Chapter 52 (1/2)

Chapter 52 Heart of Fire

Roland knocked on the door, and when he heard Nightingale’s response he entered the room.

The windows in the room were closed and had thick curtains. They were only open during the early morning and evening to let in fresh air. At any other time the windows were closed to keep the room warm.

The only light in the room came from two candles at the end of the bed. The candles burned quietly and threw out many crisscrossing shadows throughout the room.

Roland went towards the bed. Seeing that the woman resting on the soft pillows and bedding still had her eyes closed, he sighed softly.

“Is Border Town’s defense still holding?” asked Nightingale while coming over to Roland and handing him a cup of tea.

“At the moment everything is going smoothly,” answered Roland while taking a small sip, but then he gave her the cup back, “From that day on, a big group of demonic beasts like last time hasn’t attacked us. Also, all of our injured members of the militia are now healed and back, ready to fight. Their fighting passion has become … somewhat high.”

“What is with the damaged part of the city wall?”

“Karl rolled logs under the carapace of the mixed beast to move it towards the hole in the wall. There, he will use a capstan to get it up and use a wooden frame to hold it upright, making it a part of the city wall,” Roland knew that Nightingale was trying to distract him by questioning him, so that he wouldn’t worry himself too much. However, when he stepped into the room, all his attention would always stay on the woman who was lying in bed.

If we say that the last time we confronted the large scale invasion we obtained a victory worthy of pride, there is no doubt that the biggest contributor for the victory was Anna. If she hadn’t used her wall of flames to block the gap in the wall, the consequences would really have been unthinkable.

However, she hadn’t woken up since she fainted in his arms.

“It has already been one week,” whispered Roland.

Theoretically, if a person laid in a coma for one week without food or water, with no possibility of supplying her with nutrition through external measures ,such as injection, the body’s functions will shut down and the brain will gradually go into shock and die. However, Anna did not have any signs of poor health – in fact her appearance now was better than when she fell into Roland’s arms. Her cheeks were rosy, her breathing was smooth, and when Roland put his hand on her forehead he could feel that she had a normal temperature. Everything showed that Anna was at full health, but … she wouldn’t wake up.

“This is also the first time I have encountered such a situation,” Nightingale stood at Roland’s side, shaking her head while explaining, “She depleted all her magic within her body, but now her magic power s already at the point of saturation, even more rich than it has been in the past. If I did not calculate it wrong, today at midnight will be her day of adulthood.”

“Do you mean she’s going to be an adult while in a coma?”

“No, she will die while in a coma,” Nightingale said bluntly, “You must use your will to overcome the suffering on your day of adulthood. If your resistance is broken, the bite of the witch’s magic power will irreversibly destroy her body.”

Roland moved a chair next to the bed and sat down, “I remember that you once said that when facing magic backslash, no matter how painful it becomes, you will always stay conscious and clear-headed. Either you will be able to cross this hurdle or you will choose to terminate your life.”

“Indeed, it is exactly like this. Within the Witch Cooperation Association we also had someone who believed to draw support from being unconscious when passing through the bite of the evil spirit … only having to bear the torment once a year,” Nightingale hesitated but then continued, “she said that she relied on alchemic substances to sleep, but in the end it was meaningless … when the moment came she was immediately devoured by the magic without any chance to resist.”

“The pain does not slowly increase?”

“No. When your time arrives, the pain will strike you just like lightning, but how long you have to resist varies from person to person. My sister was not strong enough, but …” she trailed off.

Roland understood what she meant, not knowing how long they had to suffer the pain was already a kind of torture in itself, not knowing how long they have to resist – it was similar to being on an abandoned ship in the middle of a heavy storm. It would be easy to let people give up the desire to live on.

During the moment of silence, Roland felt a hand on his shoulder.

“During my homeless and miserable years, I had seen too much death. I saw witches being treated like cattle, hanged, burned, or tortured to death just for the entertainment of the nobility. The only way for a witch to survive was to live far away from other humans, living a cloistered life. I do not know where the Holy Mountain is located, but in our hearts it is an unattainable paradise.” Nightingale’s voice became softer than it had ever been in the past. “but Anna is different. In addition to the help we sisters can give her, I have never seen someone else being so concerned about a witch as you. She is needed by people, she is valued and treated like a normal person … Your Highness, Anna has not even made it through her adulthood yet, but she has already found her Holy Mountain.”

However, this was not the outcome Roland had hoped for. He closed his eyes, and recalled the scene when he had meet her.

She was barefoot, and was only wearing tattered clothes. She had been living in a cage, but there was not the slightest hint of fear in her face. Her eyes resembled an unpolluted lake surface, clear and calm.

She was the flame, but she wasn’t flickering like a flame.