Is this just another fantasy story?

"Leaf, I have heard from Wendy that Cara found a certain ancient book which mentioned the Holy mountain which later also drove her mad. Don't you know where that book is right now?" Roland asked, rubbing his chin with a thoughtful look on his face.

"I can create the copy of that book with my power, Your Highness" The witch named Scroll replied in Leaf's stead.

"Please do..."

"That book doesn't really make any sense, I just hope it won't confuse you, Your Highness" Scroll said before summoning the copy of pretty old-looking book and handing it to Roland.

"Don't worry, it's just a book as long as you won't let it get into your head, you will be fine."

"Hmm...the grammar seems messy but it must be just the way people communicated at that time, judging from the book's look and old-looking grammar it must be several hundred years old. There you even have mention of demons...?!" Roland was muttering as he was flipping the pages before he found something that bothered him a little.

"Does 'Bloody Moon' mean anything to any of you?" Roland asked with a raised eyebrow, observing the witches in front of him.

However, everyone shook their head which caused him to dive into deep thought.

'Bloody Moon...and the last page is written in a hurry saying of their failure to defeat demons.' Roland thought while looking at the last page, with Anna standing behind him, peeking over his shoulder the entire time which made the witches slightly confused how a prince allowed a witch to be so close to him.

"Your Highness, that last page looks almost identical to one of the books mentioned in that fantasy book you gave to me." Anna muttered, making everyone new witch look at her, wondering what book is she talking about.

"Hm? Do you mean the Book of Mazarbul written by the dwarfs in their last moments?" Roland asked with a surprised expression, this time confusing even Wendy and Nightingale.

"Yes! Their endings are similar, hurriedly written."

"?!" Roland's eyes widened as he realized something.

"Maybe Bloody Moon is the indication of the start of the war or something." 'However, there are no mentions of such large-scale disaster aside from this ancient book...Is the Bloody Moon something similar to a full solar eclipse? Maybe it happens only in intervals of several hundred years...however, when was the last time it happened?" Roland said before thinking the rest to himself since he didn't want the girls to panic.

"Maybe it is like the dark lord, hiding for a few hundred years before waging the war." Anna said with a slightly joking tone, trying to ease up the atmosphere but Roland was impressed that she even thought of it.

"Alright, now is not the time to discuss that book, Wendy, can you please show everyone to their rooms and show them around?" Roland asked.

"Yes, Your Highness!" Wendy replied with a happy tone.

"I understand that some of you still have some trouble trusting me but I hope you can trust your sisters to make you feel comfortable here. I will also require the full description of your powers once you settle in." Roland said and the new witches nodded their heads, leaving the office together with Wendy and Nightingale.

Only Anna remained by Roland's side, smiling while staring at his face.

*sigh* "This is a lot of information to take in." Roland released a tired sigh.

"All those demons and the floating city are starting to sound more like the story inside that book. If we replace the orcs with demons...it's practically the same thing." Anna put her hand on his shoulder before saying with a slightly forced smile.

"To be honest...You might be right, this time I truly mean it. Well, if hordes of demons suddenly started attacking us, we wouldn't stand a chance so right now there is really no reason to focus on them. We can just pray that they won't be trying to leave mountains for a few more years." Roland said, putting his right hand on Anna's hand that was resting on his left shoulder.

"...How come Your Highness is so confident that there are more of them? I mean, those two couldn't be the only ones but hordes of them...?" Anna asked with a curious expression.

"I am just assuming the worst scenario. I might not think that way if not for this ancient book and the words on its last page. However, right now demons aren't one of our concerns, we need to focus on Duke Ryan. We have already equipped most of the soldiers with muskets. We have no shortage of gunpowder and blacksmiths are making ammunition on daily basis...we should be ready."

"It's hard to believe that Duke Ryan would actually dare to attack Your Highness."

"It's inevitable, he is greedy by the nature and I have also practically driven out all nobles from here. Those nobles originated from Longsong Stronghold after all. Adding the fact that I have yet to return to King City also remains, however my brother has no time to deal with me since there are already rumors of Garcia openly opposing him. It's not wrong if I were to say that I have robbed Duke Ryan, haha." Roland laughed to which Anna could only gently shake her head with a smile.

Soon the evening arrived and everyone gathered in the dining hall for dinner. Roland guessed that the new witches have more or less settled in judging from their neutral expressions. They were still a bit wary of the place but that was only given since they were at an unfamiliar place.

Their faces immediately changed when they dug into the food, their neutral expressions got replaced by relieved ones.

"What is this sauce?!" A witch named Hummingbird with a child-like appearance exclaimed when she tasted the red-colored sauce.

"Tasty, right?! His Highness actually came up with it and taught the cooks how to make it." Lightning praised with a smug look as if she was the one who cooked it.

"Lightning..." Roland called out her name with a slightly uncomfortable expression since he felt it was kind of embarrassing information. Even in his previous life, he felt embarrassed whenever someone mentioned his cooking as it was one of his few hobbies he was a bit ashamed of considering the nature of his job.

'Is he really embarrassed?' All of the new witches stared at Roland with slightly surprised expressions since this was their first time seeing Roland behave like this. They practically saw him as someone fearless who didn't shy away from fighting even a witch.

"Really? His Highness came up with it?" Scroll at first looked like she wanted to reprimand both of them for their behavior during the dinner but she ended up looking down at her plate with an impressed look on her face.

"It's really nothing, it's just a sweet tomato sauce." Roland said, focusing on his plate while in reality, he was just trying to hide his embarrassment.

"Yeah, you should look forward to dessert! That's the real deal! It will make you never want to leave this place ever again, believe me!" Lightning also disregarded the sauce everyone found really unique and tasty which made all the new witches gulp down saliva in anticipation of what could make Lightning disregard such good food so easily.

Seeing how their faces tensed up, others started laughing except for Roland who wore a forced smile since Lightning was representing the entire place just based on the food.

And as Lightning said, when the ice cream was served to everyone, moans were practically resounding inside the dining hall.

'What is this place?! An orgy hall?!" Roland thought while calmly enjoying his ice cream. He was just waiting until one of his maids misunderstands what is happening here behind the closed doors. He worked so hard to get rid of his previous reputation among his subordinates yet it was slowly crumbling down again.

After the dinner, the new witches gave him the papers with details about their powers before leaving the dining hall.

Roland went back to his office to quickly review their powers.

'Imitation of any sound, Preventing food from spoiling or rotting, Acceleration of plant growth..." Those are pretty good powers especially the witch called Mystery Moon has an interesting ability. I will have to once again dig deeper into books to find a good way how to use her power. Shouldn't it be possible to make electricity with help of her power by converting kinetic energy into electrical energy?' Roland felt like he had once again more work to do, however, for now, he had to come up with an optimal training method for everyone.