533 CH 493: WELCOME TO SALEM (2)
(AN: Just in case Wn erase it and they know the bot will, you should go on youtube and search [Madoka Magica - "Make a Wish" - Sis Puella Magica cover by Earth Kid ]—->
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This world was beautiful.
It was a place that was straight out of a grim fairy tale, giving him a mixed vibe between fantasy and steampunk with a style of the victorian era.
The city was beautiful. The air was vibrant. But the building gave a feeling of disjointed rules and chaos.
Here there were no thoughts given to how the city should expand in the future. The roads were not thoughts out in advance and the buildings had nearly no similarities between them.
This brought a weird feeling that nothing was at his place here but rather that each and every building was someone imposing their presence.
Salem was large.
Extremely so.
After all, it was as big as the capital of Lustburg, a place that was supposed to hold millions of people without the slightest problem.
“So, what does it feel like to be the first man to enter this place?”
Sol took a deep breath at the words of Ambrosia.
While this place was not the Astral realm, he could feel that the concentration in Mana was nearly equal.
For him who had been feeling restricted by the scarce mana in the mortal world, he felt like a whale that had been limited to an aquarium suddenly being allowed to go back to the Ocean.
It was freeing, liberating even.
“Both full and Empty.”
Sol’s eyes went through all the infrastructure, with a critical eye to which Ambrosia nodded with a chuckle,
“The city is too big. There are many accommodations that are common in a normal city that would be useless here. At the same time, in terms of numbers, we are obviously only a few digits.”
There was a certain sadness in her eyes, “This city is both a dream and a nightmare for us. The place that constantly shows us how small we are and how our numbers can barely grow. Because of this, they started to compensate by creating progressively bigger and bigger infrastructure.”
Watching this place hurt her heart.
The witches were the result of her own selfish desire to not be alone. In order to create her own family and also grow stronger and reach greater heights, she cursed thousands of young women through the years.
Many died.
Be it because they had reached the limit of their powers, because they fought outside or for any other reason, they continued to die.
“Your city is beautiful.”
Ambrosia was surprised as she saw Sol grinning at her,
“You are showing a rather gloomy face, but I do not think the witches resent you. Even though you gave them a poisoned apple, it is one they bit knowing full well what they were signing for.”
He waved his hands,
“Also, now that I worked on the problem of energy absorption. I will work on the one about procreation. Then, there will be no disadvantages in becoming a witch, right?”
He spread his arms wide,
“Think about it! Imagine this place bustling with women of all ages, coming and going while studying magic then deciding whether or not they wish or are qualified to become witches in the first place. In the future, becoming one of you will not be a choice done out of despair but one made with pride and joy! Don’t you think it will be a sight worth seeing?”
Ambrosia was bemused for a while, before she ended up smiling alongside Sol, with none of the earlier gloom present.
“We haven’t even signed the alliance yet and you are already making plans for my City.”
“Heh. I believe that knowledge should be shared. Even if not for magic, the witches are perhaps the greatest scientists in this world.”
Sol had a big dream. He could already imagine a new generation of children from lustburg, be it boys or girls, entering Salem as students and growing, learning, and becoming true scientists with the knowledge and discipline necessary.
This would be glorious — or it might bring the end of the world.
He would have to be careful about this.
Sol flew with Ambrosia and then approached the center of the city.
On the way, Ambrosia explained to him the organization of the witches and they made sure that everything worked out despite the clear individuality and independence of the witches.
Salem had four great organizations.
The Hunters, also known as the Executioners, whose job was to eliminate all witches that had gone astray from their destined path. They were under the direct control of Kali.
The Judges, whose role was, as the name implied, to judge criminals or civil cases, and also decide if a witch had committed a sin great enough to be put on the hunting list. This department was controlled by none other than Persephone.
The Finance Department had complete power over the funds of the council and decided how to attribute them to witches who needed them for their projects. Those funds were given to promising but poor witches and would be taken away if the witches showed no results. This place was controlled by Freya.
Finally, the council of wise women also known as the Council of Walpurgisnacht, convened regularly to establish the different regulations and take care of the everyday life of the witches. Which was technically under the control of Medea.
“I see that you made sure to have full control of every important place.”
Ambrosia nodded, she was kind and loved all witches but she knew that the level of closeness with all of them could never be the same.
“In fact, the council was more of Persephone’s idea. She said that if the witches did not have the feeling of being able to control their own destinies, this would only breed resentment.”
This was how the Council of wise women was created.
In order to assure fairness, all council members always had to hide their features when in official duties, and of course, they could not divulge their identity during their terms.
The only ones that knew their identities were the five great witches.
Any witch that specialized in prediction and analyzing type magic or had talent in administration could be chosen by Ambrosia to enter the council for a term of fifty years.
Though there were no limits to the number of times a witch could be chosen to enter the council, a witch could never hold the position for more than two consecutive terms. After which she would have to wait for one hundred and fifty years before being eligible again for the role.
“While not all witches got to have a taste of holding the rein of power, more than enough did and this allow all the witches to accept our rules more readily.”
There was also the fact that for all the power they possessed, Ambrosia and the four never really acted like they were above all the others — even though they were.
“In the past, Medea was extremely respected and had absolute power in the council. But nowadays…”
She grimaced a little and Sol could only shake his head.
After what happened with Jupiter and with Medea hiding in the tower for thousand years, there was no way she could wield the same level of influence as in the past.
“Anyways now we are here.”
They landed and Adam watched as a procession of women covered in black came out of the tallest tower.
“Why does everyone have a statute?”
In the center of the Salem, larger and higher than any other towers, stood proudly the cathedral of wisdom. In front of it was a large plaza where all witches could gaze at the sculpture of a beautiful woman wearing a witch hat on her head that hid her features and a large snake coiling around her. In her right hand was a large book.
This was obviously a depiction of Ambrosia and the living Ambrosia, standing next to him, coughed a little to hide her embarrassment.
“I am not the one who commissioned this.”
This was all she could say to defend herself.
Sol laughed before focusing back on the group of ten witches that now stood in front of him.
He had the feeling that he was facing some dark Inquisition cult.
But the fact that they were all midgets made this particularly funny.
In the end, one of the witches approached and placed her hands together,
“Welcome to our city. We are honored to receive the Dragon Emperor.”
‘Dragon Emperor rather than Prince of Lustburg, huh.’
Sol grinned. This was going to be fun.
