360 – Ice

Disclaimer:

I don’t guarantee a 100% perfect translation. Feel free to correct me in the comments..

 

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The next morning, Agatha received a fine roll of parchment from Roland.

“What is this?”

“A contract. You only need to sign it by pressing your finger in it, and you will officially become part of the Witch Union.”

She unfolded the roll of parchment, and after reading the contents inside a few times, she exclaimed surprised, “Is this it?”

“Huh,” Roland seemed to not understand what she meant, “what is?”

“The deterrent here is meaningless,” Agatha pointed to a line of the contract’s clauses, “it only mentions that in the absence of a consensus of both parties, your actions should not betray Border Town, but there is no binding statute. If someone really wanted to be disloyal, I think there would not be any psychological pressure. Also, the words are too lax, is this really a contract?”

“Well, I only wrote it down today, it is just a formality.” the prince nodded, unsurprisingly, it appeared he was not the kind of person to concern over fine details in the contract.

“A contract filled with loopholes.” she secretly desagreed, poked her thumb in the ink pad and signed the contract by pressing down her inked thumb in it.

The Union contract demanded little on both sides, according to the terms on it, it was still very much the same as it has been so far after joining. Although she felt it was a little excessive, she also felt somewhat relaxed.

She said cooperating with mortals, but in her heart, she knew this grey-haired man was the actual leader of the Witch Union. If she had to treat a mortal the same way as a high rank of the Federation or a master of the three Holy Cities, she was afraid it would be very difficult to accept. For now, at least she had a considerable amount of freedom.

Roland received the parchment and asked with curiosity, “In Taqila, what were the deterrents in the contracts?”

“You only needed them when recruiting ordinary people, and it ranged from mental torture to all sorts of physical punishment,” she skimmed, “as for us witches, there was no need to sign such thing. The Federation was a system you belonged to your whole life, once one joined, the only way to defect was by dying.”

“Well,” he took a breath, “I officially welcome you as a member of the Witch Union. After breakfast, remember to come to the castle garden, I need to fully test your ability.”

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The whole testing process was simpler than what Agatha imagined, she only had to demonstrate various characteristics of her ability, and after answering a few more questions, it was already over.

“The shape of her magic power is like a sky-blue pentagon prism, it is around the medium level.”

“Summoning type, and the ability has evolved once up until now. The initial effect was to be able to lower the temperature, but after evolution, solidification at room temperature could be achieved. A very convenient ability.” Roland then asked, after recording, “How did you evolve your ability?”

“Continuous practice until I finally had a revelation.” she said with pride, after all she was the youngest witch to reach an advanced awakening, and at that time everyone in the Federation called her ‘Taqila’s Genius’.

“Every day I tried to drop the temperature lower and lower, so that water could be frozen more quickly. Then one day, I saw a witch manipulating the flames in order to melt a chunk of solid lead, and as the flames continued to burn, the liquid lead began to boil.”

“That sight made me realize something, maybe everything has three states: gaseous, liquid and solid— The lead was solid at room temperature, but as long as the temperature was high enough, it could also turn into a gas; water was liquid at room temperature, and if the temperature dropped, it would solidify into ice.”

“Then, the gaseous air present at room temperature, would it be like lead? as long as the temperature is low enough, could it freeze?”

“Holding this thought to use my ability, I then soon felt the magic power inside my body undergoing radical changes, and I was eventually promoted to the high ranked witches. This enlightenment was also recorded in the 《General Principles of Natural Law》.”

In fact, she was the youngest ever to be in the book. At that time, the Three High Seats praised her highly, that this insight was not only a great inspiration for a witch’s evolution, but it also remarked the importance of the natural studies. But after solemnly uttering these words, the opposite party was quite calm.

“So that happened,” the prince nodded, “what is this 《General Principles of Natural Law》?”

“Wait, you… don’t you feel surprised?” Agatha in turn was surprised in a different way, “The world is filled with gas, it’s barely noticeable and has no weight. In fact, it can turn into liquid and flow like the water, and can also be condensed and turn into ice.”

“It’s a normal phenomenon, there are also many kinds of gases, each one with its own distinctive boiling point and solidification point,” Roland shrugged his shoulders, “why should I be surprised? These contents are general knowledge in 《Theoretical Foundations of Natural Science》.”

“… …” Agatha suddenly felt her chest a little heavy, then took two breaths, “Well, I will study that book thoroughly.

“General Principles of Natural Law— it is a record of all the enlightenments and processes that led to the evolution of all the high ranked witches.” She grumpily continued, “But each witch’s ability is different, so it is difficult to evolve based on imitation and reference, and it obviously can’t compare with your 《Theoretical Foundations of Natural Science》!”

“Did I say something wrong?” The prince had a puzzled face.

“No, I was just too arrogant.” Agatha felt her heart more oppressed.

Cough, cough. Seeing the displeasure in her face, he tried to change the subject, “You said that every witch’s ability is different… The Federation had thousands of witches, was there nobody with a repeated ability?”

“No,” she gave a stiff reply, “the Exploration Society could also see the shape of the magical power, but there was no witch with the same shape of magic.”

“But before, when you saw Anna, you said she had a flame-class ability.”

“It was just a common method of ability division, it’s just simple and easy to understand. The illumination ability that gives off heat is called flame-class, but as the magic power grows, or it enters the adulthood period solidification, or even high rank evolution, seemingly identical abilities can show enormous changes.”

“In the initial stages of the flame-class ability, some witches are better at controlling the temperature, some other can produce an even bigger flame, and there are even ones that can project out the flame. Even if we don’t see a difference in their abilities for a while, it does not mean that a change is not occurring.” Agatha said, “The method of the Exploration Society is more formal, but in general, it is the same as how you split their abilities.”

“Also with three categories?” Roland asked.

“Four categories. The main difference is the summoning type— The Exploration Society divided it in two types, one called magic energy, and the other model shaping. You should be able to understand the difference with only the words.”

“Magic energy is like Anna, who needs to continuously consume magic power, and once the magic power stops, the flame disappears. And model shaping is like the paint coating of Soraya, it can remain for a long time even after the magic power stopped acting?”

“Although I’m not familiar with the ability of Soraya, that’s basically what it means… It can exist for a long time, another form of model shaping type is, for example, my room-temperature solidification.”

“I understand.” Roland said after recording all these things, “Let’s end today’s test here. As a general rule, when I have not assigned any duty to you, you can come and practice your ability, but I think there is someone who could use your help now.”

“Who?”

“Border Town’s Chief Alchemist, Kyle Sichi.”

 

 

 

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