"What happened when the mine collapsed? Tell me again in detail."
Anna nodded and began to narrate the story.
Roland was a little surprised.
He had thought that the other party would remain silent, complain, or even curse, but she only cooperated with him and answered his questions, saying whatever he asked.
The story was not complicated. Anna's father was a miner and was working in the mine when the mine collapsed. Anna immediately went into the mine with the other miner's family members to rescue him. The North Slope Mine was said to be an underground monster's lair. There were many forks in the mine that led in all directions. Because the rescuers did not have a unified command, they scattered and searched on their own after entering the mine. When Anna found her father, only Aunt Susan and Uncle Anker were there.
She found her father's leg crushed by a cart full of ore. He could not move, and a miner was squatting beside him, searching for money. Seeing that his robbery was discovered, the miner rushed up with a hoe and knocked Uncle Anker to the ground. Just as he was about to kill him, Anna killed him first.
The neighbors swore not to tell anyone about her, and the three of them rescued Anna's father together. But before dawn the next day, Anna's father went out on crutches and reported that his daughter was a witch to the patrolling guards.
"Why?" Roland could not help but ask.
Barov sighed. "It's probably for the bounty. Anyone who finds and reports a witch will get 25 Golden Dragon. For a man with a broken leg, 25 Golden Dragon is equivalent to insurance for the rest of his life. "
Roland was silent for a moment. "He was a strong adult man. How did you kill him?"
Just then, Anna smiled. Like a ripple on the surface of a lake, the tip of the torch swayed.
"It's the power of the devil you mentioned."
"Shut up! Demoness! "the Warden shouted, but everyone could hear the tremble in his voice.
"Really? I want to see. "Prince Roland was unmoved.
"Your Highness, this isn't a joke!" Chief Knight turned around and said with a frown.
Roland walked out from behind the Knight and walked towards the cage. "You can leave if you're afraid. I'm not asking you to stay here."
"Don't panic, she still has the God's Locket of Retribution on her neck!" Barrow comforted everyone, but at the same time, it seemed like he was comforting himself. "No matter how powerful the devil is, he can't break God's protection."
Roland, who was standing in front of the prison bars, was only an arm's length away from Anna. He could clearly see her dusty and scarred face. Her tender facial features meant that she was not yet an adult, but there was not a trace of childishness in her expression. Not only that, even anger was hard to find — Roland had only seen this kind of incongruity on TV. It was the appearance of homeless orphans who suffered from poverty, hunger, cold, and other hardships when they were interviewed. But it wasn't exactly the same. Homeless orphans always hunched their bodies and lowered their heads when facing the camera, but Anna didn't.
Even now, she was still trying to stand up straight, her eyes slightly raised, and calmly looked straight into the prince's eyes.
She wasn't afraid of death, Roland realized, she was waiting for it.
"Is this the first time you've seen a witch, Your Highness? Your curiosity might get you killed. "
"If it's really the power of the devil, I'll suffer misfortune just by looking at it," Roland replied. "Then the one who died shouldn't be me, but your father."
The fire in the cage suddenly dimmed. This time, it was definitely not an illusion. The fire seemed to be suppressed by something, and soon there was only a small cluster left. He heard rapid breathing and prayers behind him, as well as the muffled sound of someone accidentally falling while retreating in a panic.
Roland's heart gradually beat faster. He felt that he was at a wonderful dividing point. On one side was the world of common sense, operating meticulously according to the planned constants and laws. On the other side was an incredible world, full of mysteries and unknowns. He was now standing in front of the gate of this new world.
Is the God's Locket of Retribution hanging on her neck? What a simple and crude chain, a piece of red iron chain with a crystal pendant hanging on it. If the witch's hands weren't firmly cuffed behind her back, this kind of thing could be broken with a pull, right?
Roland turned around and glanced at the crowd. While they were still praying in panic, he quickly reached his hand into the cage, grabbed the pendant, and pulled it hard. The pendant broke from the buckle of the chain. Even Anna was stunned by his action.
"Come on," he whispered. Are you a liar, a chemist, or a real witch?
If you take out bottles and jars and start to mix strong acids now, I'll be disappointed. He thought.
Then Roland heard a crackling sound, which was the sound of water vapor being heated and expanding – white fog rose from the ground, and the surrounding temperature rose sharply.
He saw flames rising from the witch's feet, gently licking the girl's bare calves, and then the ground where she stood was burning. The torches behind her exploded at the same time, as if they had received pure oxygen, bursting into a dazzling light. The whole prison became as bright as day, accompanied by the screams of horror.
The witch stepped forward, the flames following her footsteps. When she came to the edge of the prison, dozens of iron bars turned into pillars of fire.
Roland had to step back, the hot air biting his skin, making him unbearable pain. In just a few breaths, he felt like he had returned from late autumn to midsummer. No, it was different from the heat of summer, this kind of high temperature purely generated by the flames couldn't completely surround him. The side facing the flames was hot, while the side facing away was cold. He even felt himself breaking out in a cold sweat.
– She wasn't afraid of the flames.
Roland remembered the words of the assistant minister. Only now did he deeply understand the meaning of these words.
She herself was a flame, how could she be afraid of him?
Soon, the iron bars turned from crimson to bright yellow, and began to melt and change shape. This meant that they had been heated to more than 1,500 degrees, without any thermal insulation, which was far beyond Roland's imagination. Like the others, he had already distanced himself from the cell, tightly clinging to the farthest stone wall.
If he didn't do this, the high heat generated by the molten iron, even if he didn't come into direct contact, would still set his clothes on fire – for example, Anna, her prison clothes had already turned into Ashes, her body surrounded by raging flames.
After an unknown period of time, the flames all faded.
Only a small section of the torch was left on the wall, quietly burning, as if nothing had happened. But the sweaty clothes, the hot air, and the prison bars that had been burned like the claws of the devil, all told everyone that this was not a dream.
Except for Roland and the Knight who were still standing, the others had collapsed to the ground, including the warden who was so scared that he wet his pants.
The naked Anna was now standing outside the cell, the shackles that bound her arms had disappeared. She didn't cover her body, her hands naturally hanging by her side, her lake blue eyes restored to their previous tranquility.
"I satisfied your curiosity, my Lord," she said, "Now can you kill me?"
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