Chapter 100: The Ancient Book and the Relic (Part I)
Translator:Transn
Editor:Meh
The next morning, all the witches were led downstairs by their maids. Like Wendy had said, each of them was given a roll of fine parchment by the prince after breakfast. In consideration of the fact that some witches were illiterate, Scroll explained what the contents were on the parchment. After that, everybody signed and put their fingerprints on it.
Roland knew that they barely understood what the contract really entailed. But it did not matter, as he believed they would eventually learn its meanings. He was also pretty sure that these witches would even be willing to sign all their rights away giving the present circumstances. Nevertheless, he did not think it was a bad deal to provide a relatively generous offer. Since he had decided to officially employ witches, he must look at the big picture. All that he had done so far was to create a virtuous, sustainable cycle that would benefit both parties in the long run.
After everybody handed in the signed contracts, Roland told each of them their individual training schedule which he drafted the night before. He then asked Leaf, Scroll and Soraya to come to his office with him.
Nightingale soon revealed herself and winked at the other witches after Roland closed the door.
"I've been thinking about what Wendy told me yesterday." Roland pulled the curtains to let the bright sun rays shine through the window. "She said you came across some hideous, horrible monsters from which only seven of you managed to escape. Even the supervisor of the Witch Cooperation Association, Cara, died in the wilderness. I wonder what exactly you encountered? Demonic hybrids?"
Leaf broke off first. "No, they were not demonic hybrids, but demons from the Gates of Hell. They got big statures and could summon demonic beasts. They had magic power as well, just like..." She hesitated for a moment. "Like us."
"Demons?" Roland knitted his brows and glanced at Soraya. "Were you there at that time?"
Soraya nodded.
"You can sketch out what happened that day, can you?" Roland handed her a piece of paper.
Soraya shut her eyes, appearing to be a little anguished. But she took the paper and walked to the desk.
As she summoned her power, an obscure quill emerged in her hand, whose tip emanated a beautiful rainbow glow. The quill soon sprang up and started to draw automatically. Soraya kept her eyes firmly shut. Gradually, a vivid picture appeared on the paper.
Roland approached the desk and saw the drawing was so lifelike that it was more like a photograph than a picture. Like a video camera, Soraya's ability enabled her to reconstruct the murder scene and relate the story on Barbarian Land from the first-person point of view.
By the time the painting was done, Soraya's forehead had been beaded with perspiration. Apparently, the memory of the incident agonized her like a prolonged nightmare.
At this point, Nightingale also joined the conversation. "Are they demons?"
"Yes." Leaf pointed to the one closer to her. "This one with metal gloves could summon lightning to attack us. He was also physically strong and powerful. More than half a dozen sisters were killed by him. The one farther could shoot spears several times faster than bolts. They couldn't, however, launch continuous attacks. During such intervals, I managed to kill them."
"By yourself?" Roland asked.
"Cara's Snake of Magic bit and broke the leather tube underneath this demon's helmet. She later died with the demon together. The tube turned out to be the demon's weak point, so I killed the other demon using the same method with my hand crossbow. There seemed to be some red gases in the tube. The demons didn't die until all the gases ran out." Leaf pointed at the neck of the gloved demon and said.
Roland could not figure out why there was such kind of creatures in the wilderness. They were definitely not extraterrestrial beings, for, from the patched leather tube that functioned like an oxygen tank and the animal skin garb they wore, one could tell that demons were by no means from a higher civilization.
Whether by means of scientific technologies or magic, the ability to visit another planet itself was a piece of solid evidence of power. In the case of human beings, it took men tremendous efforts just to land the moon.
Of course, the demons might also come from some queer civilization outside his knowledge, who had come to this world by some quirk of fate. Above all, now Roland knew that "demons" were not invulnerable enemies who could not be killed.
"Apart from the demons, we also saw a city in the air." Leaf continued, "It was always there at the front no matter how hard we tried to get close to it. Lightning once mentioned the phenomenon in one of her adventure stories. She said it seemed to be a mirage."
"Can you draw it?" Roland asked Soraya.
Soraya nodded and summoned the Magic Pen again. After that, she painted the air-built city that Leaf had just talked about on the paper.
Roland looked at the picture carefully, but could not obtain much information out of the blurry drawing. If what they had seen was really a mirage, the real city must be somewhere on Barbarian Land. As to the blood mists that obscured the sky above the city, they could be the breathing gases demons relied on. This explanation appeared to be more reliable than the alien theory. After all, the Impassable Mountain Range was a mysterious area never imprinted with the foot of man. It was perfectly normal that some other races lived there.
Now, the only question left was regarding the ancient book. "Nightingale and Wendy told me that Cara decided to seek Holy Mountain because of an ancient book." He asked, "Scroll, have you read that book before?"
Scroll hesitated for a while and answered, "Cara didn't allow any of us to read that book. But I, I once stole a peek at it. The contents are bewildering and at the same time... incredible."
"Can you make a copy of it? Let me take a look."
"What the book says isn't true, Your Highness. The non-existence of Holy Mountain has already shown it's a lie." Scroll sighed and raised her right hand. "I hope you won't be too absorbed by what's written."
A gilded book emerged in the air, with its front and back covers spread open. The book pages in between swiftly flipped through. It then abruptly closed and descended on Scroll's hand. "Your Highness, I hope you read it alone because I don't want the rest of our sisters to become as stubborn and radical as Cara."
Roland took the book and replied, "Got it."
After all the witches left the office, Nightingale silently showed up by the couch. She raised the skirt of her robe, cocked her feet on the stool and then started to chew dried fish like she always did.
"Don't you want to take a look?" Roland asked her smilingly.
Nightingale dismissed it contemptuously. "I'm not interested in what a crazy old witch was obsessed with."
Roland shook his head and returned to the desk. He opened the book with great care as if the book had possessed some real magic power.
Just like what Scroll had said, most of the contents were difficult and inarticulate. It appeared that the wording and the grammars were also out of date. The book recorded everything from the Bloody Moon to the giant stone gate, but just not Holy Mountain. In fact, other than a few phrases here and there, the rest was simply a bunch of jibber-jabbers. To conclude, Roland recognized every single word in the book, but could not make any sense out of them. He wondered whether the missing information resulted from the hasty manner in which Scroll had read the book, or the book was simply incomplete as it was.
Roland ignored the tedious paragraphs in the middle and directly skipped to the end. Only the first few pages of the big book contained some contents. The latter part of the book, however, was totally blank. On the last page, the handwriting changed abruptly. The earlier neat handwriting suddenly turned into a sort of scribbles, as if the author had written them in a rush. The contents, nonetheless, started to become clearer and more coherent.
The first sentence read, "We failed. It was impossible for common people to defeat demons."