Stepping behind her, full of curiosity, he saw two black flames sticking against the handle of the gun and holding it firmly in the air, while Anna was only keeping a virtual grasping position not even touching the real revolver. After he pat her on the shoulders, he saw her taking out two black flames from her ears as she turned around. She gave him a ’come and praise me’ expression and said, “How about it? I always hit the target!”
Roland didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry. But since he didn’t have any better options he loudly declared: “Everyone, no one is allowed to use their ability to assist you with the practice!”
“Eh, why?”
“So that you won’t get flustered, in case you meet an enemy carrying a God’s Stone of Retaliation,” Rolland explained. He sighed and reached with his hands to help plug Anna’s ears. “Like this, you won’t be afraid, alright?”
“Yes,” Anna’s eyes were brimming with happiness. She turned around, changed the bullets, lifted the gun and aimed.
“Maggie quickly come over here, I also need someone to block my ears,” Lightning shouted, full of envy.
“
“You cannot shoot the gun after turning into a bird anyway,” the little girl said with a wink, “You help me first, and I’ll help you cover your ears later.”
“
The other witches in the castle were also attracted by the successive sounds of gunfire, gradually, they all gathered at the castle’s front courtyard. Many of them looking eager to also have a go. At the end of the day, almost everyone had come up to experience how to use a revolver for themselves.
Roland’s heart was deeply moved as he looked upon this diverse group of women all in high spirit as they fired the weapons they were holding.
Even now, he could still remember the appearance of each witch when he met them for the first time.
Previously, Anna’s hands and feet were thin and weak, just like bamboo poles, her eyes had lost all signs of life, and always had a monotonous expression.
The area between Nightingale’s eyebrows always contained traces of stormy clouds. Her smiling expression also had nothing to do with her mood; in other words, its only use was to cover the true state of her mind, so there was always a false smile which was hanging at the corner of her lips.
And Wendy, usually speaking in a low voice, was unable to conceal her exhaustion. Leaves, someone who had thrown away all thoughts of a healthy future and accepted all the misfortunes decreed upon her by fate; and Lily, like a cat, ever on guard.
Furthermore, there was Lightning, Mystery moon, Hummingbird, Scroll, and so on…
After experiencing being oppressed, being framed, and being hunted, they were already lucky to be able to survive. As for where they were supposed to go. They absolutely had no time to ponder over that. Nowadays however, they were already completely differently from how they’d been in the past.
The witches were now emitting a unique charm, their eyes were flashing with rays of intelligence. They no longer seemed unsure about their fate — in addition to being able to live, they now had some effort to spare pursuing some other things, something that was just as beautiful as life itself.
And whenever he came face to face with one of the witches, their eyes would be filled with gratefulness and trust, making Roland’s heart feel as if it was filled with strength.
…
After lunch, and in the afternoon, it was time for the specially developed high-altitude throwing exercise in preparation for the “Autumn offensive”. The number of witches participating in the exercise had been reduced to half, leaving only Anna, Wendy and Lightning.
This was also the minimum amount of people required to complete the air raid.
Setting the attack time at the beginning of the second month of autumn was what he came up with after some careful deliberations. If the time was too short, they would be unable to carry out the mission safely; and if they took too long, Roland feared they wouldn’t be able to stop Timothy from attacking again. As long as he decided to launch a large-scale attack on the Western Region and forcefully fed the recruited civilians with the pills, the air raid wouldn’t be able to achieve its desired effect.
Therefore, the autumn offensive had to be completed before Timothy could complete the recruitment.
To realize his “promise”, Roland planned to drop a 250-kilogram bomb at the top of the castle. That bomb, which was about five times Nightingales’ weight, would be dropped from a height of two kilometers, directly smash through the dome of the palace, then detonate inside.