The pale, hesitant morning light filtered through the irregular cracks of the heavy wooden window in the guest room, illuminating the dense dust particles dancing in the frigid air. Outside, behind the castle's stone walls, the world slowly awoke to a biting, damp cold.
William was the first to open his eyes. He didn't wake up with the usual heavy grogginess of a modern man forced to sleep on a lumpy medieval straw mattress. Instead, he felt as if his very bone marrow had been completely replaced by violently vibrating liquid mercury. A subtle, high-frequency electric buzz rushed through his dense muscle fibers, making his fingertips tingle and his jaw clench involuntarily.
Before he could even take a breath to complain about the freezing temperature of the room, the System's translucent blue screen flared violently in his field of vision, vibrating with a soft, melodious chime that only he could hear.
[DIMENSIONAL SYSTEM: STATUS UPDATE]
User: [William]
Attributes:
Strength: 9
Speed: 11
Endurance: 9
Agility: 9
Intelligence: 7
Magic Power: 3
Innate Ability: [ Teleportation ]
"Holy... mother of..." William muttered, suddenly sitting bolt upright. The dry straw beneath him rustled loudly in the silence of the room. He stared at the glowing, floating text, his eyes wide in a mix of shock and predatory joy. His physical attributes were already near the peak of unenhanced human capacity, but the term "Teleportation" sent a massive surge of pure, unadulterated adrenaline straight through his nervous system. "Quantity 3? I'm a walking monster, literally!"
Without a second thought, he lunged across the freezing gap between the beds and shook Arthur by the shoulders with a sudden, brutal force that almost sent his sleeping friend rolling onto the hard stone floor.
"Art! Wake up, man! Get up!" William hissed, his voice a frantic, vibrating whisper. "The system finally updated! We're not just background extras in designer hoodies anymore. We've got the 'secret', Art! Real, actual magic!"
Arthur groaned in protest, his highly analytical mind struggling to bridge the comfortable gap between the fleeting dream of a hot shower and the frigid, miserable reality of a guest room in Graycastle. As he sat up, rubbing his tired eyes, his own interface appeared, casting a cold, calculating blue glow over his striking features.
[DIMENSIONAL SYSTEM: STATUS UPDATE]
User: [Arthur]
Attributes:
Strength: 6
Speed: 7
Endurance: 8
Agility: 8
Intelligence: 14
Magic Power: 1
Innate Ability: [ Telekinesis ]
Arthur frowned, his fingers tracing the cold metal edge of his wristwatch out of deeply ingrained habit. He compared the two floating screens with a look of profound concern. "Telekinesis... but my Magic Power Quantity is only 1. Did you say yours is 3?"
"Three, partner! Three full charges of raw power!" William punched the frigid air, a muffled, arrogant laugh escaping his throat. He was careful to keep his voice relatively low; he knew that Chief Knight Carter Lannis was likely patrolling the cold corridor outside, his paranoid ears alert to any sign of treason.
William leaned forward, flashing a smug grin. "Looks like the System knows exactly who the 'protagonist' of this story is. I started with the powerful V8 engine, while you're still pedaling a tricycle, Art. But hey, look at that Intelligence attribute of yours — 14? It's literally double mine! The System clearly knows I'm the one who heroically solves problems with my fists, while you're the sidekick stuck in the back writing the instruction manual."
Arthur stood up, his bare feet immediately shifting away from the freezing stone floor. He ignored the taunt, his mind already spinning with variables. He gestured sharply for William to follow him to the furthest, darkest corner of the room, away from the heavy wooden door and the prying eyes of any servants.
"We need to test this right now, but we have to stay completely silent. Absolute silence, Will," Arthur warned, his tone dead serious. "It's not Roland or Carter I'm worried about. Roland is a transmigrator like us; he wouldn't execute us, he'd probably just want to study us. But we can't risk altering the timeline this early."
William tilted his head. "What do you mean?"
"In the original story of 'Release That Witch', only women awaken as witches. We are a massive technical anomaly — a glitch in the established biology of this world," Arthur explained, lowering his voice to a harsh whisper. "If we reveal our powers, the secret will eventually leak. The Church has spies everywhere. Remember how Archbishop Heather's agents found out Roland was harboring witches in the original timeline? If the Holy City of Hermes gets even a rumor that 'wizards' exist here, it will trigger absolute panic. They won't wait. They'll divert all their attention and launch a crusade against Border Town years before Roland's industrial army is ready to face them. We'd be bringing the ultimate threat right to our doorstep."
William nodded, his usual arrogant expression finally shifting into a rare moment of lethal focus. He stood perfectly still in the center of the cramped room, fixing his gaze on a small patch of shadow near the unlit fireplace, exactly two meters away. He closed his eyes and reached inward, searching for that "Initial Magic Flow" they had received as a system reward for completing Anna's rescue mission. It felt like a heavy reservoir of high-pressure steam trapped behind his ribs, demanding to be released.
He strained to release the pressure.
With an almost inaudible pop — the unmistakable sound of ambient air rushing in violently to fill a sudden vacuum — William's silhouette simply vanished. In the exact same microsecond, he materialized directly over the target shadow.
"Whoa!" William stumbled violently, his knees buckling as his boots hit the floor in his new position. A massive wave of intense, sickening nausea hit him, and the stone room seemed to tilt nauseatingly at a forty-five-degree angle. He grabbed the cold fireplace to steady himself. "It's... it's completely instantaneous, Art! But damn, I feel like I got hit by a speeding truck. My head is spinning... I feel like my heart just sprinted five miles in a single second."
"Spatial displacement," Arthur analyzed quickly, his eyes tracking the faint, lingering ripple in the cold air where William had been an instant before. "Your Quantity of 3 must strictly dictate your 'charges' or your maximum spatial distance before total mana exhaustion sets in. It's an S-tier combat skill, Will, but the physical toll is incredibly draining for an unadapted body. Now... let me try."
Arthur focused all his willpower on a small, dented tin mug resting innocently on the wooden nightstand. He extended his right hand, not to exert physical force, but to project his mind through that same internal "Flow". He didn't think of it as mystical "magic"; he visualized it as the application of a directed vector of kinetic energy to a static object.
The mug trembled. It rattled aggressively against the wood for a tense moment, resisting the invisible force, before slowly, agonizingly, rising exactly two inches into the air. Arthur's face instantly turned red, a vein visibly pulsing at his temple under the immense mental strain. He held the mug suspended there for three agonizing seconds before the invisible "grip" in his mind suddenly slipped like wet soap. The mug dropped with a muffled, disappointing metallic thud.
"My God... it's incredibly heavy," Arthur muttered, wiping a thick bead of cold sweat from his forehead. He felt a sharp, phantom pain behind his eyes. "My Level 1 Telekinesis feels like trying to lift a massive boulder with a wet noodle compared to the sheer power of your teleportation jumps."
They sat heavily on the floor, in the dark shadows between the beds, the immense gravity of their new superhuman reality finally settling into their modern minds.
"So, how exactly do we improve this?" William asked, rubbing his jaw hard as the severe dizziness finally began to fade. "Do we just sit around waiting for system quest rewards, or do we have to use the 'Anna method' and train brutally until we pass out in a ditch?"
"I have absolutely no idea. Probably both, but mostly the latter," Arthur replied, his "meta-knowledge" working in overdrive to connect the dots. "I know a lot more about this world's original timeline than you do, Will. You only watched the anime and read the manga up to the point where Roland finally defeats Timothy and officially takes the throne of Graycastle. But I know the lore much deeper than that."
Arthur leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with the thrill of the puzzle. "In the original story, Roland discovers that magic isn't just arbitrary, fantastical nonsense; it actively evolves through a deep understanding of natural laws and physics. Eventually, Anna's fire will turn green and burn at an incredibly precise temperature once she understands thermodynamics. And when she truly grasps the relationship between heat and molecular activity, it will evolve again."
Arthur tapped his temple. "If the magic our system grants us follows the same universal laws of this world, then my high Intelligence attribute isn't just a random number for reading books — it's the direct multiplier of my power. Maybe, if I can deeply comprehend the fundamental physics of gravity, mass, and kinetic energy, I can evolve this Telekinesis II into something better, like direct molecular manipulation or creating localized gravity wells."
"And my teleportation? Have you thought about me hopping across the map to other cities? I could be the ultimate, untouchable courier! Or better yet... I could 'scout' and instantly rescue the other hot witches scattered across the kingdom without being seen by those motherf***ers from the Church!"
Arthur shot him a look of deep, exasperated disapproval. "Take this more seriously, Will. This is a real survival scenario, not a fantasy dating sim. If you want to safely increase your Magic Power and spatial range without disintegrating yourself, you need to completely deplete your mana reserves every single day. Just like the witches are forced to do to avoid the deadly 'Demonic Bite' every winter. We have to treat this magical ability exactly like a rigorous Olympic training regimen."
"Right, right, you made your point. No pain, no gain," William agreed, his arrogant expression finally turning deadly serious. "I was thinking, what if we trained hard enough to reach the level of an 'Extraordinary' witch? Like Tilly Wimbledon or Ashes? They are biologically immune to the anti-magic field of the God's Stones of Retaliation! If we reach that absurd level of power, the demons, the demonic beasts, the church, half the world and their mother could team up against us, and we'd still win."
"Maybe, but we have a long way to go until then, Will," Arthur said pragmatically, standing up as the distinct, rhythmic sound of heavy, armored boots echoed down the distant, freezing corridor. "For now, we keep this an absolute secret. We are just eccentric 'scholars' from a distant, advanced land. Our magic is our hidden blade. It's our ultimate trump card for when the established plot inevitably goes completely off the rails because of our presence. Roland's science will be our public shield, but this... this will be our lethal weapon."
Inside the cramped, freezing guest room, the air seemed to vibrate with the newly contained energy of the two transmigrated men. William stood up abruptly and, unable to help himself, attempted another jump. He reappeared on the other side of the room with a much quieter, more controlled thud. He panted heavily, his hands resting on his knees, and his modern t-shirt rapidly soaking with cold sweat.
"Art, it's the weirdest feeling ever," William whispered, his voice filled with awe. "It's not like moving quickly through space; it's like the whole world folds in on itself like origami and then violently spits me out on the other side. But now I can clearly feel the limit. If I try to jump blindly through a solid stone wall without knowing exactly what's on the other side... I think my brain would just permanently fry in the void. My 'Quantity 3' is my only biological safety valve keeping me from materializing inside a rock."
Arthur smiled slightly as he focused again, finally managing to make a blunt metal spoon float steadily for ten whole seconds before dropping it. "Teleportation is an excellent and unparalleled ability for both mobility and combat. So, if you manage to master the precise vectors of spatial displacement and overcome the nausea, you will undoubtedly be the most dangerous person in this universe. But as I said, be very careful, and avoid using it in public places."
"It's chill, Roland 'is one of us'; besides, he doesn't even understand how things work in this world yet," William scoffed, though his voice lacked its usual arrogance. "But think about it right now, Art... the Witches Cooperation Association. They are out there right now, suffering in the cold. If I could jump, I'd find their camp in the Impassable Mountain Range. I could bypass the terrain and bring them here instantly. We could build our own unstoppable coalition right under the Prince's nose—I mean, the 'fake Prince's' nose HAHAHAHA."
Arthur rolled his eyes, though the empathetic part of him fully agreed with the tactical advantage. "No! The immediate focus is surviving the winter. Barov just informed Roland about the terrifying reality of the Months of Demons. The demonic beasts aren't just rabid animals; they aren't just words in a book anymore, but actual killing machines. They were designed to tear through even a solid stone wall if it isn't properly reinforced with modern engineering. Imagine what they would do to our weak flesh-and-bone bodies. We need our magic to be secretly integrated into the First Army's defense. When the first demonic beast shows up, focus on teleporting with a crate of Roland's explosives directly behind enemy lines. That is exactly how we'll secure victory this winter."
The heavy sound of footsteps grew louder, finally stopping in front of the heavy oak door. Immediately, William threw himself onto the messy bed and faked a loud snore, while Arthur smoothly picked up a piece of charcoal and feigned deep academic interest in a crude map of the kingdom spread out over the wobbly table.
The heavy bolt slid back with a harsh grate, and the door creaked open, revealing Chief Knight Carter Lannis. The tall knight's expression was as stern and indecipherable as a slab of cold granite.
"His Highness requests the immediate presence of you both in the drawing room," Carter announced, his piercing eyes narrowing in suspicion as they quickly scanned the cramped room for any sign of potential treason. He hesitated for a fraction of a second, his watchful gaze lingering on the tin mug Arthur had moved with his mind. It was slightly, almost imperceptibly, out of place from where a servant would have left it.
As they silently followed the heavily armored knight through the cold, echoing stone corridors of the castle, William gave Arthur a discreet, pointed nudge with his elbow. "Four days since we arrived in this mudhole. This is the make-or-break meeting. Roland decides today if we are valuable, trustworthy strategic assets, or if we freeze out on the streets."
"He won't send us away," Arthur muttered, his voice barely audible amidst the clatter of Carter's armor. "He desperately needs us to translate our fragmented memories of the future into a practical language he can actually build with. And we need him... because a primitive world of blood and snow is a very lonely, dangerous place to have magic you can't show to anyone."
They entered the spacious drawing room, where Prince Roland was already waiting for them. The transmigrated prince looked utterly exhausted, with deep, dark circles marking the skin under his eyes, but his expression held an intense, burning anticipation. Spread open on the heavy oak table before him was the crude map of Border Town and the North Slope Mine, already marked with the first charcoal strokes of a new era.
An era that no traditional history book of Graycastle would ever be able to record accurately, for it was being written in secret by three modern men who had stolen the fire of the gods from the future.