“Is it really okay to do this?” Wendy pointed to the ordinary people on the dock and lowered her voice. “I mean, hiring people to line up to welcome them instead of sincerely greeting the witches of Sleeping Island… They might feel uncomfortable if they find out, right?”
“Then can you find a group of residents who would voluntarily welcome the witches?” Scroll replied in a low voice as well.
“...No.” Wendy hesitated and finally shook her head. In fact, it was difficult to find even one or two, let alone a group. Admittedly, under Roland's rule, the people of Neverwinter had greatly improved their acceptance of witches, and some witches were even given special attention and love. However, the migrants from Sleeping Island were no different from strangers to them. It was almost impossible to get the people to put down their work and proactively welcome a group of people they had never met.
Currently, besides His Majesty Roland, only the First Army, whose relatives were involved, could make the Western Region people do this.
“So His Majesty’s arrangement is perfectly fine,” Scroll shrugged. “Big red flowers, welcome banners, family welcome teams—these expenses are all pre-calculated in the activity budget. Don’t you want other departments to take them away? If it were according to His Majesty's original plan, the scale would have been much larger.”
“Uh, that’s true…” Wendy touched her forehead, which didn’t have any sweat on it. Ever since she learned from Princess Tilly that the witches of Sleeping Island were about to set off, His Majesty had been excited for many days. Besides what Scroll said, things like honor guards, song and dance troupes, and fireworks displays… numerous impressive welcome projects were listed in his memo. If the intelligence from Hill. Fawks hadn't brought forward the expedition plan, His Majesty's personally presided over welcome ceremony would definitely have been spectacular.
“So, recruiting with money is the most suitable approach,” Scroll smiled. “Ordinary people don’t even get a turn. Those who come are all outstanding families with good records at the City Hall. You can rest assured.” She paused slightly. “The witches are here. Go meet them, my Alliance Director.”
“Scroll!” Wendy scolded the other party, then nodded to Princess Tilly on the side and walked towards the guests who had come from afar.
“Hello!” As the two groups met, she opened her arms and said with the gentlest voice, “I am Wendy, the head of the Witch Alliance. Welcome to Neverwinter!”
……
According to the agreement, the witches of Sleeping Island were only considered Western Region citizens and were not under the Alliance's management. Therefore, Wendy planned to take them to the residential area first for a simple headcount so that the City Hall could allocate food. As for the subsequent tour arrangements and work plans, she intended to discuss and decide with Tilly after everyone had settled down.
The residential area specially built for Sleeping Island was completed two months ago. The name followed the Bounty Syndicate and was called Sleeping Spell, which was located right next to the Trace Building.
Seeing this “magnificent building” that had risen from the ground to six floors, the witch team let out a series of exclamations.
In particular, the unique smoothness of the concrete building surface made it easy to feel its extraordinary nature.
“Are those really stones? Why do they look so flat?”
“Are we going to live in here?”
“Don't even think about it. This looks like the lord's castle.”
“If we could live on the top floor, the scenery would be beautiful.”
Seeing everyone full of curiosity, Wendy took the opportunity to introduce, “This building is only half-built now. When it's fully completed, it will eventually reach fifty-five meters—which is also sixteen zhang and five chi in height. However, His Majesty Roland doesn’t live here. His castle, although only three floors, is located in the heart of Neverwinter.”
“So high…aren't you afraid of collapsing?” Someone asked in surprise.
“His Majesty invented a special building material that can turn flowing mucus into solid stone. This is just an exploration. He once said that even houses as tall as mountains can be built with this material,” Wendy smiled. “Of course, it also requires the help of witches to do this—in fact, this building was built jointly by witches and many workers. Am I right, Lotus?”
“Eh, did you really do this?”
“But isn’t your ability to raise and lower the land?”
The witches all looked at Lotus in the team.
The latter touched her head embarrassedly. “I just helped those workers build earthen slopes—when they need to build a new floor, I raise the surrounding land to create a platform attached to the building to facilitate their work.”
“Then…will anyone show hatred or…disgust because you are a witch?” Sure enough, someone asked the key question.
“I haven’t encountered it yet. I think they should already regard me as an ordinary person,” Lotus waved her hand. “Sometimes, if I go early, those workers will even share pancakes with me.”
This was exactly the effect Wendy wanted. “Many of you may still be coming here with a defensive and wary attitude. This is normal. After all, Neverwinter is a strange city to you, and the experiences of witches on this continent in the past century can be described as unbearable. But I can guarantee that everyone will find a home-like feeling here, just like the name His Majesty gave to this city. Even if you don’t join the Witch Alliance, you can come to me for any difficulties in life—no matter how big or small.”
“Well done,” Scroll quietly gave her a thumbs up.
……
However, Wendy didn’t expect the first trouble to appear when arranging everyone to register their names, backgrounds, and abilities.
“Why do we have to record this?” After handing out the forms, a red-haired witch protested. “Didn’t you say that you wouldn’t force us to stay? I only plan to stay here for two days and leave, so forget about this.”
“Me too. Princess Tilly said that Neverwinter doesn’t restrict the coming and going of witches. I want to go back to the Eastern Region and take a look.”
“Now that the church is gone, there’s no need for everyone to leak this information. If it’s seen by someone with malicious intentions, it will be too detrimental to us.”
Several witches in the group actually raised objections.
“I know… it’s Archima and her group again.” Ashes frowned.
“Archima?” Wendy was stunned.
“A witch group from the Eastern Region. Sorry, they don’t quite agree with my leadership,” Tilly explained in a low voice. “But compared to Bloodfang Association, their nature isn’t bad.” Then she looked at the red-haired witch. “I can understand your desire to go back and take a look, but now is not a good time. Although the church has been destroyed, the public’s hostility towards witches still exists in most places, not to mention those nobles—especially in the Eastern Region. Before Roland formally recovers that area, the situation of witches has not changed significantly compared to the past.”
“How do you know if you haven’t been there?” Archima persisted. “Or are you just blindly helping your own brother?”
“Watch your attitude,” Ashes’s voice turned cold.
“What, do you want to make a move here? Like what you did to Hedy and Tianyan?”
Wendy bit her lip. She didn’t expect things to become so thorny, but she couldn’t think of a way to appease both sides for a moment.
At this moment, Scroll stood out.
“Can I ask a few questions?”
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