Chapter 285: The Answer
Translator:Transn
Editor:Meh
The environment in Sleeping Island was getting better day by day. When flying, Tilly could see the busy crowd and the lively market.
Sleeping Island was no longer a place where there used to be 300 witches who had been secretly living in isolation. Through negotiations and trade agreements, Crescent Moon Bay, Twin Dragon Island, Sunset Port and Shallow Water Town had all established trade connection with Sleeping Island. Furthermore, she also guided few civilians from some nearby crowded villages to settle down here.
Even though for now they were gathered outside of the island, far from the witches, Tilly believed that one day, Sleeping Island would become a city without prejudices. The merge was a slow process, but she was full of hope for the result. It did not matter if the awakened witches of the other islands joined them at Sleeping Island or if they decided to stay in their hometowns and they were accepted by commoners. Either way, it was good news for her. It meant that Tilly and the witches that immigrated to the island would receive more supporters.
"Come down and it's windy," Ashes shouted from below, "Be careful not to fall!"
"I'm alright!" Tilly waved. Suddenly, she dropped for a short distance but after a while, she was able to stabilize her body again. "Oh… it's still a bit hard to control."
"And yet you flew so high!" Ashes said stomping, "You can fly at a lower height or practice above the sea. If you don't come down now, I'll climb on the roof to catch you myself."
"Fine, fine, I got it." Tilly could feel that the wind was getting stronger and she did not want to push it. So, she withdrew the magic power that she had released and landed slowly in her residence's garden.
"Please call Molly next time you do this," Ashes said, "At least her magic servant could catch you."
"As long as I keep providing magic power, it's impossible to fall down. The worst that can happen isn't able to control the direction." She took off the blue magic stone glove and handed it to Ashes. "You should try it, and flying is so magnificent. When you look down at Sleeping Island from above, you'll see the world in a whole different look."
"I'd rather not." Ashes refused. "I was unable to activate the lightning magic stone at the beginning, let alone this stone that needs continuously filling magic power into. Furthermore, there's also only one such stone. Even if I learn how to use it, I still wouldn't be able to fly with you."
"You're right." Tilly regrettably took the glove back. "I often think that it would be so nice if I manage to figure out the principle behind it and then create similar magic stones."
"Do you think it was made by humans?"
"Of course." She nodded without hesitation. "As for its polished surface and its purpose, it's highly unlikely that the stone was formed naturally. The people who constructed the ruins must have had a deep understanding of magic power, and it's a pity that they didn't leave anything else behind other than some documents that were hard to understand."
At this moment, a huge white figure suddenly fell from the sky. Due to its fast landing speed, it almost hit the ground, causing a circle of dust.
"Maggie?" Ashes lifted her eyebrows.
"Oh… that hurt, coo." It was indeed the little girl. Standing up, she rubbed her head and said, "Did my eyes just play some trick with me? Lady Tilly can actually fly in the sky! If it wasn't for the hair color, I would have thought that it was Lightning."
"You saw correctly and I was just flying a while ago." Tilly smiled and rubbed her cheek. "So... are the witches from Sleeping Island doing well in Border Town?"
"Pretty well, coo. They've asked me to deliver a letter to you." Maggie opened her bag to find letters and said, "This is from Lotus. This is from Evelyn, and this… is from His Highness."
Tilly was startled. The prince's letter was half a finger thick and it was tightly wrapped as if it was a package. It felt a bit heavy as she held it in her hands. Obviously, it did not contain just a letter.
"You must be tired."
Ashes took out half a wheat pie and gave a small piece to Maggie. But Maggie shook her head, putting a dried fish into her mouth and said, "I'm going to play with Molly." Then, she turned once again into a huge white pigeon and flew out of the flower garden.
"Why do I feel that she has grown even bigger after a month?"
"I have the same feeling." Tilly laughed. "It seems like that life in Border Town is really good."
When Tilly returned to her room, she opened Roland Wimbledon's letter and found out that besides a letter full of words, the rest were actually lifelike pictures.
"What's this?"
Ashes' question also reflected Tilly's own puzzlement. She shook her head and unfolded the pictures one by one—their content was somewhat hard to believe: the background looked like an evening in the wasteland, where under the bloody red light of the setting sun, two scary-looking monsters were engaged in a deadly fight with a group of witches. The witches were obviously losing and their abilities seemed to be useless, and both vipers and fireballs could not stop the monsters. In the last picture, several witches were lying dead in a pool of blood.
Tilly frowned. The scenes in front of her were clearly drawn by a witch. Only magic power could create such lively and real drawings. But… were these mere drawings, or did they represent an event that had actually happened?
With a feeling of uneasiness, she grabbed the letter and quickly read through it.
Soon, Tilly felt a grip on her chest and her hands started shaking as she came across many times a same word: "demon".
"What's wrong?" Ashes took her hands into hers. "What's in the letter?"
"The past of the Witch Cooperation Association," Tilly patted Ashes' back to relax her and continued to say, "They used to search for Holy Mountain in the Wild Places... you must have heard of Holy Mountain, right?"
"Yeah, it's the legendary destination for all witches. Only at Holy Mountain can they obtain real peace and serenity, but this is just a rumor," Ashes said carelessly, "In Sleeping Island, we can also live in peace, and the demonic torture is nothing more than a lie created by the church."
"But Cara was convinced that Holy Mountain really existed. Furthermore, she found an ancient book in the ruins of the forest east of the king city, believing that the gates to Holy Mountain were in that forbidden area that no one had ever stepped in before. So, she led the Witch Cooperation Association over the Impassable Mountain Range, towards the wilderness. However, what they encountered was not Holy Mountain, but instead a kind of terrifying monster," Tilly said in a low voice.
"The one in the drawings?" Ashes breathed heavily.
"Exactly." Her expression became somewhat dark. "According to the letter, they possess unimaginable strength, and they're extremely agile. They can also control demonic beasts and one of them can actually release lightning from its hand… Just like a witch's ability. Among more than 40 witches, only six survived. As they had no other choice, the six witches decided to seek the help of the Lord of Border Town.
"I see... So this is what happened."
"One more thing that makes me confused is that at the end of that ancient book, there's a sloppy essay which was written in the language of the four kingdoms." Tilly checked the back of the letter. "It mentions that Holy City, the fight with the Devils, as well as Alice's experiments of the God's Punishment Army. All of this should have happened 400 years ago, but since they were familiar with the kingdom language, why would they use an entirely different language to record the literature and the books?"
Princess Tilly thought about it for a long time but without any result, so she put everything aside and picked up Sylvie's letter to see the result of her examination of the Lord of Border Town.
But she was stunned the moment she saw the first sentence of the letter, even more shocked than the time she had seen the word of demons.
"Lady Tilly, I didn't find any sign of camouflage or magic power on Roland Wimbledon. Besides the Witch Union, there're also no other witches hidden in the town. So I think… he may actually be your older brother."