Release that Witch

Lucia carefully put three iron ingots on the bedroom floor. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath while reviewing the feelings from her past practices in her mind before she stretched out her hands to release her ability to surround the ingots.

This was the practice method Anna came up with for her, even the iron ingots were specially made by Anna. The three ingots contained different compositions. The ingots were fused with silver, copper, lead and some other impurities. Her task was to identify the separate elements without breaking down the ingots and find the ingot with the highest content of silver.

It meant that she would need to control the magic power output and to perform it on each ingot once.

Otherwise, the impurities would be further dissociated and would cause the ingot to break apart. This was the reason that she found her ability difficult to control at her home in Valencia. She would restore paper products but due to her lack of understanding of her magic power and effect, the results were inconsistent and sometimes catastrophic with most raw materials of some paper being refined down to water and gas.

The first lesson that the witches taught her when she first came to Border Town was to practice controlling her magic power.

Lucia did not believe that the invisible and intangible magic power could also be precisely controlled until Anna demonstrated how to measure the length with the Blackfire and Lucia realized that she had been totally wrong. Anna could even adjust the output of the magic power to transform the size and thickness of the Blackfire, and it was always perfectly accurate every time.

”Sister, are you starting to practice again?” Ring curiously stuck her head out from the bed. ”We’ve just had lunch.”

Lucia flicked her hand and the iron ingot was suddenly changed into several piles of powder.

”I’ve told you not to bother me when I cast my ability,” Lucia knocked on her sister’s head and said, ”concentrate on your book!”

”I don’t understand,” Ring pouted and said, ”I don’t understand the meaning of half of the words. Unlike you, I can’t read and write.”

”That’s why you have to read more. Many words have similar structures. Even if you haven’t seen it before, you should also be able to guess its meaning. Literacy itself is a process of familiarization.”

”Okay.” Ring retracted her head.

Lucia re-focused on the second iron ingot while controlling the magic power to slowly flow out. She imagined it as a layer of gauze, and she controlled it gently to cover the target and wrap it up evenly.

”Hey, I’m here.” The door suddenly opened and a blonde woman walked into the room. ”Oh, are you practicing your ability?”

”Sister Nightingale!” Ring yelled with joy.

The second iron ingot was turned into dust again.

Lucia sighed and collected all the metal scraps on the floor into the sack as she felt that she might not be able to practice anymore this afternoon.

”This is for you.”

An ice-cream with a strong aroma of milk appeared in front of her.

”Thank you.” Lucia took the ice-cream. ”But, isn’t it only offered for afternoon tea?”

Nightingale patted her chest proudly. ”That’s what I asked for as a reward from His Highness. Oh yeah... You also have one.” She handed the other one to Ring, making the little girl laugh joyfully.

”Sister Nightingale is the best!”

[What a brat! She totally forgets about me whenever she gets delicious food,] Lucia thought. However, once Lucia took a bite of the ice-cream, she felt that she would probably have the same reaction as Ring if she were the sister. The ice-cream’s mellow honey and milk favor melted in the mouth. The cool and refreshing taste blended both of the flavors together and further enhanced the sweetness. The cooling sensation was still lingering in her mouth even after swallowing it.

No one could resist its yumminess, especially in the hot summer. No wonder His Highness only distributed ice-creams during the weekends’ afternoon tea time. Such a unique delicacy would probably cost a lot as she had never heard about it before.

Thinking about it, Lucia could not help asking, ”How did you ask His Highness for this?”

”Hehe.” Nightingale lifted her lips. ”I achieved third place in the test, only behind Wendy and Leaf. However, His Highness thought I wouldn’t pass, which was completely different from the actual situation, so I asked him for a reward.”

”I... see,” Lucia hesitated and said, ”how about my scores?”

”Your score is 68, but I’m not sure which place you’re at.”

”Uh, so low.” Lucia was depressed. [I’m a literate, but I only correctly answered a little more than half out of a total of 120 marks.]

”It’s pretty good,” Nightingale said, patting her head, ”after all, you only joined the class not long ago. You’re, of course, poorer in the maths and natural science. You can ask me if you have anything you don’t understand.”

”What about me? Can I ask?” Ring raised her hand.

”Of course,” Nightingale answered with a smile, ”You’re always welcome.”

”When I pass the primary assessment, will I be able to choose my own work?”

”It’s still early for you. His Highness has said that the minimum age to work is 14 years old and you’re only 10, so don’t be worried.” Lucia stared at her.

The little girl reluctantly answered, ”I want to share the pressure with you as early as I can because it’s going to take a lot of money for things like getting married and having kids. Life’ll be very hard if money isn’t enough!”

”Who did you hear that from?” Lucia said with her hand on her forehead.

”Dad. He was always nagging that he wouldn’t be able to support us anymore.”

”Pfft,” Nightingale could not help laughing and said, ”if you can work, where will you choose to go?”

”The chemistry laboratory!” Ring raised her hand and said, ”I want to be an alchemist, obtaining the title of philosopher, accepting everyone’s admiration and praise!”

”You’d... better not.” She shook her head. ”The lab is pretty dangerous.”

”Dangerous?” Both of the sisters asked in surprise.

”Yeah,” Nightingale stretched out her arms and said, ”Alchemists have to not only deal with the acid often, but also have to face explosions sometimes. Even the chief alchemist can’t avoid such accidents, he blew off four of his fingers last time. Without Nana, Mr. Kyle Sichi would probably never be able to pick up bottles and jars for the rest of his life.” She paused. ”And recently, His Highness has wanted to develop a new gunpowder that even he thought was extremely dangerous himself, so it was necessary to make a separate laboratory for it.”

”Uh, what good advice do you have in this case?” Lucia put her arms around Ring and decided not to let her sister work in such a terrible place.

”Of course, joining the City Hall and becoming a government official.”

”Government... Official?” Lucia repeated.

”Ahem, that’s what His Highness was murmuring about. General speaking, it’s a City Hall official.” Nightingale coughed twice and continued to say, ”It’s stable, safe and the payment is in the upper-middle class. It also has good prospects and the payment would be comparable with that of the witches when one becomes a department manager.”

”I see,” Lucia thoughtfully said.

”Sister Nightingale, do you like His Highness?” Ring asked, ”there’re a lot of ’His Highness says’ in your words, and mom had said that we’ll only keep mentioning a person because we like him very much.”

Ring’s question surprised Lucia, [Damn, how can she ask such a question directly? It’s so impolite. Even ordinary friends will not ask so directly... Nightingale is a respected senior.] She quickly covered Ring’s mouth and when she was about to apologize, Nightingale frankly answered.

”Well, I do like him.”