Chapter 39: The Way to Their Hearts
"Oohh, you're good at this Sister Tyre," Nana said weakly, she felt her body was devoid of strength yet it was in full joy. "It's really good..."
Tyre gave a brief of vague sound resembling a response and continued her massage. As a head maid, she might be biasedly picked to become one by Roland of old, but she indeed went through various training to be competent in the task of servicing others. She might have not enough experience or in-depth knowledge to be called an expert, but she knew how to do it at least decently.
Nana had been working hard the moment she introduced herself to the camp. The ability to heal injuries was very important, especially for witches that lived off the mountain, they had plenty of people needed to take care of since almost all of them were not used to such wildlife and some stumbles and scratches became unavoidable.
The arrival of Nana was basically akin to a savior arrival for the witches who didn't want yet had to endure the pain. But for the savior herself, Tyre's fingers were the best. While she managed to heal all of the witches over the course of the day, it tired and drained her out like no other occasions of her training. It wasn't that long since she became a witch and even in a shorter amount of time she practiced it, and naturally, she had very reserved energy to use her ability.
And Tyre who was massaging Nana, she felt the innocent young girl a bit like her little sister. They were both pure and very trusting to a painful extent. She didn't know whether Nana had learned about her other identity, but they were still not exactly in a close relationship either way. For her to so naturally leave her back open made a strange feeling in Tyre's heart, but she did not hate it.
Of course, she had long realized that Nana was simply pure and innocent that she didn't think much of possible bad things in the first place. Even so, it still made her happy, and the happier she became, the more she gave her all to the massage. For a short period of time, Nana's face simply translated to pure bliss.
"Thank you sister Tyre." Nana felt refreshed and she even worked up an appetite.
"It's nothing," Tyre replied with a faint smile. It might have anything to do with her shady upbringing, but she didn't really treat a witch any different. In other words, she liked Nana very much and her words came out sincerely. "You have worked hard today."
They chatted for some time before Nana suddenly lowered her head. It was not too loud, an indistinct sound akin to a distorted whistle can be heard from Nana's stomach.
"Is it time for dinner yet?" Nana rubbed her stomach shyly and asked while feeling embarrassed.
"I guess it's about time? You can eat first, there are still some sandwiches in the bag." Tyre put a hand over her mouth as she stifled a laugh.
Nana unexpectedly shook her head and said seriously with her young voice. "We should eat together, with the other sisters outside."
"That's for the best." Tyre replied with a nod, "Since we need to be careful, for something like this we should see--"
Her words never got to finish because out of nowhere, a familiar figure suddenly appeared in front of them.
Nightingale came back to her tent she shared with Nana and Tyre with a visible pale look on her face. Both of the girls who were chatting quickly stopped talking and noticed her strange condition and Nana hurriedly stood up and tried to grab Nightingale's arm. She exerted her power despite her tiredness, but nothing changed on Nightingale's face and she began to panic.
"It's fine," Nightingale said softly, lightly held Nana's hand and gently pushed it back. "It's fine..."
With a low spirit, Nightingale slowly sat down to her designated bed made of hays and crumpled leaves. She wanted to speak but felt chocked every time she tried to. Nana and Tyre waited for a long time, patiently, before Nightingale could let out as much as a whisper.
"Wendy..." Nightingale squeezed it out like it was the most painful thing, her voice was trembling. "She didn't really believe me as expected."
Nana needed time to understand it, but Tyre being more experienced, immediately understood the meaning behind her words.
Nightingale had decided to return after believing Roland, but trusting his words mean she would need to accept some things he said as the hard truth. She always had a small hope that he could be wrong in this instance, but even though she had conveyed and solemnly swore that everything she had seen and heard from Border Town being true, in the end, Wendy didn't really believe her.
She didn't even say that much. She only said that Roland would fully accept the witches to the town if they wished to and would treat them generously. He feared not the church and would try his best to reform the town preconception nation of the witches being evil. Nightingale didn't even bring up the absurd stuff like how he somehow knew the future and the fate of the witch group if they continued seeking their goal. But just the fact there was a prince that had the heart to accept them was still something hard to take, more so the promises to deal with church and convincing his subjects.
Regardless of Wendy's knowledge of Nightingale's skill to see through lies and the fact she would not likely to lie, her reaction was that of denial.
While the kind and caring Wendy didn't say it outright, with how Nightingale could perceive one's words in a white and black term, how hard it would be for her to dig up for the result with a few plays of questions? In the end, she came back dejected, what Roland said replaying in her mind. Sure enough, even Wendy won't believe her, how could she convinced everyone else?
The tent Wendy in was actually also the tent Nightingale originally occupied for being the most familiar with her, and she initially wanted to stay there to catch up. But with how things were, she only wanted to escape from there.
Seeing Nana and Tyre reminded her of their plan, but only now she finally figured out it would be unexpectedly so hard to accomplish. She really didn't even see a chance for that to happen. But she didn't blame Wendy, she fully realized what she spoke was nothing but a fairy tale for witches.
For fugitive witches like them, something like hope was a very painful thing to have. Although they were sick and tired of their current lifestyle, even though they wanted nothing but a place they truly called home, they couldn't simply forget their past experiences and what they heard. How many witches had fallen from the lure, how exceptional a witch could be to actually live as they wished?
Ironically, the goal of Cara for the holy mountain that extended to the top priority goal of the witch association was also nothing but a wishful thinking.
Nightingale smiled in self-depreciation. She took up a new name to forget the past and be strong in the future, but she found out her emotion was still similar from back then even after years had passed. She was still so fragile, a single disbelief from her ignorant friend made her into a disheveled mess and could no longer thinking properly.
She let out a sigh, knowing that pursuing such a line of thought any further would only make her even more depressed. She took out a fluffy blanket she brought over from the castle and flipped it over her body, intending to go to bed early.
"Sister Nightingale, don't worry..." Nana tried her best to comfort. "It needs time."
"Indeed." Tyre gave her affirmation.
They might not know the whole story, but it was not hard to guess the general picture. With Nana's personality, how could she ignore Nightingale alone? While Tyre was more indifferent to somebody else business, she knew for a fact that they were currently in one boat. How could she keep being indifferent to her in this case? With her own clumsy way, she tried to aid Nana.
Nightingale understood what they were doing and an embarrassed smile appeared on her face, hidden and unknown to the people trying to cheer her up.
Roland himself also said so, that haste made waste. The plan to save the witches was a very difficult one, at least if they wanted to reel everyone in a peaceful way. However, no matter how hard, it was already a one-way road for both Roland and Nightingale. Roland knew the dead end waiting for them, and Nightingale that trusted him would naturally desperate to similarly not make it a reality.
And now she had returned, although it was still the same camp with the same atmosphere, Nightingale really felt she finally sobered up. The situation of the camp was a very delicate one, it could crumble at any time, without a moment notice, bringing down the tired and weak witches.
"If you can't trust yourself..." Tyre spoke softly, she neither face Nightingale nor Nana and instead looked up as if speaking to herself. "You can try trusting His Highness."
"Trusting him... huh?" Nightingale pondered for a bit before letting out a chuckle. "I guess we could start by following the tactical approach he did to me."
With that, Nightingale threw her blanket to the side and processed to rummage the bag she had placed in a corner. She took out a couple of cubes and played them with her nimble fingers before laughing. "We could try winning their stomachs first!"
"I want chicken flavor!" Nana laughed.
Tyre said nothing and only let out a faint smile.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone