Chapter 534: The Value of Witches


    Trantor: TransN Editor: TransN


    "What’re you doing?!"


    "Let her go!"


    Hearing so manyints, Iffy twitched her lips and raised her right hand. The cage was gone and Maggie fell onto the ground.


    "Damn you!" A fast-flying golden figure lunged at Iffy. It was Lightning!


    However, just as she raised her fist, the magic cage locked her inside. It was impossible for her to touch Iffy even though she was only an arm’s length away.


    "Get out of here. This is none of your business!"


    Iffy angrily tossed the cage away, sending it tumbling over and over on the ground. Lightning bumped inside the cage until it rolled out of the area that Iffy could affect.


    She wiped the dirt off her face and was about to bound towards Iffy again, when she saw Rnd walking toward her, hand raised.


    WHACK!


    The sharp p left everyone stunned, especially Iffy.


    She did not bother to cover her red cheek, staring at Rnd in disbelief. After a while, she slowly lowered herself on one knee and said, "Pardon me for myck of manners, Your Majesty."


    Rnd was also surprised by himself. He had been reluctant to p a girl, but seeing Maggie fall onto the ground, he had burst into anger and stepped forward uncontrobly as if witnessing his own daughter being bullied by some mean, naughty kid.


    "Why did you do that?" He shouted at Iffy.


    "Your Majesty, her potential will explode during a crisis, giving her much greater strength. I just want you to have urate test results." Iffy said in a cold voice as if it was simply something trivial. "It seems that even an evolved nonbat witch still can’tpete with abat witch."


    Rnd was speechless in shock. What made Iffy think that it was reasonable to hurt her own kind just to get the test results? What kind of environment had she lived in?


    He then turned and looked toward Wendy carrying the white-haired girl in her arms. "How’s she doing?" he asked.


    "She’s alright. She’s not heavily injured, except for some reddening welts and swelling," Wendy answered. She rolled up Maggie’s sleeve with a frown, revealing red bruises on her white arm from the magic cage.


    "Coo." Maggie buried her head into Wendy’s arms, sounding rather grieved.


    "Rx, Your Majesty," Iffy said inly, "I’m always aware of how much power I use. Those areas of redness will recover within two days..."


    "Apologize to her!" Rnd angrily interrupted.


    Iffy opened her mouth in surprise and blushed with embarrassment. "I’m sorry, Your Majesty"


    "No, not me. Apologize to Maggie."


    She bit her lip and lowered her head, without saying a word. Looking at Iffy who was insisting on not apologizing to Maggie, Rnd felt so annoyed he wanted tough.


    It looked like the situation on Sleeping Ind was worse than he had imagined. If the Bloodfang Association witches dared to behave like this in the territory of a Lord, they must be even more arrogant on Sleeping Ind.


    Rnd now found himself in an awkward situation. He could neither change Iffy’s attitude towards nonbat witches, nor send her back to Sleeping Ind. He believed that no matter how hard he punished Iffy, she would never see anything wrong with her own deeds and attitude. If he simply punished her and asked her to go back, he would lose Tilly’s trust because he would fail to solve the problem for Sleeping Ind. He had promised Tilly that she could always count on him with any problem.


    He would have to break her pride of her power, in order for her to realize her fault.


    "You think you’re more powerful than the nonbat witches, so you can despise them?" Rnd asked in a cold, hard voice. "You’re not that strong."


    Hearing this, Iffy promptly looked up at him defiantly.


    "You thinkbat witches are superior to assistant witches because you’re the ones who can protect your kind, right?" Rnd said, "This is ridiculous. You can’t win a fight, entirely by yourself."


    Iffy frowned tightly and looked angry. "Your Majesty, do you mean to say that a nonbat witch can defeat me?"


    "Yes, you don’t believe it?" Rnd sneered. "Most witches in the Witch Union could easily defeat you, even if they’ve never used their power in a fight." He looked at Lightning who was standing aside, startled by his words at first. She quickly understood and nodded to him.


    "That’s just your imagination."


    "OK, how about a duel between you and Maggie, " he said in a deep voice. "She’ll show you why you should never look down upon the assistant witches."


    "What?" Iffy’s eyes widened in surprise. "You mean a fight between me and the dumb pigeon?"


    "The duel is set for tomorrow, " Rnd said each word slowly. "You’ll see that you’re not as strong as you think."


    *******************


    Returning to their ce, they saw lunch awaiting on the table in the living room.


    There was meat soup, bread, mushrooms and stewed vegetables.


    Apparently, they did not need to go to the hall for lunch.


    "Wow? We get meat and bread?" Softfeathers asked in surprise. "I thought we would only get cold water."


    "Is this for the duel? He doesn’t want me to fight in hunger?" Iffy sneered. "He has too much faith in that stupid bird."


    "Maybe the dishes are drugged with something, likexatives." Softfeathers suggested.


    Completely ignoring the other witch’s words, Iffy grabbed a piece of bread and stuffed it into her mouth. "If you’re worried about that, you can always just not eat it."


    "I don’t care. I’m not the one going to a duel." Softfeathers rolled her eyes. She climbed up to sit on a stool and took a dish of roasted mushrooms, saying, "Hey, do you have to do this? Lady Heidi asked us to confirm the situation here, but she never told you to irritate the lord."


    "It’s an exciting opportunity," Iffy said.


    "Really?" Softfeathers asked with great interest. "That’s why you’re doing this?"


    Iffy turned and stared at Softfeathers coldly until the little girl dropped her head and mumbled. "Fine, forget about it."


    Ever since a group of Sleeping Ind witches hade back from the Western Region, the atmosphere was bad for the Bloodfang Association. ording to the returning witches, Lady Tilly’s elder brother had built a domain where witches could live like ordinary people and even the assistant witches were well treated. This story had made the useless assistant witches on Sleeping Ind very excited. Lady Heidi thought that it was Tilly who made up this story to gain the support of the many assistant witches. A lord would naturally valuebat witches more, they could conquer and bringnds and power to him.


    During today’s test however, Iffy was really surprised to find that this lord seemed to treat all the witches equally,


    But it was not what surprised her the most.


    She was most surprised by Maggie.


    Iffy could not believe that a stupid bird so clumsy in speech was so popr among the witches and liked by the lord, and that everyone was really beaming with a smile when they saw the fool. On Sleeping Ind, Maggie was just a pet, a dispensable role!


    Seeing Maggie, Iffy was full of anger and jealousy.


    Iffy thought it was a betrayal that Maggie had left Sleeping Ind and was living happily together with the witches here.


    This was the real reason Iffy had targeted Maggie.


    However, things had really gotten out of her control.


    She still found it hard to believe that His Majesty had made such a ridiculous suggestion and arranged a duel between her and a pigeon.


    She had to ept it. After all, getting information about the Western Region was one of her tasks here. Another task was to attract the lord’s attention by showing her value and ability.


    She was confident that she could make it clear to His Majesty that there was a huge gap between thebat witches and the weak assistant witches.