Release that Witch

Upright and hard-working children shouldn’t be rejected, he thought. So Roland bent down, coming close to Anna’s cheek, even feeling her breath on his face, like a spring breath fiddling his heartstrings. Within the quiet environment they could clearly hear each other’s nervous breathing, then, soft lips slightly touched Roland’s cheeks.

“Good night, Your Highness,” Anna whispered.

*

Wendy set on the bed looking at some books.

For her, moments like this where she had leisure time were very rare. During her time in the Witch Cooperation Association, she also would have never thought about leading such a life.

It wasn’t long since she started staying within the town, but she had already developed the habit to: Before going to sleep she would clean her body. And then she would put on a silk gown, which wasn’t fastened around the waist nor wasn’t buttoned up. Sit cross-legged in the bed, with a soft pillow between her back and the wall, read books she had borrowed from His Highness.

It had taken her a lot of time until she got Lightning to rest, so afterward she did not intend to return to the back garden to continue the celebration, and instead she washed herself and went to bed.

At the moment she was reading a history book about the origin of the Church.

Although she grew up in a monastery, yet this was a theme that she didn’t know much about. The nuns had always warned them to obey the teaching of God, but they never mentioned God’s name — during her childhood this discrepancy had always puzzled her. Everything had a name, so why of all the things does the noblest God not have one?

What was recorded within the books she had read and the rumors she had later heard told of basically the same thing. At the beginning of the history of the mainland, there were three major religions, which thought of each other as heretics, believing that their gods were the only ones. This battle of faith lasted for nearly a hundred years, and in the end, the Church took the final victory. They declared that the other Gods had been destroyed, and that calling God with any other name was forbidden, this was the word of God itself.

The following pages described the glory and immortality of the church, including the building of the Old Holy City and the New Holy City, and their victory over the evil witches. To Wendy this all seemed very strange.

She had also borrowed the books, “The History of the Kingdom of Graycastle” and “A brief History of the Mainland” from Roland. The first one almost unequivocally recorded the Kingdom’s establishment, development and major events. Such as the name of each king and the marital status and whereabouts of their children. The family with all their branches were described in such details, that it nearly looked like a detailed genealogy.

“The brief History of the Mainland” focused more on the evolution of the four kingdoms, their alternations in handling their powers and the inner and outer political struggles. However, they still put very much importance into the ruling families.

Yet within the History book about the Church, there wasn’t mentioned any of the Popes’ names, or it could be said that it was the same thing they had done with God’s name. They just replaced their former names with the title Pope. So throughout the whole book, it just looked like there was only one Pope during all of the hundreds of years of history. This wasn’t consistent with common sense, instead of calling it a record, it would be better to say it was a deliberate delusion.

At this moment, Nightingale suddenly appeared within Wendy’s room. When Wendy discovered her she put down her book and looked at the other one with interest: “It’s already so late, and you’re only now free to talk to me?”

Nightingale rubbed her tensed neck, and went to the bedside to sit down, “I just finished my job of bringing Nana home, how did you fare with Lightning?”

“On the way she was nonstop talking about her father, yet when she hit the bed, she immediately fell asleep, I didn’t even need to read some stories to her.” Wendy shrugged. “She always acts like she is already a big girl, but in truth, she is still a little child.”

“In your eyes, everyone is still a child,” said the Nightingale teasingly and took the book Wendy had previously in her hand. “His Royal Highness had said that you shouldn’t read at night, especially that you shouldn’t read when sitting in bed. The lighting isn’t good enough and will hurt your eyes.”

“Yes, your Royal Highness did say that.”