That's not how you use a witch!

Chapter 19 The Truth About the Stone of Divine Punishment?

"Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Howard. You may go back now. The results of your investigation will be announced in two days."

"Yes... Your Excellency is wise! Your Excellency is merciful!"

After seeing off the overjoyed Howard, who seemed to have survived a close call, Ronan looked at the information he had recorded and let out a long sigh.

This is practically an alternate version of the An Lushan Rebellion... Unlike the medieval nobles in Ronan's stereotype who only knew how to fight mindless battles, this rebel army's fighting style can be described as textbook-worthy.

After raising their army, they first used specific propaganda slogans to maximize the cohesion of all forces, and then swiftly plundered the entire northern territory with lightning speed, giving the Marquis's side no chance to react. Their actions were extremely decisive and ruthless.

After defeating the allied forces, they did not rush to eliminate them or take on the heavily defended capital region. Instead, they drove them all the way to the western border, clearly intending to use one enemy to devour another, disrupt the western border, and then take advantage of the chaos to seize the western border, gradually eroding the territory of the Black Stone Empire.

Although the western border is relatively resource-poor, it is the only territory of the Blackrock Empire that borders other countries on land. The eastern border is desert, and the southern border is the sea; it is difficult to obtain any external assistance from either direction.

In other words, once the western border falls, it's almost only a matter of time before the rebel army reaches the capital.

"Medale, you previously served in Dragonfang Territory, what are your thoughts on that?"

Ronan looked up at the girl.

"When I took office, there were two other witches in Dragon Fang Territory besides me, and both of them were elite first-tier witches who had advanced. Their magical abilities were far superior to mine in terms of both the richness of their functions and the strength of their abilities in all aspects."

The fact that the Northern Alliance was quickly defeated even with their participation indicates that the rebels had at least five witches of equal or greater strength to suppress the alliance's participating witches.

Or another possibility is that even the two of them were swayed by the rebels' banners and were either turned or alienated. However, based on my understanding of them, this possibility is less likely.

Meidel pondered seriously.

"But whichever the possibility, this rebel group poses a great threat to us. If they want to invade the West, they will definitely have to flatten Thorn Territory first; otherwise, the shortest route would require crossing three mountains."

"really……"

Ronan sighed. The geographical location of Thorn Territory was truly tragic, making it a popular destination for heroes from all sides to participate in grand events.

To put it nicely, it was the gateway to the west; to put it bluntly, it was just a sentry tower on the front line. As long as it made a sound before it was killed, its mission was considered accomplished.

According to the original owner's notes, all previous lords were well aware of this, and therefore never put much effort into developing their territories. Whenever there was any trouble, they would run to nearby large territories for refuge.

No wonder the lords of Thornholdt changed one after another, until finally it was his dog father's turn...

"Alright, that's enough for today. You can take a break. Help me write a letter to Viscount Vance; we need to discuss this with him."

"Um."

As she reached the door, Maddie turned back and said, "You also remember to rest! At least remember to eat."

Ronan smiled: "Received, thanks for the reminder."

He glanced at the time and realized it was already past eleven, so he decided to eat first and then rest, just in case he really forgot to eat.

Ronan wolfed down his food.

The three days of intense interrogation gave him a feeling of being transported back to before his time travel, but this experience of deciding the crimes and lives of others was a first for him. He had to maintain a high level of concentration to avoid wrongly accusing good people or overlooking bad ones, which was extremely taxing on his energy and physical strength.

After cleaning up the golden-brown bread slices, fried eggs, slightly curled and crispy bacon, and perfectly warm milk, Ronan let out a satisfied burp.

Ronan glanced at the sparrow lazily scratching itself on a branch outside the window and thought the little thing was quite cute. He then used his consciousness to open the system memo.

—Because he was too busy, he hadn't had time to read the two new chapters after they were unlocked. Now that the interrogation was nearing its end, he finally had time to get down to business.

[February 19, 2130, Cloudy]

I've been promoted to research group leader! They've granted me my own lab, allowing me to conduct a series of explorations related to the Extraordinary Human Project. I believe the emergence of psionic stones is both a danger and an opportunity; it can bring disease and disaster, but it can also open the door to a new era. If my vision comes true, humanity will become an unprecedentedly great race! My contribution will be forever etched in the starry sky!

The date was much earlier than the previous memos, and the author at that time seemed to be a young man full of ambition... Ronan analyzed thoughtfully.

This memorandum is different in style from the previous ones. It lacks the sense of urgency that the building is about to collapse, and only expresses the yearning and expectation for a better tomorrow. The mysterious crisis that threatens the entire civilization does not seem to have arrived yet.

However, the appearance of the witch was already in the works, and the so-called extraordinary human project mentioned in the text was most likely related to the witch.

At this point, Ronan can be fairly certain that these words are from the past, not the future, because the witch has not yet officially appeared at the point in time in the text!

However, why is this project called the "Extraordinary Humans" project, instead of names like "Witch," "Goddess," or "Supergirl"?

Regardless of whether previous civilizations had gender movements, from a linguistic perspective, the name "superhuman" is clearly ambiguous.

Unless one can become a so-called superhuman, it's not just women... Ronan's eyes slowly widened.

Besides witches with various abilities, Terra also has knights. In theory, anyone can become a knight by cultivating "psychic energy," regardless of gender.

However, becoming a knight requires arduous training, and even after awakening, one does not directly gain extraordinary power; one can only master various fixed secret techniques.

"Psionic energy" itself cannot be thrown out; it only enhances the knight's physical abilities and provides a mana bar for casting arcane spells.

Simply put, the knight's secret techniques are fixed, standardized, and replicable.

A witch's magical power is random, diverse, unique, and has the potential to grow.

So, having become stronger by absorbing the witch's corruption... am I a knight or a demon man? Ronan looked at his palm, his lips twitching.

Or perhaps when the author wrote these words, his plan for extraordinary humans was not to create witches, but to create knights? It was only later, due to some other reason, that witches came into being... Ronan's thoughts wandered, and he noticed the words "phantom stone" again.

If he were to find a specific counterpart to this land today, the first thing that would come to mind would naturally be the Stone of Divine Punishment.

According to the author's description, the Psionic Stone is an element that drives the Extraordinary Human Project, but the Divine Punishment Stone is a tool used by the Church to imprison witches. These two things have completely opposite roles.

With no further information available, Ronan had to set aside this question for the time being and instead opened another memo.

January 6, 2134, Sunny

[Damn it! Command shouldn't have used those psionic stone reactants to prevent contracted entities from going out of control! It might seem like a safety measure in the short term, but in reality, it will only further exacerbate the risk of them going out of control!]

Over the past two years, all contractual entities that came into contact with the reactants, without exception, exhibited higher rates of loss of control after being released from the reactants' constraints. Even those that didn't immediately lose control showed a retaliatory increase in contamination, particularly noticeable at higher levels. We could have prevented them from experiencing these unnecessary losses…

I've already lodged a protest with headquarters, but they're ignoring it. Perhaps they've labeled me an "extreme egalitarian," considering me one of those naive idealists. Sigh, when will humanity learn to base its decisions on facts, not on positions of authority?

Preventing things from getting out of control? Or exacerbating the situation?

The reactant of the so-called Psionic Stone is the Stone of Divine Punishment!?

Upon reading this, Ronan's eyes widened suddenly, and the teacup slipped from his hand and fell to the ground.

However, there was no sound of porcelain shattering; instead, a slender, delicate hand steadily caught the teacup.

"It seems Your Excellency has finally realized your oversight?"

A lazy, slightly gruff female voice drifted from the window.

Ronan looked up and saw a tall, beautiful woman with fair skin and curly blonde hair lying on the windowsill, one hand supporting her chin and the other holding a teacup, looking at him with a mischievous gaze.

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