“Were you able to reach an agreement with the Lord?” Ashes frowned. Even if the local forces were vigorous and coordinated, it was still difficult to face the Church with their God’s Stone of Retaliation. So, the only possibility for cooperation between a local lord and the witches was when the witches had their own way out, assuring them that they would survive. Unfortunately, when having to deal with such a vulnerable group of witches, most lords were reluctant to sit down and talk fairly about the conditions of the contract. It was more often that they endlessly squeezed them dry and demanded more, so the road to reaching an agreement with local Lords was usually blocked.
“I suppose you could call it that,” Nightingale said in a voice without any trace of depression. Rather, it was full of warmth, “Every one of us has signed a contract with His Royal Highness.”
Ashes wasn’t able to feel happiness for them. Those contracts written with paper and pen were not binding at all. As soon as the Lord became tired of paying them or wanted to terminate their relationship of equality, he only had to knead the contract into a ball and throw it into the fireplace. There would be no one who would fight for the injustice the witches would have to face. Their status was like a small boat alone in a storm, always afraid of getting overturned.
Fortunately, now I’m here, she thought. With me, they can leave from here and go to the other side of the sea. There, us witches have built our own homes and live far away from the Church and any other secular threats.
Sure enough, when they stepped through the castle’s gates, the guards just nodded and said hello when they saw the appearance of the witches.
Compared to the king’s palace, the Lord’s castle in Border Town was undoubtedly much smaller and darker. There were so few solitary torches burning on the walls of the corridor that their swaying lights weren’t able to cover the entire stone floor. Walking along the dark corridors, Ashes got a depressing feeling. However, this feeling only lasted until they reached the entrance to the living room. There, the room was suddenly brightly lit up by fires.
Entering the hall, Ashes could see some more witches. It seemed they had all been waiting for her, and the moment she stepped into the room they began to applaud and welcome her. Nightingale, who wanted to give a brief introduction, took two steps forward, but suddenly one of the witches who had previously waited in the room rushed over.
“Wendy!” somebody cried.
Everything that happened was registered by Ashes, but she still decided not to take any counter-measures. After all, she only had the feeling of joy and surprise from the approaching witch, there was no trace of hostility at all. So after a few seconds, she was embraced by a warm body.
“You survived,” said an unknown voice, excitedly. “Thank you for saving me.”
Ashes became confused, “you are…”
“My name is Wendy,” the voice said, releasing her hands. She took a deep look into Ashes’ eyes. “The little girl in the choir, do you remember me?”
…
On the second floor in one of the bedrooms, only two people were left, Ashes and Wendy.
Ashes had never expected to meet a partner from the monastery here.
So, calling her partner was a very far stretch. With the exception of that night, Ashes had never had any interaction with Wendy. In fact, she hadn’t even paid any attention to the other girls enclosed with her in that underground room. She had not even realized that there were others who had to go through the same horrible acts of people forcing themselves on them. Even more, she had never thought that one of them would also become a witch.
“I was able to flee from the monastery and settle down in the Seawind region,” Wendy began to talk, after a long time of silence she continued, “Then someday I got the news that the monastery was set on fire later that day, and that all the children were missing. Did you do that?”
“The fire?” Ashes shook her head, “It was the Church’s doing. They did it to cover up the whole scandal. I killed some of the managers and the Army of Judges who tried to stop me until… members of the Church’s God Punishment Army arrived. That scar over my eye was left by one of them. If hadn’t chosen to escape by myself and had instead waited until the follow-up – if I had to face more members of the God’s Punishment Army, I am afraid I would have died that day.”
“God’s Punishment Army?” Wendy stared with big round eyes at Ashes, “Who are they?”