Chapter 256 The Prologue to a new life
After the basket landed on the ground, a woman who seemed to be around thirty years of age who had red hair that came to her waist climbed out of the basket and greeted them, “Hello everyone. Welcome to Border Town. My name is Wendy.” She then looked to Ashes and showed a charming smile. “You also came.”
Is she the witch Ashes mentioned before? Taking a closer look at the two, Sylvie came to the conclusion that they were already familiar with each other.
“Welcome, you can call me Anna.” A witch with bright eyes appeared in front of Sylvie. Her two blue eyes were as pure as water and also very eye-catching. However, what was even more mind blowing was her magical power – it was tremendous, gave off a profound and resounding feeling and seemed to hardly contain any flaws. It looked like slowly turning cube that was composed of three colors, black, white, and gray, which gathered all of the surrounding magic and twisted it into its orbit.
How astonishing is her power? It was the first-time Sylvie saw magical power that could release such a sense of oppression.
“Hey, my name is Lightning!” the little girl who had been flying beside the basket said. Maggie was sitting on her shoulder.
“Googoo!”
When all the witches of Sleeping Island had been introduced by Ashes, Wendy smilingly invited everyone to climb aboard the basket.
“This huge air sac above our head is called a hot air balloon, as long as it is provided with hot air, it will be able to take us across the mountains, and towards our destination.” She paused, turned towards Ashes before she asked, “Do you really not want to come along and take a look at Border Town? I think His Highness would also want to see you again.”
“He would not welcome a person who intended to lure away his witches,” she laughed, “I will trouble you to take care of these children.”
“Alright…” Wendy pursed her lips, looking as if she felt regretful. “Rest assured, I will treat them with care.”
“In that case, everyone pay attention” Anna reminded, “Cloud Gazer is about to rise into the sky.”
Sylvie only felt a slight tremble at her feet before the basket had already left the ground. Sticking her head over the edge, she saw Ashes and Molly waving at them. As the hot air balloon rose, the scene on the ground became smaller and smaller, soon turning the two into fingernail-sized spots – no matter what, their new life would soon begin.
It seemed that Wendy had the ability to control the wind and thus the hot air balloon which was under her control flew towards Graycastle and the mainland.
It was Sylvie’s first-time overlooking the earth from up in the sky. Even though the earth and rocks couldn’t stop her exploration, having such a large field of view available to her was nevertheless a new and odd experience. So when she tried to evoking her magic eye, she never expected the chaotic flood of scenes which came pouring into her mind – the cliffs and mountains hidden in the ocean depths, the underground rivers connected to the sea, the animals bones buried in the earth, as well as the ever-changing subterranean rock strata… Trying to arrange this flood of images Sylvie felt the onset of a splitting headache just as her magical power rapidly dropped. Hurriedly interrupting her magic eye, Sylvie sat on the ground and leaned against the basket wall, slowly trying to catch her breath.
“Are you alright?” Someone asked. Opening her eyes, she discovered that it was Wendy who was asking.
“Well, I’m merely a little… dizzy.”
“After taking a few deep breaths it will soon feel a little better,” Wendy smiled. “Many people feel uncomfortable when they leave the ground for the first time.”
“Thank you, I’m already better,” Sylvie nodded.
Along the way, the atmosphere was much more harmonious than she had initially expected, and it was exactly like Ashes had said, Wendy was full of concern for everyone and she didn’t treat them any differently because of them being newcomers. Anna, although she didn’t speak much on her own accord, would still answer in all seriousness whenever someone asked her a question. Lightning who was seemingly a very good friend of Maggie’s had a vivacious personality, and together with the fat pigeon would come into the basket from time to time to chat with everyone, not treating them as if they were strangers at all.
With Maggie being the confidant of both sides, the other four witches were gradually able to relax, one after another asking Lightning about the situation in Border Town. Later, the little girl simply hovered beside the basket, and told them stories about the fights against the demonic beasts and invaders, as well as about all of His Highness the Prince’s inconceivable invention, giving them one surprise after another.
After a little while, the hot air balloon arrived in the sky over the castle.
Just by looking at its size from high up, the town was really worthy of its name. It was both a small and remote place, with a size that was less than 1/3 of Sleeping Island’s. However contrary to what one might expect, it had a large number of townsfolk within. No matter if it was the center square, or the walls or on the river shore, everywhere she looked she could see people gathering together in crowds and groups. Traveling to and fro, they turned into a surging stream.
The hot air balloon directly landed in the castle courtyard and the moment they jumped out of the basket, an unexpected round of explosion spread through the air. Feeling caught off-guard, Sylvie became shocked and froze on the spot. The other four didn’t fare any better, Honey even jumped back into the basket, and asked while only revealing her head halfway: “What happened?”
Wendy couldn’t keep herself from laughing, “Do not worry, this is His Highness’s gun salute, it is his way to welcome you all to Border Town.”
Passing through the shadowy corridor, they stepped into the castle hall. And that was when Sylvie finally met with Tilly’s brother – he was sitting at the end of the hall at the lord’s seat, he had an external appearance that was somewhat similar to Her Highness the 5th Princess’. They had the same gray hair, weren’t wearing any superfluous pendants on their body and showed a relaxed and natural expression. His facial features still fell short when compared to Tilly’s, who’s appearance was something that warmed the heart and delighted the eyes. But they shared the same kind of calm temperament which would attract everyone’s eye even when they were merely sitting there.
“Welcome to Border Town. I am the Lord of the Western Territory, Roland Wimbledon. I presume that everyone already knows my name.” He stood up and smiled, “Tilly Wimbledon is my younger sister. So, you don’t need to feel awkward when living in Border Town, consider it your home the same as you would with Sleeping Island.”
Unable to suppress her curiosity, Sylvie opened her magic eye, only to stare blankly at what she saw.
The expected darkness did not appear, which indicated that the other side wasn’t wearing a God’s Stone of Retaliation. Moreover, there also wasn’t any trace of magic on his body – how he looked now was the same he looked to her in her normal vision. Neither was there any kind of camouflage on him nor was he being controlled, this could only mean that the man in front of her was indeed Roland himself.
Tilly’s countermeasure for the “no clue detectable” situation was merely one sentence: Sending the news back to Sleeping Island.
…
The words Roland said afterward, Sylvie didn’t listen to at all, her head had become a complete mess. In order to accomplish the task given by Lady Tilly, she had thought about the words and expression she should use when negotiating, she had even come up with plans in the case of their imprisonment, never expecting that it would become completely useless. With no better option, let’s wait until the end of the month so that Maggie can bring this information back to Sleeping Island and complete the task.
But how is this possible? There is a true aristocrat determined to shelter witches? Even going so far as to become the leader of the Witch Union?
The psychological shock caused Sylvie to fall in a kind of trance, only when His Highness started arranging their rooms for the night did her soul finally return.
“The current situation is roughly like this, by now the witch house is still not completed, so you will have to temporarily live within the castle and share a room with the other witches. Of course, this should also help you to quickly blend into life here in Border Town.” Then Roland announced, “Tonight, there will be a lavish dinner waiting for you. It will be the official welcoming ceremony to celebrate your arrival in Border Town, I hope everyone will enjoy it”.
Seeing the result of their room arrangements Sylvie breathed out in relieve. In the end, it was arranged that she would live together with Wendy. Looking back at their short contact, Wendy was indeed a good senior who would be easy for her to get along with. However, in addition to Wendy there seemed to be another witch that was living in the room who was called Nightingale.”
Sylvie couldn’t help but think, I hope that the other person is also easy to get along with.