Release that Witch

In Neverwinter, Graycastle.

The Police Department was stirred. Everyone was busy issuing orders and making reports. The appearance of the Bloody Moon became the latest topic of discussion, and the whole organization went on a sort of ”rampage”.

The Police Department kept close watch on the new king’s city of Graycastle where Roland lived. They make records of every single trivial matter that occurred in the king’s city, and certainly a major event like a fire or an explosion would be big news.

Carter Lannis had not slept for two days. After calming down his frightened wife, he immediately devoted himself to work. As the Chief Knight, he was obligated to protect the king and eliminate anyone who attempted to stir up trouble. Usually, multiple incidents implied an active underground criminal group. Therefore, he sent for the Neverwinter Detective Group at once to assist with the investigation. Carter believed that he would soon get to the bottom of it and find out the culprit.

However, after he submitted a number of reports, the king founded a Joint Investigation Team comprised of the Witch Union, the Security Bureau of Kingdom, and the Administrative Office to investigate the new magic movie instead of the crimes in the city.

”Sir, we brought the witnesses,” a knight whispered to Carter. ”Would you like to start the interrogation now?”

Carter drained his teacup and said with a firm nod, ”Yes, let’s get started. Send everyone in.”

”Yes, sir.”

Since they were making an inquiry to witnesses rather than prisoners, the interrogation took place in an office so that the witnesses would feel more comfortable to come forward with information. Apart from Carter himself who joined the Joint Investigation Team, Ms. Agatha and the assistant director of the Security Bureau, Vader, also took part in the investigation.

The first witness was a 21-year-old maid working in a hotel. She was not an official Neverwinter resident and had no criminal records.

She looked pretty nervous, for she kept rubbing her hands against the chair.

Carter cast a glance at the materials he had regarding this maid and asked sternly, ”You’re Miss Tinkle, right? I’m curious. The ticket price for the premiere of the movie ’The Dust of History’ is 50 gold royals. How are you able to afford it?”

”Sir, I didn’t steal or rob!” Tinkle explained hotly. ”My customer, Mr. Victor, has a lot of money and he paid for me. There were many people in the hall that day, and I swear I’m not lying!”

Carter had conducted a background check before this interrogation. He reiterated the question simply to pressure the witness to tell the truth, as Miss Nightingale was not here to help him detect lies. Carter thus said, ”Victor, right? I’ll question him later. Now, let’s talk about what you saw after the movie.”

”Yes, sir...” the maid answered tremulously. ”I didn’t know what had happened at that time. Everything seemed so unreal.”

15 minutes later, Tinkle finished her story. ”Fortunately, the police repelled the soldiers. Otherwise, I couldn’t imagine what would have happened to these two people.”

Carter frowned. He had also watched the magic movie. ”The Wolf Princess” was quite impressive but it was definitely not something so strange like that.

”Are you sure that the soldiers’ weapons hurt the audience?”

”I... No, I’m not sure, but Mr. Victor did bleed, and I heard other people scream. I don’t think they were faking this up.”

”Do you remember when this happened?”

”About 10 minutes before the ending? Possibly even earlier than that... Sorry, I was too scared at that time to watch the movie, so Mr. Victor held me in his arms.”

”Do you have anything else to ask?” Carter asked the other two investigators.

Agatha said thoughtfully, ”If I remember correctly, the characters in the magic movie talked to you, right?” She then held up a picture and asked, ”Is he this person?”

It was an actor from the Star Flower Troupe, who played the guardian of the witch in the movie.

”Yes, it’s him. I remember very clearly that he thanked us!”

Carter felt a chill run down his spine. He knew that once the filming was completed, nobody could modify the contents of the movie. It was impossible for the characters to communicate with the audience.

Seeing that neither Agatha nor Vader have other questions, Carter waved his hand and said, ”Bring in the next witness.”

The statements of the other witnesses were pretty much identical. In short, the magic movie had suddenly become alive. Although they later confirmed that the incident was just a part of the movie, it did occur in real life. As multiple people gave the same story, Carter judged that this was not a hallucination.

Carter had been focused on the fire and explosion before, so he had not paid much attention to the incident in the movie theater. Now, he somehow understood why the king wanted to investigate this matter.

”The next witness is a police officer who was guarding the yard when the incident happened. He’s the captain of Team No. 2.”

”Let him in.”

The captain was apparently more composed than the other witnesses. He quickly related the story. ”I first heard someone cry for help outside. When I was about to get into the theater, I saw a red moon in the sky. To be honest, I was a little hesitant at that moment, as I didn’t know whether I should remain in my post or help those people. Just at that time, a witch ran out of the theater and asked me to bring my men and protect the audience.”

”And then you shot the soldiers in the magic movie?”

”It sounds very strange but that’s what I did. They’re probably just actors, but at that time, they did pose a real threat to the audience. I didn’t think I was hallucinating, so I immediately fired.”

The second last witness was the witch who broadcasted the movie on that day, Nightfall.

”What could I do? I was desperate. Normally, whoever has excess magic power would activate the Sigil of Recording. How do I know that this would happen?” Nightfall ranted. ”Everything went well at first. Then, suddenly, the Sigil pushed me out. I should have immediately cut off the magic power but it didn’t stop. I wanted to wake up the audience, but they were in a trance. Anyway, I did all I could. At last, I had no choice but to seek the police for help.”

Agatha twitched her lips and asked, ”The Sigil... pushed you out?”

”Pretty much like that. I felt a great force repelling me. The more magic power I put in, the greater this repulsive force was. Then, everything went back to normal.”

”Alright. Next.”

Carter was momentarily stunned when the last witness came in. The witness was none other than the screenwriter of the movie, Kajen Fels.

His hand clenched in a fist as soon as he sat down.

”In the name of God, this is definitely the most brilliant play I’ve ever watched in my life!”

”You were in the theater at that time?” Carter said while knitting his brows. As Kajen had once argued with Carter’s wife, Carter did not like this famous screenwriter very much. ”I looked at the list of customers. You were not on there.”

”He was at the backstage. There are special seats for staff members. In fact, the members of the Star Flower Troupe didn’t need to buy tickets to watch the show. Didn’t your wife tell you that?” Agatha supplied the answer. ”Actually, Kajen reported the incident to me and that’s why His Majesty asked the Witch Union to investigate the matter.”

”I apologize, but this is a personal habit of mine,” Kajen said while placing his hand on his chest. ”I like to watch my own play secretively so that I would know how my audience like the show. Ms. May knows it so she didn’t tell you.” Kajen’s voice was again alive with excitement. ”I have to admit that this is a miracle in the history of magic movie, because the audience changed the ending!”

”What did you say?” Carter asked in surprise.

”You heard it right, Mr. Knight. This wasn’t my story!” Kajen Fels said eloquently while flailing his arms. ”The original story has a sad ending. The guardian acts as a decoy to protect the witch. He then falls off the cliff. However, the audience saved them both. Is there anything better than that?”

The Chief Knight goggled at Kajen.

”I didn’t write those lines. The audience created this spectacular ending. Like the characters in the movie said, the audience saved them and altered their fate!” Kajen gradually raised his voice. ”This is the ultimate play that I’ve been trying to create for my whole life. If you find out the reason why, please tell me, please!”