Roland was startled, "Is there a problem?"
"That's it..." Phyllis hesitated, "I heard that in your territory, only one witch was awakened last year?"
He pulled out a list from the drawer that Wendy had given him, recording the awakening day and adulthood day of each witch, so that he would not miss the second birth of the witches. .
"It should be right," Roland checked the list and nodded, "Although Xie Yuexin joined two witches last year, Bai Zhi had already awakened three years ago, and only Axia was the only one who had awakened that year. …and her awakening day happens to be her coming-of-age day.”
"It shouldn't be, Your Majesty," Phyllis frowned. "How many people were there in your city last year? Twenty thousand or thirty thousand?"
"It should be 50,000," Roland couldn't help but be proud of the population. "This year, the number of Neverwinter City has exceeded 100,000."
"One hundred thousand words is almost the same as the early Anrietta. Until it exits the Fertile Plain, Taquila is only about 250,000. But... Do you know how many people awaken each year in these two holy cities?" Fili Si said solemnly, "Even when the magic power was the most deficient, Anrietta was not less than ten people, and Taquila was close to three times that number."
"Magic... a time of poverty?"
"That's right, the magic power that fills this world has its ups and downs, just like the tides." Agatha explained, "The two years after the arrival of the red moon were also the time when the magic power was the most abundant, and new witches appeared almost every day. Then the free magic power will gradually weaken, and the period between the two red moons can be regarded as a period of poverty, and it is almost only after the moon of the demon that there will be awakened ones."
Roland had heard Agatha mentioned before about the fact that the stronger the magic power, the easier it is for the witch to awaken. It's just that he thought that the magic power would usher in a peak every year, but he did not expect that it would fluctuate greatly in a cycle of hundreds of years. "But we are not far from the third battle of divine will."
"This is the most worrying issue," Phyllis said with a worried look on her face, "The appearance of the Hell Fear Beast means that the red moon is coming, and the magic trend should be more and more active. According to Celine's test, the fact is This is indeed the case. But why is the number of awakened witches so low? Even if no one is awakened in the city, there should be many witches born in suburban towns and villages. For example, in the Taquila era, the surrounding territories provided more witches than the holy city. Even more. Generally speaking, the larger the population, the more witches. This is a rule that the Federation has drawn up for hundreds of years."
"I thought at first that Neverwinter was deliberately rejecting women when recruiting people. Later, I thought that the influence of the church made the new witches dare not reveal their identities easily, so they didn't join Neverwinter immediately... It turned out that was not the case. ." Agatha said slowly, "Pasha also held discussions, and finally came to the conclusion that there may be some factors that have affected the awakening of the new witch, and there is a tendency to gradually expand."
Roland pondered for a while before speaking, "Assuming this guess is correct, do you have a way to find out what caused this?"
The two looked at each other and shook their heads.
"Since it can't be solved, let's take a temporary rest as a god," he said, spreading his hands. "Anyway, no matter how the awakening probability changes, we have to drive the devil out of the dawn, don't we?"
Fortunately, once the foundation for industrial production is laid, the demand for witches is far less strong than that of the God's Punishment Army or the Chosen Plan, otherwise this would be really terrible news.
"What you said... is indeed true," Phyllis probably did not expect that Roland's confidence in fighting the devil would not be affected at all, and she recovered after a while, "No matter what, we must defeat the devil."
"That's right," Roland smiled, "Ah, by the way... I came to you before to ask about something." He recounted his worries about the possible harm caused by the awakening of witches, "In Taqi How does the federation deal with such incidents?"
"It's very simple, Your Majesty," Phyllis said in a more respectful tone. She no longer looked directly at Roland, but lowered her head slightly. "Everyone in that era understood the half-quarter-hour rule."
"The half-quarter-hour rule?"
"Yes, the witch's awakening is not without warning. The process of magic power from the free state to the convergence of the awakened person will last for about half an hour." Phyllis replied, "At the beginning, there were faint thorns in the abdomen. Pain and burning, then intensified until the first backlash. The specific pain level varies from person to person, and even strong people are not affected too much, but the subtle tingling can still be detected."
She paused, "And the half-an-hour rule is: as long as the witch announces loudly that she is about to awaken during this time, the people around her must leave her side immediately. Ask for compensation; if there is damage to the fixed place, it will be paid by the federation.”
This is a new practice, Roland thought to himself, provided that everyone is very familiar with witches, especially when an underage girl encounters a sudden sting, the first reaction is to make an announcement, rather than suspect that she eats it. Bad stomach.
"What if the injured are also witches?"
"If it is not announced in advance, the newly awakened will face punishment with whipping or money, depending on the consequences. If it has been announced in advance, the Federation will take full responsibility. However, such cases are rare, after all, the battle witch itself It's already a minority, and even fewer have the ability to cause damage in the early stages of awakening."
In other words, in the era of Taquila, mortals could only consider themselves unlucky if they did not avoid them in time. In that special era when witches were superior, it was understandable for them to do so. It is obviously impossible for Roland to copy this method, but he can learn from it to a certain extent.
Undoubtedly, aside from the punishment part, the half-quarter-hour rule has its advanced point: it at least promotes a concept, so that everyone understands that witches are born within human beings, and whether they accept it or not, every underage woman has the possibility Awaken as a witch. This is like stop at a red light and go at a green light in later generations. All we can do is to abide by the rules to avoid damage.
Of course, it is impossible to completely exempt from liability. Roland thought about it, if we take a step back from this rule, treat witches and ordinary people equally, and hand over the harm after the announcement to the city hall, without making the announcement, it will cause serious damage If the consequences are the result, they will be tried according to negligent wounding... or a law that specifically regulates witches' behavior, just like the traffic laws of later generations, may be able to alleviate this contradiction to a certain extent.