Witch Cooperation Association 1

"She is really taking her time" Roland muttered when he was done practicing and started having a bad feeling.

'Even the witch that was guarding the entrance went inside as if something big had happened. At first, I thought it was Nightingale having some speech but this is taking too long...' Roland decided to approach the cave entrance while using the camouflage of his magic. He was even using his magic on his feet, making almost no footsteps.

When he infiltrated the cave, he immediately saw Nightingale tied up to the stake with God's Locket of Retribution hanging on her neck.

'What the fuck? What are they doing?!' Roland thought and listened to Nightingale exchange words with the witch in front of her whose looks Roland would describe in one word "medusa"

Roland learned a bit about Nightingale's past but he didn't really care about that at the moment.

"Admit that you have been bewitched by the aristocracy and I can spare your life, but the whipping is unavoidable! After all, this will be your lesson for cooperating with the enemy. But if you will still be stubborn, I will have to use this iron skewer to pierce your heart, nailing your body at the stake, so that everyone can learn from your wrongdoings." The "medusa" said but weirdly, all witches just kept watching even if they wore disapproving expressions, they didn't say anything.

'It seems like all sides have fanatics within' Hearing her words, Roland's expression darkened and he was getting ready to interrupt if needed.

"I have nothing to admit. Airy and Abby will have their day of adulthood shortly and they can be saved from needless suffering! That torture is nothing sort of a test!" Nightingale faced the "medusa" with a brave face.

One witch stepped forward and plead for Nightingale's life and soon more joined her however this was completely ignored by medusa who finally raised the iron skewer.

*BANG* The loud bang resounded in the cave, scaring everyone inside and medusa's skewer was knocked off her hand.

When everyone recovered from the loud sound, they looked towards the source and saw Roland walking out of his cover.

"..." None of the witches knew what to do as they were too shocked to see a lonely man in the mountains, not to mention inside the cave full of witches.

"Who are you?!" Their leader who was rubbing her hand in pain shouted at Roland with visible hatred in her eyes.

'No...no, no, no, go back! Why?!' Nightingale just looked down and didn't even dare to look towards the source of the loud sound.

"I apologize for the late introduction, I am Fourth Prince of the Kingdom of Graycastle, Roland Wimbledon. It is certainly not a pleasure to meet you, leader of the Witch Cooperation Association."

Upon hearing his introduction, everyone looked towards Nightingale with shocked faces.

"Was Nightingale telling the truth?"

"Is he here for Nightingale? Maybe it's the truth that he cares for the witches?"

"What if he really can stop the demonic torture?"

"Quiet! Nightingale, are you still going to deny the fact that you have sided with the enemy?! You have sold out our hiding place!" Their leader immediately stopped them from whispering.

"And who says that I am your enemy. I could have shot you instead of that iron skewer, did you see how far it flew from your hand? That kind of impact would be enough to make a hole through your entire body. I didn't come here to kill and make enemies with witches. To be honest, after hearing your filthy words directed at Nightingale, I am keeping myself from making a hole in your head. But I am pretty sure she wouldn't appreciate it if I started fighting with her sisters, that's the only reason why no one was injured yet." Roland said with narrowed eyes while pointing a silver revolver at the leader.

Until now, no one really cared about the previous source of that loud bang but now that they saw what he was holding, they started wondering what it was.

"Can you really get rid of the pain during the demonic torture?!" One witch asked while holding the hand of another witch that resembled her a lot.

'Are those...tears?! Veronica...' Wendy noticed that Nightingale was relatively quiet ever since Roland made his appearance and she was shocked to see a few tears falling from her face on the ground.

"I can! And you don't have to go anywhere from here, I can tell you the method in exchange for Nightingale's safety. We don't have to be enemies...isn't the fact that I came here alone willing to share this information personally enough to show my sincerity?!" Roland shouted at the group of witches and his words certainly had a great effect.

"Stop listening to his lies! He was just seduced by Nightingale who wants to rise in the ranks once again!" Their leader shouted and to prevent Roland from swaying the witches to his side anymore, a black snake materialized in front of him, trying to bite him.

"Don't, Cara!" Nightingale finally decided to react somehow and shouted.

"Hmph!" With a swift movement of his hand, Roland's dagger coated in his magic cleanly cut the snake's head.

"What?!" Cara exclaimed since she knew how fast her snakes were and didn't expect a prince to react so swiftly.

'Did she mean this when Veronica said that he is nothing like other nobles...instead he resembles her? Both his stance and movements resemble that of assassins, however, why would the Fourth prince be groomed into an assassin?' Wendy thought that this was going out of hand so she tried to convince others to stop Cara.

Cara gritted her teeth and sent 5 snakes at the same time to capture Roland. This time Roland decided to evade them, killing only 1 in the process. While he was evading them, he shot them all with his revolver before quickly reloading.

He suddenly saw Cara coldly smiling and felt something trying to break through his armor made of magic at the ankle's location. He quickly grabbed the snake and tore its body in half in his hands while looking straight at Cara which made her smile completely disappear.

"Sisters, capture him!"

"Stop this already!" Wendy shouted.

"What is the meaning of this Wendy?!"

"Haven't you seen his weapon? It's so powerful that it could kill you before you would even summon any of your snakes yet he only used it in self-defense!" Wendy pointed out the fact everyone seemed to have forgotten about.

"I also think it's wise to listen to what he has to say. Talking won't harm us, plus he is here to rescue Nightingale. Who in the world would try to rescue a witch from a cave full of witches? He also most likely doesn't have any God's Stone of Retaliation on him." Another witch stepped forward.

"Scroll, you too?! He was just seduced by her, why else would he venture here so fearlessly?!" Cara said.

"I didn't seduce anyone!" Nightingale shouted back, feeling insulted.

"Then it was the other way around and you showed him our hiding place, does it really matter?"

"He wasn't seduced, neither was Nightingale...Can you please tell us the method? Airy and Abby will be having their day of adulthood in a few days!" Wendy said firmly before approaching Roland. She lightly bowed to him and pointed towards the twins.

"...I can, that's why I came here in the first place. I hope you can release Nightingale afterward, if not...I wish to not even talk about it." Roland nodded his head before warning Wendy with cold steel eyes that have clearly seen a lot of awful things despite being so young.

'Exactly as Veronica said...he seems kind enough to risk his life to rescue her yet when facing a potential enemy, he doesn't even try to hide his ruthless aura...Now I understand what Veronica meant before. I can see him being irreplaceable as an ally but as an enemy...' Wendy gulped down before nodding her head and the twins went to help free Nightingale.

Cara didn't like this a bit but all the witches here were interested in what Roland had to say and they also couldn't deny their curiosity in him. He was a prince yet he came here to rescue a witch despite the dangers, it sounded like a fairy tale yet it still happened. Since Wendy took lead here, she could no longer do anything aside from forcing the matter which could backfire at her.

"It's actually very easy, they just have to keep on using their magic power every day and right before the day of adulthood, they have to exhaust all of their magic. This way should prevent any pain and at most, it will hurt a little but the survival rate should be 100%" Roland explained in more detail what happened to Anna. He also believed that comfort and mood had some roles in demonic torture.

"That's just nonsense!" Cara immediately denied it.

'She really is a fanatic'