novelonline Chapter 3607 The Witch's Judgment and the Legend of the Curved Arc
Chapter 3607 The Witch's Judgment and the Legend of the Curved Arc
Chapter 3607 The Witch's Judgment and the Legend of the Curved Arc
News of the Duchess spending the night at No. 6 St. Teresa's Place during the year-end celebrations had already spread throughout Tobeske. Since the royal family allowed such news to circulate, it essentially meant that the Cavendish royal family recognized the relationship between Hamilton of Reged and the Duchess of Saladil.
Therefore, most people believed that Shad would surely marry the Duke in the near future and then jointly rule the Saladil County, thus becoming one of the most powerful people in the entire kingdom as a "maternal relative".
Furthermore, given Galina's high seniority and Shad's youth, he might become the kingdom's most senior "royal member" in fifty years, wielding unimaginable power. Therefore, it's best to avoid provoking such a young man.
Moreover, Duchess Galina is not a very tolerant person.
Adelina remained silent, only looking at Shad, who had arrived in a black suit, with surprise and delight. She had many things she wanted to say, but at this moment, she couldn't utter a single word. Seeing that the troublemaker had left, Shad straightened his cuffs and asked Adelina with utmost respect:
"Your Highness, where is Miss Galina? She gave me an invitation, but I haven't seen her."
He couldn't have too much contact with Adelina in public, and Adelina understood this as well, so she suppressed her shyness and excitement and said:
"I'm speaking with my father. Knight, would you like to wait here, or in the lounge?"
"Please go to the lounge. I hope this hasn't disturbed your birthday celebration, Your Highness. I've given your gift to the servant at the door; I hope you like it."
"No bothering you, I really like your gift."
Adelina then briefly left the banquet hall, leading the maids to guide Shad to the lounge. This was not considered impolite, given Shad's higher seniority.
In the corridor, Adelina casually opened the door to an empty room and pulled Shad inside. Two maids stood guard at either end of the corridor, their faces stern, hoping the princess wouldn't do anything too outrageous.
So, twenty minutes later, when Adelina reappeared in the banquet hall, Princess Alice asked curiously:
"Sister, why is your face red?"
"The clothes I'm wearing today are a bit too thick."
"Sister, did you reapply your lipstick?"
"Yes, I just stopped by to touch up my makeup. My cat ate my original lipstick."
"Sister, is your skirt not straightened properly?"
"Yes, because I accidentally smeared lipstick on my chest."
Alice Cavendish didn't quite grasp the meaning of the sentence, but she sensed that Adelina's mood had suddenly improved. Adelina, temporarily ignoring her sister's thoughts, looked around the banquet hall with a smile, feeling that everything was so wonderful. Shad's bold and passionate actions that evening had made her aware of his change in attitude; this eighteenth birthday was something to remember.
Moreover, she probably understood why Lacey enjoyed meeting with Shad at banquets so much.
"You might appear in Adelina's dreams tonight."
That evening, after Shad and Galina returned home together, Dorothy, who was waiting at home, smiled and spoke to him. Lacey was worried that Adelina would feel lonely on her eighteenth birthday, so she only asked Shad to continue attending the banquet at the Yodel Palace after he excitedly returned home with news of the "wrong Ring of Fate."
The blonde greeted the two in the lobby downstairs and gave Shad a hug, thanking him for working so hard at night for his sister.
"But it seems you've already received your payment."
She caught a faint scent of Agelina perfume on Shad, which was easy for Lacey to recognize.
Jialina then joked:
“Shad always charges a fee for his work, even if it’s just a penny. That’s the principle of our knights. But it seems that Adelina has given a very generous reward this time.”
She gestured for everyone to go upstairs together:
"Don't block the way here, my maids are still outside. Come on, Shad, please forget about Adelina for now, and tell me about the black arc you mentioned in the carriage. I feel like I've heard of such a thing somewhere before."
If the [Prophet's Association] is the rightful successor to the ancient Order of Fate, and its lineage has never been broken, then the [Witch Council] itself is the order of the God of Chaos, and it is even highly likely that its name and the era of mythology are completely identical.
Thanks to the existence of the council space, the witches' lineage is more complete than that of the prophets.
Therefore, even though the "Ring of Fate" itself has little to do with the witches, there are records about it circulating in the council. Megan, Claire, and Sylvie didn't recall this in the afternoon, not because the Duchess was more well-read, but because Galina's teacher, the previous Great Witch of Balance, had mentioned it.
"My teacher is a very interesting person. Not only is she a distant relative of the royal family, but she also served as the chief justice of Delriaon for more than forty years. Everyone in the Witch Council was afraid of her. Compared to her, I am a very easy-going person."
"A ring, a ring. Yes, although the teacher didn't mention a complete ring, he did mention an arc."
She sat on the sofa, recounting the past to Shad and Dorothy. Galina rarely spoke of her teacher, but someone who could have raised Galina must have been a very capable witch.
“That knowledge wasn’t stored in the parliamentary library that Megan controls, but rather in the records of the courtroom in the parliament I control. I’ve mentioned before that it’s the place where the Great Witch is tried.”
However, the Tribunal has never been used since Galina took control of it. There are only thirteen modern witches, and they can resolve their conflicts privately. In nearly a thousand years, there has never been anything that required the Tribunal to take effect.
"After my teacher determined that I was the successor, he told me a lot about the past records of the court in his later years. He told me what serious crimes the Great Witches had to commit to be brought to trial, and how we, as the Great Witches of Balance, should deal with those Great Witches who were found guilty."
The firelight from the fireplace illuminated Galina's beautiful face, which held a rare expression of reminiscence. She seldom wore such an expression, for the Duchess believed it easily aged one both physically and mentally.
"Those cases are stored in the vast archives of the Tribunal. The oldest records are so ancient that no one can even pinpoint their exact era. No one has ever read all the records of the Great Witch of Balance throughout the Sixth Era. Some records are even inaccessible to us. Therefore, my teacher selected some key trials that she had read as case studies for me to learn from."
She sat down next to Shad, Dorothy sat on the armchair with a teacup in her hand, and Mia stood on the back of the sofa behind Shad, glancing at him and then at the kitchen, smelling the maids preparing a midnight snack.
"The case of the curved arc comes from the Third Era. It is one of the few readable archives from the Third Era. The text was translated by a witch from the Fifth Era. The archive says that in order to fight against evil spirits and demons, the witch of the Fate Seat at that time obtained a batch of curved arcs from somewhere and shared them with people she encountered who wanted to gain power, so that they could embed the curved arcs into their bodies."
This group was vast, comprised of various races: humans, elves, halflings, dragonborn, vampires, and many more. Decades later, almost every one of them became a renowned hero among intelligent races, a beacon of light in that terrifying era rife with evil spirits. But strangely enough, almost none of these heroes' family members or friends survived.
Some of the heroes who wielded the Arc realized something was amiss. They later discovered that while the Arc granted them heroic destinies, it also imposed a price. Some considered this a just sacrifice, while others believed that the great witch of fate had deceived them.
Galina touched Shad's hand, looked at the firelight in the fireplace, and sighed softly:
"You can guess what happened next. Discontent, anger, and suspicion gave evil spirits and demons an opportunity. Maintaining inner strength was more important in that era than in modern times. As a result, demons possessed some of them, which ultimately caused very serious consequences. The council also suffered heavy losses in this matter."
Afterwards, the Great Witch of Fate was brought to the council's courtroom for trial. All the curves were retrieved and pieced together to form a complete circle. She was ultimately sentenced to lose her seat in the council. Yes, that's all. In that era, no vital force should be abandoned. Although her actions caused serious consequences, they were not unforgivable errors of principle.
The teacher wanted to use this case to tell me that judgments must be tailored to the characteristics of the times, and that we should never blindly copy past cases.
Dorothy then asked:
So, those curves...
"Although it wasn't explicitly stated in the case, my teacher and I in the past simply thought it was an unknown artifact, but now I understand that it is very likely the 'Ring of Heroes'."
Galina knew what Shad and Dorothy cared about:
"The case file mentions that the Arcs would shatter upon the death of the holder, but it's clear that the Great Witches of that time found a way to remove the Arcs from the human body. The witches of that time didn't have Fate Rings, so they certainly wouldn't have forged their destiny with Fate Rings like Shad did. Moreover, the supplementary records at the end of the case file say that the Council even found a way to use the Arcs at a lower cost without embedding them in the body."
Later, those curved arcs were handed over to a new batch of witchers. Although the effects of the arcs were not as good as those of the first generation of holders due to the cost of abandoning them, they still made a contribution to this era.
Thus, the Great Witch, who was destined to step down, was allowed to regain her seat after her successor, the apprentice, died in battle, as a reward for the contributions of the curved arcs she had discovered to civilization.