Wooden palisades stood around the nearby town. For small settlements of this size, somewhere between a village and a city, the walls were generally made of wooden palisades.
That was enough, and it suited the town's economic means.
Even just maintaining an expensive stone wall would cost more than the town's annual public tax revenue could cover.
It was a real money-devouring beast.
Money poured into it, only to go to waste.
After all, city walls were very useful in wartime, but in peacetime they were just a money sink.
Behind the wooden palisade walls stood a wooden watchtower, with one soldier on lookout and two archers stationed atop it.
Black Wolf lifted the carriage curtain and glanced at the soldiers in the town's watchtower. "I'd guess this town has only two or three thousand residents. I didn't expect it to have a watchtower."
"And it even has two archers up there. That's extravagant. Maintaining one archer costs more than maintaining three light infantrymen. This little town really is wealthy."
"Looks like the mayor knows how to line his pockets."
"Hearthstone Witch, how are you going to get in?"
"You're wearing a wizard's robe that only witches wear. The city guards will recognize you at a glance."
"If they find a witch trying to enter the town, I don't know if they'll let us in."
"But even if we do get in, we'll face a lot of restrictions."
The Old Witch wasn't ashamed at all. "It's because our profession has such high standards of conduct that we've become so well-known."
"Your Grace, now is the time to use your first spell."
"I need you to help me get into the town! I've never learned the Charm Technique, and right now, the only thing that can cast a charm spell is the Ring of Desire you're wearing."
Yveta was happy to oblige. "What should I do?"
The Old Witch said, "Generally speaking, it takes an ordinary wizard several years to learn a spell. There's a lot of knowledge involved."
"But with a magic item, you can learn a spell in just a few minutes. That's why magic items are so expensive."
The Old Witch said, "Your Grace, take off the [Marso'go Ring of Desire] on your right pinky finger and look at the inside of the band. Read the words there."
Yveta took off the ring as she said. Sure enough, on the inside of the Black Ink Diamond Ring, he saw a line of text.
The Old Witch added, "Those are magic letters. Only wizards and witches can see them."
"You don't even need to study them; you'll automatically know how to pronounce them."
"Spells attached to magic items are usually engraved in magic letters. But there are also malicious wizards, witches, and alchemists who deliberately leave obscure words on magic items—sometimes even words in a Dead Language that's been lost to time—as the activation spell."
The Old Witch said, "Of course, people like that are few and far between."
"Because they'll suffer Heaven's Punishment."
The Great Witch confidently assured everyone that people who liked to trick others would suffer Heaven's Punishment.
Black Wolf couldn't bear to watch and turned his head away.
Just as Yveta was about to read the spell on the inside of the ring, the Old Witch hurriedly stopped him. "Your Grace, you can't say it in the carriage."
"Once you do, the spell will take effect."
Yveta pressed his lips together and nodded.
The Old Witch said, "When you cast this spell, you might try adding a little gesture, like twirling the ring twice with your thumb."
"My teacher told me it might strengthen the spell."
"But..."
The Old Witch trailed off, looking a little confused. She rarely wore such an expression. "Actually, I'm not sure whether it really works, because I don't know if my teacher was just messing with me."
"However, she's been dead for a long time."
"So I can't use Spirit Channeling Magic to summon her soul and pry the truth out of her."
"..." Yveta.
Everyone else in the carriage was speechless too.
They were quite sure that, if she could, the Hearthstone Great Witch would dig her teacher out of the grave.
Yveta asked curiously, "Hearthstone Witch, how did your teacher die?"
"You're already over two hundred years old, so your teacher must have been even older. Someone as powerful as her—did she die of old age, or was she killed?"
The Old Witch sighed. "My teacher was a Fourth Rank Sequence witch, a High Witch. But she was killed by the Church."
Black Wolf and Leili both looked at the Old Witch in surprise.
As far as they knew, the Church hadn't taken such forceful action in a long time.
The Old Witch sneered. "What's there to be surprised about? You've never seen the Church go mad. When it does, I wonder if every last one of them has been possessed by demons. Except for Your Grace, you're all just children. Do you know about the Holy Purification Movement eight hundred years ago?"
"Before the Church had become so powerful, it established its authority by hunting witches and wizards."
"Most of the people they killed were ordinary women, since witches weren't easy to find, let alone hunt."
"The Church usually had to pay a heavy price to kill a real witch, so later on they were happy to hunt fake witches instead. As long as the people couldn't tell the difference between real and fake witches, there was no difference at all."
"In your eyes, the Church seems weak now only because it's become too powerful."
"Because it was powerful, the Church became kind."
"They don't want to hurt ordinary people, nor do they want to pay too high a price to fight witches, let alone wage a fight to the death against every magic user."
"There's no need for that anymore."
"The Church has become the ruler, and the Pope is the King of Kings."
"If a ruler who has already secured his throne wants his subjects to rebel less, he has to become gentler and kinder."
"Pretend he's a sheep."
The Old Witch said mockingly, "It's nothing but the hypocrisy of those in power toward the common people."
Before the Old Witch could continue her blasphemy, Alicia, who was driving the carriage, said tactfully, "My lords, we're about to reach the entrance to the town ahead."
The Old Witch fell silent at once.
Blasphemous words shouldn't reach the ears of thickheaded foot soldiers. If one of them happened to be a true zealot, he might easily rush at her and try to kill her.
Yveta placed the thumb and index finger of his left hand on the [Marso'go Ring of Desire]. He really did intend to twirl the ring twice before reciting the spell.
Better safe than sorry.
The gesture didn't cost him any energy or time.
He might as well follow her advice.
What if the Old Witch's teacher hadn't been lying to her?
Ahead of their carriage was a group of small merchants hauling potatoes, bean pods, and other crops in ox carts.
They were being inspected by the guards, who were calculating the total value of their crops.
They had to pay a transit tax.
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