"Oh—we're at the Imperial Capital," Roxanne said, looking around as we stepped out of the Field Walk door.
"Quratar is north of here," Wendy explained with an easy smile. "The Capital is in the center of the Empire, so we have to pass through here if we want to go west."
The Imperial Capital's Adventurer's Guild was overflowing with people as always. Even while cloaked, I could feel several gazes settle on us. Well—walking around with two gorgeous women at my side tends to do that.
Two… because Nightingale, unsurprisingly, remained invisible.
Wendy must have sensed the attention too, because she hurriedly chanted Field Walk, and in the next moment, we stepped out of the crowd and into a much smaller guild building with barely anyone inside.
She told me the name of the town we were in, and I committed it to memory.
Just to be safe, I also asked Sherry—still at home through the party link—whether she knew anything about this place. I wanted to inform her because even if I forgot the name, Sherry wouldn't. And that meant I could always return here later if the town turned out to have anything special.
Unfortunately, Sherry didn't know anything noteworthy about it, and Wendy had already begun preparing the next jump.
This time, when we stepped out, I could clearly see the strain on her. Sweat beaded along her forehead, her breathing had grown heavy—and yes, her chest rose and fell sharply with each breath, an undeniably distracting sight—but more importantly, she needed help.
I handed her a mana potion waterskin.
"Just a sip. You'll recover immediately," I said with a smile.
Wendy hesitated… then took a cautious drink. Her brown eyes widened at once.
"This really works…" she whispered. "This kind of thing can't be cheap." She handed the waterskin back to me with both hands, almost apologetically.
"Don't worry about the price," I replied with a smile. "I just want to reach my destination as fast as possible."
"…Right." She nodded, still wearing a wry smile.
Good thing I had prepared three full waterskins of mana potion ahead of time and stored them in the Explorer's Bag.
If she ended up draining all of them—as was very possible—I would just have to slip away for a bit to secretly make more using the Magical Vial.
As Wendy caught her breath, I quickly opened the party settings to check her jobs.
[Party Job Setting
Wendy
Acquired Job: Villager Level 7, Cow Worker Level 1, Explorer Level 50, Adventurer Level 10, Swordsman Level 1, Herbalist Level 1, Farmer Level 1, Thief Level 1, Warrior Level 1, Merchant Level 1
Set Job: Adventurer Level 10
Bonus Job: Witch Level 18]
There were quite a few things that caught my attention immediately.
First—her Witch job wasn't listed under Acquired Jobs at all.
It was in a new Bonus Job section.
Did that mean she didn't unlock the job through satisfying conditions… but instead had it given to her automatically?
It actually supported one of my theories:
Bonus Jobs might function similarly to my own Bonus Equipment and Bonus Spells.
I mentally tried clicking on it, and even attempted to drag it to another slot, but nothing worked.
Disappointing… because getting more information on the Witch job might have given me a better understanding of her abilities. Sure, I knew Wendy's power from my meta knowledge—but in this mixed world, canon couldn't be trusted completely. There could easily be witches here who never appeared in the original story.
Being able to read their abilities directly from the Job screen would have been immensely useful.
The next surprise was her having the Thief job.
Even someone as gentle-looking and soft-spoken as Wendy had committed a crime at some point.
A sad reminder of how awful the treatment of witches must be in this world.
Well, I wasn't going to judge her for that.
Then there was "Cow Worker"—which, honestly, looked hilariously close to "Coworker."
I assumed it was her race-specific job.
I mentally clicked on it.
[Cow Worker
Effect: Increase Endurance (Medium), Increase Strength (Small), Increase HP (Small)
Skill: Load Strengthning]
It definitely felt like a pure utility job.
The skill name also reinforced that impression.
Still, I asked Sherry and Roxanne through the party link if they had ever heard of the Cow Worker job.
To my surprise, both of them replied immediately.
Apparently, Cowkins were well-known labor workers.
They were hired everywhere—farms, caravans, transport teams, even construction crews.
And since Cowkin villages didn't exist anywhere near labyrinths, I had simply never run into their kind in Quratar or the Imperial Capital.
'Master, Cowkin people are known for being very straightforward—just like their straight horns. That's why they make honest workers,' Sherry added into the link.
Wendy, however… was an Adventurer.
And she had a Thief job.
So clearly, she wasn't exactly like the usual gentle Cow-kin stereotype.
I wasn't especially interested in prying about her racial job anyway—I couldn't acquire it, so it didn't matter much.
We resumed our teleport jumps, and during that time Roxanne and Wendy actually seemed to get along.
The two of them chatted quite comfortably.
Well they definitely had things in common like being gentle in nature and big boobs.
I attempted talking to Nightingale, but she only responded in short, clipped phrases.
And honestly… having a conversation with empty air was awkward as hell.
At least I could see her floating status box.
Well… even without talking, I could still learn more about her by checking the party settings.
[Party Job Setting
Victoria Gilen
Acquired Job: Villager Level 5, Warrior Level 30, Assassin Level 15, Swordsman Level 1, Explorer Level 1, Herbalist Level 1, Thief Level 1, Knight Level 1, Merchant Level 1, Monk Level 1
Set Job: Assassin Level 15
Bonus Job: Witch Level 30]
The first thing that jumped out at me was her Witch Level—
Why was it so much higher than Wendy's?
Wendy was older than her and had acquired more levels in total through her jobs.
Yet Nightingale's Witch Level was almost double.
Maybe it had to do with how often a Witch used her abilities. From what I had seen, Nightingale stayed invisible almost constantly whenever she was out in public—meaning she was using her power far more often than Wendy ever did.
I mentally noted the theory for later testing.
But I still had plenty of unanswered questions about the Witch Job.
Did a Bonus Job function like my own second job slot?
Was it something I could never obtain myself?
And did it have any connection to my Bonus Points?
I had no answers—only doubts. And no one I could really ask.
As I mulled over these theories—and handed Wendy another sip of mana potion every time she started swaying—we kept jumping from one city to the next.
According to Wendy, the route we were covering usually took months to traverse.
And she had never attempted this many Field Walks one after another in her life.
Even after drinking the potion, she complained her head felt like it was being hammered.
Luckily, her negativity always stopped after the second sip.
I did feel bad for pushing her so hard…
but she was the only one who knew the exact location of the Border town.
We passed through countless places—some were large cities, some tiny villages.
A surprising number weren't even known to Sherry.
I tried asking the witches about each place we passed, hoping for something useful.
But usually, their answers were limited:
"This Knight Guild here is very strict."
"The food here is shit."
"The lodging isn't great."
Not exactly the deep intel I hoped for.
"Oh, there are a lot of people here…" I muttered as we stepped out of another portal.
"Yes. This is Longsong Stronghold," Wendy said, wiping sweat from her forehead. "It's one of the biggest cities in the western part of the Empire."
Roxanne immediately handed her a cloth, while I offered her the second waterskin — which was almost empty by now.
"It's also the closest city to Border Town," Nightingale whispered beside me. "For most people, this place is the western edge of the Empire."
"Longsong Stronghold…" I repeated softly, looking around at the two-storey Adventurer's Guild and the bustling crowd inside it.
I recognised the name from RTW…
but reaching Border Town was far more important right now.
Wendy took another sip of the potion and immediately began chanting her spell again, not even stopping to rest.
We stepped through the portal once more and emerged inside a forest clearing.
"Ha… there's no guild in Border Town," Wendy said, leaning against a tree to steady herself. "So I opened the door just outside the town."
"I can see houses that way," Roxanne said, pointing ahead.
"Wendy, thank you for your hard work," I said, handing her the waterskin again.
Honestly, I could never have imagined how freaking far this place really was.
We had jumped so many times that I knew I would have to Warp multiple times myself just to bring everyone back.
"Hehe… just don't ask me to drag you all the way back to Quratar anytime soon," Wendy said with a tired smile before taking another sip.
"Don't worry. I'll bring you both back as promised," I reassured her with a grin.
"So… can you tell us now what you wanted to find in this broken little town?" Nightingale asked as she finally dropped her invisibility.
"Let's get inside the town first," I said, eyes fixed ahead. "I need to verify something."
The girls nodded.
Nightingale faded from sight again, and we walked toward the wooden houses clustered near the forest's edge.
They reminded me of Somara and Nayuta Village—simple, sturdy, wooden structures.
But even at a glance, there were far more houses here.
Maybe that's why this was a town and not a village.
"Where is everyone?" I muttered. The place felt… empty and deserted.
"I smell many people that way," Roxanne said, pointing to the right.
"Lead the way." I said in relief.
We walked down the dirt path, boots stirring dust into the still air.
"I don't think there's anything special about this place, Michio…" Wendy murmured, keeping pace beside me.
"There's just a mine outside the town. Most people here work there," Nightingale said, confirming it.
I nodded absently, glancing at the high mountains looming in the distance.
Before long, we began hearing noise—shouting, murmurs, angry voices.
A few more steps and the sight opened up before us: a wide clearing packed with people.
Two wooden platforms stood in the center, surrounded by a restless crowd.
"There's someone on the stage… her head is covered by a leather hood. A girl?" Roxanne said, eyes widening.
"They're going to hang her," Nightingale whispered, stunned. "This is an execution."
"Don't tell me that girl is a—" Wendy gasped.
"Let's hurry," I said sharply.
Appraisal had already told me everything I needed to know.
We pushed through the crowd at once.
"I heard she burned someone alive in the mines!"
"Kill that witch!"
"Hang her!"
"Devil spawn!"
The shouts came from every direction—raw, vicious hatred.
I dumped several Bonus Points into Strength, forcing my way through the packed bodies as people resisted, shoved back, or screamed. Roxanne and Wendy stayed close, both visibly uncomfortable as the hostility around us grew more violent.
Some of the angrier townsfolk were even hurling stones at the frail girl standing on the platform, her head bowed beneath the leather hood.
I noticed most of the people crowding the clearing wore worn-out, patched clothing and had only common jobs like Villager, they were clearly quite poor.
In stark contrast, across from them sat a smaller group—well-dressed people, guarded by warriors, seated on wooden chairs, watching the execution like spectators at a show.
But my focus kept drifting to the second stage, smaller and raised slightly higher.
Three people were present on it: an old man, a knight, and a young woman sitting with her head in her hands.
The old man leaned toward her, speaking politely.
The woman looked… distracted, clutching her temples as if in pain, and she waved him away weakly.
We had already reached the very front of the crowd, directly between both stages.
That was the moment my Opportunity Sense began buzzing louder than ever before.
"Proceed with the execution!" the old man commanded, his voice carrying above the chaos.
The chained girl—thin, frail, a heavy metal collar locked around her neck—was shoved to the center of the platform. Two men tightened a thick rope noose around her throat.
"Wendy, can you hit that rope from here using your powers?" I asked urgently.
"Yes… I-I think so," she whispered, face pale.
"No, don't!" Nightingale hissed. "They'll just bring another rope. And if they find out Wendy is a witch, she'll be executed next! If you want, I can—"
"Don't worry," I said calmly. "I'll distract them. And they won't get a chance to hang her again."
I stepped forward just as the executioners prepared to kick away the support beneath the girl.
"Wendy—now!"
Wendy inhaled sharply and thrust out her hand.
An invisible gust of compressed wind shot forward, slicing clean toward the rope.
And at that exact second, I raised my hand and shouted:
"Release that witch!"
But—
My words weren't alone.
A second voice crashed into mine at the exact same moment, perfectly overlapping.
A woman's voice.
I jerked my head toward the second platform.
The silver-grey-haired woman who had been slumped moments earlier was now on her feet, arm raised just like mine. Her posture radiated defiance, and her sharp grey eyes met mine—wide with the same shock I felt.
Two strangers.One moment.One sentence. Spoken as one.
I couldn't stop the grin that spread across my face.
It seemed the protagonist of Release That Witch… had finally arrived.
***
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Alberto Calles
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