38 Secret Revealed

Airy and Abby were listening as everyone was talking in low voices and within a half-hour, they fell asleep.

When the others noticed that they fell asleep, they turned even quieter. After another hour or so...

"Anna, it's your turn." Lightning said quite loudly as everyone was gathered in a circle, playing dice.

"Shh, keep your voice down" Wendy whispered maybe a bit too quiet with her index finger over her lips.

"Eh? I didn't raise my voice at all..." Lightning replied with her both hands up.

Upon hearing them, Roland frowned before looking towards Abby while poking Nightingale to get her attention.

"Everyone, don't talk, it began" Nightingale looked towards Abby and Airy before telling everyone to be quiet.

'That must have been Abby's magic that caused this bizarre scene where someone was whispering while another was almost shouting.' Roland thought before glancing towards the corner of the ceiling and as he suspected, he noticed a few spiders that weren't there before.

'Spiders are arachnids and not insects. I guess they are being affected by Airy's magic. Maybe she will be able to control most of the smaller animals.'

Roland knocked on the floor with his knuckles which produced a sound louder than he intended but at least it caught everyone's attention. He put his index finger over his lips before pointing towards the corner of the ceiling.

When the witches looked there, the corner was infested with even more spiders than before and a horrified expression appeared on almost everyone's faces. No one screamed but everyone instinctively grabbed onto Roland's body who in return had a blank expression on his face as he couldn't even move an inch.

"Ugh!" While they were fooling around, Airy and Abby had uncomfortable expressions on their faces which caught everyone's attention.

They were sweating a lot and it looked like they were in a certain pain but not enough to wake up. It even looked like they were just having a nightmare but everyone knew it wasn't like that.

"*Can't you help them?*" Nightingale brought her lips to Roland's ear and whispered.

'Hmm...Maybe' Roland thought and when he has been freed from everyone's grasp thanks to Nightingale, he took a few steps forward, surprising everyone. Nightingale stopped them from following and just shook her head.

Wendy looked quite worried for Airy and Abby's health while Anna looked more concerned about what Roland intends to do.

Roland stepped into the gap between two beds and grabbed Airy and Abby's hands. In 10 seconds, their pained expressions changed to relieved ones which greatly shocked everyone except for Nightingale.

"What is happening?!" Wendy muttered in disbelief.

"Y-Your Highness?!" Everyone exclaimed when they noticed that Roland started sweating just like Airy and Abby before however, his expression was stoic.

'So this is what it feels like...demonic torture! It feels as if the blood in my veins was trying to escape, create numerous small openings inside the veins' Roland thought as he felt piercing pain across his entire body. It felt as if he was being pierced by small needles which wouldn't be a problem if those needles wouldn't count in millions.

[Your magic stat is being forcefully raised without optimal physique to hold all the magic. The amount of magic being currently received is not life-threatening. You are going to experience pain until your body adapts to its magic.]

[MAG: 4 -> 5 [Unrestrained]]

"Hehe" Roland was completely unaware of his surroundings as he released a slightly crazy laugh. Roland didn't consider himself a masochist however he couldn't deny that sometimes feeling a pain made him involuntarily laugh. Thankfully over time, he learned to suppress it a little bit however even before he knew how weird it is...to laugh in pain which made him in return only laugh more.

The pain continued for the entire hour before his body adapted.

[END: 8 -> 10]

[+1 Undistributed stat point for raising 3 stats naturally]

[+ 300 Gold Coins]

Roland took a deep breath before sighing in relief. He let go of Abby and Airy's hands before returning to the others who were looking at him with surprised and confused expressions, the only one who sighed in relief was Nightingale.

'Their day of adulthood was almost as strong as Anna's, at least when they combined their magic together! Still, good to know that I can absorb the excessive magic from witches' bodies. Day of awakening should be considerably weaker than Day of Adulthood therefore I can't expect to raise my magic stat so easily as tonight.' Roland thought as he was wiping the sweat off his face.

Suddenly out of nowhere, Wendy kneeled in front of him with closed eyes, surprising everyone.

"Um, what is going on, Wendy?" Roland asked with a confused expression.

"I have had some doubts, however seeing this with my own eyes made me realize how big of opportunity our sisters missed. I only hope you find it in your heart to forgive them for not believing you and allow them to live in Border Town just like us." Wendy was basically asking whether he can help her other sisters.

While others were expecting Roland to immediately reassure her, he did something that surprised others.

"...Wendy, I already told you that I cannot recruit so many witches at once. The town is slowly changing and accepting witches, however, taking in more than 20 witches would create additional trouble. I am also sure you don't mean only your sisters from Witch Cooperation Association. Eventually, I will need to expand my territory if I want to shelter all the witches that will come looking for my protection. And even if they will be able to live happily here, they will still be hunted anywhere else...they will eventually end up feeling like a bird in a cage." Roland explained with a pained expression.

"Then we will help you become the king. Your Highness successfully changed everyone's ideas of a witch in this town. I know Your Highness will be able to do it once more and change the entire Kingdom of Graycastle" Wendy said firmly.

"...*sigh* Wendy, let's discuss it another time. I appreciate your enthusiasm but even if you went back to the mountains and told your sisters how everything Nightingale said is the truth, do you think they would trust your words? Let's wait until the winter ends and then we can try to make a contact with them. Anyway, please stand up." Roland said and pat her shoulder a few times.

Wendy nodded her head with a sad expression but she understood Roland's reasoning. He wouldn't turn away from a witch who would need his help which was more than enough for now.

"Your Highness...that was-" Anna was quite sensitive to magic due to training and experimenting with it under Roland's guidance, therefore she could feel what happened to Airy and Abby's magic yet she had trouble believing it.

"I guess the cat is out of the bag. It happened right after your Day of Adulthood. I was planning to tell you all but I wasn't certain how you would react to it." Roland said and Anna's eyes widened since he confirmed it but the others aside from Nightingale were still in the dark and feeling confused.

Roland didn't explain any further and instead went towards the wall and started using his magic to camouflage himself. He practiced it a lot since he helped Nightingale back in the cave.

"W-What?!" They immedietely exclaimed when they saw Roland disappear from their sight. Wendy was probably the one who was the most shocked as she glanced towards Nightingale.

"His Highness is still there, standing at the same place." She said while looking straight at him, although she was having a hard time seeing his physical body, she could see his magic being used as a cloak.

"I guess I can't escape from your eyes." Roland said with a disappointed tone and appeared in front of their eyes once again.

Hearing his words, she just winked at him and cutely stuck out her tongue while everybody else was occupied staring at Roland in disbelief.

"Your Highness really can use magic! I thought that I might have been mistaken when I felt Airy and Abby's magic moving towards Your Highness...Wait, does that mean Your Highness experienced demonic torture in their stead?!" Anna said with an excited expression before she realized what happened a while ago, quickly jumping in front of Roland, checking if he is alright with a worried expression on her face.

"It wasn't that strong, don't worry" Roland said with a reassuring smile while patting her head.

"Whoa, Your Highness must be the first male in history to ever use magic! That's what I call the discovery of the century!" Lightning accepted that fact quite easily and she was perhaps even more excited than before.

"Don't lie" Suddenly, everyone looked towards Nightingale who was looking sternly at him with folded arms.

"Huh? But...I didn't lie" Roland was quite confused since he definitely experienced much worse pain in form of venoms, from for example bullet ants.

"You didn't but I can see your magic when you are using it. Your amount of magic equals to those witches that had just awakened. Both Airy and Abby had their Day of Adulthood which usually ends in a large increase of magic, you actually absorbed all the excessive magic from BOTH of them at once. It must have hurt a lot, I can also see that your magic increased a little." Nightingale explained for the others however that wasn't the reason why she was feeling upset or even sad.

She knew that Roland didn't lie but that only brought her a question 'What exactly does he consider as truly painful and why? What did he experience to have such a high pain tolerance?'