1 Courtyard Meeting

The wind blew through her tied black hair. The weather today was very nice out which could make one feel relaxed just standing in the breeze. Scroll unhurriedly walked through the courtyard while taking glances at the beautiful shrubbery that was grown through Leaf's powers.

Her life had improved drastically ever since the set-up of the Witch Union. She thought of her hardships that she had to go through in her life just to reach this moment. Although she was always busy with leading the Ministry of Education and rarely had any free time, she found that she didn't dislike this kind of busy life compared to before.

Making her way towards the center of the courtyard, she saw a few of her sisters in the Witch Union already present among empty tables.

"You all are very early," Scroll lightly laughed as she approached the group.

"I couldn't wait to see what food his Highness has prepared for us today," Lightning excitedly replied.

"Coo coo," Maggie earnestly agreed in her pigeon form while on Lightning's shoulder.

Mystery Moon and Lily also stood nearby chatting idly.

As the minutes passed by, more witches started to congregate in the center of the courtyard. Scroll saw Nightingale emerge from her realm with Roland in hand. The man of the hour finally appeared.

Roland had announced a gathering in the courtyard for all the witches. He didn't mention the reasoning but had simply said it wasn't mandatory but there would be all sorts of food present as well. Of course none of the witches already couldn't refuse a request from their benefactor, nonetheless refute the temptation of food.

Right after Roland had arrived, servants of the castle began to come and set up the empty tables with various foods. The smells of the aromatic food wafted towards Scroll's direction and she couldn't help but take a gulp in anticipation for the coming meal.

Everyone happily chatted and occasionally grabbed various food to eat while mingling. Soon the copious amount of food in the beginning began to dwindle down and the sky slowly became darker. Roland had found someone to light a bonfire in the middle of the courtyard and everyone came together to sit around the bonfire to continue their festivities a little longer. Roland had even brought out a barrel of chaos drink for the witches.

Scroll began to become curious as to why his Highness had called the witches together with no special occasion. She had already become accustomed to his unusual habits and ways but sometimes they still caught her off guard. But soon, Roland appeased her curiosity by speaking up to the witches.

"Recently, I've been trying to write a new script to be performed on stage," he said while wrinkling his brows. Indeed, Roland had mentioned this to Scroll in passing but didn't think too much of it at the time. She didn't think that this issue would have bothered him so much that he even asked the witches for help. "I wanted to incorporate aspects of the witch's lives before the establishment of the Witch Union. But since I'm not a witch, I can't really speak from experience. So I was hoping that by gathering us all together, you would share some stories from your past or that you've heard."

"But don't you already know our pasts?" One of the witches spoke up.

"I do, but not all of it. There may have been some memories which you've forgotten or were not related at the time. Any story, not matter how long, short, intricate, or simple it may be."

Then Maggie spoke up, "Coo. Before I met any other witches, I was roaming in the forests. I was still but a newly born pigeon at the time. But somehow I was still captured by a little girl who wanted to take me home! Coo. She held me in her arms on her way home not letting me escape. I was almost losing all hopes of escaping when she reached her front door. To open her door, she had to use both her hands, so she had to let go of me first. That was when I took the opportunity to escape!" She took a drink of her chaos drink as if to appease her apprehension from that time in her story.

Everyone looked at Maggie and laughed. Indeed, Roland did say the stories could be very simple, and Maggie delivered that very simple story. With the initial questioning tension thrown away by Maggie's story, more and more witches began to open up more about various happenings in their past before the Witch Union. The topics ranged far and wide and there were even stories about trivial everyday matters. As the night went on, everyone had continuously drunk more chaos drink and had entered a jovial, tipsy mood.

The previous witch had just finished her story about how she had accidentally stolen an item in the market while holding it to look at it when she was suddenly grabbed by her friend to rush over and look at another stall. The stall owner of the item she had stolen had not even noticed and so she was never caught.

Maybe it was the cheerful atmosphere in the air, or maybe it was all the chaos drink that she had consumed throughout the night, but something inside of Scroll made her want to speak up and tell a story.

"I'll go next,' Scroll spoke up after the previous story. Everyone looked at Scroll expectantly. Out of everyone here, Scroll should have the most memory to remember all her encounters and all the things she has read. Surely her story would be everything but boring.

And slowly, Scroll began to recite her story.