Chapter 163 (1/2)

Chapter 163 Maggie the Witch

Ashes sat at the top of the castle, waiting for the arrival of the day of the competition.

During the past few days, her attempts at persuading the other witches had not shown any progress. The stubbornness of the witches had greatly exceeded her expectations, whether it was the older women like Scrolls or the minors such as like Lily. They all refused her invitation. The only difference between them was their manner and reason in rejecting her.

Some chose to stay because of Roland, while others didn’t want to leave the Witch Cooperation Association, but in the end the ten witches had all gathered together into turned into one unbreakable piece of iron. As for Anna and Nana, both of whom had originally come from Border Town, Ashes wasn’t in the mood to even try to lure them away. In particular, when Ashes stood in front of the Anna, the magic she could feel coming from her was completely different to anything else she had ever felt before. Her magic felt like it was as hard as steel, but at the same time it also had a smooth and dense feeling to it. It felt as if she was separated from Ashes by a wall of iron.

Among the many witches that Tilly had been able to gather, none of them had ever given her that feeling. After inquiring the other witches on this topic, she learned that Anna’s way of controlling her flame was actually quite unique. However, how could it be, that even though her flame was invisible, it still felt as if there was a real barrier present? Ashes simply couldn’t understand this.

As for Border Town, in comparison to the other towns and villages that Ashes had seen before, it was quite different. If she were to put it into words, Ashes would have to say that felt as if the town was full of vitality, and that the people here all seemed to be holding on to a purpose for each and every day.

From her position high up on top of the castle, she had a perfect panoramic view over the whole town. It seemed that at this moment, the most intense flow of people was in the area for the new houses. They had separated a square site as the new district, and within that area, every house looked similar to the next.

There was an endless stream of carriages continually bringing in new batches of bricks from the North of the town while the masons were starting to dig out the foundations for a dozen new similarly shaped houses. Soon after, they could start to raise the walls, which was all done surprisingly quickly. Within a day, the walls had already reached around the height of a child.

Looking into the Northeastern direction, she could see smoke constantly rising up into the sky. The smoke wasn’t caused by a mountain fire, but rather was the workings of the brick kilns. In particularly, there were several thick brick towers that had been erected, all of which at first glance, like a forest of colossal red tree trunks from the distance.

Looking in the direction of the river, she could see some of the several sailboats that were arriving at Border Town every day since she had been here. Most of these sailboats came from Longsong Stronghold and were all loaded with so many items that the unloaded goods would almost fill up the entire shipyard.

A group of guards were always patrolling around the yard while keeping those strange wooden pikes in their hands. Unlike the guards from some of the other cities’ garrisons, they weren’t walking around languidly for a short time before disappearing to find a place to hide and take a nap. No, they always marched in a straight line, moving between the terminal and the yard, and sometimes would even take the initiative to come forward and help to unload the ships, all of which Ashes had no memory of ever witnessing such a scene ever before.

What kind of spell had Roland Wimbledon used that had given these people so much enthusiasm for constructing this new town in such a barren and desolated land?

Just at that moment, from overheard, Ashes heard a burst of gugu sounds from a flock of birds. She raised her head and saw how a large fat pigeon dropped down from the sky and landed on her shoulder.

“Finally, I have found you,” said the dove beside her cheek.

“Has Tilly sent you?” Ashes pulled some wheat corns from her pocket and threw them on the roof.

The Pigeon began to flap her wings in anger, which was probably supposed to mean something like, “I’m not a bird, gurr!”

“After you turn back into a human we can speak again.”