Not long after the prince returned to the office, Scroll also walked in.
"Your Highness, I'm sorry, Lily's child... It wasn't intentional."
"I don't care," he smiled. "She's just a little girl."
"Only you are so tolerant to us," Shu Scroll sighed, "She wasn't like this from the beginning, but after being deceived, it's hard for her to trust ordinary people now."
"Is it before joining the Co-Aid Association?" he asked. "I remember it was only a year since she joined you."
"Indeed, I found her on the outskirts of Chishui City," Shu Scroll said, "You know, I can feel the presence of magic, the closer the distance is, the stronger it is, although it is not like Nightingale can directly see the shape of magic and colors, but at least it can be used to discover new witches. So every time I pass through a town, I disguise as a noble lady who wants to adopt a child, and visit the local shelter or orphanage, looking for sisters who may have awakened. She paused, "Lily was locked up in a remote township shelter at the time, but when I nominated her to adopt her, she was rejected. The owner of the shelter told me that they only sold adults here. Girl."
"Why?" Roland wondered. A witch's latest awakening time is before adulthood. Could it have something to do with this
"We also thought it was very strange at the time, so we let Nightingale sneak into the shelter to find the books, records and related information in the shelter. Fortunately, the shelter is far away from the town, so we can stay here for a long time."
"Why don't you just take Lily away? With Nightingale's help, it shouldn't be difficult, right?"
"It's not difficult," Scroll nodded. "Except for the stone of God's punishment on the operator, there are no other stones or organs in the shelter. But we can't do this. There is a precedent for this kind of thing."
"What precedent?" The prince made a cup of tea for the scroll.
"Thank you," she took the teacup, "At first, as long as we found the witch, we would forcefully take her away, but an accident in Seawind County changed our approach. At that time, a young witch who had just awakened thought that We were evil and attacked us without listening to the explanation after being brought back to the mutual aid association, and eventually two sisters died of serious injuries, and she was also killed by the death penalty snake in Hakara. So from then on, we will be careful Observe the witch for a period of time to determine her situation and thoughts before taking action. If the church is pressing, we... have no choice but to give up."
"So the meeting between Nightingale and Wendy wasn't a coincidence?"
"Of course not," Shu Scroll took a sip of tea and shook his head with a smile, "It was just over a month after the discovery of Nightingale's existence and Wendy's contact with her. During this period, we also recruited other sisters, such as Red Pepper and Wendy. Chasing the wind..." She said this, her expression darkened a lot, "It's a pity that they were all buried in the wilderness. It would be great if everyone chose to come to Border Town to settle down from the beginning."
Roland also felt rather regretful. If more than 40 witches from the Co-Aid Association gathered in the town, I am afraid that this place would have entered a modern life.
"Stop talking about that," Scroll took a deep breath, "let's talk about Lily. After searching the shelter and following the owner's whereabouts, we discovered the startling fact that this small country house is neither real Shelter for witches, nor was it built to screen witches."
"What's that for?"
"In order to satisfy the selfish desires of the operator." Even if he is well-preserved like a book, his expression is a little gloomy when he says this. "The operator will go to the slums of Chishui City every week, abduct those stray girls, and deceive them to say , he is a kind-hearted aristocrat, and he opened a shelter in the suburbs, where there are often big nobles who disguise themselves and choose adopted daughters. … After more than ten years, hundreds of girls have been going to the shelter one after another.”
"So much?" Roland frowned, "But you said the shelter is not very large."
"Hundreds of them are just records in the ledger, most of them are... dead," she whispered, "over the past ten years, he has discovered three witches and sold them all to the church. If the other girls are good looking , he will also dress up and sell it to those in need, and those who are not interested are killed by him in the woods of the shelter."
"..." The prince didn't know what to say for a while. Suddenly, he felt a hand gently resting on his shoulder from behind.
"The chance of a witch's awakening is not high, so excluding the cost of containment, he has earned about 20 golden dragons over the years, which is based on the data recorded in the ledger. But for these 20 golden dragons, he died nearly Three hundred people, the pits in the woods were filled with corpses. When Hakara interrogated him why he did this, he actually said that it was not his intention to earn golden dragons, it was just to keep the shelter running, and only adults were sold. It is also for this reason that a witch can sell for a much higher price than ordinary women. His purpose is to enjoy the thrill of life and death, and to dispose of the lives of these stray girls at will to make him feel like a king. Hakkara is furious We killed him, and when we tried to disperse the girls, most of them glared at us, as if we had taken away their chance of being adopted by the nobles."
"Lily did the same at first, until Hakkara took her to the woods behind the small building, where she saw her friend who lied about being chosen by the nobles, the lucky girl who left the shelter a month ago, and several A stinking dirt pit, and then Lily vomited in a mess, and fainted in Hakkara's arms. When she woke up, she was also stunned, with no expression in her eyes, until she slowly recovered under Wendy's care. Since then, she has been full of vigilance and distrust of ordinary people, especially nobles." Scroll said, "But I believe she will slowly correct this view, after all, you are also a member of the nobles."
"So that's the case," Roland sighed inwardly. After experiencing this kind of thing, being able to cheer up can be regarded as a tough will.
Scroll lifted the kettle and refilled the two cups. After being silent for a long time, he said, "Your Highness, I have a question for you."
"What's the problem?" He was stunned, and found that the expression on the scroll was a little serious.
"Nightingale, are you there too?"
"Hmm," Nightingale emerged, "Do you need me to leave?"
"No... You know about this anyway," she shook her head, "just witness it with me."
After speaking, the book looked at His Royal Highness Roland, "You once said that you are willing to marry a witch, but I don't know if you know that witches can't have children." She paused for a moment, and asked word by word, "Your Highness. , even so, won't you change your original intention?" (.)