The Witch Named Anna (Part I)

For a period of time Roland locked himself in his room as he thoroughly reviewed the memories of this new world, and had dinner sent directly to him by his servants.

Because of his strong desire to live on, Roland fully suppressed his fear and discomfort of the unfamiliar environment he found himself in. He was fully aware that if he wanted to blend in and avoid being suspected by the people around him, he needed to acquire more information as soon as possible.

It had to be said that, apart from information about himself fooling around with other noble children, his new memory consisted of nothing much else. He was unable to recall any information of value, such as knowledge of the aristocracy, the political situation in his own country, or the diplomatic ties with neighboring countries... Although he had some general knowledge such as city names, and the years of significant events, they were completely different from the history of Europe that he knew previously.

It therefore appeared evident to him that he had absolutely no chance of obtaining the throne. Perhaps the King of Graycastle himself was aware of this, and because of that, he sent Roland to this hellish place. Even if he made a mess of things, it would not cause too much damage.

The next memories that Roland recalled were regarding his brothers and sisters, and what he found left him unsure whether to laugh or cry.

Roland’s eldest brother, the First Prince, was a great fighter. His second brother was sinister and scheming, his third sister was aggressive and savage, and his fifth sister was extremely smart. What should he say? After living with them for more than a decade, his impression of them could be summed up in a few words. He knew nothing about the extent of their power, their subordinate officers, or their skills and talents.

Just three months into his leadership of Border Town, the noble had already stopped concealing their disdain and contempt towards him. It was evident that the Fourth Prince wasn’t cut out to be a leader. Fortunately, when he left King’s City, he was accompanied by two assistants—one for civil issues, and one for military issues—who were provided by the king, or else it would have been a much bigger mess.

When Roland woke up the next morning, he was repeatedly reminded by his maid, Tyre, that Assistant Minister Barov wanted to see him. Realizing that he could put it off no longer, he groped the maid’s behind twice—as he recalled it was customary of the original Roland to do so, and told her to inform Barov to wait in the sitting room.

He saw Tyre’s face flush a bright red as she walked out the door. Suddenly, Roland thought, "Since Border Town is primarily involved in farming, is there a system of any sort in place?" He yawned and mentally repeated the word ‘system’ many times in his head, but could not think of anything.

Indeed, novels were all fiction.

Barov was waiting restlessly in the drawing room. The moment Roland appeared, he immediately hurried towards him and asked, "Your Highness, why didn’t you order the execution yesterday?"

"One day earlier or one day later, what’s the difference?" Roland said as he clapped his hands to order the servants to bring breakfast in. "Have a seat and let’s talk."

It was in line with his memory that the Chief Knight preferred to ask questions in front of other people, while the Assistant Minister usually chose to talk in private. In any case, he could trust both of them to be loyal to him, even though they probably did so as part of their duty to the king.

"Just one day may be enough for other witches to appear, Your Highness! This isn’t like any other trivial matter, you cannot act as recklessly as before!!" Barov cautioned.

"Why are you also saying this?" Roland asked while frowning. "I thought you could distinguish between rumors and facts."

Barov looked bewildered. "What rumors?"

"That witches are evil and are the Devil’s emissaries," Roland replied glibly. "Isn’t this part of the Church’s propaganda? If we don’t want them to interfere in our affairs, we should do the opposite of what they say. We shall deliberately not hunt down witches, and instead publicize to our citizens that these are all shameless rumors spread by the Church."

Barov was shocked. "But… witches are really…"

"Evil?" Roland asked in reply. "How so?"

The Assistant Minister remained silent for a moment, as if he was guessing whether the prince was purposely making fun of him, "Your Highness, this problem can be discussed later. I understand that you don’t like the Church, but this way of causing conflict is counterproductive."

Roland curled his lips. It seemed that reversing this myth about witches could not be done overnight, and he decided not to dispute it further for now.

Breakfast finally arrived on the table, consisting of fried bread, fried eggs and a carafe of milk. He first poured a full cup of milk and offered it to Barov.

"You haven’t had breakfast right? Let’s eat as we talk." According to the maid, Barov had arrived outside the keep at dawn, and therefore should not have had time to eat. While he’d decided to imitate the former prince’s way of life, and he’d also decided to begin to change the way people perceived him a bit at a time. Although he had determined to imitate Prince Roland’s way of doing things at first, he also wanted to make changes gradually. The Assistant Minister is a good first target for my plan. Roland thought to himself. "Making one’s subordinates feel valued invariably makes them more motivated to work for oneself. Taking the initiative is always the most efficient way of doing things, no?"

Barov accepted the cup of milk from Roland but didn’t drink. He anxiously said, "Your Highness, we have a problem. Three days ago, guards reported that a camp suspected to be inhabited by witches has been discovered in the western forest. They left in a hurry and didn’t clean up their traces. A guard found this in the camp."

He took out a coin from his pocket and put it in front of Roland. This was not a common currency seen in the kingdom, at least according to Roland’s memories, and he had never seen such a coin. In fact, it did not appear to be made of metal. He pinched the coin in his hands and was surprised to feel that the coin was becoming warmer. The heat definitely did not come from the Assistant Minister's body, as it was above 40℃ at least, and it made him think of heating pads.

"What is this?" Roland asked.

"I thought it was just some foul trinket that a witch made, but it’s actually more serious than that." Barov had to pause to wipe his forehead. "The printed pattern is known as the Insignia of the Sacred Mountain and Magic Eye, which is the emblem of the Witch Cooperation Association."

Roland rubbed the coin’s uneven surface, and guessed that it was probably made of fired ceramic. Indeed, he saw that in the center of the coin was carved a mountain-shaped pattern—It was formed by three juxtaposing triangles, and the image of an eye was placed in the space between the triangles. The pattern’s contour lines were very crude, and therefore he judged that it was polished by hand.

Roland attempted to recall the two terms "Insignia of the Sacred Mountain and Magic Eye" and "Witch Cooperation Association", but did not discover any relevant information. It seemed that Prince Roland knew nothing about occultism.

Neither did Barov expect Roland to have any knowledge about this. He continued, "Your Highness, you haven’t seen a real witch before, so it’s understandable that you’re unimpressed. Like us, they can be hurt. They bleed, and aren’t any harder to kill than the rest of us, but that’s only for witches who don’t have resistance. The lifespan of witches who receive the Devil’s power would shorten greatly, but they would obtain a terrible amount of power which ordinary people are unable to rival. Once the witches are fully developed, our armies will suffer greatly. Their appetite for disaster is extremely difficult to restrain or suppress, and they’ve already degenerated into the devil’s minions. The Church therefore formed a Punishment Army, which would arrest and execute any woman who was discovered to have the slightest chance of transforming into a witch. The King has approved of this decree, and in fact, these measures have been highly effective and the incidents of witches wreaking havoc have greatly declined in comparison to a hundred years ago. Rumors about the Holy Mountain, or rather, the Gates of Hell, were derived from an ancient book of that era."

Roland, while gnawing on his bread, sneered in his heart continuously. Although the histories of this world and the world he was from were very different, their historical trajectories were surprisingly similar. The Church was still the Church; he understood that religion was the real Devil’s minion and the real source of evil. Executing a person because a small sign was discovered, and using God’s name to set laws, and then to arrest, trial and sentence a person, were in itself a form of degeneration. The Prince Roland’s memories of the Church’s misuse of authority corroborated with his views.

Unaware of Roland’s thoughts Barov continued, "It’s recorded in ancient books that witches can only find real peace in the Holy Mountain. There, they wouldn’t be reverse bitten by their magic powers, and wouldn’t be troubled by burgeoning desires. There’s no doubt that the so-called Holy Mountain is the birthplace of evil and an entrance from the human world to Hell. I think that only Hell won’t punish this bunch of degenerates."

"How about the Witch Cooperation Association? What’s their relationship with the Holy Mountain?" Roland enquired.

Barov explained with a grimace, "In the past, witches acted solitarily, whether it was to flee or to live in seclusion. But in recent years, the Witch Cooperation Association appeared and made a difference. They wanted to gather all witches and find the Holy Mountain together. For this purpose, the Witch Cooperation Association would even lure other people to become witches,, In the Port of Clearwater, there have been many cases of female babies disappearing in the past year, and there are rumors that they were the doings of witches."