Chapter 793: The Ancient Witch’s Discovery
Roland said goodnight to Garcia and crossed back to his own apartment.
Phyllis was waiting in the living room. “Your Majesty — who is that woman?”
“A warrior. Consider her an Awakened with magic power in this Dream World.” He waved a hand. “Don’t mind her attitude. No one here knows I’m a king.”
“But she was also created by you, like everything in this world…” Phyllis was not quite willing to let it rest. Her respect for him had grown substantially since he had granted her request and introduced her to hotpot.
He sat across from her. “That’s not how they experience it. Everyone in this world has their own ideas, their own memories. Their entire lives have nothing to do with me. This world has rules of its own, and I have to follow them the same as anyone else.”
At the mention of this world, Phyllis’s eyes lit with the hunger of someone who had been saving a question for hours. She glanced toward Zero’s bedroom, then leaned forward and lowered her voice.
“Your Majesty, is this the real place where you once lived? Forgive my bluntness — but I don’t believe you were ever truly Prince Roland of Graycastle.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Why would you say that?”
“Because Neverwinter looks exactly like this world.” She spoke quickly now, as though the thought had been pressing against its walls. “When I first arrived in your city, I couldn’t understand why you built such wide, flat roads for carriages in a place where space is scarce — but now I understand. You didn’t build them for carriages. You built them for those fast four-wheeled vehicles. Your weapons, your plans for a ten-floor building, the powerful machine that runs on boiling water — everything in Neverwinter seems to trace back here.”
Roland thought for a moment, then answered carefully. “I am indeed Prince Roland. But when I came to Border Town, a different set of memories arrived in my mind — abstract, extraordinary knowledge that I’ve only partially mastered.” He had decided long ago that his time-travel story was something he would share only with his closest witch. He would not share it here.
Phyllis received this without a moment of doubt. “Then those memories must be divine gifts. Taquila witches always believed that the deities did not love humanity — but perhaps we were wrong. You have their grace. As long as you are with us, we will defeat the demons.”
Roland was startled by the certainty in her voice. He had spent considerable effort trying to persuade the Taquila survivors to trust in him — and now here was the first one to express genuine confidence, after nothing more than a walk through a park and two meals.
He mentioned this, tentatively.
Phyllis smiled. “Because of the four-wheeled iron vehicles.”
“The vehicles?”
“In Taquila’s time, supplying the front lines required enormous numbers of horses and carriages. Witches with speed abilities helped, but once the weight they carried exceeded a certain threshold, the magic cost multiplied many times over.” She settled into the explanation with a teacher’s ease. “The Union understood what it meant when we captured the demons’ Siege Beasts — huge things, each operable by a single witch, with a carrying capacity equal to four or five carriages. We knew then that the demons commanded far more efficient use of magic power than we did. Lady Alice’s God’s Punishment Army plan came directly from that understanding.”
“You judge an opponent’s strength by their capacity to transport supplies?” Roland asked, genuinely interested.
Phyllis nodded. “The method of transport — whether by hand or by horse — determines how far a force can project its power. The species that can travel farthest is the strongest.” A pause; she couldn’t quite suppress a smile. “In this Dream World, I saw an iron vehicle carrying more than a hundred people, several times faster than any carriage could manage. That is the measure of this world’s strength. If your weapons are built on the same principles, they will crush the demons.”
Roland was quiet for a moment after she finished. He was thinking of a topic he’d seen argued endlessly in online forums before his transmigration: how could humanity possibly defeat alien invaders?
The answer was that it couldn’t. Human civilization had barely managed to put a handful of astronauts on the nearest celestial body. An alien intelligence capable of crossing hundreds of light years would have consumed, in the act of travel alone, more energy than Earth could sustain. Any civilization that could reach us would be powerful enough to destroy us in passing. The moment we saw them would be the moment we died.
Yet here was a woman from four hundred years ago who had arrived at precisely the same conclusion — through a crowded bus and a pair of steam cylinders.
In the end Phyllis rose, pressed her hand to her chest, and bowed. “Though you have no witch’s power and cannot activate the Instrument of Divine Retribution, I believe you are the Chosen One the deities sent to us.”
Roland didn’t know whether to laugh or refute her. The logic was thin. But he said nothing — with the Taquila witches’ conviction behind him, Neverwinter’s future would be brighter regardless of its cause.
He stood and exhaled. “We don’t have much time. Let’s begin the test.”
They had to move quickly and quietly, to avoid waking Zero.
Phyllis climbed the ladder they set up against the wall, turned her back, and fell.
Nothing changed.
She could not leave the Dream World by falling alone.
Two possibilities remained, then. Either she would be expelled when Roland left. Or she was trapped here permanently.
Roland climbed up and sat on the top rung. Phyllis came to stand beneath him.
“If I can’t leave this Dreamland,” she said quietly, “don’t worry. It’s a good place, and I would not be unhappy here. And if I can never come back after leaving — I won’t forget any of this. I’ll always be thinking of it.”
Roland nodded.
He fell backward.
Darkness.
Chapter 793: The Ancient Witch’s Discovery
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
Roland went back to his apartment after bidding farewell to Garcia.
Phyllis who had been sitting in the living room waiting for him asked, “Your Majesty, who’s that person?”
“She’s a warrior. You can consider her as an Awakened with magic power in this Dream World.” He waved his hand. “You don’t have to mind her attitude. No one in this world knows I’m a king.”
“But after all, she’s also created by you like everything else in this world…” Phyllis still did not want to let it go. She showed him much greater respect after he had granted her request and treated her to tasty food.
He sat opposite to her and explained, “They don’t think so. All the people in this world have their own ideas and memories. Their whole lives have nothing to do with me. This world has its own rules which I also need to follow.”
When he was talking about this world, Phyllis’ eyes shone with excitement. She had been deeply shocked by her experiences here and had been meant to ask something about him. Now, she finally got the chance.
She looked at Zero’s bedroom and then whispered, “Your Majesty, is this the real place where you used to live? Please excuse me for being blunt, but I guess you’re not Prince Roland of Graycastle, are you?”
Roland raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Why did you say that?”
Phyllis was excited. “Because your Neverwinter looks just like this world! When I first came to your city, I didn’t quite understand why you built so
wide, flat roads for carriages even inside the city where space is limited… But now I know you didn’t build them for carriages. You did it for those fast four-wheeled vehicles! Your amazing weapons, your ambitious plan to build a 10-floor building, your powerful machine powered by boiling water and many other things in Neverwinter all seem to have something to do with this world.”
After a little thought, he said, “I’m indeed Prince Roland, but when I came to Border Town, some different memories just somehow popped into my head in a sudden. They’re some abstract, incredible knowledge, and I’ve only mastered a small part of it by now.” He decided not to tell her his time-travel story that he only wanted to share with his closest witch.
Phyllis did not doubt what he said at all. “Then those memories must be something from the deities. Taquila witches often said that the deities didn’t love human beings, but now it seems that we were wrong. You’ve got the deities’ smile. As long as you are with us, we’ll be able to defeat demons!”
Roland was startled hearing her share this idea with a decisive air. He had been trying hard to convince the Taquila survivors that he was able to defeat demons, but it was the first time a Taquila witch expressed confidence in him. He was a little uncertain since he had only brought her to a park and some restaurants instead of a scene of the military exercises.
He subtly mentioned his uncertainty, and Phyllis frankly told him what she thought. “Because of those four-wheeled iron vehicles.”
“The vehicles?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Back in Taquila’s age, we had to use lots of horses and carriages to send supplies to the front line camps. Some witches did have the ability to move fast but they could hardly complete this kind of tasks. Once the weight they carried exceeded a certain point, the consumption of magic power would increase by many folds. I believe you’ve know this phenomenon already.”
She continued, “We felt great pressure when the Union seized the demons’ Siege Beasts. Such a big thing, hundreds of times heavier than a person,
could be operated by only one witch. When its iron shield and bolts on the top were removed, its loading capacity was equivalent to that of four to five carriages. Judging from this, we all knew that demons were much better at manipulating magic power than us. At that time, the Quest Society also believed demons’ fighting potential was far greater than ours. Given this, Lady Alice started to pin her hope on the God’s Punishment Army plan.”
“So you guys judge an opponent’s potential by their transportation capacity?” Roland asked with interest.
Phyllis nodded. “Yes. The method to transport goods, manually carried or horse-drawn, determines how far we can go. The species who’re able to travel farthest are the strongest.” She paused here and could not help smiling. “In this Dream World, I saw a four-wheeled iron vehicle several times farther than a carriage could travel. They’re as fast as the wind while carrying over 100 people. That shows this world’s strength. If your weapons are also created based on something from this world, I believe they’ll easily crush demons.”
Having heard her explanation, Roland was touched and lost in thought. Limited by their knowledge and era, the Taquila witches failed to defend the Fertile Plains, but that doesn’t mean they’re stupid. Phyllis is quite smart to infer this world’s strength from some crowded bus. Such an insightful observation is really impressive even for people in modern times.
He suddenly thought of a topic frequently discussed by netizens in forums, “How can we defeat aliens who come to invade the Earth?”
In fact, this discussion was meaningless. Human beings worked hard only to send several astronauts to the moon, the closest celestial body to the Earth. This achievement was nothing when the alien invaders were able to travel hundreds of light years or even across the galaxies to the Earth. The energy they had consumed in their travel was enough to burn the Earth to ashes. How could human beings defeat such strong enemies?
He believed that if a civilization was able to travel in space and expand its power to another solar system, it would be strong enough to destroy human
beings on the Earth. The moment we saw these alien invaders would be our time of death.
To his surprise, he found Phyllis or the dominators of Taquila also knew this truth about war very well.
In the end, the ancient witch stood up and bowed to him with hand on her chest once again. “Though you aren’t a witch and unable to activate the Instrument of Divine Retribution, I still believe you’re the Chosen One the deities sent to us.”
Hearing this tenuous conclusion, Roland did not know whether to laugh or cry, but he did not point out her mistake. He knew that with Taquila witches’ support, his Neverwinter would have a brighter future.
He took a deep breath and rose. “We don’t have much time. Let’s start testing.”
They had to move fast and carefully in case that they would wake up Zero at night.
After setting up a ladder, Phyllis climbed to the top and turned her back to the bed. She fell down from the ladder, but nothing changed after her fall.
That meant she could not leave the Dream World by falling.
Now, there were only two possibilities.
She would leave here when Roland left this Dream World. Or, she would be trapped in this world forever.
When he climbed up the ladder and sat on it, ready to fall, Phyllis walked up to him.
“If I can’t leave this Dreamland, don’t worry. It’s a nice place for me. If I can never come back after I leave here, I’ll never forget all the things I went through today and will be always missing this world.”
Roland nodded and then fell backward.
In an instant, the world was dark again.