Ermu

Chapter 407: Questioning

"Could it be... she didn't go to Sleeping Island with you?" The prince quickly realized the meaning behind her words.

"That's right," Fifth Princess said with a helpless shake of her head. "Her name is Sperl. Pasi, and her ability is Magic Channel. She can connect the magic power of several witches. In other words, while it's in effect, the witches connected to the channel can temporarily borrow the magic power of others, which should meet your requirements." She paused. "She lives in Dragonfall Ridge."

"Since you know so much about it, you must have been in contact with this witch," Roland asked, puzzled. "Why would she rather risk being captured by the church and continue to stay there?"

Tilly was silent for a moment before answering, "...Because she is both a Marchioness and the lord of Dragonfall Ridge."

"A lord?" He was stunned. "A witch?"

"That's right. Her father, old Pasi, the previous lord, passed his title and territory to her instead of his second or third son. Because of her high status, Sperl is able to hide her identity well, and her life is much better than that of ordinary witches." Tilly said slowly, "During the Great Migration, she took the initiative to offer help, which is how I was able to gather the witches in the south-central towns of the kingdom so quickly."

"Took the initiative to offer help"... Roland immediately noticed something unusual. "Wait... she doesn't intend to take in her fellow witches?"

"No," Tilly shook her head. "Not only that, but she also hopes that these witches will leave her territory as soon as possible to avoid being harmed by the church. For Sperl, the position of lord is clearly much more important."

If the church discovers that the lord is sheltering witches, this position would undoubtedly become precarious—after all, Dragonfall Ridge is not as desolate as a border town. The local area has churches and resident priests, and the scope of believers is much larger than in the Western Region. Although Roland understood this, he was still surprised by her choice: "If the local witches are caught, does she..."

"I once asked her this question," Tilly said regretfully. "Sperl. Pasi told me bluntly that if they are caught by the common people, she will try to replace the witches with other death row inmates in the prison and then smuggle them out of the country; but if they are caught by the Judgment Army, or if the church conducts the trial, she will basically choose to sit idly by."

"..." So, in order to solve the witch problem, she took the initiative to contact the Fifth Princess—that was probably why the latter ultimately didn't consider settling in Dragonfall Ridge, but instead risked crossing the strait to the unfamiliar Fjord Lands. Thinking of this, Roland couldn't help but frown. "Do you think I can persuade her to come to Border Town?"

"There's not much hope, but you can try," Tilly spread her hands. "I'm just telling you that there is such a witch, but I don't guarantee that she will come."

Roland sighed, "I'll send an envoy to talk to her first."

And the most suitable candidate for this envoy was undoubtedly Nightingale... able to avoid the eyes of the crowd, sneaking into the castle like a ghost, and able to distinguish lies. As long as she showed that she had no hostility, the other party probably wouldn't take any drastic action.

It would take five or six days to travel from Border Town to Dragonfall Ridge by boat. If it were changed to Maggie's airlift, it would only take half a day to reach the destination. With Lightning, who is faster, as a reflection, this trip would not be too dangerous—the three of them were originally the most mobile combination in the Witch Union, and now with qiangzhi, they are even more comprehensive in both offense and defense.

After thinking for a while, Roland had an idea in his mind.

Although the success rate of persuading the Marchioness on this trip was close to zero, it was also an action to be implemented sooner or later to investigate the situation of her territory in advance. As a thoroughfare to the southernmost border, Dragonfall Ridge happened to be within his spring offensive plan.

"I heard that another witch in the castle has evolved?" Tilly suddenly changed the subject.

"Ah, you mean Mystery Moon? She has indeed condensed magic power," Roland nodded and roughly described the process of her evolution. "However, using the ancient witch's method to promote evolution is not ideal for the improvement of magic power. If you want to be like Anna, you still have to honestly study basic knowledge."

"But this is also a way to improve ability," Tilly said with interest. "And in what you just mentioned, there is one point that I am very concerned about: 'Ability is the specific manifestation of magic power, rather than a naturally existing phenomenon'. How should this sentence be understood?"

"This is also my personal speculation," he picked up his cup and took a sip of hot tea. "Whether it's Anna's Heart Fire or Blackfire, it's impossible to find corresponding examples in nature. It's not difficult to understand that they are manifestations of magic power, so what about ordinary flames before evolution? So I assume that from the beginning, they were all composed of magic power, a reflection of 'heat' in the brain. As cognition gradually deepens, the image of heat is also constantly changing—this happens to correspond to Agatha's experience: Many witches have similar abilities before evolution, because most of what they see is the same natural phenomenon. But after high-level awakening, the witches' abilities will become completely different, which is precisely because of the huge differences in each person's cognition."

"That sounds reasonable," Tilly said noncommittally. "But according to this statement, if similar witches have a consistent understanding of things, their new abilities will still be very close when they evolve, right?"

"That's pretty much it, provided that their understanding is exactly the same."

Roland had another idea that he didn't say, that is, how far can magic power evolve? Since it constitutes the basis of various abilities, it fully shows that it has underlying and versatile properties. If there is an omniscient and omnipotent witch, can she use all abilities at will?

"You... are you from a world without magic power?" Tilly asked abruptly.

"Pfft—" The prince almost spat out all the tea in his mouth. He wiped the corner of his mouth, "W-what are you talking about?"

"In this month, I have read all the books you have written, and I always feel that something is wrong," Fifth Princess stared into his eyes. "It wasn't until you said those words just now that I finally understood what the problem was. You completely excluded magic power from nature... Neither 'Basic Theories of Natural Science' nor 'Elementary Physics' mentioned magic power at all. You said that the effects manifested by magic power are phenomena that do not exist in the natural world, but... magic power itself is a part of nature."

Roland was immediately stunned.

He suddenly realized that he had completely forgotten that the other party lived in a world where magic power naturally existed—not only Tilly. Wimbledon, but also the Fourth Prince before his death, and he had placed magic power on the opposite side of natural phenomena, and taken it for granted.

Blame this loophole on the suddenly extra memories? It would probably be difficult to get away with it this time. If the Fourth Prince himself had shallow knowledge, and copied down these books according to the contents of his memory, it could be said that it was okay, but why did even his words and thoughts deeply believe in this part of his memory, and subconsciously separate magic power? Can he still confidently say that this is the Fourth Prince's dominant memory?

Roland felt a little parched.

.(。)