After some time, when the nightingale woke up, he found that his hands were tied to a stake, and his waist and feet were bound by ropes. I tried to struggle, but my body was pressed against the wooden pole, and I couldn't move at all.

She wanted to use her powers, but the familiar didn't come - it was as if her connection to magic had been severed. The nightingale lowered her head and found herself hanging a transparent prismatic stone around her neck.

"You're awake," Hakala said to her, "how does petrified venom feel?" However, you have failed to live up to my expectations. ”

"......" Nightingale took a deep breath, "You actually have the Divine Punishment Lock, Hakala, do you know what you're doing?" The shackles that the Church used to suppress witches are now being used by their mentors against her own kind! Damn it, Nightingale cried out in the bottom of your heart, didn't you realize that you were becoming the kind of person that witches once hated the most?!

"It's just a tool, and occasionally there are bad kids who don't listen to the teachings and need to be punished. Hakara said nonchalantly, "And you, Nightingale, are the ones who need to be punished." Or...... Should I call you Veronica, a woman who came from an aristocratic family, but became a witch and still wants to climb to a high position?"

"I don't understand what you're saying. ”

"You've disappointed me so much that when Wendy freed you from the clutches of the nobility, I thought you would stand firmly on the side of the Mutual Aid. Look at what you've done now, just as everyone is about to find the Holy Mountain, you want to make this great situation come to naught!" Hakhala shook his head and sneered, "Take your sisters to join a prince?, or you have been kept in captivity for too long, and your servility has become so ingrained that you have to find a master for yourself to know how to live, or ...... You just want to sell them all to the nobles in exchange for your former position!"

"Everything I do is for the sake of the Mutual Aid sisters," Nightingale said with her anger suppressed at this point, "I hope they will no longer be tormented by Awakening Day, and I hope they will live without worrying about food and clothing." I have no intention of blocking your plans, and sisters should have the right to freely choose their own way of life. One of the blueprints of the steam engine that I brought with me was the one in the midst of the earth-shaking changes in the frontier towns, which worked on its own and was infinitely powerful. With this kind of machine, it is possible to lift water directly from the mountain stream, without having to make people run around every day. ”

Hakara sneered, "That's what you're talking about?" She turned, pulled out a stack of parchment scrolls from the hands of a witch behind her, and raised them in front of the nightingale, "I can't read what is drawn on it, but a pile of cold iron pieces of dead things can move like living beings?

She walked over to the brazier and threw the roll of paper into the burning charcoal.

"No!" cried out the nightingale in vain, watching the blueprints crumble to ashes in the brazier.

"My patience has been exhausted, and now I'll give you one last chance," Hakara pulled out an iron vertebrae, the tip of which was already burning red, "If you confess to all the Mutual Aid sisters that you have been bewitched by the nobles, I can spare your life, but the whipping is inevitable, it is a lesson for you to be gullible to the enemy." If you are still obsessed, I will pierce your heart with this iron vertebrae and nail your corpse to a stake so that everyone may be reminded of it. "Don't miss my last mercy and tell me what you decide," she said, word for word. ”

The nightingale looked at the iron vertebrae that were getting closer to him, and he could even feel the scorching heat coming from the tip of the cone. If it was the cowardly self she used to be, I'm afraid she would have bowed her head and admitted her mistake, right? But she has said goodbye to the past, and is no longer the timid girl. She is a nightingale, a powerful witch who cannot be brought to her knees by death.

She closed her eyes and waited for the final moment. For some reason, the nightingale had Roland's figure in his head.

"Stop!" someone shouted, and she opened her eyes with a slight startle. Wendy walked out of the crowd and said to Hakala, "Mentor, look at the white cloth wrapped around your arm, we've been through so many partings, would you like to add another one?"

"Why, even you were deceived by her? Wake up, Wendy, those are just lies!"

"I don't know," Wendy shook her head, "I didn't plan to go to Frontiertown with her, but I think she's right about one thing, sisters should have the freedom to choose their own way of life." ”

She turned around and asked aloud, "Does anyone want to leave with her?"

No one answered in the crowd, and the scene fell silent.

"So just let her go alone," Wendy said, "she didn't do anything harmful to the Mutual Aid, and I can't watch you kill her." ”

Nightingale now fully understood what Wendy meant. She couldn't help but feel a sense of sadness in her heart, even Wendy didn't fully believe in herself. That's why she remained silent when she needed her help to convince everyone. But she is still the kind-hearted witch who cares for everyone, and even if she disagrees with her own opinions, she will lend a hand.

After Wendy said this, there was a head-to-head sound in the crowd, followed by several more people standing up.

"Yes, since she is willing to return to the world, let her go. ”

"The church and sickness have taken away too many of our sisters, Mentor, please think again. ”

"Shut up!" Hakara said angrily, "just let her go, what if there is a second or third nightingale, if she sells the location of our camp to the church, we will have nowhere to escape!" Before she could finish speaking, she stabbed the iron vertebrae in her hand hard, and Wendy took a step faster, and preemptively rolled up a strong wind to blow Haraka away.

Then she tossed a coin, and with a wave of her hand, a rapid air current, wrapped around it, whistled towards the nightingale. The airflow vanished as it approached the nightingale, but the coin still flew by inertia, striking the Punishment Stone in front of her neck with precision.

The crystal clear prismatic stone shattered in response.

"Traitor!" Hakala screamed as she got up from the ground and stretched out her left and right hands towards Wendy and Nightingale, and two snake figures appeared out of thin air, one with its mouth wide open and bitten hard at the back of Wendy's hand, and the other pounced.

The rope slipped to the ground, still in its original form, but the nightingale was nowhere to be seen.

Thinking of the other party's ability, Hakala broke out in a cold sweat, she mobilized all her magic power, and the magic snakes that shimmered with various colors of luster swarmed out of her chest, forming a snake wall, and at the same time, she retreated sharply backwards-

However, the nightingale is faster than her.

Only one step...... With just one step, she was already behind Hakala. Holding his hands forward, the iron vertebrae that should have pierced the nightingale's heart pierced straight through Hakala's body.