Let Go of that Witch

Webnovel by: 二目

Translation by: 涼快的小空調(diào)

Original: https://book.qidian.com/info/1003306811/?source=m_jump

(To differ the thoughts of the leading role apart from his speaking more clearly without the help of itaclic typing function which is not available here in Bilibili's text uploader, the thoughts of his would be dyed in Navy Blue.)

Chapter 1: Start a Life of Prince Today

Cheng Yan feels that someone is trying to wake him up.

“Sir, wake up...”

His face turning away, the voice doesn’t fade, on the contrary, becomes louder. And he feels that a hand is reached out to him, gently tugging his sleeve.

“Sir! Your Royal Highness!”

In a sudden, Cheng Yan startles from his slumber. The computer monitor—gone! The office desk—gone! The wall full of sticky notes—gone! What’s in front of him instead is a bizarre scene—small brick houses, a round open ground crowded with faces, and a gallows in the centre of it. And he is on a viewing stand right across that ground, sitting on—instead of his flexible swivel chair—a cold and hard chair made of iron, surrounded by a bunch of people gazing at him, among whom some women, westerners he supposes, dressed like noble ladies living in the medieval western world, are tittering, hands over their mouths.

What the hell is it? Aren’t I supposed to be catching up on the mechanical drawings??Cheng Yan doesn’t have the foggiest idea what is going on; the last thing he can remember is that he was so exhausted, both physically and mentally, for the consecutive three-day working overtime, even heart rate becoming uncoordinated, and was trying to bend over the desk for a little nap...

“Your Royal Highness, please pronounce your final adjudication.”

The person addressing to him is the very one who covertly tugged his sleeve a short time ago, old-looking, probably in his fifties or sixties, dressing in a flowing white over robe, just like Gandalf in The Rings of Power.

Am I dreaming??Cheng Yan licks his lips trying to moisten them a bit. Adjudication? What adjudication?

Shortly after, he kind of understands what’s happening—the crowds on the square are all staring at the gallows, swinging fists, shouting, and sometimes, a few rocks thrown towards the gallows.

It was only in the film had Cheng Yan ever seen such ancient torture device—two upright posts of about four meters in height, a crossbeam on top with a rusty iron ring at the middle of it; what passes through the ring is a yellowish hemp rope, one end of which connected to somewhere at the bottom of the gallows, the other made a noose around the prisoner’s neck.

In this “dream”?of extreme weirdness, he finds his eyesight surprisingly good—usually, he couldn’t read a single character in his monitor without the help of his glasses; but now, he can tell every details of the gallows fifty meters away from him easily.

The prisoner’s head is covered by a sack, hands tied behind, clothes in rags, wrists and ankles, which are uncovered, seemingly able to be fractured by simply holding them too tight. There is some bulge on the chest which kind of suggests her gender. Though trembling in the wind, she is persisting in trying to straighten herself up.

Okay. But what kind of crime could she have ever committed to make so many people, burning with indignation, hanker to witness her death?

Just at the moment when this question rises, memory coming from nowhere suddenly flows into his mind, the answer emerging immediately—

She is a witch.

Being enticed by demon, becoming the incarnation of the unclean.

“Sir?”?the“Gandalf”urges, however, discreetly.

Cheng Yan casts a glance at him. Umm...not Gandalf, Barov instead, is actually the aide of Chancellor of the Exchequer, and is sent here to help with the governing affairs.

And as for me, I am Roland Wimbledon, the fourth Prince of the Kingdom of Grey Castle, and am here to govern my fief—Border Town. Dwellers here, deliver witches, if seizing any, to the local police sta...umm...no, to the local trial house of the Church. The execution of witch is usually decreed by the local governor or the bishop here; now that I’ve become the governor of this place, it’s been obviously within my power.

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He has all, to himself, the most crucial question answered one by one with the help of that memory, no reviewing, no screening, as if it directly resulted from his own experience. Cheng Yan feels a bit muddled right now, for no dream as detailed ever. Then, is it not my dream at all? Have I arrived at Europe in its Dark Ages accidentally by time traveling, turning from merely a “drawing dog①”?into Roland, the fourth Prince of all decency, despite the fact that the fief does look incredibly poor and backward, and the Kingdom of Grey Castle has never been mentioned in any historical records?

So, what do I do next?

Let’s figure out later the reason why transmigration—such unscientific event—would ever happen to me; but the farce happening right now needs to be terminated—stupidly attributing disaster or misfortune to those poor wretches somehow usually results from the uncivilized society; and it is totally unacceptable hanging them to death, catering to the sordid thoughts of those onlooking crowds.

So he grabs that decree paper from Barov and throws it onto the ground, making himself a good stretch, “Tired, the adjudication will be made tomorrow, now let’s call it a day!”

Cheng Yan is not being silly—what he did is exactly based on the behaviour of the Roland in that memory, a self-centred playboy. Yes, the fourth Prince himself was a fucking idiot, bad-tempered, conduct imprudent. However, you can never expect any good enough self-cultivation from a Prince in his early twenties who’s almost second to none in the whole country.

Not a hint of surprise can be found on the faces of the surrounding aristocrats on the viewing stand, except one man, of tall and sturdy build, fully armoured, stands out, “Your Royal Highness, there’s no joke! A witch needs to be executed once her quality is confirmed or else some other witches could show up and take her away; what’s more, the Church would not sit idly by when they get the news.”

Kart Lennis, a face of uprightness. Can’t believe he is my prime knight! Frowning at him,“So? Are you scared?”?Cheng Yan expresses his naked sarcasm, half of which is actually not a part of his imitation of the fourth Prince. This bloody brawny man is actually terrified by witches whose trunk is even thinner than his arm, going so far as to worry about their breaking into the jail as if they can really make it. Taking witches as the incarnation of demon? Seriously? “How about ambushing them when they show up to rescue and make a clean sweep of them?”Cheng Yan suggests, sneeringly.

Words failing the prime knight, Cheng Yan waves his guards to lead him off. Kart wavers for a few seconds however, then he catches up with the crew, walking by the side of Roland. The other aristocrats rise and bow their respect for the Prince, but the undisguised contempt among them easily captured by Cheng Yan out of the corner of his eye.

Having returned to his royal residence here—a castle standing to the south of Border Town; ordering the guards to keep the Chancellor’s aide, who is in all anxiety, out of the hall; and finally, letting out a sigh of relief.

As a guy who used to be glued to computers for most of his life, managing to impersonate Roland the Prince in the face of so many people is literally an excellent out-performance of his former self. Cheng Yan finds himself his bedroom with the aid of that memory, sits on the bed resting for quite some while before he can truly slow down his pounding heart. Now, the top priority is to figure out for what reason on earth had the fourth Prince, rather than stayed safe and sound in the cozy imperial city, been here, a place of bleakness and desolation.

Immediately stupefied?by that memory—

Roland Wimbledon?is here fighting for the succession to the throne, indeed!

The whole pile of things boil down to a weird order from?the?King Wimbledon Ⅲ—He or she?who, among all the Princes and the Princesses,?succeeds to the throne, succeeds by not their birth order, but their competence excelling all others’?in ruling the country. The King then dispatched all his five children to their respective fiefs for a 5-year competition. He or she who best develops their fief wins and becomes the Crown Prince or the Crown Princess.

The abler, the winner, not depending on gender. Seemingly quite an advanced concept, isn’t it? But when it comes to practice, things are totally different. Can anyone guarantees each of them five a fair start? It’s not an RTS game② obviously. As far as Roland can tell, his second eldest brother’s fief is much better then his. Umm...technically, no one among them has a fief worse than his. What a terrible start!

Moreover, by what means do the competence in administering get evaluated? Population? Military force? Or economic strength? Not a single standard has Wimbledon Ⅲ ever set, nor a single limitation ever made. What about an assassination attempt? Would the Queen be sitting back and watching her children committing fratricide? Wait...Cheng Yan kind of goes through that part of the memory. Okay, another piece of bad news—the Queen has been passed away 5 years ago.

Cheng Yan heaves a sigh. Apparently I am in a feudal era full of brutality and darkness, judging somehow from the unscrupulous witch hunts. A transmigration to a Prince is already pretty much of a good start. And even if Roland in time fails in the competition, at the very least he is a direct descendant of the King of Grey Castle; as long as being alive, Duke he will be conferred, governing his own fief.

Furthermore, given the chance that I manage to become the King eventually, so what? No Internet, nor the comfort of modern civilization. Am I going to associate with those aborigines here, burning witches having fun, living in the town flooding with faeces, and end up dying from bubonic plague rampant?

Managing to settle his tangled thought, Cheng Yan walks over to a full body mirror in the bedroom—greyish curly hair, which is the most distinctive characteristic of Grey Castle’s royalty; a fine set of feature, however, a naughty expression leaving him no good disposition on look; some pallor on the face indicating his lack of physical activity.?Did he indulge himself with alcohol and sex? Cheng Yan searches in that memory a little bit—seems fine, several ongoing relationships at the imperial city, all willing lovers. Never had he forced anyone into a relationship with him.

As for the reason why transmigration happened to him, Cheng Yan somehow comes to the conclusion that it is probably the combination of a Party A in a contract pushing for progress and a boss demanding overnight extra hours worked, which in the end led to his pathetic sudden death. Nine in ten cases as such are related to “coding peasants③”, “mechanical dogs④”, or “engineering lions⑤”.

Whatever it is, at least I’ve got an extra life, can’t complain any more. Perhaps I’ll be able to better my life here step-by-step in the coming days; but above all is to make good imitation of the fourth Prince, keeping the cat in the bag, lest I be burnt at the stake by people regarding me as being possessed by a demon.

“Since that’s the case, I shall live on properly,”?Cheng Yan takes a deep breath in, whispering in front of the mirror, “From now on, I am Roland Wimbledon myself.”

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Annotations:

① Drawing dog: A Chinese internet meme, basically a self-mockery by some drawing designers who work in squalor or are not content with their inhumane working condition nor prospect, considering themselves as an animal rather than a human.

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② RTS game: Real-time Strategy Game

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③ Coding peasants: A Chinese internet meme, basically a self-mockery by some programmers whose is in a similar situation as drawing dogs mentioned above.

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④ Mechanical dogs: Similar concept as “Drawing dog”, but the ones whose jobs are related to machinery design or repair.

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⑤ Engineering lions: Also an internet meme among Chinese netizen. The reason why a “lion”?rather than a “dog”?is that “engineering lion”?shares a same pronunciation with “engineer”?in Chinese, which makes the meme much more funny.