TALES OF A WITCHER - Season 8 Episode 52

“Lily, Lily, have you heard?” Mystery Moon rushed into the bedroom and leaned over to put her face close to Lily’s. “Something happened in the school district!”

“Stand away. You’re blocking my light.” Lily pushed Mystery Moon’s face away and continued to adjust the focal length of her microscope, but she sighed inwardly, thinking that her duplicate test today was going to be chucked out again.

“It’s said that there was an explosion as well as a big fire. Who do you think was responsible for that? The church or the demons?”

“The church has been defeated by His Majesty, and the demons are thousands of kilometers away from us!” Lily glanced up at her impatiently. “I suppose it was some idiots who stole the waste of the chemical lab and brought it into the classroom.”

Similar things happened before. Such as the accident two weeks ago, when a researcher had brought the failed gun cotton back to his home and wanted to use it as a kindling for his stove. As a result, it was ignited by his child accidentally and nearly burned the house to the ground. Hearing about this accident, His Majesty blew up, scolding the person responsible in a voice so loud that it echoed throughout the whole castle.

After that, the regulations in the chemical lab were strengthened a lot. Lily had seen the new rules from Scroll. It turned from a thin piece of parchment into a book that was as thick as adult’s forefinger.

“But this time there’s an explosion. How can you be so indifferent to what happens in Neverwinter? This is our home!” Mystery Moon said eloquently.

“Stop bluffing. You are just too curious to wait for the answer!”

Lily was a little angry. “That’s why we should leave it to some more professional people. By the way, what I’m doing is also for the development of Neverwinter!” She paused. “Yet, all you’ve been doing is interfering with my experiment and idling about all the time!”

“Oh?” Mystery Moon revealed a strange smile. “Then what have you achieved so far?”

“Er…” Lily suddenly felt short of breath.

“None, right? You’ve been staring at that microscope for more than a year and yet you’ve done nothing helpful for His Majesty, while my electromagnetic power has brought light to His Majesty so that the people could even continue their work at night,” Mystery Moon said, having her nose high in the air. “Oh… but I, as always, don’t dislike you, my old friend. To find out the truth of the problem, is also to do His Majesty a favor.”

“Please dislike me,” Lily replied spitefully.

She still did not know why she still was still failing to transform the parent population into some specific types of tiny worms. She had already managed to control the shape of parent worms and make them as accurate as possible to the goal worm she wanted the parent worm to assimilate, but she still failed.

The young girl faintly felt there must be something missing between them, but she could not find any particular clues. So, other than healing some cold plagues, she had spent most of her time at the microscope after her ability had evolved. The fact that she could neither promote productivity in Neverwinter like Anna and Soraya nor bring joy to everyone like Evelyn still rankled in her mind.

Lily did enjoy observing the complex world that could not be seen with naked eyes, but… she also did not want to be a freeloader and contribute nothing to His Majesty, though she would never admit it verbally.

Thinking that even the fool, Mystery Moon had surpassed her in achievements, she felt so unpleasant that her heart wrenched.

“No, I won’t. I’m sorry… Just take it as keeping my company, Okay?” Seeing that pushing Lily did not work out, Mystery Moon immediately changed her strategy. She recovered her beseeching face and held one of Lily’s arms, crying. “It’s not harmful to go out and take a walk. You’ll be suffocated staying indoors all day!”

Lily found it was hard to turn her down when Mystery Moon acted like that.

She impatiently drew her arm out of Mystery Moon’s holding and looked at her, sighing. “I know, but don’t make trouble for His Majesty and Sister Nightingale.”

“I promise!”

How did she not notice that Mystery Moon would become so clingy after they got familiar with each other?

If she had known it earlier, she would insist on being paired up as roommates with Leaf or Scroll.

“So… are we going there now?” Lily asked.

“Hang on for a while. Some sisters also want to find out the truth. I’ll go and get all of them.” As Mystery Moon said, she rushed out of the room, and after 15 minutes or so, she came back with several witches. “Now everyone’s here. Let’s go!” Mystery Moon announced.

Lily gaped at the five witches behind Mystery Moon. “You’re going to take so many people there?”

“We also want to be of some help!” Amy raised her hand and replied. She, who bonded fast with others, looked even more sprightly than Mystery Moon.

“If His Majesty permits…” Margie, who was a little timid, expressed her idea.

“And, I…” Vanilla tried to say something. “No need to be curious about why she is here, for she must be forced by Mystery Moon,” Lily said in her heart.

“The thing Mystery Moon said is very interesting. I’ll go with you.” Evelyn gave her reason. “Oh, God, even Evelyn is here… Doesn’t she have to make wine today?” Lily could not help thinking.

“I suppose I’ll just do it in the same way as last time, when we read the test papers in secret. I won’t do my power with someone else staring at me.” Summer said at last. She looked rather nervous, but more itching than last time.

“Doomed, these guys are all enchanted by Mystery Moon. But she came to you guys for nothing more than more shoulders to carry the responsibility in case of being blamed by His Majesty.”

But Lily felt relieved to see Summer here, for she knew that if Nightingale or the Ministry of Justice did not take Summer with them to the scene, it meant that the accident in the school was not grave, which, as she had surmised, was witnessed by many people and did not cause any dire consequences.

At last, Lily decided to leave it at that and accompany them to hang around.

…

Margie summoned the Magic Ark to carry the party to the school district. Through the ark roof, Lily could clearly see things on the ground, which was a fantastic experience for her. Traveling under the ground gave her a feeling of swimming in the seawater, as if when she looked up, she could see the pure blue, rippling sea surface.

A police cordon had been pulled up around the school and black-uniformed policemen were guarding each crossing. But this symbolic closure meant nothing compared to the Magic Ark, the party passed through the street and the walls and they entered the school.

It was originally a mansion belonging to an aristocrat of Stronghold. After being further expanded by His Majesty, it became the elementary institution of Neverwinter today. However, rather than the houses in the residential district that were made of red brick and cement, most of the rooms here were still made of wood. At this moment, the flame had long been extinguished. Judging from the burned outer wall, they located the place that caught fire on the second floor of the main teaching building, where some wallcoverings had fallen off and the ground was scattered with a pile of glass debris that was probably caused by the explosion.

The party waited for a moment under the ground, making sure that no one walked in the school and that the whole building was empty before letting Margie control the Magic Ark to surface from the ground near the school building.