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The witch left the hall as soon as she was finished talking and gave the two men no time to explain.

Roland turned his head slightly. "Can you tell what’s going on?"

"Both sides are telling the truth," Nightingale whispered in his ear.

Roland pondered this for a bit and quickly guessed what had really happened. What was spoken truthfully wasn’t necessarily the truth, but only what one thought was true. It seemed that the issue lay in their family history book.

"Since you came all this way from Longsong Stronghold, don’t go back so soon. Stay in Ferlin’s house for a couple of days and tour the scenery of this town." Roland turned to the confused Duke. "I’ll try to reason with her, and maybe you will get to talk again."

"Is that... is that true?" The Duke was shocked, but he bowed his head and said, "Then I must trouble Your Highness."

"By the way, where are the Magic Stones and ancient books that you brought?"

"There’re more than ten boxes on our boat."

"Great, let’s bring them all to the castle," Roland said, nodding. "I think she’ll soften up a little after seeing all of her things that survived for over 400 years."

...

After dinner, the Prince called Elsa to his office.

"You should give Duke Eltek a chance to explain himself." He told her the Duke’s entire story. "No matter what your housekeeper did, this man is trying to return your belongings to you, and he may even be trying to right his ancestor’s wrongs."

"My housekeeper deceived his descendants, so this man doesn’t owe me anything." Elsa pouted. "Also, witch families mean nothing now. They belong to the nobility of the Western Region, right? If I accept them, it would make things difficult for you, because you want to seize all the ruling authority of the Western Region for yourself, don’t you?"

Roland was shocked that she even considered this issue, and he shook his head with a smile. "Alright, that makes sense. But you don’t seem to blame them."

"I shouldn’t place my anger towards a mortal from 400 years ago onto his descendants, especially if they don’t know what happened."

"Spoken like a true enlighted member of the witches’ kingdom!" Roland thought. "Whether it is towards mortals or accepting new things, she always has a positive outlook. To me, this is no doubt an outstanding mindset, but it was probably a rare one in Taquila, so it’s no surprise that she was rejected by other witches in the Quest Society."

"In that case, I’ll explain it to them," he said, smiling. "Do you have any interest in going through your belongings?"

Elsa rolled her eyes and scoffed, "They’re not mine. They’re the Quest Society’s belongings."

...

All the boxes were brought to the castle basement. Beside Elsa, Roland also invited Tilly, Silvio, and Anna.

The boxes were opened one by one under Silvio’s watch—ten out of the fifteen boxes contained Magic Stones. Roland picked up a fist-sized crystal and clicked his tongue. "You said that they were all transformed from God’s Stone of Retaliation, so a stone this big must be worth 200 or 300 gold royals."

"200 or 300 gold royals?" Elsa said, unimpressed, "Magic Stones can only be produced by Chaos Beasts, so every piece is practically priceless."

"What kind of Magic Stones are these?" Tilly asked. "They don’t seem easy to carry."

"Stones of Light." Elsa pressed on the stone in the Prince’s hand and channeled her magic power into it, causing a pale yellow light to stream out of it, which quickly exceeded the light of a torch. When the blinding light became too much to bear, she finally lifted her hand. "More than half of these are Stones of Light. Besides the ones produced by the Chaos Beasts, the rest were all battle spoils we gained from attacking Devil’s Towns."

"How were the Magic Stones made into different sizes?" Anna asked curiously. "If they were all God’s Stones of Retaliation, then they couldn’t be cut with magic power, but the block of God’s Stone of Retaliation was extremely hard and couldn’t possibly be cut with knives either."

"An entire block?" Elsa was stunned. "Are you talking about the God’s Stone of Retaliation vein?"

"It’s right under Border Town’s mines." Roland explained the story of the treasure map. "Its surface is very hard, and even a flintlock can only leave a tiny dent in it."

"I see." She couldn’t help but smile. "You used this map to find my laboratory tower. Yes, it really was used by the Quest Society to mark the God’s Stone of Retaliation vein and was a chosen location for the next Holy City."

"Holy City?" Everyone asked surprisedly in unison.

"Why else do you think there would be hundreds of cities on the Fertile Plains, but only three Holy Cities?" She lifted the corners of her mouth. "These supposed Holy Cities are all built on top of God’s Stone of Retaliation veins. We needed a lot of God’s Stones of Retaliation to research the relationship between magic power and Magic Stones, and also to prevent large-scale damage in conflicts between witches.

"So you were planning to build a New Holy City on North Slope Mountain?" Roland asked in surprise.

"Yes, if we weren’t defeated so quickly in the Battle of Divine Will." Elsa sighed. "It was the same case with the Barbarian Ridge in the Impassable Mountain Range—you now refer to it as the Hermes plateau, which is where the church’s Holy City is now."

"The church also continued using the term ’Holy City’," Tilly said with a frown, "so it is even more possible that they are descendants of the Union."

Thank goodness they didn’t build the church’s Holy City in Western Region. Roland sighed quietly in relief.

"Anyway, the God’s Stone of Retaliation is basically indestructible, so cutting it requires a special solution," Elsa continued to explain. "It contains the blood of witches with magic power... or the blood of demons."

"Blood?" Sylvie couldn’t help but gape.

"Yes, and the amount of blood needed depends on the Stone," she said, spreading her hands. "In the Holy City, all adult witches were required to donate blood. Once it leaves the body, the blood lost magic power very quickly, so it must be used on the spot. Every two or three years, eligible witches would be ordered by the Union to go to the mines and donate blood, and any captured demons would also serve this purpose."

"Have you done this as well?" Anna asked.

"Of course," Elsa said, nodding. "Even the Three Chiefs of the Union were no exception."

"What about demonic beasts?" Sylvie asked. "Some demonic hybrids also seem to have magic power."

"Yes, but the levels of their magic power are very low, so their blood can only be used to deal with shattered stones, and they have no effect on the actual veins," Elsa replied. "After the God’s Stone of Retaliation is cut, its hardness will greatly decrease with its size, and its range of impact will shrink as well. For example, the God’s Stone of Retaliation that people carry around with them can be easily smashed with a hammer."