Release that Witch

With everyone’s gaze on her, Scroll took fifteen minutes longer than earlier to calm her mind and catch hold of that hazy fluctuation of magic in her mind.

When she opened her eyes once more, she was already inside the cramped Archives.

Then, Phyllis materialized by her side in the appearance of a young witch. Centuries of time had not left any mark on her body and even though Phyllis had lived far longer than Scroll, Scroll seemed to be Phyllis’ elder instead at that moment.

“What should we do next?” Scroll asked.

“Leave it to me.” Phyllis revealed a confident smile, opened the iron door and walked out of the room.

Scroll hastily hurried after her.

The raucous, bustling, and magnificent city once more appeared before her eyes.

Phyllis glanced around her and very quickly locked her eyes on a young man walking in their direction. She grabbed Scroll’s hand, directly strode over, and blocked the young man’s way.

“Hello.”

Hearing her greeting, the man stopped, moved his gaze from a small box in his hand, and raised his head in confusion. When their gazes met, the man’s expression turned into shock. “Er… Um, can I help you?”

“Sorry, I’ve lost my phone and can’t contact my friend, can you—”

“I get it, is a hundred dollars enough?” The man quickly fished out his wallet from his coat’s pocket and proffered a red bill before her. At the same time there was a hint of pity in his voice, “I don’t mind being scammed, but looking at your outfit, whoever put you up to this made quite an effort.”

Phyllis’s smile froze. “No, I just want to borrow your phone to make a call.”

The man stood there for a moment before he realized that he had committed a faux paus. Embarrassed, he handed over the small box in his hand whilst profusely apologizing to the duo.

Phyllis shrugged and dialed a number.

At this point Scroll didn’t know what to say as she still had no idea what was happening. She could only pretend to be calm and stand in her spot despite panicking inside. This place was too different to the world that she was familiar with, the alienness of everything was like a suffocating wall pressing against her. Several people around them had already noticed them and unreservedly ogled them, some with malicious intent among them. It brought back memories of how her sisters had been exposed in public during the era of the Witch Cooperation Association.

“Don’t worry, the only thing they can do is watch.” Phyllis seemed to have noticed Scroll’s uneasiness and turned her head to the side to reassure her. “All you have to do is glare at them back and they’ll recoil faster than anyone else.”

At this moment, the small box beeped.

“Hello, is this Phyllis?”

It was His Majesty Roland’s voice.

Scroll relaxed instantly.

This place was the Dream World after all, and His Majesty wasn’t far from them.

The sense of unfamiliarity was still there but it was no longer stifling. Even the obvious stares upon them no longer brought her any embarrassment or discomfort.

Scroll inhaled deeply and stared back at the onlookers. Just as Phyllis said, they all immediately avoided her gaze and furtively looked in other directions.

The flow of people on the streets seemed to begin to move again.

“Yes it’s me, Miss Scroll is right by my side. The address is… Yes, that’s what it says on the map. It’s only two kilometers from your apartment’s estate? That’s great. Yes, I’ll wait for you here, Your M—Brother.” Phyllis ended the phone call and threw the small box back at the young man. “Thanks.”

“No—No problem.” He faltered for a long time and then hesitantly asked, “Um, can I add you as a friend?”

Phyllis casually responded with a string of numbers.

The man recorded it down as if he had been given a treasure. With his face shining with delight, he bade farewell to the two and left.

“The small box that you borrowed just then, could that be the wireless telephone that can communicate over thousands of kilometers that His Majesty often misses?” Scroll asked.

“Yes, the technology in this world is already at the stage where everybody has a wireless telephone. Not only can you talk to others on it, you can also know your location and search up information—it’s almost impossible to do without it now,” Phyllis explained. “It’s also because of this that as long as you remember their phone number, you can contact another person at any time. If you encounter a person you don’t want to talk to, just reject them directly or give them a random phone number.”

“So that’s how it is.” Scroll said in revelation. It was no wonder His Majesty said that if they were both in the Dream world, they would be able to reunite very quickly.

“But you have adjusted a lot quicker than I thought, as expected of a Witch Union mentor,” Phyllis said with a smile.

Scroll lightly shook her head but didn’t reply.

She knew where her courage came from.

Even though he was already clearly a king, he had not improved at all—for a king to say that they would protect their subordinate, this was probably only something His Majesty Roland would do. Really, just how long will he take to become a proper king?

Seriously, what was she doing? Ever since the Witch Cooperation Association received protection, she should have been standing in front, guarding the King, but up until now, she was still accepting the King’s protection, this was hardly a qualified performance of her.

But… if everyone was like this, it didn’t seem too bad.

Since it’s like this, then let’s just maintain the status quo a little while longer.

“Hey hey, look at the two over there.”

“That’s a medieval robe, are they cosplaying?”

“Speaking of which, they’re really quite pretty!”

“They’re on the level of celebrities…”

Now and then whispers would come from around them, but Scroll no longer felt any uneasiness.

About ten minutes later, a smooth, round vehicle stopped in front of them.

“Sorry to have kept you waiting.” His Majesty poked his head out from the window of the driver’s seat.

“Get on.” Phyllis opened the car door and pulled Scroll into the car with her.

Afterwards they drove off under the disbelieving gazes of onlookers and disappeared into the traffic on the main road.

“Our luck is really pretty good.” Ling, who was sitting in the passenger’s seat turned her head around. “If Your Excellency’s territory’s link with the Dream World is only two blocks away from the apartment, then Faldi’s flying insects will be able to subject that region under 24 hour surveillance.”

Faldi nodded. “That place had already been cleaned out once, there are currently no new traces of Fallen Evil activity, safety can probably be assured.”

“That’s good then.” Roland laughed. “Then as the first witch to enter the Dream World with her own power, Scroll, how do you feel?”

“So this is what a car is like in the Dream World?” Scroll felt the seat behind her and knocked the car window a few times. “The seat is softer than a couch. It’s so fast and drives so silently, this is hundreds of times better than steam-powered trucks… if only we could create such advanced transportation tools.”

For some reason, she suddenly felt that Roland’s smile had frozen a little and the other three God’s Punishment Witches had pursed their lips together, as if suppressing something.

“Um… did I say something wrong?”

“No, ahem… that day will surely come,” Roland said, clearing his throat.

“Oh yeah, Your Majesty, where are we going now?” Scroll said, observing the changing scenery outside, “Weren’t we going to perform a test on the Realm of Mind?”

“We can talk about that later. Haven’t you noticed? The clothes you two are wearing are attracting too much attention,” Roland said without turning his head. “Phyllis’s clothes are in the car and she can change later, but we currently don’t have any clothes that suit you. So the most important job right now is definitely to get you a new set of clothes!”