Release that Witch

Ever since the previous meeting with the Taquila witches, Roland had looked forward to meeting with the central carrier.

To decipher the literature left by the underground civilization, many Taqila survivors had sacrificed themselves by merging their souls, but it could only answer yes or no questions. Otherwise, it was basically a useless object. Thinking of this solemn story, he felt that an air of mystery shrouded this central carrier.

When Roland finally saw it, he gasped in shock. It was chained up in a secret chamber under the hall.

This blob, much bigger than any original carrier such as the one occupied by Pasha, was heavily chained. Its thickest tentacles were forced apart and nailed to the walls or the ceiling. From its badly scarred skin and its broken tentacles, he could tell that it was not the first time she was treated this way.

He remembered that it was able to feel things just like the original carriers.

It was able to feel the heat and cold, taste the sweet and bitter, and feel pain.

He could not help knitting his eyebrows, asking, ”Why? I remember the volunteers integrating with the central carrier were all witches, even including one of your Three Chiefs, E...”

”Lady Eleanor, Your Majesty,” Pasha sighed. ”We had no choice. Carriers are as powerful as God’s Punishment Warriors. Their tentacles can drill into the earth and build a light well in the dome. They can also attack enemies and tear a prey in half. If we don’t keep her here, she’ll subconsciously move around and cause us lots of trouble. If that happens, she’ll be even harder to deal with than those hybrid demonic beasts.”

Roland quickly understood Pasha’s feelings of powerlessness. He guessed that this tentacle blob might be a combat unit created by the underground civilization, but if it lost its mind and got out of control, it would be a serious threat to the relic of gods and the magic core. He believed that the Taquila survivors did not want to take this risk and as a result, they had no choice but to keep it trapped here.

However, knowing the reason did not make him feel any better.

He felt sad for the witches who had willingly sacrificed everything for Taquila only to end up imprisoned in this dark corner.

Seeing Roland contemplate these emotions, Pasha said with a mixed expression of gratitude and sadness, ”We tried to ask about their feelings, but we were unable to get a response. The souls merged with the central carrier cannot be separated again by the magic core, so we have no idea whether they’re able to feel what’s going on.”

Alethea who remained quiet suddenly spoke again, ”All the Taquila witches, including us, have determined to follow Lady Eleanor forever. You don’t have to feel too bad for them. They knew the what they were going into” Roland somehow felt that her voice wasn’t as cold as before.

Well… If it had been as cold as dry ice, it’s now only cool as iced water.

Celine added, ”When we asked the central carrier whether we should chain her, all her three main tentacles answered yes. If she hadn’t agreed to this, we would not have tied her up so tightly.”

Roland nodded and said, ”Maybe the Witch Union can help you with this problem. Soraya can produce flexible fabrics to replace the iron chains, and a little girl named Softfeathers can stick things together. If they work together, they may find some way to constrain her without hurting her. If you don’t mind...”

Pasha slightly lowered the main tentacle on her head and said, ”That will be great. You have my gratitude.”

”Don’t worry about it.” Roland replied then asked. ”What did you mean by ’all three main tentacles answered yes’? She can say yes with one main tentacle and no with another at the same time? When that happens, how can you make sure of what she’s trying to say?”

”Let Celine explain that to you.”

Hearing that there may be a way to alleviate the pain of the witches in the central carrier, Celine seemed quite excited and answered, ”The central carrier is different from us. It has three main tentacles, which enables her to express more complicated information without communicating through telepathy, which is what I’m doing right now.”

With these words, Celine’s main tentacle on her head emitted a beam of dim red light.

”Oh? It can even shine?”

”Yes, before we learned how to communicate through thoughts, we often used this method to express our feelings and emotions. But now we don’t use it as much anymore.” She moved to the center of the secret chamber, pointing at the three main tentacles which were hanging from the central carrier’s head and were nailed to the ground. ”Without consciousness, she can’t express her feelings. She’s only able to reply yes or no through the red light. If a main tentacle shines, it means yes. If it doesn’t, it means no.”

She continued to explain, ”However, when we were deciphering the literature of the underground civilization, we realized that a simple yes or no couldn’t quickly help us find the correct answers. For example, if we mistake the sentence ’I’m a Taqila witch’ for ’I’m a witch’ or ’I’m Taquila”, she’ll answer no. With this method, we would have to spend a lot of time on confirming each simple sentence.”

Roland immediately understood what she meant. ”So you counted her shining main tentacles to see how close you got to the right answer.”

Celine exclaimed, ”You really are smart. That’s right. When we read her something closer to the right answer, she would show us more red lights. When all three of her main tentacles shone, it meant that the answer was either 100 percent correct or she couldn’t agree more.”

Roland felt touched yet again by these witches, thinking, ”So that was how this fusion of all the witches’ souls including Eleanor’s confirmed that they should be constrained underground? Even though it was unclear whether these souls made this decision for the sake of safety or based on their own feelings, this choice was still quite moving.”

He took a deep breath, asking, ”May I ask her some questions?”

Celine moved to the side and answered, ”Yes, of course. You can just ask her directly.”

Roland approached the central carrier and asked slowly, ”Suppose now I’ve two baskets. Each basket has two apples inside. After I dump out all the baskets, there are four apples on the ground. Is it right?”

All the three tentacles shone at once.

Celine was startled, ”Uhm... Is that what you wanted to ask?”

Wendy also felt a little embarrassed at this moment, asking, ”Your Majesty, what’re you up to now?”

”It’s just a test,” Roland remained calm and continued to ask the second question. ”Now suppose that I’ve got 12,345 baskets, and each basket has 54,321 apples. If I dump out all the baskets, how many apples are there on the ground?” He took out a paper strip and continued, ”I guess there are this many apples. Am I right?”

He read out the correct answer he had prepared in advance, which was a nine-digit number. The calculation required to get this number should be considered quite complex at this age. He believed that people who had never gone through Neverwinter’s Mathematics education could never get the right answer in a short amount of time. This can be seen from the shared silence amongst the Taquila Senior Witches.

However, all the three main tentacles of the central carrier shone red without delay after hearing what he said. Just as they did to the first question.