Rolan opened his eyes and found himself lying on a soft, large bed. Above him was the familiar ceiling, every crack identical to how he remembered it.
This was his… bedroom?
He turned his head, looking at both shoulders—left and right, both appeared perfectly intact. He tried moving his hands, and they were fine too.
Everything felt like a dream.
But he knew this wasn't a dream. Scouting devils and being attacked were facts that had already happened! The fact that he was lying safely in his bedroom meant they had escaped the devils' pursuit and successfully returned to the castle.
However, were all the witches safe?
Thinking this, Rolan’s heart sank. He struggled to sit up, a wave of weakness washing over his arms. He was about to call for someone when he saw a row of witches leaning against the wall at the foot of the bed. There were Anna, Nightingale, Lightning, Maggie, and Nana Pine. They leaned on each other's shoulders, breathing steadily, their eyes slightly closed, as if fast asleep.
Rolan quietly pulled back a corner of the curtain and saw the morning sun rising from the Redwater River outside the window, casting golden threads across the land.
“You… woke up?”
Turning back, Anna had opened her eyes without him noticing. Rubbing her sleepy eyes, she walked step by step to Rolan's side.
“Yeah, I woke up. The other witches…”
“They all arrived safely in town. In fact, you're the only one who was injured.”
“Is that so,” Rolan breathed a sigh of relief, “That's really great—”
“Silly.”
Before he could retort, she tightly embraced him, her hands clasped so tightly behind his back that she nearly wanted to embed them into his flesh.
Anna's actions woke the other witches.
“Your Highness!”
They stood up in surprise and crowded around him. Lightning was the second to hug Rolan, followed by Nana Pine and Maggie. Nightingale hesitated for a moment before embracing everyone from behind. And so, everyone hugged each other tightly, unwilling to let go... Time seemed to freeze at this moment.
...
After breakfast, Rolan listened to a detailed account of what had happened and finally understood what had occurred afterward.
The witches worked together to defeat the devil pursuers, and Lightning and Maggie took him back ahead of time.
After he was brought back to the castle to receive Nana Pine's treatment, his severed arm quickly recovered, but because of severe blood loss, he was in a coma for a whole day, so today was already the fourth day since they had departed.
This operation was somewhat careless. He didn't expect the devils to discover the hot air balloon painted with sky camouflage from more than ten miles away. According to Sylvie, the giant multi-eyed devil had shown no abnormalities before, and its eyes were looking in all directions. However, when she focused her gaze on the multi-eyed devil, it immediately reacted and focused all its eyes on her.
This kind of scouting method was unheard of. One must know that at this distance, apart from Sylvie's Eye of Truth, even the telescope showed a blurry mess. Adding the red mist above the spire, it was even more difficult to see the specific situation of the devils. Correspondingly, it should have been difficult for them to discover him.
Having said that, although this trip encountered significant danger, the intelligence gained was equally rich.
Devils were no longer mysterious and unknowable messengers of hell—they possessed towns and organizational systems, and, like humans, belonged to a highly evolved civilization.
Moreover, their air power was not strong, at least in this area behind the snowy mountains. Hundreds of devils emerged from the ground, but only two drove mounts to pursue them, indicating that flying was still a rare ability for them—whether mounts were scarce or riders were hard to come by was currently unknown. However, in general, this was good news for Border Town. At least he didn't have to worry about a group of devils bypassing the southern hills and mountains and directly entering the hinterland of the Western Region to burn, kill, and loot.
In addition, the fact that devils possessed magic power was also an important discovery.
According to Nightingale's report, the
enemies who came after them had little magic power, but they did form a vortex that was very conspicuous in the misty state. However, the way they stimulated magic power seemed completely different from that of the witches. They didn't rely on themselves, but on some kind of mechanism—such as that luminous stone—to release power, so it wasn't as versatile as the witches' abilities, but more like a standardized weapon that could be mass-produced.
Of course, these were just speculations. Unfortunately, all the devils' corpses fell into the sea, and Rolan had no way to verify them further.
The last point was architecture.
Those short, slender black stone spires were not the devils' residences. The materials were also very peculiar, and the surface showed no traces of corrosion from the red mist. Some stone towers were empty inside, while others contained red liquid, which resembled storage tanks.
Could the red mist in the sky be formed by the gasification of these liquids?
And the reason why the devils did not further expand to the Wilderness and even the Four Kingdoms was also due to the limited coverage of the gas?
In any case, considering all the information, they would not threaten the safety of Border Town for the time being.
However, Rolan was also clear in his mind that since they drove humans out of the Wilderness more than four hundred years ago, they might sweep over again one day, and he must prepare for this day.
...
Due to excessive blood loss, Rolan went to bed early after casually dealing with the few accumulated government decrees that evening.
He sat on the head of the bed and flipped through half a history book, preparing to blow out the candle and go to sleep when there was a knock on the door outside.
He was slightly stunned, got out of bed, and opened the door. Standing at the door was Anna.
She was not carrying a thick book as usual—either *Intermediate Physics* or *Theoretical Foundations of Natural Science*. Instead, her hands were empty, and she walked into the room wearing a snow-white robe. She wasn't even wearing shoes, and her delicate feet lightly touched the floor, so quiet that there wasn't a sound.
Rolan swallowed hard.
Anna closed the door behind her and bolted it. Then she took Rolan's hand and walked to the bed.
The girl's hair had just been washed, and the tips of her drooping hair reflected a faint golden light under the candlelight. Close to her, he could smell a faint fragrance—a mesmerizing fragrance that didn't come from rose soap, but from her own body.
Her long eyelashes trembled slightly, and her cheeks were flushed. Her blue eyes were like a pool of autumn water. Although he could see that she was a little nervous, there was not the slightest hesitation, and her eyes looked directly at Rolan, filled with determination.
Even someone who had never experienced a major battle like him understood what she meant at this moment.
“Ahem, this…”
“I don’t want to wait any longer,” Anna said softly, “especially after experiencing something like this.” She paused, “I don’t want to regret it.”
.(。)