TALES OF A WITCHER - Season 9 episode 48

“I’d thought you wanted to be the King of Dawn yourself.” Nightingale twisted her lips and spoke after Andrea had departed. “Turns out you weren’t joking about making her the monarch.”

“I knew you would figure it out soon.” Roland shrugged. “As for myself…” Several explanations had run through his head, including the lack of able personnel, Andrea’s communicative abilities, as well as the constraints on time and resource. Instead, he settled for a simple line. “I’m just not capable enough.”

“Really…” Nightingale patted him on the shoulder. “I’m sure you can count on Andrea. You can’t go wrong with the Quinn family.”

“These two certainly appreciate each other a lot.” Roland began to laugh within. However, as Nightingale had been a dependant of a family in the past, her political foresight was a level below his own. He personally believed that family background was not a factor, as long as Andrea was not blindly devoted to it. He was certain that she, like most people, would gladly accept and cherish a glorious opportunity like this which did not come at much cost.

But he kept these thoughts to himself, for it was much too adorable to see Nightingale speak nonsense in the most serious of manners.

Just at this moment, someone knocked on the office door.

“Come in.”

The door creaked open, and the person standing outside turned out to be Isabella.

Roland had not expected this. The latter was not a member of the Witch Union and hence could not access the Castle District under normal circumstances. However, once he saw Agatha’s figure behind her, he understood how she was able to get through.

“Your Majesty.” The Pure Witch, formerly of the Church, bowed and quickly got to the point. “I’ve heard from Agatha that the Church of Hermes is on the brink of collapse, is that so?”

If it was not for the mildly grim look on her face, Roland might even have mistaken that she was here to plead on behalf of her former overseers.

“That’s what the intelligence says, but we’re still finding out the specific details.” Roland was puzzled as to why the Ice Witch had revealed this information to the latter, but instead of denying the matter outright, he replied as vaguely as he could. “Refugees from the Church have begun to appear in Coldwind Ridge and the western part of Kingdom of Dawn. They’ve testified that the most popular cathedral in the Holy City has collapsed overnight.”

“Your Majesty, I hope that you can send troops to Hermes as quickly as possible.”

“Why?”

“Don’t you remember what I’d mentioned? The millions of Berserk Pills there.” Isabella replied in a disgruntled voice. “There’s bound to be some people who now know where they’re stored… if word gets out, your plans will be disrupted.” She paused before continuing, “This stuff will be highly useful for the Battle of Divine Will. Best if you can collect and transport all of it back to Neverwinter.”

It was only now that Roland remembered the latter had mentioned this in the intelligence she had provided. It seemed that Zero’s plan was to unite all of Mankind in a life-and-death battle against the Army of Demons, and her trump card was indeed to be these Berserk Pills. As he was personally contemptuous of these drugs, he had almost forgotten about the matter.

However, the situation had changed greatly. Isabella was right; if someone distributed the pills, such that they fell into the hands of nobles from Graycastle, the Kingdom of Dawn, or worse, the rats of Black Street, there would be considerable trouble. Perhaps, they would still not be able to take on a fully-equipped army, but individual officials and regional governments would certainly be under threat.

“Where are the pills stored?” He glanced at Isabella.

“They’re separately stored in hidden warehouses all over the Hermes Plateau. It’s hard to explain where they are exactly.” The latter hesitated for a moment before she continued, “If Your Majesty trusts me, allow me to follow the army there. I was once the Pope’s ordained executor, and with this identity, I may be able to slow down the internal collapse. Otherwise, the army will find it difficult to stem the flow of refugees.”

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“But who’ll know if you use your identity to do other things?” Nightingale interjected. “Perhaps you’ll secretly release those believers… you have friends among them, haven’t you?”

“I wouldn’t lie to His Majesty,” Isabella refuted. “Zero has already shown up who’s the real God’s pet. I’ve no need to do such useless things. If necessary, the army can lay a trap for me to lead the believers into and kill them off. That’s another way of maintaining order, aside from making use of my identity, as I mentioned.”

“Ugh…” Nightingale rasped and spat out a mouthful. “I guess that’s something a Pure Witch would think of.”

Roland felt somewhat disconcerted. It was not often that Nightingale would be at a loss for words, which was a sign that the latter was being serious about her suggestion. Though she had committed her full allegiance to him the other day, this was done on the basis of fighting the demons. Unlike most other witches, she had been educated and trained as a Pure Witch, which meant she had long been taught that the lives of normal people were unimportant as long as she could accomplish her objectives.

After pondering for a short while, Roland slowly opened his mouth and spoke. “I’ll allow you to travel with the First Army, but you shan’t intervene in any battle. All you have to do is to find the pills and destroy them on the spot.”

“Your Majesty.” Her brows visibly furrowed. “These drugs may overwork the body, but when it comes to a life-and-death battle…”

“Say no more.” Roland cut her short. “And speaking of maintaining order, I’ve another task for you.”

Isabella immediately lowered her head and responded, “As Your Majesty commands.”

“There should still be a few cloisters left in the old Holy City, right?”

“Yes, but there are no witches left.” After some contemplation, she amended her words. “Perhaps a few Awakened Witches may have appeared during the last Months of Demons, but there’s only a slim chance that they’re still alive.”

“That doesn’t matter. Free the orphans, take care of them, and bring them back to Western Region.”

Isabella was taken aback. “All of them?”

“Yes. You shall be in charge.” Roland nodded.

Supposing that Pure Witches truly disregarded the lives of others in order to complete their missions, Roland wanted to see what Isabella would do when her task was to save lives. Though he might not be able to change what she had done in the past, he hoped that she would be able to rectify her ways.

“This task has its purpose, which I must thank you very much for reminding me about. That is, if the upper hierarchy loses the ability to maintain order, the cloisters are likely to turn into living hells. Right now, Neverwinter requires a large amount of labor, and there’ll also be jobs for women. I’d heard that the church had started basic education for the orphans, no? I’m sure they’re all of excellent potential, and shouldn’t be left to starve to death behind those high walls. I want you to bring all of them here without exception.”

Isabella remained silent for a long while before she noted, “That’ll require a lot of food.”

“I’ll have people to prepare all the food that’s required.”

An intricate expression appeared in her eyes. Roland had seen it before on the day she was pardoned, her chains were removed, and she was granted “limited freedom” status.

If her thoughts could be heard, they would certainly comprise of a loud “Why?”.

She slowly bent her waist and bowed.

“As Your Majesty commands.”