"And me," Lightning pounced.

"Me too," Nana shouted.

"Goo!" Maisie followed closely.

Roland simply stood still, letting all the members of the Witch Alliance hug him one by one, which made Tilly couldn't help but smile, "Your relationship with them is really harmonious."

"Do you need a brotherly hug too?"

"No, thanks," she shook her head with a smile, "I still clearly remember the scene where you picked me up and then dropped me on the ground."

Roland had to shrug innocently, then shifted his gaze to the woman in Ashes' arms—she had sea-blue hair, looked young, and was similar in build to Anna. Her eyes were closed, her slender eyebrows were slightly raised, her skin was fair, and the beauty mark at the corner of her eye was particularly striking.

Judging from her appearance alone, she didn't look like a prisoner trapped in the basement of a stone tower at all, but rather had the feeling of a Sleeping Beauty.

But compared to her appearance, what Roland cared more about was her robe—in this era, he had rarely seen such exquisite and complicated clothing. Due to the scarcity of dye types, the violet base color itself was extremely rare, coupled with those interlaced white stripes and runes, it was simply like a gorgeous robe that could only be seen in movies.

This must be an orange equipment.

"Is she still alive?"

"Yes," Nightingale said, "but the magic power in her body has been exhausted, a bit like the situation Anna encountered when she came of age. But unlike Anna, her magic power recovers very slowly. At this rate, it may take three or four days to reach a normal level."

"In that case, let's call her Sleeper for now," Roland nodded, "I'll clear out a room on the third floor of the castle for her to recover. Everyone else, go back to the hall first," he paused, "I want to hear the story of your trip."

...

After listening to Tilly and Nightingale's narration, Roland couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat for them.

Although Sylvie had the all-seeing map, chasing a giant evil beast that had never been seen before deep underground was still a very dangerous thing. If it were him, he would probably hesitate. Unexpectedly, Tilly was so decisive, selected suitable candidates in a short period of time, and personally led the team... It can only be said that she became the leader of many witches not only because of her identity as a princess.

"At that time, you believed that this burrowing worm was related to demons?"

"I don't know, but it's not impossible," Tilly said slowly, "Witches from the Co-prosperity Society once encountered demons riding hybrid evil beasts in the wilderness. Their flesh wings were cut off, and they obeyed the demons' commands, a bit like domesticated livestock. And behind the snow mountain, you also saw flying beasts—completely different from the demons' forms, perhaps another kind of evil beast."

"So can it be inferred that demons and evil beasts have a subordinate relationship, like humans and hounds? They can use some means to make these monsters obey their orders and drive them to complete some tricky tasks?"

"It feels...it does seem to be the case," Roland nodded, but there was always a hard to understand confusion in his heart. Evil beasts only actively attack human settlements during the Months of the Blood Moon, but that doesn't mean they can only live in the Months of the Blood Moon—the moss and weeds on the siege beasts' shells can prove that these monsters can survive for decades. If demons are unable to quickly occupy the entire wilderness due to the Red Mist, completely driving humans out of the continent, then they can constantly send evil beasts to harass the Four Kingdoms instead of waiting until winter to act.

Another point is...he couldn't forget the intelligence shown by the wolf-lion hybrid that attacked Iron Axe during the first Month of the Blood Moon—unlike "smart" animals with conditioned reflexes, it would learn, analyze, and choose action routes and targets, which is a height that the vast majority of creatures cannot reach. If long-lived hybrid evil beasts can possess intelligence, it would be impossible to be domesticated by another race.

"But I think the enemy that Nightingale xiaojie encountered outside the stone tower is more worrying than the evil beasts underground," Tilly sighed, "Being able to hide and act silently during the day is almost impossible to guard against. Unfortunately, we know too little about evil beasts and have no idea how to deal with this terrible opponent."

"If Nightingale hadn't seen it with her own eyes, I wouldn't have believed that this kind of evil beast really exists," Roland spread his hands, "But they don't seem to have ever appeared in the Western Region... Otherwise, if a few of them came every winter, Longsong Stronghold should have become a ruin long ago."

"But the longer the Months of the Blood Moon, the stronger the evil beasts, this is the conclusion of history. This time, it started snowing in the autumn, the enemies we face may be very powerful."

This "we" made Roland feel warm in his heart. Regardless of whether she regarded him as her brother, at least as an ally, she had regarded the town and herself as one—of course, this was for the sake of the witches.

"Then Nightingale can only monitor the defense line."

"No, let Sylvie guard this winter," Tilly said, "The city wall is divided into east and west sections, even taking a detour will take half a quarter of an hour. Nightingale xiaojie's workload is too large. Sylvie only needs to stay in the castle to observe the entire city wall area, and can immediately notify other witches when she discovers evil beasts."

"That's fine," Roland nodded.

"That witch..." Wendy hesitated, "I still maintain my previous opinion. Before confirming her identity, she may be our enemy."

"I know, so I will temporarily put a God's Punishment Stone on her," he exhaled, "I hope this won't cause her to misunderstand us."

...

Roland walked into the Sleeper's bedroom, only Anna was left in the room to take care of her.

"How is it?"

Anna shook her head, "Still no reaction."

"Is that so," Roland walked to the bed, the woman was lying quietly in the quilt, although her eyes were still closed, the furrow between her brows seemed to have faded a lot. Nana and Lily had both used their abilities on her, and all that could be done next was to wait quietly.

"To be frozen for so long, but without leaving any traces on her body, it's really incredible," he sighed.

"Just like I'm not afraid of fire," Anna chuckled, "Her ability must be related to this."

"I heard that you cut open the ice coffin," Roland patted her head, "Amazing, Anna."

"It's not all my reason," she said seriously, "This witch used her ability very skillfully. First, she froze all the body's cycles with extremely low-temperature ice, and then completely sealed the ice inside with ice crystals close to room temperature, so that it would not escape and melt. She must have reached a very high level of control over her abilities."

Ice close to room temperature... This sounds very illogical, but Roland understood that the abilities of Summoning witches are concrete manifestations of magic power, just like black fire that can change shape and temperature at will.

Anna paused, then continued, "As soon as I cut into the outer layer of ice crystals, the entire ice coffin immediately fell apart, as if it was a flaw she deliberately left behind. So I think she had expected this day to come."

"You mean..."

"She will definitely wake up."