Chapter 360: Ice
Translator: Meh/TransN Editor: - -
Early in the next morning, Agatha received parchment scroll from Roland.
"What is it?"
"A contract. After you leave your fingerprint on it, you'll officially become a member of the Witch Union."
She spread the scroll of paper, carefully read the contents in it and asked in surprise, "That's all?"
"Yup?" Roland seemed a little confused about what she said, "Why ask?"
"The restrictions on it are useless," Agatha pointed to the part of "Services" and continued, "it just mentions that witches cannot betray Border Town unless the mutual agreement between both parties is breached, but there isn't any restricting measures. If a witch does want to break the contract, she might have no pressure at all. Besides, and the wordings are way too loose. Is this a real contract?"
"Well, I just wrote it casually and it's just a kinda formality." The prince nodded without any surprise. It seemed that Agatha was not the first one to point out the loopholes of this contract.
"It's a formality full of loopholes ." Secretly criticizing the contract in her mind, she then touched the ink pad and put her thumbprint on it. There were very few requirements for both parties in the contract of the Witch Union. According to the articles, Agatha could barely see any differences after she joined the Witch Union. Although she thought it was unnecessary to sign the contract, she felt much relieved than before.
She said she would work with the mortals, but she knew it well that the man with gray hair was the real leader of the Union. If she had to work for a mortal like the way she served the Union or the leader of three cities with the utmost deference, she would probably not accept it. But now, she was at least free to a large extent.
Roland put away the contract and asked curiously, "What were the restrictions on the contract of Taquila?"
"It was only used for recruiting the mortals and the penalties included corporal punishment and mental torture." She twitched her mouth. "As for us witches, we didn't need such contracts. Once you joined the Union, you should serve it for your lifetime and there was only death for traitors."
"Okay," he took a breath and said, "welcome to the Witch Union." After breakfast, remember to come to the castle garden. I need to test your ability comprehensively."
...
The ability test was much easier than what Agatha thought. All she needed to do was to show every characteristic of her ability once in front of the prince and answer some questions.
"The form of the magic power is a sky blue pentagonal prism and it's a medium level. It belongs to the summon category. Your ability has evolved once. The initial performance is creating a low temperature, and it can freeze at a normal temperature after evolution, which is a very convenient ability," Roland asked after recording the results, "how did you get evolved? "
"Constant practice and a sudden enlightenment," she proudly said. As the youngest High Awakened, she was called "the Genius of Taquila" by all the members of the Union. "Every day I kept trying to lower the temperature to freeze the water instantly. One day, I saw a witch who manipulated the flame to melt a piece of lead into liquid, and as the lead was heated by the flame, the lead water began to boil."
"This scene made me realize that everything may have three states: gaseous, liquid and solid—lead is solid at room temperature, but if the temperature is high enough, it can also turn into gas; water is liquid at room temperature, and when the temperature falls, it can freeze into ice."
"So for gas at normal temperature, can it freeze as long as the temperature is low enough, just like the case of the lead?"
"With this idea, I quickly felt the magic power in my body changing entirely, and I finally evolved into a Senior Witches. This enlightenment is also recorded in the General Principles."
In fact, she was the youngest witch whose enlightenment was recorded in that book. Back then, even all the Three Chiefs praised her, for such enlightenment was very significant in enlightening witches to evolve and in practical research. However, when she said those in a serious manner, Roland was quite calm.
"I see." The prince nodded. "What is the General Principles?"
"Wait... Aren't you surprised at all?" Agatha asked surprisedly. "The world is full of gas everywhere. It can be anywhere and without any weight. Actually, the gas can turn into flowing water and frozen ice."
"They are very normal phenomena, and there are many kinds of gases, each of which has different boiling points and melting points." Roland shrugged. "Why should I be surprised? These're common sense in Natural Science Theoretical Foundation."
"..." Agatha was quite shocked and hurt, and she took two deep breaths and said, "Alright, I'll read it carefully."
"The General Principles..."
"It records the feelings and experiences of the High Awakened during their evolution," she said in discontent, "but the abilities of witches are different from each other, which makes it very difficult for them to evolve by imitation and referencing, so this book is of course uncomparable to your Natural Science Theoretical Foundation!"
"Did I say something wrong?" The prince was quite confused.
"No, I'm too arrogant," Agatha was unhappier now.
"Well." He seemed to figure out the reason, so he changed the topic quickly. "You just said that the abilities of the witches are different from each other... so there's no one sharing the same ability among thousands of witches in the Union?"
"No," she replied bluntly, "The Quest Society believes that the form of magic power decides the ability, but there are no witches sharing the same form of magic power."
"But when you first saw Anna, you could instantly tell that it was the ability of fire control."
"It's just an informal categorization, which is easy to understand. The abilities of generating light and heat can be categorized into fire control, but with the development of magic power, consolidation after growing up, or High Awakening, similar abilities will change greatly. Even at the initial stage of fire control, some witches are good at controlling the temperature, some generating greater fire, and some throwing the fire. Even if there're no obvious differences, it's because of the lack of careful observation," Agatha said, "The Quest Society's categorization method was much more formal and basically the same as yours."
"Also three categories?" Roland asked.
"Four. The main difference is the summoning type—the Quest Society divided it into two categories, Magic Power and Shaping. You can understand the difference from the literal meanings."
"The former means that the summoning of the ability costs magic power all the time, just like Anna's. When the magic power is gone, the summoning of the ability will stop. And Shaping can exist for a very long time, just like the Coating drawn by Soroya, right?"
"Although I don't know the exact ability of Soroya, it's pretty much like that... That can stay for a long time can be taken as Shaping, such as my ability of freezing at a normal temperature."
"Understood." Roland recorded these contents as well. "That's all for the test today." Usually, if you receive no assignment from me, you can practice your ability as you wish, but I'm thinking that someone might urgently need your help."
"Who?"
"Kyle Sichi, the Chief Alchemist of Border Town."