Magic

'What should I do?! I have never seen anything like this, it almost looks like Anna's magic power is connecting their bodies through their hands. Did he perhaps fell unconscious due to holding her hand right before the demonic torture?' Nightingale thought with a bit of panic in her eyes. She was usually very composed but seeing this for the first time in her life threw her off.

"Nightingale, what is happening to His Highness?" Nana asked and tears started forming in her eyes.

"I-I don't know at all...I have never seen anything like it"

'What if I try to carefully part their hands?' Nightingale thought but when the tips of her fingers touched their hands...

"Ouch!" Upon feeling the burning surface of their hands, she quickly retracted her hand.

"?! Nightingale, here!" Nana quickly healed light burns on her hand.

"Thank you, let's just wait, it doesn't look like His Highness' condition is getting any worse." She said, sitting down on the chair next to the bed while intensively staring at Roland with a thoughtful expression on her face.

'Anna's magic is increasing quickly, it should begin any moment...however I have no idea what is happening to Roland. Could it be that he is...no, that's just impossible. There has never been a male with magic power, however...what if he is really the first? I think I should keep what I am seeing right now secret, I have no idea how would the sisters react to it if I told them.' Nightingale thought while resting her chin on the back of her palms.

In the end, neither Roland nor Anna woke up throughout the entire night which shocked Nightingale even more. There was a strange phenomenon showing up during the night and she also saw Anna's magic spike up, she was sure that Anna just slept through her day of adulthood.

In the morning, Roland was the first one to open his eyes out of two of them.

"Good morning, how are you feeling?" Nightingale greeted him with a smile while stroking Nana's hair as she was sleeping with her head against Nightingale's shoulder.

"Good morning...I passed out, last night, right? What about Anna?" He shook his head, feeling a bit dizzy before looking around. He quickly realized where he was sleeping and out of reflex he quickly got up and let go of Anna's hand.

"Mm" This abrupt movement of his woke Anna up.

"Good morning..." She said while rubbing her sleepy eyes. Roland just nodded his head with a happy expression since it looked like Anna just slept through her day of adulthood. And it was also most likely thanks to his theory. Now he had a pretty good bargaining chip if Nightingale were to agree to take him with her to their hideout and something bad would happen.

"Anna, how are you?!" Nightingale asked hurriedly since she wanted to confirm something.

"Hm? I am feeling exceptionally good today!" Anna replied with a wide smile before showing her palm and a green flame started flickering on top of her palm.

'Her ability has really been upgraded!' She thought with an ecstatic expression. She just saw new hope for her sisters that are still suffering the demonic torture every year.

When Roland saw the green flame, he felt as if he was being attracted to it and even the flame seemed to occasionally flicker towards his direction.

Without any hesitation, Roland put his hand into the flame, right onto Anna's palm. His hand was enveloped by the flame but he couldn't feel its heat.

"Looks like you can change the temperature of your flames by your will. The temperature of this flame is so low that it can no longer be considered a regular flame. Congratulations, Anna!" Roland said and gave her a relatively big book with an incredible and fantasy-like cover at the front.

Anna nodded her head with a grateful expression before her eyes were drawn to the cover of the book...Nine figures in black cloaks with no visible faces, one of them in the front had an ominous-looking iron helmet that looked a bit like a crown, each figure wielded a sword in both hands. Behind those figures was a large eye of flames, as if overlooking the figures.

"This is..." Anna was overwhelmed so much that even Nightingale had to take a look and was briefly shocked too. The cover looked quite realistic and brought a light sense of both fear and respect.

"This isn't a book containing any new knowledge. You know, you can always just ask me if you want an educative book. This book is more like a fictional story however it is still quite hard to comprehend but I know you won't have any problem with it since you are clever! Whenever you will feel like relaxing, you can just read this book, it might even help you control your flames better and give you new ideas, a new perspective of how magic works, however, keep in mind that this is just a fictional story" Roland explained with a kind smile. He found this to be quite a good gift since as he already said, it could help witches to broaden their view on the magic itself and it could also bring up the idea of...a male using magic.

---

[Name: Roland Wimbledon

Titles: Fourth Prince (+2 CHA)

Stats:

STR: 10

AGI: 14

END: 8

STA: 12

INT: 11

CHA: 13 (15)

MAG: 1 [Unrestrained]

Undistributed stat points: 11

[Current money: 4375 Gold Coins]

---

"I already want to begin just by looking at its captivating cover...What are they? Are they the main characters of the story?" Anna asked, enthusiastic about the gift.

"Main characters...? Haha...I guess you can say they are...important? And wouldn't it took away the fun of reading it if I were to tell you who are they? But I guess I can tell you the name of the one standing at the front, his nickname is Witch-king" Roland said.

"Witch-king?!" Both Anna and Nightingale exclaimed, most likely due to the word "witch"

"Don't take his nickname literally. Nightingale, you can join Anna or ask her about details later if you are interested." Roland said with a smirk.

'I don't understand Nightingale's ability but if she were to read about wraiths, she might receive some enlightenment and get better at using her ability.'

They talked for a bit more before Roland decided to go back to his office.

'Alright, my previously locked stat has been unlocked by...most likely Anna's day of adulthood? I don't know...And no matter how much I try, I don't really feel that different. Let's try to increase the stat slowly.'

[Undistributed stat points: 11 -> 10]

[MAG: 1 -> 2 [Unrestrained]]

'I can finally feel something inside my body but it's such a strange feeling. It's probably because I am not accustomed to having magic inside my body. Let's go a bit higher.'

[Undistributed stat points: 10 -> 8]

[MAG: 2 -> 4 [Unrestrained]]

Roland finally could feel something more clearly than before and this time he was more confident in trying to move that magic inside his body. Still, he wanted to go a little bit higher, however, when he tried to upgrade it by 1 more point, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in the chest.

[Not enough Endurance. If you wish to increase the capacity of your magic, you first need to adapt your body to an adequate level to be capable of withstanding its effects.]

[Your magic is still unrestrained which means your magic can occasionally show itself to the others who are capable of seeing and sensing magic.]

'Ugh...just what I needed, I just hope Nightingale won't arrive here while I train, trying to take control of the magic.' Roland thought and closed his eyes while he was sitting on the chair, trying to make the magic inside him move, do anything. He was told that most witches upon awakening use their powers even involuntarily but he had to find out on his own what he can do with his magic.

A few days later...

"I am planning to leave now that Anna is fine. I...Do you have any idea why she didn't suffer demonic torture at all? The more powerful the witch is, the more powerful the torture is." Nightingale stood in front of Roland inside his office, observing his body but she couldn't find anything wrong.

She was actually thinking that Roland was the reason why Anna didn't suffer at all due to what she had seen that night. The reaction of Anna's magic to Roland's touch was simply too weird for Nightingale not to consider this.

"...I have a theory. Since you are leaving, would you take me with you please?" Roland chose not to lie since it was useless in front of her anyway and she understood the meaning of his words.

"...Do you want to try to persuade my sisters to come here?"

"*sigh* I won't deny it however I will only offer them my help, I won't try to forcefully convince them. I will also tell them my theory regardless of their answers. The fact that I am willing to share such important information along with me going in person should be enough to show my sincerity, right?" Roland asked her with a curious expression.

There was a brief pause before she replied, slightly shocking Roland by her answer.

"I will try to help you. I have witnessed the changes you have brought to this town in such a short span of time. I believe it won't take too long before the entire town will come to accept witches, however, are you truly sure you want to come with me? Can you even leave the town for a few days? Who will act in your absence?" She asked with a concerned expression.

"Oh, Anna is probably the best choice, she is smart and I can arrange for Carter to help her. Also, thank you, your help is always appreciated. I must go together with you to show my sincerity, what prince would dare to venture into the mountains during the months of the demons just to meet the group of witches?" Roland asked with a grin.

"None...except you" She replied with a faint smile.

'He would even let a witch be in command during his absence...He truly is a strange person. If his theory holds the truth, none of my sisters will ever have to suffer through that torture! I believe that he can change our fates.'

[MAG: 4 [In balance]]

'Thankfully I managed to get hold of it before Nightingale noticed anything. I didn't expect to unlock that stat so quickly, I intended to first give the witches idea of what sorcerers or wizards are, that's also one of the many reasons why I gave that book to Anna. I also don't have any power like witches yet, I can manipulate the mana and even make it wrap around me and use it as armor or protection from the climate.' Roland thought and already gave that ability a name, Aura Hardening. At first, he wanted to name it Magic Hardening but to him, it sounded much worse than Aura Hardening.