Nightingale's shock

After finishing his dinner, Roland had Barov entertain the Ambassador. He did not feel like convincing Petrov of his ability to fight the demonic beasts, that would just be a waste of time.

Roland walked into his office like usual, he still needed to best utilize his future army to defend Border Town from the demonic beasts. The blacksmith can only craft crude flintlocks, the barrel lacked precision therefore the flintlocks accuracy was horrible. But as the blacksmiths could only craft 1 or 2 flintlocks per day, There would only be around 50 flintlocks by the time the Month of Demons begin. By now roughly 100 men have signed up to his recruitment. Don't look down at the numbers, Border Town's population is just 2000 people. That is also by including the old and young as well as females. Thus 100 able men was already a very good result.

Roland sat down on his chair and started pondering.

"The witches has a natural ability to wield magic, but with restrictions..." Roland thought while tapping his finger on the table in a slow rhythm.

"The symbols in their body will automatically absorb mana from their surroundings and infuse it with their natural elements, turning mana into magic power ready to be used, then the magic power will congregate around the symbol, forming the witches magic power pool. While Wizards likes to convert a part of their mana in their mana pool to the type of magic power that they are most familiar with and can be instantly casted, no wizard likes to put all their eggs in one basket." Roland compared the difference between a witch and a wizard.

"But since the witches has no knowledge or understanding of mana or magic power, and everything happens automatically due to their symbol... The symbol in it self does not look like a rune but also looks like a rune, it's not a 3d image, yet it is like a 3d image... I feel like these symbols are treasures worth exploring. They have the same ability as complex magic formations, but these symbols are like magic artifacts, if I could construct several of these symbols inside my body... Would I be able to instant cast Rank 9 spells...?" Clearly drawn into his thoughts, Roland started imagining the power he would have if he could instant cast Rank 9 spells, as a peak Archmage he could instant cast Rank 5 spells, but not higher. In a battle, both power and speed is of essence. Because even if you could cast a much higher ranked spell, if you don't get the time to channel your spell, it's as good as useless. In a battle, your opponent wouldn't be chivalrous enough to give you time to cast your strongest spell. Instead he would try to interrupt your spell channeling, which will result in a strong spell backlash.

"The study of the symbol can wait until I can freely wield mana, for now lets see if witches can wield more magic by learning knowledge." Roland prepared to teach Anna and Nana some knowledge, since wizard learned magic by understanding the nature Roland wanted to see if witches would act the same way.

"Anna can create a fire ball by relying on her connection to her fire symbol, but once it's not directly connected to her, the fireball extinguishes. Maybe she can to cast fireballs without direct contact once she understands fire better." Roland wanted to know if the fire type magic power created from the symbol was malleable and used to cast any fire type spells. This was the most important aspect for Roland, otherwise the symbols would lose it's value for Roland.

While preparing is lecture material, Roland felt like he was watched. As a wizard, Roland believed in his own senses. He scanned the room but found nothing, concentrating harder he felt a slight fluctuate of space!

"What! Someone is using space magic?!" Roland was surprised as space magic was a much more complex magic than natural element type magic like fire or wind type magic. Roland turned his head towards the spot he felt space fluctuations. When he did he felt stronger fluctuation, as if the user had not expected the prince to find him or her and was surprise which caused their magic to destabilize making bigger space fluctuations.

Nightingale's magic allowed her to wrap herself in "the fog" which made her invisible, after her adulthood awakening, she became capable of entering "the fog", this ability allowed her and whatever she brought in to become intangible. Nightingale was also able to bypass walls by walking on the strings in "the fog", but they are also deadly and can kill her and anyone else brought into "the fog" if they fall on the strings. She also have Eyes of Truth, which can see a witch's magic power, and its unique color and shape. She can also detect lies as the person turns blacker momentarily when they lie.

Nightingale had just entered Roland's office and observed the prince, of course she had done it while she was inside the fog, allowing her to bypass walls and secretly observe others without notice. But to her surprise she saw something that looked like magic power, yet it wasn't. As Nightingale had observed several witches before, she had a good understanding of her Eyes of Truth, but it was the first time that the "magic power" looked so different, it was colorless and shapeless. Because each witch had one type of magic ability, and their magic power's shape and color would be similar to their magic ability. She was astonished to find "magic power" that was colorless and shapeless. Because Roland had saved some refined mana which had not been infused with any elements, it was different from magic power. As it was the first time for Nightingale to see such "magic power" she was very surprised, and because the prince had the "magic power" she was doubly surprised, causing a small instability in her fog which caused Roland to notice the space fluctuations, if Roland had not been an Archmage in space magic, he would definitively have missed such a small fluctuation.

But what surprised Nightingale even more was that while she was observing the prince, the prince suddenly turned his head to scan the room and then stopped to look directly at her.

"What! How could he see me?!" Nightingale thought inwardly. She had never been discovered before while hiding in her fog. Not to mention that the prince was very weird in her eyes. He had some kind of weird magic power.

Roland stared for awhile, but couldn't find any other clues so he decided to let his soul observe who was hiding there. Of course if he could blatantly connect the surrounding mana with his body he could easily extend his senses to sense his surroundings. Unfortunately he had not reached Rank 2 in Body Cultivation yet, so he did not dare to connect the berserk mana with his body which he had painstakingly cultivated.

In his soul form, Roland could see a fog-like subspace with a beautiful girl hiding inside looking surprised at him. Understanding the situation, he returned to his body and slightly smiled.

"There's no need to hide anymore, come out little witch." Roland said humorously to Nightingale.

After a few moments Nightingale appeared, looking at the prince in amazement and on guard. She held a dagger in her right hand while in a defensive posture.

"Who are you? You can't be the prince. Are you... Also a witch?" Nightingale asked hesitantly, because she did not believe a human could possibly find her while in her fog. And she had already seen that the prince has magic power. Not to mention that she had come to bring Anna away with her to the Witch Cooperation Association to protect her from the ignorant humans. But since the prince had saved the witch Anna and "he" had magic power as well, Nightingale concluded that the prince was most likely a witch with disguise ability which let her take the appearance of the prince. Therefore although she was on guard, she wasn't showing hostility to the prince since she believed that a fellow witch was friendly and she would also invite her to come to the Witch Cooperation Association.

"Haha, no I'm the prince, I'm not a which taking on the appearance of the prince." Roland laughingly said. He had no idea how to convince this beautiful witch the truth, but he was happy that there was another person using space magic.

"WHAT! You're not lying!" Nightingale was shocked, because she could see that the prince said was all the truth without a hint of a lie. She was also sure the prince did not have a God's Stone of Retaliation, because although it would negate her magic abilities, she would feel it, and with her Eyes of Truth she would see a black hole wherever there is a God's Stone of Retaliation.

"Huh? You actually believe me?" Roland was also very surprised, she did not think this beautiful young witch would actually just believe his words, the words of a stranger.

"Um. I have Eyes of Truth, it allows me to see magic power and see through lies. Because you did not lie to me, I know you told me the truth..." Nightingale decided to explain why she believed him.

"Hahaha, good. If you didn't explain this, I would have thought you were a naive girl." Roland laughed.

"The Eyes of Truth seems like a type of interrogation magic..." Roland thought.