Roland was stunned, "Is there a problem?"

"That's ......," Phyllis hesitated, "I heard that in your territory, only one witch was awakened last year?"

He diggs through a drawer a list of them that Wendy has tally, which records the awakening and coming-of-age days of each witch, lest he miss the witches' second rebirth. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

"It should be right," Roland checked the list and nodded, "Although Evil Moon added two new witches last year, the white paper had awakened three years ago, and only Ah Xia was the only one who could be considered awakened back then...... And her awakening day happens to be the day of adulthood. ”

"It shouldn't be, Your Majesty," Phyllis frowned, "how many people were in your city last year, twenty thousand or thirty thousand?"

"There should be fifty thousand," Roland couldn't help but be a little smug when it came to the population, "the number of people in Neverwinter has exceeded one hundred thousand this year. ”

"The words of 100,000 are not much different from the early Anletta, and until the withdrawal from the fertile plains, the Tachira was only about 250,000, but ...... Do you know how many people awaken each year in these two holy cities?" said Phyllis in a deep voice, "Even during the most demonic period, Anrita never fell below ten, and Tachira was nearly three times that number. ”

"Magic...... A time of poverty?"

"Yes, the magic that pervades this world has ups and downs, like the tides. "The two years after the Red Moon were also at their most magical, with new witches appearing almost every day. After that, the free magic will slowly weaken, and the period between the two red moons can be regarded as the period of poverty, and it is almost until the demon moon that the Awakened will appear. ”

As for the fact that the more powerful the magic, the easier it is for the witch to awaken, Roland had heard Agatha mention it before. It's just that he thought that the magic power would peak every year, but he didn't expect it to fluctuate greatly in a cycle of hundreds of years. "But we're not far from the Third Battle of the Divine Will. ”

"That's the most worrying thing," Phyllis said, with a worried look on her face, "The appearance of the Helldread means that the Red Moon is coming, and the mana trend should be more and more active, and according to Celine's tests, this is indeed the case. But why is the number of witches awakened so low? Even if there is no awakening in the city, there should be many witches born in the suburban towns and villages - for example, in the time of Tachira, the surrounding territories provided more witches than the holy cities. Generally speaking, the larger the population, the more witches, which is a law that the Federation has summarized for hundreds of years. ”

"At first, I thought that Neverwinter had deliberately rejected women when recruiting the population, but then I thought that the influence of the Church prevented the newborn witches from revealing their identities easily, so they didn't join Neverwinter right away...... It turns out that this is not the case. Agatha said slowly, "Pasha also discussed it, and finally came to the conclusion that there may be some factors that affect the awakening of the new witch, and there is a tendency to gradually expand. ”

Roland pondered for a moment before speaking, "Assuming this guess is correct, do you have a way to find out what is causing this?"

The two looked at each other and shook their heads in unison.

"Since it can't be solved, let's rest as a god for a while," he said, "Anyway, no matter how the chances of awakening change, we have to drive the devil out of the Dawn Realm, right?"

Fortunately, once the foundation of industrial production is laid, the demand for witches is far less intense than that of the Divine Punishment Army or the Chosen One, otherwise this would be really fatal news.

"What are you talking about...... That's right," Phyllis probably didn't expect Roland's confidence in fighting the devil to be affected in the slightest, and was stunned for a moment before coming back to her senses, "No matter what, we have to defeat the devil." ”

"Exactly," Roland smiled, "ah, yes...... I came to you to ask about something. He recounted his concerns about the dangers that witches could cause when they awakened, "How did the Federation deal with such incidents when they were in Tachira?"

"It's simple, Your Majesty," Phyllis's tone was a little more respectful, and instead of looking directly at Roland, she lowered her head slightly, "Everyone in that day understood the half-quarter hour rule. ”

"The half-quarter hour rule?"

"Yes, the witch did not awaken without warning, and the process of magic going from a free state to converging in the body of the awakened person lasted about half an hour or so. "At first, there was a faint tingling and burning pain in the abdomen, then it became more and more intense, until the first regurgitation appeared—the exact pain varied from person to person, and even for those who were physically strong, it would not be affected much, but the subtle tingling sensation could still be perceived. ”

She paused, "And the half-quarter hour rule is that as long as the witch loudly declares that she is about to awaken during this time, the people around her must leave her side immediately, and if there is no avoidance and death, no one can ask the Federation for compensation, and if any damage is caused to the fixed premises, the Federation will pay for it." ”

This is a new approach, Roland thought, provided that everyone is familiar with witches, especially underage girls, and that the first instinct at the sudden sting is to make a declaration rather than suspect that she has eaten a bad stomach.

"What if the injured are also witches?"

"If not announced in advance, the newly awakened will face punishment - flogging or money, depending on the consequences. If it has been announced in advance, the Federation will assume full responsibility. However, such a situation is rare, after all, the Battle Witch itself is already a minority, and even fewer are capable of dealing damage at the beginning of the awakening. ”

In other words, in the time of Tachira, mortals who did not avoid it in time could only consider themselves unlucky. In that special era when witches were superior to others, it was understandable that they would do so. It is obviously impossible for Roland to copy this method, but it can be borrowed to a certain extent.

Undoubtedly, aside from the penalty part, the half-quarter hour rule has its own advanced point: it at least promotes the idea that witches are born within the human race, and whether they accept it or not, every underage female can awaken as a witch. This is like the red light stop and green light in later generations, all you can do is follow the rules to avoid damage.

Of course, it is impossible to be completely exempted, Roland thought, if he took a step back on this rule, treated witches as the same as ordinary people, and handed over the harm caused by the declaration to the town hall, and did not make a declaration and caused serious consequences, then he would be judged as negligent wounding...... Or a special law governing the behavior of witches, like the traffic laws of later generations, may alleviate this contradiction to some extent.