After closing the door, Wendy swept a glance across everyone and finally stopped at Azima.
"Speak what you have to say." The latter opened in a harsh voice. "If you"re here for today"s recruitment, you may as well save it. We aren"t going to change our minds."
"Azima..." Doris murmured involuntarily.
Azima raised her hand to stop Doris from speaking further. "I"ll firmly remember your care for us in the past half a month, but these two matters aren"t quite the same. As was said when we first arrived in Neverwinter, now that the Church has been destroyed, I"ll have to leave Western Region sooner or later."
"I have some better news for you first." Wendy maintained her gentle expression and replied. "The city hall has received a report stating that a large group of Eastern Region refugees shall arrive in Neverwinter within a week. The numbers shall be as many as 12,000 people. There"s a high likelihood that your relatives are among them."
The room seethed with excitement at once.
"Is... what you said true?"
"Certainly. The Sea Transport Department is really stepping it up to fetch them over." Wendy replied smilingly. "The Redwater River is currently teeming with concrete boats headed towards the Eastern Region. These boats are loaded with dry stock and winter supplies, as it"s after all already winter."
"I used to live in Archbridge Town. Are there any refugees from there?"
"How"s the situation in Valencia?"
"It"s certainly a mess."
"Uh... I hope my family isn"t among them... it was my father who chased me out in the first place."
"He was bewitched by the Church. Maybe he has now repented."
The commotion in the room went into overdrive.
"Relax, there"re 12,000 people." Wendy clapped her hands together. "That should cover most of the cities and towns from Valencia to Seawinds.h.i.+re. It"ll be more difficult not to find any of your townsmen. Once Scroll has compiled the census, we"ll be able to screen out people with similar backgrounds as yours. And it"ll be okay even if we can"t find any among this batch as this is only the beginning of a long flow of people to Neverwinter. As long as you remain here, I"m sure you"ll get to meet them someday."
She then turned her attention to the witch who appeared anxious. "There"s no harm even if you don"t want to recognize him. But isn"t it better to have some news rather than none at all, Whitepear? If they"ve repented, at least there"s a chance for them to redeem themselves."
"That"s... true." The girl by the name of Whitepear lowered her head embarra.s.sedly.
"Are you intent on s.h.i.+fting the entire Eastern Region to Neverwinter?" Azima suddenly questioned.
"Not just the Eastern Region." Wendy laughed. " The Northern and Southern Territories, as well as the Central Region, are also part of the migration plan. These places will eventually be left with only a few large cities, where the residents from the towns and villages will be s.h.i.+fted into."
"Why... is the king going to such trouble for this?"
"This is very difficult to explain. It"s called... an urbanization process or something like that. In the past, it was because of food issues that large plots of farmland were necessary to feed a city, and hence the population was very diffuse. But now that food is no longer a problem, the prevalent concern is that most of the people in the towns and villages are settled in non-administrated zones, where they cannot be effectively organized and utilized. Moving them to the cities will allow the city halls to exercise better control." Wendy patiently explained. "Because of this, the Western Region of today is no longer "the region of the west" per se. If you decide to leave, what will your sisters do? Do you really want them to also forsake their kin and wander the wastelands of your hometown with you?"
"..." Azima frowned and did not reply for some time.
"Frankly, this is just a show of cowardice." A chilly voice was heard from behind the witches" backs.
The witches" faces changed color as they hurriedly turned to see who it was. A woman shrouded in a black robe had stealthily sat herself on the square table, with her body bent slightly forward, her legs raised, and one hand under her chin. She watched the crowd with amus.e.m.e.nt, as if she took no heed of their uneasiness.
"Who are you?" Azima asked huskily.
"Nightingale! What are you talking about?" Wendy fretfully yelled. "Relax everyone, she has no malice. She"s the Union witch who"s responsible for protecting me in secret."
"Did I say anything wrong?" She took off her hood to reveal her beautiful blonde curls. "What do you think these people are hesitant about? It"s simply because of their relations.h.i.+p with Bloodfang a.s.sociation that they"re unwilling to serve Her Highness. Yet in reality, they continue to depend on Sleeping Spell, and have no intention of changing."
"What a bunch of nonsense!" Azima clenched her fists angrily. "If it wasn"t for Doris, we would have left long ago! Besides, what do you even know about the matter between Bloodfang a.s.sociation and Sleeping Island!"
"Is that so?" Nightingale raised her brows. "Then why aren"t you working?"
"What..."
"Let"s do a quick calculation. The cost of transportation and food from Neverwinter to Eastern Region is around 20 silver royals per person. Once there, 10 to 12 bronze royals will be needed per day to purchase food. But don"t forget that, because of war and migration, most of the villages have turned into wastelands. So, to live over there, expenses will be a few dozen times higher than in the past. This is also why the refugees are moving to Neverwinter." She explained with great composure. "In other words, it won"t be easy to leave Sleeping Spell without a sackful of gold royals. If it were me, I would grab this opportunity to apply for work everywhere so that I can accrue as much money as possible. This is the basis for the group to be able to survive independently. Yet, what have you people done in this half a month? After enjoying the food distributed by Sleeping Spell, you still hope that Her Highness will provide you with your travel expenses?"
"I..." Azima was momentarily stumped. She wanted to refute the accusation but did not know where to begin.
"To me, this is simply cowardice. That"s why you sided with the Bloodfang a.s.sociation under pressure from the Church, and further on, it was because of this sketchy relations.h.i.+p that you felt outraged by the destruction of Heidi Morgan. Yet you have no guts to stand up against an Extraordinary." Nightingale shrugged. "It"s indeed true that I"m unclear about the matter between Bloodfang a.s.sociation and Sleeping Island, but the members of Bloodfang a.s.sociation, who are in Neverwinter now, certainly know better. Do you really think Heidi regarded you as sisters?"
"Nightingale! Enough!" Wendy hollered.
"When I travel to a foreign land, I"ll also seek to draw support from the locals. Your abilities were of great help to them. If they didn"t destroy the ears and eyes of the Church, more and more people would track and encircle them. You just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Let me just ask, if Heidi was really friendly to you, did she inform you about her plotting in Sleeping Island to overthrow Tilly?"
Azima bit her lips tightly.
"If you truly want to prove your resolve, then you should get started with the most basic things. You can find a pack of excuses if you were living on your own deserted island, but over here, Sleeping Spell may be unable to restrain you any further."
Nightingale gave Wendy a blithe smirk before disappearing in front of everyone.