Not long after the Prince returned to his office, Scroll also followed him in.
"Your Highness, I'm sorry, Lily, that child … didn't mean it."
"I don't care," he smiled, "She's just a little girl."
"Only you are so tolerant of us," Scroll sighed, "She wasn't like this at the beginning, but after being deceived, it's hard for her to trust ordinary people."
"Was it before she joined the Witch Cooperation Association?" He asked, "I remember she joined you only a year ago."
"Indeed, I found her on the outskirts of Redwater City," Scroll said, "You know, I can feel the existence of magic, and the closer I am, the stronger it is. Although I can't directly see the shape and color of the magic like Nightingale can, it can at least be used to find new witches. So every time I passed through a town, I would disguise myself as a noble lady who wanted to adopt a child, and go to the local shelter or orphanage to look for sisters who might have awakened. " She paused, "At that time, Lily was locked in a remote town shelter, but when I asked to adopt her, I was refused. The owner of the shelter told me that they only sold adult girls."
"Why?" Roland asked doubtfully. The latest time a witch awakened was before adulthood, could it be related to this?
"At that time, we also felt very strange, so we let Nightingale sneak into the shelter, looking for the books, records and relevant information. Fortunately, the shelter was far away from the town, so we could stay here for a longer time. "
"Why didn't you take Lily directly? With Nightingale's help, it shouldn't be difficult, right? "
"Indeed, it's not difficult," Scroll nodded, "In addition to the owner wearing a God's Stone of Retaliation, there are no other stones or traps in the shelter. But we can't do this, there is a precedent for this kind of thing. "
"What precedent?" The Prince made a cup of tea for Scroll.
"Thank you," she took the teacup, "In the beginning, as long as we found a witch, we would forcibly take her away, but an accident happened in Seawindshire, which changed our approach. At that time, there was a young witch who had just awakened, who believed that we were evil. After she was taken back to the Witch Cooperation Association, she didn't listen to our explanation and attacked us. In the end, two of our sisters were seriously injured and died, while she was also killed by Cara's" Death Sentence "snake. So from then on, we would carefully observe the witch for a period of time to determine her situation and thoughts before taking any action. If the Church pursues us too closely, we … can only choose to give up. "
"So, the meeting between Nightingale and Vendy wasn't a coincidence?"
"Of course not," Scroll took a sip of tea and shook her head with a smile. "From the time we discovered the existence of Nightingale to the time when Vendy came into contact with her, only a little more than a month had passed. During this time, we also recruited other sisters, such as Red Pepper and Windchaser …" At this point, her expression dimmed a lot. "Unfortunately, they were all buried in the Barbarian Land. If everyone had chosen to settle down in Border Town from the very beginning, it would have been much better. "
Roland also felt quite regretful, if more than forty witches of the Witch Cooperation Association had gathered in Border Town, I'm afraid it would have already entered a modern life.
"Let's not talk about that," Scroll took a deep breath. "Let's talk about Lily. After searching the shelter and tracking the owner's whereabouts, we discovered a shocking fact – this small country house is neither a real shelter, nor was it built to screen witches. "
"Then what was it for?"
"In order to satisfy the owner's selfish desires." Even if Scroll was a person with good self-restraint, when she said these words, her expression became somewhat gloomy. "Every week, the owner would go to the slums of Redwater City, abduct those homeless girls, and deceive them by saying that he was a kind-hearted aristocrat who had opened a shelter in the suburbs, and that there would often be great aristocrats who would disguise themselves and come to choose their adopted daughters. As long as they were chosen, they wouldn't have to worry about food and clothing for the rest of their lives. Not everyone would be deceived, but … over the past ten years, there have been hundreds of girls who have gone to the shelter. "
"So many?" Roland frowned, "But you said that the shelter's scale is not large."
"Hundreds of them are just records in the account book, most of them are … dead," she whispered. "In the past ten years, he has found a total of three witches, all of whom were sold to the Church. As for the other girls, if they were relatively good-looking, he would also dress them up and sell them to those who needed them. As for the ones that no one cared about, he would kill them in the woods of the shelter."
"…" For a moment, the Prince didn't know what to say. Suddenly, he felt a pair of hands gently placed on his shoulders from behind.
"The probability of a witch's awakening is not high, so after deducting the shelter's expenses, the Golden Dragon that he earned over the years was about twenty, according to the account book. But for these twenty Golden Dragon, nearly three hundred people died, and the pits in the woods were filled with corpses. When Cara interrogated him as to why he did this, he unexpectedly said that earning the Golden Dragon was not his original intention, it was only to maintain the shelter's operation, and that it was also for this reason that he only sold adult women – a witch could be sold for a much higher price than an ordinary woman. His purpose was to enjoy the pleasure of having the power to decide the life and death of these wandering girls, he felt like he was a king. Cara, in a rage, killed him, and when we tried to disperse the group of girls, most of them glared at us, as if we had taken away their chance to be adopted by the nobility. "
"Lily was also like this at first, until Cara took her to the woods behind the small building, where she saw her friend – the" lucky "girl who had lied about being chosen by the nobility and left the shelter a month ago, as well as several smelly pits. After that, Lily vomited and fainted in Cara's arms. When she woke up, her expression was dull, and there was no spirit in her eyes. Later, under the care of Vendy, she slowly recovered. From then on, she was full of vigilance and distrust towards ordinary people, especially the nobility. " Scroll said, "But I believe that she will slowly correct this view, after all, you are also a member of the nobility."
"So that's how it is," Roland secretly sighed in his heart, after experiencing this kind of thing, to still be able to pull himself together, it can be said that he has a strong will.
Scroll picked up the kettle and refilled their cups, after a long silence, she opened her mouth and said, "Your Highness, I have a question to ask you."
"What question?" He was startled, and found that Scroll's expression was somewhat serious.
"Nightingale, are you also here?"
"Well," Nightingale appeared, "do you need me to leave?"
"No … you already know about this matter," she shook her head, "just accompany me to witness it."