After the lights in the backyard were extinguished, Roland met the witch who had reported in his office.
She looked young, no more than sixteen or seventeen years old, with slender limbs and a thin frame, showing obvious signs of malnutrition. Although she had been cleaned and tidied up, her light brown short hair was still as dry and yellow as straw. But the most striking thing was the black cloth blindfold on her face, which, even though it had been replaced with a newly made one, still seemed out of place with her young features.
"Your Majesty, this is Momo," Wendy said.
This seemed to startle her, and the girl hurriedly knelt down, trying to lower her head as much as possible, "Gree-Greetings, Ki-King Your Majesty—"
"Help her up," Roland said, putting down the drawing in his hand, replying in a gentle tone, "There's no need to be nervous. This isn't a formal occasion, so there's no need to be so cautious. The reason I asked you here is simple: I want you to use your ability on me."
Momo, who had just stood up again, immediately showed a look of panic, "Your Majesty... This... I'm afraid..."
"I know that not everyone is satisfied with their lifespan, and some may even take their anger out on others after receiving an undesirable answer," Roland comforted, "But I just want to know the result, whatever it may be, and I won't blame you for it. I can guarantee that."
According to custom, this kind of thing should be done after Wendy had completed her ability test, but the other party's ability was too special, making him unable to suppress the curiosity in his heart – in fact, he had always had a guess about Jie Luo's Soul Battlefield, but he had never been able to confirm it.
And now, he had finally waited for a chance to verify it.
"Your Majesty..." Momo gritted her teeth, "Aren't... Aren't you afraid at all?"
Roland knew that if it were the him from before, he would never have taken the initiative to ask such a question. Ignorant men are the architects of their own misery. Knowing how long one has to live is undoubtedly adding trouble. But the longer he sits on the throne, the more he feels his responsibility is great. The mentality of an ordinary person is obviously no longer suitable for the current situation. If the other party's description is correct, predicting age itself is an extremely valuable piece of information, enough to be called "leaking secrets" in another world. It would be a pity to treat it as just a heavy burden.
But even if he said these thoughts, the other party would not understand, so Roland just smiled, "Even if I'm afraid, it won't cease to exist."
Momo clenched her fists and nodded after a long while, "Since you insist... Please forgive me for being rude."
"Your Majesty," Wendy took a deep breath, "Please allow me to take my leave first."
Roland stared at her for a moment, "... I thought you and Scroll were the ones who wanted to know the most."
"I can't be as calm as you, but like Scroll said, whatever the result, we will support you to the end."
After the door closed, Roland turned his head, "What about you?"
Momo was stunned.
"Is that even a question?" Nightingale then appeared behind him, startling the girl, "I want to know everything about you, whether it's good or bad."
They really are two people with very different personalities... Roland chuckled inwardly, "Then let's begin."
Momo looked back and forth between Nightingale and him with suspicion several times, and finally took off her blindfold as if she had made up her mind.
When she looked up again, a ball of red light appeared in her empty eye sockets.
It looked like an eyeball made of magic power, and it looked particularly strange against the deep scars. Roland could imagine what it would look like when it overlapped with an eye - if it were in later generations, this special pupil would definitely be sought after by a large number of people, but in this era, it would not be uncommon to be regarded as the eye of a demon.
"Well, can you see anything?"
Momo looked at Roland, then suddenly widened her eyes, the red light constantly jumping, as if being moved by an invisible wind. In less than a few seconds, the light quietly went out, and she took two steps back, collapsing powerlessly to the ground.
Roland noticed that beads of sweat had appeared on her face.
"What's wrong?" He stood up.
Nightingale took the lead and flashed to Momo's side, reaching out to support her,
"This is... the aftermath of excessive magic power consumption."
"Can this ability only see one person at a time?"
"No... I've never seen such a scene before," Momo gasped, "It's like there are many strings of numbers flashing, they appear and disappear constantly, and the colors are completely different... Until finally, that set of numbers was fixed."
"What is it?" Roland asked.
Momo swallowed and replied with difficulty, "Seventeen... Red."
"How could it be!" Nightingale was greatly surprised.
Roland felt a slight pause in his heart - as expected, his guess was correct, the Soul Battlefield can indeed allow the winner to obtain everything, but the premise is that the winner must have magic power. Whether it is lifespan or ability, it must ultimately be realized through magic power - it gives the transcendents a powerful physique, and also allows those large hybrid demons to have the power to support their bodies. Without magic power, nothing can be talked about.
But then again, seventeen years is shorter than he imagined. Although he knew that the Fourth Prince's physique was not very good, he did not expect it to be so bad. Could it be that he spent too much time on debauchery in his early years, so he emptied his body?
"Do you want... me to take another look?" Momo struggled to stand up.
"No need, that's all for today," Roland waved his hand, "Excessive consumption of magic power will make you faint, and besides, before figuring out the details of the ability, there's no point in seeing more."
"But Your Majesty—"
"I said, I just want to know a result, you don't need to have any psychological burden," he stopped her, "Go back and rest well. From tomorrow, Wendy will take you to conduct ability tests and learn how to control magic power. If you want to see again, it won't be too late then. Also, please keep this a secret for me, okay?"
Momo looked at him in surprise for a moment, then nodded vigorously as if waking up from a dream.
After sending the girl to Wendy, Nightingale returned to the office and walked step by step to Roland, who was standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.
"Do you regret knowing?" He turned his head.
"What are you talking about?" Nightingale said unhappily, "I never regret my decisions. It's you, what are you going to do with seventeen years?"
"It's always better to know sooner than later, and it's not certain whether this is the final result," looking at the scattered lights outside the window, Roland found his mood to be calmer than expected, "Not to mention that the Taqila's soul container can retain consciousness. When we figure out magic power in the future, it may not be difficult to create another body."
"The premise is that the 'future' really exists," Nightingale frowned.
"That's right, so the first thing to do is to win the Battle of Divine Will within this time," Roland said word by word.
Now there is no room for luck.