Release that Witch

”The King of... Graycastle!”

Lorenzo shuddered at this name.

Everybody in the church had heard of him. Within merely a few years, this man had elevated himself from the lord of an insignificant border town to the sovereign of the state. Nothing could explain his sudden rise. He had even defeated the Holy City of Hermes which had once dominated the entire continent.

In fact, Roland Wimbledon was the main reason Lorenzo had made such a quick decision to sever his relationship with the church. Realizing that the conflict between the church and Graycastle could never be settled, he had quickly resigned his bishop position to escape from the trouble.

But Lorenzo did not understand why Roland suddenly extended his power to the borders of the Kingdom of Dawn and the Kingdom of Wolfheart. As a new king, he should have focused on domestic affairs instead of creating a new commotion. He wondered what Roland was up to this time.

”Are you sure?” asked the earl as he looked at Hagrid. ”Fill me in!”

”I got the news from various reliable sources,” Hagrid said positively. ”The troop stationed at the foot of Cage Mountain is from Graycastle. Their outfits and weapons fit the description. Further, death row prisoners from all parts of the Kingdom of Dawn are heading to Cage Mountain as well. Some of them proclaimed that they work for the King of Graycastle!”

”Cage Mountain... death row prisoners...” Lorenzo paced the room when a sudden thought struck him. ”Is he coming for that...”

”Very likely, your lordship.” Hagrid nodded before correcting himself, ”No... he must be coming for that.”

”How did he know?” asked the earl.

”It isn’t surprising that he knew. The discovery of the ruin was simply pure luck. I always thought that there must be a connection between those ruins, and Roland happens to be the first person who noticed this connection.”

Although the church did not know the exact reason behind Prince Roland’s swift rise, there were quite a few theories. Apart from ridiculous rumors such as the incarnation of God and the spokesman for the demons, many people believed that Prince Roland had obtained some mysterious power from a ruin.

Even though the three Archibishops had dismissed this theory as another groundless rumor, many believers had insisted that this was the truth. Lorenzo had also been one of them.

”Otherwise, how did Roland defeat the Holy City?”

The most incredible ruin in Cage Mountain was the Cursing Temple.

A few years ago, when the God’s Punishment Army had invaded the Kingdom of Wolfheart, many nobles had either been killed in action or surrendered. Even the Queen of Clearwater had failed to stop the church. As the former bishop in Archduke Island, Lorenzo had assisted in the logistics and the post-war clean-up. He had been responsible for sending some of the looted military supplies to the front and storing away the rest. During an operation at Cliff Ridge, he had accidentally learnt about an ancient legend that had been circulated for 100 years.

It was rumored that a group of villagers had stolen some treasures from the Cursing Temple but died shortly afterwards. The local nobles had later taken possession of these treasures which the ancestors of Cliff Ridge’s Earl had been very interested in. He believed that the deaths had nothing to do with the curse on the temple but with the treasures taken out from the temple. Thus, he had put a lot of effort and time searching for them and had finally retrieved a part of these treasures from the Kingdom of Dawn.

The research had cost a dozen lives. In the end, the old earl had finally found something unusual. It was a lethal weapon that produced a deadly ray, working just like a curse!

But the weapon had lost its power after several uses as if its power had been exhausted. Although the old earl had sent many people to the border to search for a similar one whilst even risking his life to explore the temple himself, he had not found a way to recover it. Therefore, he had recorded the incident in his family book, hoping his descendents would one day find an answer. The miraculous ”weapon” had thus been passed down through generations until the church had seized Cliff Ridge a century later.

Lorenzo had been very interested in the item in the beginning. However, after he had played around with it for a few times, nothing had happened. He had thus lost his interest and put it away with the other treasures in the warehouse, planning to deal with it after he had returned to the Holy City.

After all, he could not take a family book too seriously. Many nobles boasted about their long family history, their aristocratic origin, and their accumulated wealth. If the church was so gullible as to believe all of them, they would not have wiped out the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter that easily. Rather, it would have been the other way around.

After the church had suffered a miserable defeat in Coldwind Ridge, the situation had taken a turn for the worse. Nobody had cared about the looted items any longer, and Lorenzo had also put the matter out of his mind. He had almost forgotten about it until Hagrid reminded him.

It was very likely that the King of Graycastle was coming for the treasures in the Cursing Temple.

Getting excited, the earl urged Hagrid. ”Go on!”

”Yes, your lordship.” Hagrid inclined his head. ”Suppose Roland Wimbledon learned about the treasures in the ruins from other sources, he would probably know how this thing works. According to what I know, this powerful thing can probably replace the God’s Punishment Warriors.”

”Right, this is a cursed weapon! It can definitely deter the nobles in the Kingdom of Wolfheart from challenging my authority. Meanwhile, it’ll earn me some time to search for the Holy Book,” thought Lorenzo.

Lorenzo stomped in excitement. ”Come with me to the warehouse, now!”

”Your lordship?”

”I have to make sure that it’s still on Archduke Island. Since it’s so important, I have to guard it well.”

...

To prevent an information leak, Lorenzo took no one but his butler and searched the whole warehouse for half a day. After hours of strenuous work, he finally found the ”treasure” in a corner.

Lorenzo was happy that he did not include a third person in this search.

As he opened the pouch, he immediately noticed its difference compared to the other treasures.

Compared to all the other looted treasures such as luminous pearls and beautiful sculptures, the thing in the pouch was nothing but a stone. It was square, much coarser than polished granites, and was not even bigger than his palm. Nobody would have ever spared it a glance if there were no decorative sapphire stripes on it.

The Earl of Cliff Ridge had also mentioned in his family book that the item had cost him the least out of all the treasures he had owned.

But now, the stripes on the stone were emanating a soft blue glow. The light pointed from one end to the other as if it was giving a direction.

Lorenzo exchanged a look with the butler. Both of them were exhilarated by their discovery!

It was unbelievable that the stone, which had been unresponsive over the past 100 years, would show signs of activity just when Roland sent his people to the Cursing Temple.

Now, Lorenzo was almost certain about Roland’s motive!

He was sure that Roland knew how to recover the stone!

”I want you to go to Cage Mountain,” said Lorenzo as he slipped the stone into his pocket cautiously. ”I trust no one but you. Try to get the information on how to use the stone. Don’t worry about money.”

”Rest assured. I’ll do my best,” replied Hagrid while placing his hand on his chest.

”Another thing,” The earl said slowly. ”Make sure that the King of Graycastle doesn’t notice you. He could destroy the church and certainly could destroy you effortlessly. You have to keep a low profile unless the stone exerts its power... I place the future of Archduke Island in your hands.”