Release that Witch

”Is it regarding the prophecy of the Bloody Moon?” Dispersion Star sat down.

”Well, that’s a part of it. Since you’ve touched on that point, let’s start with the prophecy then.” The young king rose to his feet and poured a cup of tea for the astrologer who was totally struck by such an act of condescension. Apparently, Roland was much more easygoing than Timothy.

”With respect to the prophecy of the Bloody Moon, it can be traced back to over 1,000 years ago when there was neither the Kingdom of Graycastle nor the Wimbledon Family.”

”But Your Majesty, the records show that our history only dates back to over 450 years ago...”

”The missing part was indeed documented but was later deliberately concealed by someone.” Roland switched to a more comfortable sitting position and said, ”It’s a long story, which I’ll need some time to fully explain to you.”

What the astrologer heard afterward was inscrutably astonishing.

The story brought him back to the uninhabited Barbarian Land and the Land of Dawn 1,000 years ago when demons and human beings had had a prolonged war of life and death. It talked about the symbolic meaning of the Bloody Moon, the witch empire, the origins of the Four Kingdoms, as well as that of the church... If it was not out of the mouth of the king, Dispersion Star would definitely condemn the speech and describe it as horrendous and absurd.

Nonetheless, from Roland’s expression, Dispersion Star could tell the king was absolutely serious.

After Roland finished the speech, Dispersion Star felt suffocated. He had firmly believed that the doomsday was simply a God’s punishment. The shaking seabed, the cracking earth, the underground fire and thunderbolts from the sky, as terrifying as they were, would not completely destroy human civilizations. As long as men got prepared in advance, a great part of cities could still survive these catastrophes.

According to His Majesty, however, the Bloody Moon was a signal of the commencement of the war from demons.

It seemed that the war between human beings and demons had lasted for a thousand years. Men had been defeated twice, and one more, they would be completely eliminated from the earth.

”Your Majesty...” Dispersion Star almost lost his voice. ”Where did you learn these?”

Roland stuck out two fingers. ”The witch empire and the church. They both have something to do with the establishment of the Four Kingdoms, including the Kingdom of Graycastle. I’ve actually encountered demons to the west of the Western Region. They were, veritably, of a foreign race, who have developed their own civilization and built their own armies.”

”And... what’s the smile of deities?”

”Nobody knows. Perhaps we’ll only find out the answer after the Battle of Divine Will.”

Dispersion Star fell silent. He was not sure whether he should believe this appalling narrative, but then he soon realized the story connected to the rise and fall of the Kingdom of Graycastle and the thriving of the Wimbledon Family. As the king of the realm, Roland had no reason to lie to him.

There was no point for him to do that.

Suppose everything Roland had said was true, it would then make sense why His Majesty trusted witches so much.

Suppose witches’ power did not come from demons, naturally, they would no longer be men’s enemies.

In this light, the rumors about the innocence of witches circulated in the old king’s city were simply a tip of the iceberg of the truth. Without a doubt, it was pretty wise and cautious of His Majesty to selectively disclose the information and hold back the part that would potentially spark panic among the multitude.

The only thing that Dispersion Star failed to understand was how the Bloody Moon in the sky bore a relationship to the Gates of Hell.

”Your Majesty, what can I do for you?”

Dimly, Dispersion Star was aware that it was probably not out of any astrological reasons that the king had asked the Astrology Association to move to the Western Region several times. Roland apparently knew much more about the Star of Extinction than any astrologers. If Dispersion Star was not informed of this secret today, he would never possibly know what had happened 1,000 years ago.

”This is what I want to discuss with you next, which may be even more important than the secret I told you earlier,” Roland answered with a smile and handed a book on the desk to him. ”Take a look at this first.”

Dispersion Star took the book and noticed the title on the cover was a combination of phrases he had never seen before.

”Analytic... geometry?”

The word was quite a mouthful. Surprisingly, it was printed in a blue color that could only be produced with very fine and expensive blue pigments.

”Take your time. It’s fine if you don’t understand. You’ll need to learn a lot of things in the future.”

Although the lighting in Roland’s room was relatively decent even without a candle, it was still not comparable to daylight. As such, Dispersion Star felt reluctant to read the book right away, as late night reading could more or less cause eye damage.

As an astrologer, he should well protect his eyes.

Nevertheless, Dispersion Star did not want to directly decline the king’s request and thereby infuriate him. So, he decided to just quickly skim it through and read more carefully tomorrow when there was adequate lighting.

His eyes, however, were glued to the contents after he read the prologue on the first page.

”To describe the orbits of objects with arithmetic formulas? To calculate the entire orbit with only a few key parameters?”

Next came several groups of intersecting straight lines, each of which constituted a coordinate system consisting of four planes. In each coordinate, there was a simple shape. Some were just diagonal straight lines, some a section of a curve, some ovals and others a combination of multiple curves. They looked nothing strange, but Dispersion Star’s attention was soon caught by the arithmetic formula next to the circle shape.

”That should be an arithmetic formula,” thought Dispersion Star.

The formula contained a plus mark and an equal mark, starting and ending with the same symbol. Dispersion Star did not have the faintest idea what the formula represented, but somehow he perceived the beauty of it. Every symbol possessed a unique charm and was in perfect harmony with the others.

Although each shape was distinct from each other and by no means display the same type of orbit (for example, a straight line and an oval), there was no noticeable difference between their arithmetic formulas.

An idea suddenly flashed across his mind uncontrollably.

”Is it possible that every shape in this world can be described with a corresponding arithmetic formula?”

The astrologer turned to the second page hurriedly in excitement.

...

By the time Dispersion Star closed the book, his neck was sore. Evidently, it had taken him more than an hour to read the whole book. Meanwhile, Roland appeared to be quite absorbed in his occupation. He was busy drafting the document on the desk and had not interrupted his reading.

”I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I...”

”Done?” Roland looked up and smiled at the astrologer. ”I bet there’s a lot you don’t understand.”

”Yes. I don’t recall any court mentors have taught you those... those symbols and formulas...” Out of ten court mentors, nine were from the Astrology Association. However, what His Majesty had written had totally blown his mind. ”They’re very interesting, but I just can’t have a good grasp on these complicated formula conversions.”

”That’s because you haven’t learned equations. You’ve got to learn this in order to comprehend analytic geometry.” Magically, the king produced a stack of books from the desk and presented them to the astrologer, the titles of which were either in blue or green. All of the titles sounded weird and mouthful.

Dispersion Star’s hands started to tremble. ”Can I take them back home?”

”Certainly.” Roland nodded. ”Actually, I want not only you but also all the astrologers and the students in the association to learn them.” After a pause, Roland continued, ”The second thing I want to let you know is that you don’t need to worry too much about the Bloody Moon. Once you fully understand everything in the books, the Astrology Association can play an irreplaceable role in the war against demons. These books mean to simply enlighten you. There’ll be something more profound and difficult coming next. By that time, you’ll not only be able to calculate the orbit of a moving object, but also that of every tree and every stone on the earth, every star in the sky, everything that you see on this planet. How does it sound like? Are you willing to accept the challenge?”

”Yes, I’d like to, Your Majesty!”

Astrologer of Dispersion Star gave an affirmative answer immediately, now completely elevated from the dejection he had sunk in when Roland had ignored his discovery of the Star of Extinction.

He now foresaw thousands of stars moved along the paths he calculated.

The young king, in the meantime, smiled. The smile was so strange that it reminded Dispersion Star of a hunter who watched an animal slowly falling into his trap.

”Awesome. But please don’t be discouraged. It’s going to be hard, and it’s perfectly normal that you come across some obstacles. I believe you’ll eventually get the hang of them.”