...
After reading through the two contracts several times, Spear. Pasi solemnly signed her name at the end.
One was the "Memorandum of Unification," and the other was the "Basic Charter of the Witch Union."
The former stipulated that after the rule of Tiffeco. Wimbledon was overthrown, she would lead the entire city of Fallen Dragon Ridge to pledge allegiance to Roland. Wimbledon. At the same time, she would respond to the new king's request and hand over the power of enfeoffment, while Roland would ensure her other powers in the position of lord of Fallen Dragon Ridge. The memorandum categorized these as personnel, administration, and finance, which, although somewhat novel, was easy to understand and covered the basic matters she dealt with daily.
The latter was a decision Spear made after much consideration. As it stood, the union was undoubtedly serving His Royal Highness Roland. She didn't want to tie herself to the Fourth Prince's chariot so quickly, especially since he only occupied a corner of Graycastle. However, the content of the evening lectures was quite attractive. She vaguely sensed that those peculiar calculation methods would be of great help in managing the territory.
Fortunately, the requirements put forward in the union charter were very loose. It was more like a formal consensus, and did not even restrict the members' whereabouts. She had also asked His Royal Highness about this, and the answer she received was that they could leave whenever they wanted.
"I've signed it."
Spear handed the two exquisite parchments to the table, but he did not respond. His eyes were staring at the empty space beside him, as if he was thinking about something.
"Your Highness?"
"Ah..." he blinked, as if he had come back to his senses. "Let me see."
This state of mental distraction was rare in the previous negotiations. It seemed that after yesterday's trial, a hint of hesitation had appeared between His Highness's eyebrows. This was hard for her to understand. The trial was undoubtedly a great success. People stood on His Highness's side without hesitation, cheering and shouting for him. Before this, Spear had never imagined that ordinary people would support a noble so much - she originally thought that she and they were people from two different worlds, that nobles did not need the understanding of the people and did not care about their support. But yesterday, her thinking was changed. Watching the residents around the square wave their fists and make the same earth-shattering sound, she suddenly realized that this might contain a power she had never been aware of - it was even more powerful than the nobles themselves.
Moreover, His Highness's decisive judgment was also one of the reasons why she decided to sign these two contracts.
Whether he wanted to protect the witches or not, the fact that he could punish the thief who plotted to usurp his lord's position so quickly was in itself a kind of sincerity. In that case, she should also respond.
But His Highness didn't seem satisfied... Was he regretting openly antagonizing the church?
Spear knew that it was definitely not an easy enemy to deal with.
Since it was related to the direction of future cooperation, it was better to ask clearly. She hesitated and put forward her guess in a tactful way.
His Highness was obviously stunned after hearing this, then smiled and shook his head, "I will never regret fighting the church. They are enemies that must be defeated - no matter which way you look at it."
"Then you..."
"I'm just a little emotional."
"Emotional?"
"Even though I'm telling the truth and exposing the crimes the church has committed, I still feel a little embarrassed," he shrugged his shoulders, "It seems that I'm far from being a qualified politician."
Politician? What was that, like an astrologer, someone who focused on studying politics?
Before she could ask, His Highness stopped the topic, "I've accepted the contract. I heard your ability is related to controlling magic power?"
"Yes," Spear didn't want to continue to ask. "To be precise, it's to extract a witch's magic power for other witches to use. Of course, I can also extract my own magic power and then recover it to achieve the purpose of consumption - this process has almost no impact on the outside world, and I can repeat this process in the castle at any time."
"How did you discover that you had such an ability?" the prince asked curiously.
"Since awakening," the Marchioness replied, "I don't know how other witches learn about their abilities, but I can feel its existence, that feeling is like suddenly... having another organ."
"Interesting statement," he nodded thoughtfully, "You should know the purpose of my initial dispatch of Nightingale to Fallen Dragon Ridge to invite you."
"You need my ability," Spear paused slightly and stroked her chest, "I am happy to serve you."
Anyway, she couldn't go back to Fallen Dragon Ridge now, so she might as well see what this prince usually did - although she had only been in Border Town for a little over a week, she found that the scene here was very different from other territories. A remote place far from the center of the kingdom had a vitality that was not inferior to the royal capital, which made her, as a lord, full of curiosity.
Moreover, what surprised Spear even more was that the lives of the local witches were completely different from what she had imagined. The Fourth Prince did not control them too much, but let them act at will - this could be seen from the fact that he was waiting for Nightingale to return. He clearly hoped that she would return sooner, but still agreed to her request.
His Royal Highness did not treat them as his "servants."
You should know that some nobles secretly hid witches entirely for their beauty. His Highness was now openly recruiting witches, and she originally thought that he would do it even more unscrupulously, but she didn't expect him to be so cautious in this regard.
Was this still the Fourth Prince who was rumored to be lustful and incompetent?
While feeling amused, she couldn't help but have more trust. Now that she thought about it, none of the words Nightingale said to her were false.
...
Following the prince out of the castle and to a yard on the back hill of the town, Spear saw two other witches.
"This is Anna, and that is Mystery Moon," Roland introduced, "Mystery Moon's magic power is at a low level in the Witch Union, but her ability consumption is very amazing."
"I'm clearly at an intermediate level!" Mystery Moon protested.
"Among the awakened witches," the prince added.
The latter immediately wilted.
"You want me to connect their magic power?" Spear looked at Anna, "She should be the girl with the strongest magic power in the Union, right? I suggest you call a few more witches. The amount of magic power is greatly related to age. Even if there are differences, they shouldn't be too different."
"This is just a test now," His Highness stroked his chin, "If this method works, I'll notify them to come over."
The Marchioness nodded and summoned the magic power channel - a sphere that shone with a light blue light, floating quietly in mid-air. Then, under her control, two thin lines stretched out from the sphere, like ethereal tentacles, extending towards Anna and Mystery Moon.
"It will feel a little strange at first, just relax," Spear explained, "If you resist, it can't forcibly transfer magic power."
When the tentacles submerged into Anna's chest, she was suddenly stunned.
What... what was going on? The tentacles seemed to be connected not to rotating magic power, but to a hard metal cube. It was so large that she was like an ant standing at the bottom of this metal, looking up to see its top.
.(。)