After an unknown amount of time, when Nightingale woke up, she found that her hands were tied behind her back to a wooden stake, and her waist and feet were also bound with ropes in circles. Trying to struggle, the body and the wooden pole were tightly pressed together, completely unable to move.
She wanted to use her abilities, but the familiar feeling didn't appear—her connection to magic seemed to be cut off. Nightingale lowered her head and found a transparent prismatic stone hanging around her neck.
"You're awake," Hakara stepped in front of her. "How does it feel to petrify Venom? Seriously, I had high hopes for you, Nightingale. However, you failed me."
"..." Nightingale took a deep breath, "You actually have the Chain of God's Punishment, Hakala, do you know what you're doing?" The shackles originally used by the church to suppress witches were now used by their mentors. Against her kind! What annoyed her even more was that the people around looked blankly, as if they didn't think there was anything wrong with it. Damn it, Nightingale cried in my heart, didn't you realize that you are becoming the kind of person witches once hated the most? !
"It's just a tool. Occasionally, there will be some bad boys who don't listen to the teaching and need to be punished." Hakara said nonchalantly, "And you, Nightingale, are the one who needs to be punished. Or... I should call you Veronie. Ka? A woman who came from a noble family but became a witch and still wants to climb to a high position?"
"I can not understand what you say."
"You disappointed me so much. When Wendy rescued you from the clutches of the nobles, I thought you would stand firmly on the side of the Mutual Aid Society. Look at what you have done now, just as everyone is about to find the saint. At the time of the mountain, you want to make this great situation fall short!" Hakkara shook his head and sneered, "Take your sisters to go to a prince? Or you have been kept in captivity for too long, and your servility has been deeply ingrained, so you have to find yourself a master Only people know how to live; otherwise... you just want to sell them all to the nobles in exchange for your former status!"
"Everything I've done is for the sisters of the Aid Society," Nightingale suppressed her anger, and her scolding made no sense at this time, "I hope they don't have to suffer from the ravages of the Awakening Day, and I hope they can live well without worrying about food and clothing. Life. I have no intention of blocking your plan. Sisters should have the right to freely choose their own way of life. The border town is undergoing earth-shaking changes. The blueprint of the steam engine I brought is one of them. Infinite. With this kind of machine, water can be hoisted directly from the mountain stream, and people don't have to run around for it every day."
Hakara sneered twice, "That's what you're talking about?" She turned around, took out a stack of parchment scrolls from the hands of a witch behind her, and raised it in front of Nightingale, "Although I don't understand what is drawn on it is What, but a dead thing made of a pile of cold iron blocks can move on its own like a living being? Do you think we are all three-year-old children!"
She went to the brazier and threw the scroll into the burning charcoal.
"No!" Nightingale shouted in vain, watching the blueprints turn to ashes in the brazier.
"My patience has run out, now I'll give you one last chance," Hakara pulled out an iron vertebra from the brazier, the tip of the iron vertebrae burning red, "if you confess your guilt to all the sisters of the Commonwealth Society and admit that you have suffered Bewitched by the nobles, I can spare your life, but the flogging is inevitable. This is the lesson of your gullible enemy. If you are still obsessed, I can only pierce your heart with this iron vertebra and nail your body to the wood. On the pile, so that everyone can take a warning." She said word by word, "Don't miss my last mercy, say your decision."
Nightingale looked at the iron vertebra that was a little closer to her, and could even feel the scorching heat coming from the tip of the cone. If it was the cowardly self in the past, I am afraid that I would have bowed my head and admitted my mistake, right? But she had said goodbye to the past and was no longer the timid girl. She was Nightingale, a powerful witch, and death could not bring her down.
She closed her eyes and waited for the last moment. For some reason, Roland's figure appeared in Nightingale's mind.
"Stop!" someone shouted, she froze slightly and opened her eyes. Wendy walked out of the crowd and said to Hakara, "Teacher, look at the white cloth wrapped around your arm. We have gone through so many partings. Do you want to add another one?"
"Why, even you were deceived by her? Wake up, Wendy, those are just lies!"
"I don't know," Wendy shook her head, "I didn't plan to go to Border Town with her, but I think she's right about one thing, sisters should have the right to freely choose their own way of life."
She turned her head and asked loudly, "Does anyone want to leave with her?"
There was no answer from the crowd, and the scene fell into silence.
"So just leave her alone," Wendy said. "She didn't do anything to harm the Society, and I can't just watch you kill her."
Nightingale now fully understood what Wendy meant. She couldn't help but feel a sadness in her heart, even Wendy didn't fully believe in herself. That's why she kept silent when she needed her help to convince people. But she's still the kind-hearted, caring witch who will lend a helping hand even if she doesn't agree with her point of view.
After Wendy said these words, there were whispers in the crowd, and then several people stood up.
"Yes, since she is willing to return to the world, let her go."
"The church and sickness have taken away too many of our sisters, Master Teacher, please think twice."
"Shut up!" Hakkara said angrily, "Just let her go, what if the second or third Nightingale appears? If she sells the location of our camp to the church, we will have nowhere to go. Run away!" Before she finished speaking, she stabbed the iron vertebrae in her hand with all her might, while Wendy took a step faster, rushing up a strong wind and blowing Haraka away.
Then she tossed a coin, raised her hand and waved, and the rush of air wrapped the coin and roared towards the nightingale. The airflow disappeared instantly when it got close to Nightingale, but the coin kept flying by inertia, hitting the Stone of Retaliation in front of her neck with precision.
The crystal clear prismatic stone shattered in response.
"Traitor!" Hakkara got up from the ground and screamed. She stretched out her left and right hands to Wendy and Nightingale respectively. Two snake figures appeared out of nowhere. One opened its mouth and bit Wendy's back fiercely, while the other fluttered. empty.
The rope slipped to the ground, still as it was when it was tied, but Nightingale was nowhere to be seen.
Thinking of the opponent's ability, Hakara broke out in a cold sweat. She mobilized all her magic power, and the demon snakes swarmed out of her chest, forming a snake wall, and at the same time she retreated sharply—
But Nightingale was faster than her.
Just one step... Just one step out, she has already appeared behind Hakara. He stretched out his hands, and the iron vertebra that was supposed to pierce Nightingale's heart went straight through Hakara's body.