Wendy has been living a particularly fulfilling life lately.
Bai Zhi, just like her name, is rapidly absorbing knowledge about witches and magic. Her writing lessons and natural science education are progressing smoothly, and she can now independently learn new vocabulary by referring to her literacy textbooks. The natural science tutoring is a bit more troublesome, as the little girl sometimes asks questions that even Wendy can't answer, ultimately requiring her to consult Anna or His Highness.
A Xia, compared to Bai Zhi, seems much clumsier, probably due to her age. She needs to repeat a word several times to remember its spelling, and she's skeptical about the natural science courses. However, Wendy doesn't mind at all. If everyone were as smart as Anna, she would feel discouraged. What she has plenty of now is time and patience.
Every morning, she calls both of them to the drawing-room to check the homework she assigned the day before – this is also a viewpoint that His Highness advocates to all teachers in the Education Department: learning without practice is quickly forgotten, and constant practice is essential for remembering. Wendy deeply agrees with this.
Next is magic practice. Bai Zhi can already assist Agatha in creating acidic liquid or help accelerate the hardening of cement at the shipyard, so Wendy primarily tutors the newcomer, A Xia. She heard that A Xia will also join the Security Bureau with Nightingale in the future to help His Highness recreate crime scenes, so the most important thing is to precisely control the playback time.
Fortunately, using abilities is like breathing for witches. Even the most slow-witted person won't be too far off as long as they can feel the magic flowing. Wendy often brings up Macy as an example to encourage A Xia not to be discouraged by her low natural magic power. Even pigeons can evolve, let alone a normal witch? Of course, afterwards, she secretly brings Macy some honey-roasted meat as compensation.
In the evening, there's the routine elementary education class. Considering the different learning progress of the new recruits, His Highness has divided the Witch Union into two classes. The original members continue to be taught by Scroll, starting to learn elementary physics and chemistry, while the newly awakened ones are tutored by Wendy – after the regular classes end.
This is the most relaxing moment of her day.
After all, as the earliest witch to join the Mutual Aid Society, Wendy has widened the gap between herself and the top sisters after a period of study. Considering that His Highness has also entrusted her with the responsibility of managing the Union, she feels a great burden on her shoulders.
Only when teaching newcomers can she put down the burden and devote herself wholeheartedly.
After assigning the evening's homework to the two, Wendy took a hot bath in the bathroom and returned to the bedroom feeling refreshed, only to see Nightingale sitting on the bedside, holding a copy of "The Theoretical Foundation of Natural Science" in a daze.
It could only be a daze. If she paid attention to it, she would fall into a deep sleep in less than a quarter of an hour – Wendy had never seen her last more than a quarter of an hour.
"What's wrong?" Wendy lifted the quilt and climbed onto the bed, sitting next to her.
Nightingale tilted her head slightly and glanced at her. The blank and hollow look in her eyes made her heart tighten – she had only seen this expression on her face in Silverlight, which was the first time she met Nightingale. At that time, she was walking listlessly on the snowy streets, completely ignoring the snowflakes covering her shoulders.
"Roland and Anna are together..." she said in a low voice, "I pushed him."
"..." Wendy didn't know what to say for a moment. Recently, she could also see that the relationship between Anna and His Highness was clearly much closer, but everyone had accepted this, so it wasn't surprising – as the first witch His Highness came into contact with, Anna was impeccable in every way. Except for her inability to bear children, Scroll even thought she was the most suitable person to become queen. She just didn't expect that this change was facilitated by Nightingale herself.
"I clearly prepared myself, clearly knew this was inevitable, but seeing them together, why... why do I still feel so uncomfortable?" Nightingale grabbed Wendy's hand tightly, "I made up my mind long ago..."
Looking at her appearance, Wendy also felt uncomfortable. Nightingale's greatest impression on her was her strength, whether it was killing her distant relatives who imprisoned her in Silverlight, or fighting the church in the Mutual Aid Society. No matter what kind of predicament she was in, she could
Calmly respond to the battle, even when facing the aggressive Hakkara, she never showed fear. But in the face of emotion, she once again became that helpless child, and in this regard, she was powerless to help her.
Because there is no right or wrong in emotion itself.
Wendy had no choice but to put her arms around her and gently pat her shoulder, "If you feel uncomfortable, it's okay to cry."
Nightingale shook her head and said in a muffled voice, "I swore when I left the Grand family... I will never cry again, never..." Her voice grew lower and lower, and finally became barely audible. Wendy felt a warm, moist sensation gradually coming from her chest, but even so, she didn't make a single sob. Because of the extreme restraint, Nightingale's shoulders trembled slightly, and her grip on her hand became stronger and stronger.
"I didn't cry..."
"Yes, you didn't... I know." Wendy closed her eyes, feeling a little regretful in her heart for the words she had said to Nightingale – staying by his side is a simple answer, and in fact, most witches will stay by His Highness's side... because they have nowhere to go. The willingness to accept a woman who cannot have children or inherit bloodlines is itself a very small probability event, and the witches also understand this fact. But the most important thing about staying by his side is distance, like the sun, everyone can bathe in the light brought by the sun, but the closer you want to get, the easier it is to get burned, and what Nightingale wants to do is obviously not just watch from afar.
This is not an easy road to take.
"Why don't you just give up..." Wendy said softly, "Even if you take a step back, there are sisters to accompany you."
The long silence made time seem to freeze here. She was as if waiting for a trial, and although the object was not herself, she still felt extremely painful. Several times Wendy couldn't help but ask again, but the words that came to her lips eventually fell back.
Until Nightingale raised her head.
Her eyes were a little red, but she could no longer see any tears – the wetness on her chest seemed to be her own illusion. When she saw the look in her eyes, Wendy knew that this trial finally had a result... but it wasn't the end.
"I won't give up," she shook her head, "No matter what, I want to stay with him until the end—"
Even if she is burned to ashes by the sun.
This is her answer.(。)