Chapter 24: A Night to Sing a Theory
The night's still young.
Roland can't evade Nightingale anymore, especially after he couldn't get Anna's cooperation. With a sigh of resignation, he turned around and looked at the robed and hooded woman in the room. Likewise, she was looking at him with a strange expression, conveyed through her clear pair of eyes was a deep sense of curiosity.
To Roland, he only felt a shiver ran down his spine.
Although he had given his coat to Anna and the giant gathering of dark clouds outside was really a prelude to days long rain, the thick cloudy sky they have had made a rare warm evening in the winter. But just because the temperature was fairly warm, it didn't mean he wasn't cold. Yet Roland never expected a stare would actually able to draw out enough sweats to thoroughly drenched his back.
It was particularly so when for some reason, Roland drifted his vision and saw his small reflection on the surface of Nightingale's pupils. Reflected on it was his figure gulping down a mouthful of saliva.
Chill accompanied with goosebumps was a strange sensation he couldn't get used to it no matter what. Unconsciously, Roland who had been leaning back in his chair all this time sat up straight.
He wasn't sure whether to describe it like a predator eyeing their prey which made the latter froze and relentless, but her aura had entirely changed from a friendly one to become something weighing him down despite it clearly something intangible. Heavy and dense were two suitable choices, but no word from his vocabulary offered more perfect description than threatening.
Behind her beautiful smile was a dangerous presence.
Roland doubted Anna and Nana noticed it since she had specifically targeted him. Her seemingly casual look really made him uncomfortable and didn't know where to put his hands or how should he styled his legs behind the table.
With a cough, he tried to lighten the atmosphere he got wrapped into, but Nana spectacularly destroyed his pitiful attempt with an innocent and genuine concern for his throat.
But the result was to his desire. Nightingale let out a chuckle seeing him dumbfounded and retracted her overwhelming presence as she decided to return back to her previous peaceful diplomatic state.
Roland let out a sigh that now was of a relief. He skipped trying to clear his voice and mind with a cough and directly stated his business. "I have something to discuss with you, Miss Nightingale. But you can ask questions first."
"Questions? I have many." Nightingale smirked, but her expression left no opening to poke at.
"How do you know about all of this?" It was the most curious thing, but Nightingale was not without her own conjecture. She spoke directly what's on her mind. "Did you befriend a witch before these girls? Did that witch told you that the method really work?"
Roland had been surprised by a lot of things since her expected but unexpected appearance, but the rather odd questions she posed were something he understood why she had to ask that way.
For starter, he knew more than her date of appearance.
Nightingale was not a type of witch like Anna who held so much firepower. She was also different from Nana that could provide support with a priceless healing ability.
She was a witch that could turn invisible.
Specifically speaking, she slipped to a strange channel where she became partially detached from the world and reality. Over there, she couldn't be seen from outside and her body can pass through solid materials like walls.
But there was more than that: her derivative ability. From what he understood, a witch may gain more than one ability if they passed their adulthood. And Nightingale had gained an invaluable talent from that, the ability to tell apart lie and truth on top of the eyes that could see the flow of magic power.
But knowing it made Roland feeling somewhat guilty. The means she reached out to someone can be said totally different than other people, after all, her ability, it made her judgment somewhat white and black. She didn't need to keep appearance and doubting at heart like most, because she could simply ask for the answer, be it directly or indirectly.
Looking at it from another angle, it also meant that so long he kept telling her truths, Nightingale trust to him would increase at an even higher rate than others. The only hurdle that kept it from totally black and white was something Nightingale already knew herself.
Strictly speaking, her ability was perfect in a way it worked truly as it intended. But there was a loophole that can be exploited.
It was whether the truth was something he believed because someone just said so or something else. If a person fully believed that the earth was flat, she wouldn't be able to tell they were lying, because for them it was the truth. In other words, her ability to tell the truth and lie was answered by the person who spoke, not herself.
Even so, he was already troubled by the first and foremost question. How could he said he knew from reading the story of another Roland for a hundred chapters and in it was the solution discovered by simple observation of Anna, Nana, and Nightingale own experiences without sounding totally crazy?
The best part was that Nightingale would be able to tell that he was telling the truth. He couldn't even imagine what kind of reaction she might have.
But thinking about it, Roland thought he should use it only as the last resort. Therefore, he skipped the first question entirely. "Anna was the first witch I met. Nana would be the second, and you're the third."
Hearing his answer made Nightingale frowned, she was not so easily fooled. Although Roland confirmed his belief didn't come from a witch, the important question still remained.
"Then how do you know?" Nightingale repeated the question.
The brief moment where she pondered let Roland think some potential answers, truthful answers that wouldn't make him sound like he was a crazy prince. He said simply. "I feel like repeating myself, but you said an interesting thing when you're trying to persuade Anna and Nana."
"I will help you recall it. Its that you can feel the magic power in their body, particularly Anna who is closer to maturity are currently soaring or something of the line."
Nightingale nodded.
"Magic power was an interesting subject of research." Roland rubbed his chin, but to not thought to divert topic he quickly explained. "Witch ability differed from one another to the point of each person being unique, but magic power regardless of the shape and color should be the standard like fuel for their various powers."
"And?" Nightingale didn't feel Roland was trying to speak non-sense but she couldn't get what he was hinting at. But one thing he got it right, magic power from each witch really looked rarely similar in her eyes.
"Then, shouldn't witch have something to store those fuel? I mean, in the first place, the magic power is something witches take out from themselves no?" Roland spoke smoothly, even he was slowly getting convinced by his own reasoning. "So whether it is physical or magical in nature, an organ or even two different organs, one to convert energy to magic power, and the other with a purpose of storing them should exist."
"Can you slow it down..." Nana weakly said from the side. Although very subtly, Roland also noticed Nightingale nodding. Only the grade A and model student Miss Anna still keeping up, even making him feel that she was excited.
"Well, do you think newborn had the same quality of organs as adults?" Roland was not an expert himself, but he could try wording the problem to see whether he could make it easier to digest.
But before he could continue, Anna snatched his line. "They have smaller organs."
"Excellent." Roland wanted to applaud, but held back and went with a smile. He didn't feel anything wrong with her assertiveness, especially since he was the one who made it like a question.
He reached out and stroke her head, a habit Roland slowly developed since he started teaching her. Unlike last time, Anna cooly received it this time. His smile grew deeper. "Do you already have a guess? Let me hear it."
Anna nodded, she began after a brief moment of organizing her thoughts. "Baby has smaller organs, and they grew along with their body."
"Right, right." Nana nodded vigorously.
"But when a normal female become a witch, often than not they are already big enough to birth a baby themselves. So?" Nightingale interjected, she was feeling confused and wanted to hurry the conversation.
"Don't interject." Roland quipped and nodded to Anna asking her to continue.
"We're not actually talking about a baby but organ remember?" Anna smiled at Nana whose face turned pale. The little girl was in a period where she was a bit sensitive with anything fleshy. "Normal female might already an adult when they become a witch, but they still have similarity to the babies in that a new organ, or two, grow inside them."
"Oh, to make and store magic energy Your Highness said before?" Nightingale came to a realization.
"Yes." Unconsciously Anna slightly raised her voice. "Baby organs grew alongside their physical body, but what about us witches? Would it grow naturally?"
"The answer is both yes and no."
"What do you mean sister Anna?" Nana asked, baffled. "I feel His Highness habit of being vague start sticking to you."
Roland gave a cough, but everyone ignored it.
"Speaking of His Highness, he said an interesting thing to me recently." Anna gave a passing smile but didn't look at Roland and instead still seriously explained the other two. "We are used to thinking organs are something inside of us, like heart or liver, it can't be seen without tearing the outside."
"Isn't that so?" Nightingale didn't like her history, but she was familiar with anatomy and knew more or less the locations of all important organs in her head.
"Yes, that's why I said he told me something interesting. He said that skin was considered not only an organ but arguably the largest." Anna said as she closed her eyes, a series of images when there were only both of them inside the warm cottage showed up.
"It has something to do with the definition why it can be considered one, but basically you can make your skin, an organ of yours tougher. For example are the people who worked in the mine. They would have their skin on their hands peeled occasionally, and after it healed, replacing it is a thicker layer of skin that could handle more roughness."
"Actually lungs too, if you practiced taking a deep breath to the limit often, you could hold your breath longer." Nightingale absentmindedly said before her body shook, she showed a face with an enlightenment and mumbled. "I see..."
"What is it?" Nana curiously said the youngest was the last yet to catch on.
"Witches' magic organs as His Highness put it, are like those in the babies, just newly created," Anna said slowly and gently to make it easier to understand, she was always soft to Nana. "But because we're already physically an adult, we have stop growing. Still, there is a way to make the organs stronger rather than waiting the chance it grows by itself."
"Is that really how it works?" Nightingale was still not entirely convinced.
"It's probably more simple than that." Roland finally found an opportunity to speak again. "The magic organ is probably just a single new layer to your whole body functions."
"New layer of what?" Nightingale began feeling exasperated.
"Witches suffer less at the camp than in exile..." Roland skipped another of her question yet again, but it was because he felt to clear some things first. "I can roughly understand why you ladies could survive camping in the harsh wilderness. At camp, with many witches with various abilities, you lot keep using your own powers to run the camp no?"
"That's right." Nightingale honestly nodded.
"I can't see your sisters, but I still had an understanding from seeing Anna." Roland looked at the girl he saved on that fateful day who was currently staring intensely at him. "Back when she was just starting she had a hard time to not only control her ability, she also tired real fast. This was an analogy to the organ I spoke of, and from the continuous practice, not only she had greater control of her manipulation of flame she created, she endured more."
"This was most likely the result of her magic organ being refined. Then what about the day of adulthood? You said it was like a burst of witch power, overflowing would resulting in extreme pain and even death."
"Basically it's like this cup." Roland pushed the cup in front of him that was still completely filled with water. "Refining magic organ resulted in a bigger cup. And when you have a bigger cup, that burst would be nothing to the bigger picture, letting a safe pass."
"But if you're untrained, like those witches living while hiding, your cup is probably like this. Your magic power, this water, was full, always full while the cup was similarly always small. When a burst of power, a burst of water came, the cup couldn't handle it."
"But isn't this just your theory?" Nightingale felt his reasoning was reasonable, but without evidence, she still found it hard to accept.
"Don't we already have an evidence here?" Roland leaned forward, his eyes contained an unfathomable meaning. "Do you really believe you hurt less because you have a strong will?"
"I..." Nightingale didn't know what to say.
"This involves the future of your sisters still in the camp," Roland said solemnly. "Remember, did your sisters that died were all weak-willed? Or perhaps, it had something to do with their abilities were not very useful in the camp?"
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