“Tonight, when we all come together, I want to tell this important news to all of our sisters!” Nightingale looked pleadingly at Wendy and said, “And I want you to help me convince them.”
When the evening came, the witches who were busy outside the camp returned one after another. When they saw that Nightingale had safely returned, the witches became very happy, coming towards her and asking her how she did. Seeing that their arms were wrapped in a white cloth, Nightingale felt heavy within her heart; at the beginning she still casually answered a few questions, but with time she turned more and more silent.
But then she began to tell her long story. She talked about how she had sneaked into Border Town, how she met Roland, Anna and Nana, the construction of the city wall, the construction of the steam engine, how they had resisted the attack of the demonic beasts, and finally about Anna’s adulthood. Nightingale even took out the drawing of the construction plans for the steam engine, to prove to everyone that she wasn’t lying.
Most of the witches, after they entered the Witch Cooperation Association, would live a cloistered life. For them, it was difficult to imagine the life in the outside world, so they listened attentively. But when Nightingale said that Anna hadn’t suffered any pain during her day of adulthood going through it unscathed, the crowd suddenly began to rage. This was a great concern, the day of adulthood bothered witches for all of their lives, and lead to leaving a sheltered and warm life. They even went into the Impassable Mountain range, losing everything only to look for the legendary Holy Mountain. If what Nightingale said was true, that there was a territory lord who was willing to accept them, who even knew how they no longer had to suffer from the Demons Bite, wouldn’t that have been even more perfect than the Holy Mountain?
At this point, a path began to spread through the crowd, and a witch with a head full of green hair and half of her body plastered with snake tattoos walked in front of Nightingale.
When she saw her, Nightingale bowed and greeted her respectfully, “Respected mentor, hello.” The witch who came was the founder of the Witch Cooperation Association, Cara the Snake Witch. When speaking with her, all the witches called her their mentor.
“I heard the story you just told,” when Cara spoke her voice hoarse and hollow, “Do you want to tell everyone that what we are doing is wrong?”
“No, mentor, those are not stories, I mean – “
“Enough,” Nightingale was interrupted by Cara who was waving impatiently, “I do not know what happened to you, but when you went to this Border Town, it made you say such words. A prince, that sympathises with a witch? It’s practically as laughable as sympathising with a frog, ” She turned around with a cold smile, and raised her arms in the air shouting, “Sisters! Have you all forgotten how those mortals treated you all!”
Not even letting Nightingale say something, she continued to shout, “Yes, that group of mortals, the group of incompetents who pretend to fight in the name of God, who are always aiming a sharp blade or whip at us. If there wasn’t a God’s Locket of Retribution, how could they step on us witches? Our ability doesn’t come from the devil, instead it is a gift given by God! The one who take charge of God’s authority shouldn’t be them, but we! Us the sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association! The Holy Mountain recorded in ancient books, is the residence of the gods!”
What … Nightingale couldn’t believe what she had heard, though the leader of the Witch Cooperation Association was always considered as an eccentric. She was strongly attached to the search for the Holy Mountain, with a passion exceeding that of any ordinary person, but she was always very far from madness. Although Cara wasn’t as approachable as Wendy, at least she had always treated the concern of her sisters with sincerity. But Nightingale had never thought that she could be so hostile to ordinary people.