"That's my master, Barbara."
Fierce winds rose around Barbara, blowing the hood off her head and onto her shoulders. Her face was round as a silver platter, and two thick, long braids hung over the fronts of her shoulders.
Barbara stopped chanting. Before the Jatu soldiers could approach, she thrust both palms forward.
A gaseous wave, as colorful as a rainbow, surged swiftly forward.
The witch riding a broom and the priestess riding a horse cried out in terror. They were both transcendents and naturally sensed the violent fluctuations of magic in the air.
They were about to flee to either side, but the wave was simply too fast. In an instant, it engulfed every enemy before it.
After the wave passed, Dick was surprised to see that although the enemies had all stopped fleeing, none of them were injured.
They had merely lowered their weapons, and the Jatu soldiers dismounted one after another and stood still.
An intoxicated expression actually appeared on the Jatu commander's face.
He muttered to himself, as though someone stood directly in front of him, talking to him.
All their pupils had turned dark red.
"Is this an illusion?" Dick looked at the apprentice sorceress.
Xiya smiled proudly. "That's right. My master Barbara is a master illusionist. They've entered an illusion she wove."
Dick saw a look of pain appear on the Broom Witch's face. Then she suddenly shook her head vigorously, and much of the intense color in her pupils dissipated.
Then the witch mounted her broom and flew away without looking back.
"We can't let that witch escape!" Dick shouted.
The Broom Witch had a grudge against him, and she could develop all kinds of potions. If left alive, she would certainly be extremely dangerous.
To Dick's surprise, however, the Broom Witch was steering her broom unsteadily-in his direction.
Though puzzled, Dick still tightened his grip on his longsword.
Then he quickly ran forward.
A few seconds later, as the distance between him and the Broom Witch shrank, he clearly saw her pupils contract in fear after the red glow in her eyes completely faded.
A resolute figure was firmly reflected in those pupils-short, fiery-red hair, both hands gripping a sword as he slashed forward.
Whoosh!
Before the Broom Witch could voice her plea for mercy, a single sword stroke split her and her broom down the middle.
The moment he killed the monster, Dick's Witcher Senses detected someone staring at him.
He looked up. A hundred meters away, Barbara wore a meaningful smile and nodded to him.
Dick nodded back, then withdrew his gaze.
Only then did Dick realize that the woman had deliberately made the Broom Witch flee in his direction. Did she want to test my fighting ability?
Without dwelling on it, he immediately crouched down and began a witcher's happiest activity-looting the corpse.
"Dick, what are you doing?" Kebi asked in confusion beside him.
"Seeing whether the Broom Witch had anything good."
With that, he carefully searched the Broom Witch's scrawny body and actually found a small pouch.
But there was nothing inside except a potion bottle.
He gently opened it and wafted the air with his hand. A strange, foul stench drifted out, identical to the smell from the potion bottles scattered around them that the Jatu soldiers had already used.
Dick was certain this was the potion that could demonize people into giant mantises or desiccated corpses.
After only a moment's thought, he stoppered the bottle and put it into his belt pouch:
When he had fought the old woman in the courtyard, he had been forced to drink her potion and gained additional benefits. From that, he could infer that this bottle would probably offer some benefits too, even if it required Energy Points to purify.
"Dick, what did you find?" Kebi asked curiously.
"Just a little experimental reagent. It's useful to us witchers, but useless to you."
"That's fine, then," Kebi replied and said no more. His attention was entirely on the battlefield.
More precisely, it was entirely on the Order of the Falcon.
At the center of the battlefield, the Order of the Falcon had now captured the remaining Jatu soldiers and their commander.
"Dick, come pay your respects to the grand master with me," Kebi said excitedly.
"Xiya, come with me too."
The apprentice sorceress nodded, but Dick said, "I'm too tired. I'll pass."
"Dick, don't you know?" Xiya reminded him from beside him. "The grand master of the Order of the Falcon is Queen Meve."
"What?"
Xiya smiled. "Hurry over. You earned merit right under Queen Meve's nose this time."
With that, Dick had no objection. Queen Meve was the ruler of the Northern Kingdoms.
The three slowly approached the grand master and Barbara, who had brought their horses alongside each other and were chatting.
"Kebi, you're very good. You performed well this time." The grand master had removed her visor, revealing a face that was not particularly beautiful but was pleasing to look at. This was the sovereign of the Northern Kingdoms, the ruler of Ravenstern City-Queen Meve.
"...I, it's all what I should have done," Kebi said excitedly. "Grand Master, can I be promoted to a full knight this time?"
"You have indeed earned that right, Kebi. Now, please kneel on one knee."
Kebi obeyed.
Then Queen Meve's expression turned solemn. She drew the longsword at her waist and pointed it downward, resting its blade on Kebi's right shoulder.
"Are you willing to become a full knight of the Order of the Falcon? From this day forward, you must abide by the Five Chivalric Virtues-compassion, generosity, wisdom, honor, and valor-punish evil and uphold good, and forever protect the grand master."
"I am!" Kebi declared fervently.
Then Queen Meve replied, "Then I, Meve, Grand Master of the Order of the Falcon, hereby officially declare that Kebi of Odinburg, for defeating the Jatu army and protecting the people of this land, is promoted from squire to knight of the Order of the Falcon."
With that, she withdrew her sword.
Struggling to contain his excitement, Kebi replied, "It's my honor, Your Majesty. Oh, no, Grand Master."
"You may rise, Kebi." The queen nodded in satisfaction.
Kebi sprang to his feet and shouted, "I'm a knight! Xiya! I'm a knight! Dick!"
"Congratulations!" the two congratulated him.
Laughter rang out around them. Several knights of the Falcon Order walked up to Kebi, and one lightly punched him in the chest. "Are you really that excited, lad?"
"You don't understand. You don't understand. I've been waiting for this day all along."
"All right, be excited, but we'll celebrate for you once we're back at the order. Let's clear the battlefield now. It looks like your city suffered quite a few losses too."
At that, Kebi's expression dimmed. He nodded silently and followed his colleagues to clear the battlefield.
"Master."
Xiya first nodded to the queen, then walked over to Barbara.
"Mm, Xiya, I can sense that you seem to have changed. Good," Barbara said, narrowing her eyes.
"Master, I broke through during the battle."
"That's a good thing." A slight smile curved Barbara's lips. "We'll talk at length later. For now, come back to the city with me."
"But..." Xiya looked over reluctantly, then finally nodded helplessly and gave Dick a little wink.
From horseback, Barbara's gaze swept between Dick and her beloved apprentice before she gave the witcher another long look.
Dick nodded slightly in response to Xiya, while inwardly pondering what Barbara's actions meant.