When No. 76 entered the living room, the other four witches were sitting around the round table and enjoying the new food that had just been provided by the servant.
"Good morning," Amy was the first one to greet her, "Come over here and have breakfast. Besides bread, we have fried eggs and milk this time! I haven't had such a sumptuous meal in a long time."
"Sure," She agreed, a happy look on her face, as she took a seat beside Amy. After losing her sense of taste, food was only consumed to sustain life, while the process had become torturous. Having this affliction for hundreds of years now, she could calmly engulf the trash-like, tasteless food. She would then provide the appropriate praised based on her distant memories. "This is really delicious!"
"Isn't it?" Amy mumbled as she chewed some egg, "It has been over a year since I last ate fried eggs..."
"Don't complain, at least you ate it a year ago." Broken Sword objected, "I haven't eaten fried eggs in almost 10 years."
"Ahem..." Annie cleared her throat and said, "there is someone who has never eaten a fried egg."
"Who?" The three echoed, all in a daze.
"Me." Annie pointed to herself before continuing, "When I was in my village, my neighbor raised a flock of old hens. I always wanted to crawl into the henhouse and steal an egg so I could have a taste. But, my first attempt ended with me almost being beaten to death by my father, with a rolling pin, after he discovered me."
"Your father is honest." Hero said in a respectful tone.
"Honest?" She shrugged and said, "he was only afraid that the neighbor would discover me and make a claim for damages. As for the eggs, I had stolen, they were eaten by my father and younger brother."
The living room instantly fell into a brief silence.
"Ahem, let's have our breakfast," Hero deflected, somewhat embarrassed.
"Pfft..." Amy was the first to burst into laughter, "Hahaha...so that's what happened...haha..."
As soon as Amy laughed, the rest of the witches were unable to restrain their laughter.
Even No. 76 could not help but smile herself. After struggling to survive for so long, these witches finally found a peaceful home. From here, she felt like she could see the epitome of Taquila in its heyday.
No, it was not the epitome any longer. She told herself that Neverwinter would be the new Holy City and that the witches would be bound to regain their glory.
Because The Chosen One had appeared.
"Huh, you didn't sleep well, did you?" Amy stretched out her hand to wipe the corner of No. 76's eyes, "You have dark circles under your eyes."
"Oh...maybe," No. 76 lowered her head as she replied, "I was too excited to fall asleep last night."
Even though she only needed two hours of deep sleep to replenish her spirit, she couldn't go days without sleep. If a soul was overused, the effects were reflected in the physical body, which was a big taboo for witches. After all, a damaged and senile body could be remedied while a traumatized soul would remain perpetually withered.
How could she sleep though! She did not want to fall into the dark dormancy at all, she was afraid that everything was just a dream and that when she woke up, The Chosen One would have disappeared into thin air.
What she needed most was to find the one with the orange light and to contact Pasha.
It really wasn't going to be easy.
According to Wendy, most of the witches lived in the Witch Building of the Castle District. However, she wasn't a witch and she couldn't enter the castle by joining the Union. It was unlikely that she could depend on these witches from the Kingdom of Wolfheart.
Of course, she could risk being discovered and try to sneak into the castle. That way she could confirm The Chosen One, unfortunately, that was not a smart option. She didn't know if The Chosen One would believe her and the green-haired witch, that had the ability for magic perception, was difficult to deal with. No.76 wasn't sure if she could smoothly extract The Chosen One through the maze ruins while being pursued by combat witches. God's Punishment Army was born to battle witches, but they were not invincible.
There was also the local lord that happened to be dreadfully powerful, which acted as a type of deterrent. Since the lord could defeat Starfall City they feared him taking possession of the many soldiers of God's Punishment Army.
Since they lost the ability to repopulate, they needed humans to help them restrengthen their numbers, even if the demons are defeated. Hence, Pasha being right about them needing to, sooner or later, cooperate with the Four Kingdoms.
Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, Taquila wouldn't turn against the Kingdom of Graycastle.
Of course, if the king wanted to kill The Chosen One, it would leave her no choice. Even if she had to sacrifice herself, she would protect The Chosen One, who could dominate the Battle of the Divine Will.
"Can't you nap later?" Amy hid her smile as she said, "The servant informed us that lunch and dinner will be served on time, so unlike before, we don't need to go out and spend the day finding our own food."
"No worries, Miss Nana completely cured me." No. 76 stated while patting her chest, indicating her energy had been replenished. Then she hesitated before asking, "Is Lady Wendy going to show you around Neverwinter later? I...I don't want to stay alone."
"You can come with us," Amy responded instantly.
"But..."
"Don't worry about it, we can hang around the streets. Plus, if you come, you can help carry Hero."
"I understand," Broken Sword echoed, "I don't like staying alone in the room, either."
"I'm sorry if I am any trouble for you," Hero smiled at No. 76.
Annie calmly said, "Don't worry. I'll talk to Lady Wendy about it."
"Thank you..." No. 76 bowed deeply, lowering her head.
She had to admit that she had some affections for this younger generation. Even though they weren't considered a combat witches, the survivors of the Union had gradually started to change their minds. After 400 years, with the constantly shifting fortunes from prosperity to poverty and their hopeless lives in the deep cave, their moods were finally starting to shift.
However, they did not have to take turns carrying Hero as they had expected.
Wendy brought a delicate wheelchair.
"You can push the wheels to drive it back and forth. If you rotate the wheels you can change directions." She personally demonstrated this as she explained, "Anna and Soraya worked together overnight to forge this wheelchair. With it, Hero can go anywhere, within a limited area."
Hearing the name of Anna, No. 76 was startled. Wasn't Anna the High Awakened claimed by Nana? Would they really go through so much trouble for a common witch who had lost her legs?
"Thank you...My Lady," Hero said, choking back tears.
"You're welcome. Please regard Neverwinter as your personal home." Wendy said gently, "As I've mentioned, all the witches here are your sisters."
While Hero familiarized herself with the wheelchair, Annie asked Wendy, the leader of the Union, if No. 76 could join them.
However, Wendy didn't respond quickly, instead, she turned to look at her. After a moment passed Wendy nodded, "Sure, what's one person more." However, the long pause caught No. 76 off guard.
Somehow, the pause made her feel uneasy.
Is my inspection not over yet?