doubt. She didn"t want to join Prince Roland so fast, he just occupied the corner region of the Kingdom of Graycastle. But the content of the evening lecture was attractive, and she vaguely sensed that the unique method of calculation would be helpful in managing her territory.
Fortunately, the const.i.tutions of the Memorandum of the Witch Union were very loose, more like a formal consensus, and didn"t even limit the whereabouts of its members. She consulted with the prince regarding this, and his reply was that the members could leave any time they wanted.
"I"ve signed it."
Spear placed two elegant parchments on the table, but Roland didn"t respond. He looked at the empty side as if thinking about something.
"Your Highness?"
"Ah..." He blinked eyes as if he had come back. "Let me have a look at it."
He had seldom been so absent minded before the negotiation, and it seemed like after the trial yesterday, His Highness felt confused. This made it difficult for her to understand. The trial was an absolute success, and people were on his side and cheered him. Before that, Spear had never thought the ordinary people would support a n.o.bility. She thought that she and they were in two different worlds, and the n.o.bility needed neither the understanding nor supporting of the people. But she changed her mind one day ago. After seeing people surrounding the square waving their fists, shouting with a strong voice that shook the sky and land, she realized that they might contain a power that she had never felt and it was more powerful than the n.o.ble.
Besides, the decisive judgment displayed by His Highness was also one of the reasons why she signed these two contracts.
Regardless of whether he"s trying to protect the witches, it"s some kind of good faith to punish rebels who are against his royal power. Considering this, she should respond accordingly.
However, His Highness doesn"t seem satisfied... Is he regretting being against the church publicly?
Spear was clear that it was not an enemy they could easily deal with.
It"s better to figure it out since it"s related to the direction of the future co-operation. She hesitated, and then mentioned it diplomatically.
The prince was astonished for a while after he heard this, and then he shook his head and smiled. "I never regret fighting against the church, after all, they"re enemies that must be defeated from all aspects of the view."
"So why..."
"I just have some mixed feelings now."
"Mixed feelings?"
"I feel a little embarra.s.sed, although what I said was true and what I disclosed were the crimes committed by the church." He shrugged, "It seems as I"m not a qualified politician."
Politician? What"s that? Like an astrologer devoting himself to studying stars, is a politician someone devoting himself to studying politics?
His Highness stopped the topic before she could ask. "I"ll keep these parchments. I heard that your ability is related to controlling magic power?"
"Yes." Spear stopped questioning. "To be more precise, it"s to extract the magic power of one witch for other witches to use. Of course, I can also retrieve and recover my own magic power for the purpose of consumption. As this process doesn"t have a big impact on the outside world, I can repeat the process anytime in the castle."
"How did you find out you have such an ability?" the prince asked curiously.
"After my awakening." The Marquess answered, "I"ve no idea how other witches got to know their abilities, but I could feel it, and the feeling was like... you suddenly owned an extra organ."
"Interesting description." He nodded thoughtfully. "You should know that the reason I sent Nightingale to Fallen Dragon Ridge is to pa.s.s you an invitation."
"You need my ability." Spear paused a moment and bowed. "It"s my honor to serve you."
Anyway, since there was no way for her to return to Fallen Dragon Ridge at the moment, it was better for her to see what the prince usually do, despite the fact that she had just being in the town for a week. She realized that the town was different from others, a secluded land that was far away from the center of the Kingdom, but as energetic as the capital. As a Lord, she was curious.
What made Spear more surprised was that the life of the witches here was completely different from what she had imagined. The prince didn"t over control them, but rather allowed them to live freely, and this could be seen from his waiting for the return of Nightingale—he obviously hoped that she could return early, but still agreed with her requisition.
His Royal Highness didn"t treat them as servants.
Some n.o.bles sheltered witches because of their beauty. She thought it would have been done more unscrupulously because His Highness openly recruited witches, but he was surprisingly self-disciplined.
Was the rumor true? Was the prince both prurient and incompetent?
She had more faith and felt ridiculous at the same time. When she thought it back, she felt what Nightingale had told her was totally true.
...
She left the castle with the prince and they came to a yard at the back of the town, where Spear saw two other witches.
"This"s Anna and this"s Mystery Moon." Roland introduced. "The Magic Power of Mystery Moon is considered at a relatively low level, but the consumption of her magic power is astonis.h.i.+ng."
"I"m obviously at a middle level!" Mystery Moon protested.
"Among the awakened witches," the prince added.
Mystery Moon kept quiet immediately.
"Do you want me to connect their magic powers?" Spear looked at Anna. "Does she have the strongest magic power in the union? I suggest that you invite a few more witches to come over. The stock magic power is related to their age, even if there"s a difference, it wouldn"t be big."
"It"s just an experiment," His Highness said, touching his chin, "and if it works, I"ll ask them to come over."
The Marquess nodded and summoned the pa.s.sage of magic power—it was a sphere s.h.i.+ning with blue light, quietly floating in the air. Under her control, two thin tentacle-shaped threads stretched out from the sphere to Anna and Mystery Moon.
"You"ll feel weird in the beginning, so just relax and it"ll be fine," Spear explained. "It"ll fail to transfer the magic power if you resist it."
Anna was shocked when the tentacle touched her chest.
What"s… happening here? It seems the tentacle is connected to a solid metal cube instead of the rotating magic power. It"s so huge that I feel like an ant standing at the bottom of it, and I can only see its top while raising my head.