Chapter 756 Magical Tides

Roland was startled, "Is there any problem?"

"Is that so..." Phyllis hesitated, "I heard that only one witch was awakened in your territory last year?"

He dug out a list from the drawer—it was given to him by Wendy's statistics, and it recorded the awakening day and adult day of each witch, so that he would not miss the second birth of the witches.

"It should be right," Roland checked the list and nodded, "Although Xie Yue added two new witches last year, Bai Zhi had already awakened three years ago, and Axia was the only one who could be counted as awakened that year. ...and the day of her awakening happens to be the day of coming of age."

"It shouldn't be, Your Majesty," Phyllis frowned, "How many people were there in your city last year? Twenty thousand or thirty thousand?"

"It should be 50,000." Speaking of the population, Roland couldn't help but feel a little proud. "This year, the number of people in Neverwinter City has exceeded 100,000."

"One hundred thousand is almost the same as the early Anlieta. Before exiting the Fertile Plain, Taquila was only about 250,000, but... do you know how many people awaken each year in these two holy cities?" Fei Lisi said in a deep voice, "Even in the period when the magic power was the poorest, there were no fewer than ten people in Anrieta, and nearly three times that number in Taquila."

"Magic power... period of poverty?"

"That's right, the magic power that fills this world has its ups and downs, just like the tides." Agatha explained, "The two years after the red moon comes are also the time when the magic power is the most abundant, and new witches appear almost every day. Afterwards, the dissociated magic power will gradually weaken, and the period between the two red moons can be regarded as a period of poverty, and awakeners will almost only appear after the moon of demons."

Regarding the fact that the stronger the magic power, the easier it is for the witch to awaken, Roland had heard Agatha mention it before. It's just that he originally thought that the magic power would usher in a peak every year, but he didn't expect that it would fluctuate greatly in a cycle of hundreds of years. "But we are not far away from the third battle of divine will."

"This is the most worrying issue," Phyllis said with a worried look on her face. "The appearance of the hell beast means that the red moon is approaching, and the trend of magic power should be more active. According to Celine's test, in fact It is true. But why is the number of witches awakened so low? Even if no one is awakened in the city, there should be many witches born in the suburban towns and villages—for example, in the Taquila era, the witches provided by the surrounding territories were more than There are even more holy cities. Generally speaking, the larger the total population, the more witches, this is a rule summed up by the federation for hundreds of years."

"At first, I thought that Neverwinter City deliberately rejected women when it was recruiting people, and then I thought that the influence of the church prevented new witches from revealing their identities easily, so they didn't join Neverwinter City right away... It turns out that's not the case. It's something." Agatha said slowly, "Pasha also discussed with her, and finally came to the conclusion that there may be some factors that have affected the awakening of new witches, and there is a tendency to gradually expand."

Roland pondered for a while before saying, "Assuming this guess is correct, do you have a way to find out what factors caused this?"

The two looked at each other and shook their heads in unison.

"Since it can't be solved, let's take a temporary rest as a god," he spread his hands. "Anyway, no matter how the chance of awakening changes, we have to drive the devil out of the dawn, right?"

Fortunately, once the foundation of industrialized production is laid, the demand for witches is not as strong as God's Punishment Army or the Chosen One plan, otherwise this would be really terrible news.

"What you said... is indeed true," Phyllis probably didn't expect that Roland's confidence in fighting the devil would not be affected at all, and she was stunned for a while before recovering, "We must defeat the devil no matter what."

"That's right," Roland smiled. "Ah, yes... I came to you to ask about one thing." He recounted his worries about the possible harm caused by the awakening of the witch, "In the Tower How did the federation deal with such incidents during Qiraji?"

"It's very simple, Your Majesty." Phyllis's tone became more respectful. She no longer looked directly at Roland, but lowered her head slightly. "Everyone in that era understood the half-a-quarter hour rule."

"Half an hour rule?"

"Yes, there is no sign before the witch awakens. The process of magic power from a dissociative state to converging in the awakened body will last for about half an hour." Phyllis replied, "At first, there was a faint stab in the abdomen. The pain and burning, and then became more intense, until the first backlash appeared - the specific pain level varies from person to person, even those who are physically strong will not be affected too much, but the subtle tingling sensation can still be felt. "

She paused, "The half-a-quarter hour rule is: as long as the witch announces loudly that she is about to awaken within this period, the people around her must immediately leave her side. Ask for compensation; if there is a loss to a fixed place, the federation will pay for it."

This is a new approach, Roland thought to himself, the premise is that everyone is very familiar with witches, especially underage girls—when encountering sudden pain, the first reaction is to make a declaration, not doubt I ate my stomach badly.

"What if the injured are also witches?"

"If there is no announcement in advance, the newly awakened will face punishment - whipping or money, depending on the consequences. If it has been announced in advance, the Federation will take full responsibility. But such cases are rare, after all, fighting Witches themselves are already a minority, and even fewer have the ability to cause harm in the early stages of awakening."

In other words, in the Taquila era, if ordinary people didn't avoid it in time, they could only consider themselves unlucky. In that special era when witches were superior to others, it was understandable for them to do so. It is obviously impossible for Roland to copy this method, but it can be used for reference to a certain extent.

Undoubtedly, leaving aside the punishment part, the half-a-quarter-hour rule has its advanced point: it at least promotes a concept, making everyone understand that witches are born inside human beings, and whether they accept it or not, every underage woman has the possibility Awakened as a witch. This is like the stop at red light and go at green light in later generations. All we can do is to obey the rules to avoid damage.

Of course, it is impossible to be completely exempted from liability, Roland thought, if he took a step back from this rule, treated witches and ordinary people equally, and handed over the damage after the announcement to the city hall, and did not make an announcement, causing serious damage If there are consequences, the trial will be based on negligent injury...or a special law to regulate the behavior of witches, just like the traffic regulations of later generations, may be able to alleviate this contradiction to a certain extent.