Are you able to fight against several soldiers of the God’s Punishment Army at the same time?” Roland asked.
Ashes facial complexion became clearly puzzled, but in the end, she still stretched out three fingers, “Three soldiers, I’m able to defeat.”
“Then let’s have a fight,” Roland said, sitting straight and becoming seriously. “Let the test tell you if I’m able to win against the God’s Punishment Army or not.”
“What do you mean?” Ashes became stunned for a moment, her cold face finally showed a different expression than her usually cold face.
“A fair test, a fight one-on-one,” Roland said, stressing word for word, “If I’m able to beat you, you have to accept that I have the ability to resist the Church.”
“You and I? Or… or do you want one of your witches to take your place?”
“Of course it won’t be me, but it won’t be a witch either. The soldiers of the God’s Punishment Army will all be wearing a God’s Stone of Retaliation,” Roland smiled, “Your opponent will be an ordinary knight.”
Although he regretted it a bit that he would not personally be taking part in it, the other side was a witch with a military strength completely off the charts, from the description he had heard from Wendy, she alone was powerful enough to make her way through a whole monastery, and in the end, was even able to escape from the pursuit of the God’s Punishment Army.
Even fighting empty-handed or with only a wooden sword, she would still be extraordinarily lethal. The actual effectiveness of a revolver was still unknown. And for the sake of safety, he had decided to give this great task to Carter. If he had been able to lay his hands on an ak47, then Roland would have tried to take her on by himself.
“Ordinary Knight…” Ashes face once more turned back to her original expression of indifference. “If I win, you will let the witches follow me?”
“Of course not, after all, you cannot offer the same. In the case I would win, you surely wouldn’t go back to Tilly and bring all of her witches to Border Town, right?”
“In that case, what would be the significance of your suggested duel?”
“I already said it previously, it’s not a duel, it’s a test,” Roland corrected her, “the significance lies in the fact that you will know, that in the face of the Church’s power I’m not without any possibilities to resist. Furthermore, when you later go back to the Fjords you will remember, that outside of the Fjords, there is also the Western Territories, and more precisely Border Town, that can provide a place for witches to live. Of course, if you win, it could be that Wendy will start to persuade the others, which would be many times more efficient than you doing it by yourself.”
“I will never lose,” Ashes declared. “Now call your knight.”
“Not now,” Roland waved his hand, “we will hold the test in a week. I have to make the necessary preparations first, until then you can freely live in the castle. Experiencing with the other witches, how it is feels to live in Border Town. And as a witch with a feeling for the town life, perhaps you will even change your opinion without us having to have a fight.”
“…” Ashes looked at the Prince coldly for a long time, but then she finally nodded, “You are right, maybe I won’t have to wait for seven days, they will change their view even earlier, freely leaving Border Town together with me.”
Roland just shrugged his shoulders in answer.
When the other was already at the door, he suddenly called to her once more, “Hold on… Can it be that I already have seen you from somewhere?”
Although he was certain that he had never seen her face before, her stature as he looked at her from behind, he got a strange feeling of familiarity. Roland could also slightly recall something, a sense of familiarity that seemed to be coming from… the time he had been living in the King’s Palace.
“Didn’t your guard already tell you?” Ashes didn’t even look back at him. “If it were not for Tilly who stopped me at that time, I’m afraid you’d now only have one hand left.”
The moment the door was closed, Nightingale appeared in front of him, and asked with a frosty voice, “You touched her ass?”
“What?” Roland became startled, “I can’t remember to have ever seen such a person in the palace, and what do you mean with ‘touched’? ”