The Mayor cleared her throat, and it seemed to occur to her for the first time that it was possible that Wolfe might turn down her idea. There weren't a lot of things that they could safely ask for from a powerful demon, even if he had shown a lot of goodwill in the past.
What she really wanted was for him to help her Witches advance the way that he had done for his own Witches, but she had heard last night of the stories that Justine had told the others while they were in the bus, and it made her question just how safe it was to have him use his magic on impressionable young minds.
The last thing that they needed was a bunch of their newly awakened daughters chasing after him into the Frozen Wastes the way that Justine had chosen to do.
But for the sake of the next generation, they had to do something. They couldn't continue on this path forever; they were getting weaker and weaker, and she wouldn't be able to hide it from the Gormana forces for much longer.
The Mayor phrased her request very carefully but decided to go for as much as she could get while she had the opportunity to help the villagers.
"Separately from our other agreements, I would like to trade you this Knowledge Crystal for your assistance in optimizing the potential of all of our village's girls and young women." She requested.
Wolfe nodded. "That certainly should be possible. I will help optimize their potential, and then you won't have to deal with the steady decline for another generation. The process doesn't completely eliminate the curse, but it should slow the progression down and buy you some more time."
That was good enough for the Mayor, and she extended her hand with the Knowledge crystal in it to Wolfe, sealing their deal as he took it and placed it into a pocket of his backpack.
"Assemble every girl between puberty and twenty-five. I think that's a reasonable cutoff for what constitutes a young woman. I will only take a few seconds each, and they will be much better witches, both immediately and in the future.
Oh, and the ones who aren't old enough to have been to the academy yet should be barefoot because the curse will be forced out of them in liquid form, and it's less of a mess to push it out their feet."
The Mayor took out her phone and started sending messages, which caused an instant uproar in the village. It seemed that she had a mass text option, so nearly everyone had gotten the message from her at the same time, and they were all ready to start assembling.
Wolfe could even hear the teacher yelling to organize the students at the small schoolhouse, gathering all the girls for a morning field trip while the boys went to an extra physical education class with the soldier who had volunteered as their gym teacher.
At least this time, the young male witches didn't know what was happening, unlike in the village in Myrrh Coven, where they had the misfortune to watch all their sisters get ahead in real-time.
Wolfe wasn't going to go as overboard this time, though. He would cleanse their systems, but he wouldn't forcefully awaken any of them who weren't of age to have gone to the Academy yet. That might cause minor chaos later, when some or all of them would awaken on their own, far too early for the Academy, but that wouldn't be his problem if he was already gone.
Ella was giving him a look that said she knew exactly what he was thinking, which made Wolfe double-check the Bond to ensure that he wasn't accidentally broadcasting his thoughts directly to her. He wasn't, but that didn't change the fact that she knew what he had in mind, or at least most of it.
Over the next few minutes, the Witches started to arrive, and Ella got them all to line up in the park while the workers at the Mayor's office brought some towels for them to stand on.
"Line up single file, with your shoes and socks off. Step forward when you are called, and Wolfe will help you with your potential. The Mayor has kindly already paid for the service, but we are somewhat time-constrained, so please don't hold up the line." Ella called out as the crowd began to form.
The school was right next door, so they were among the first to arrive and the best at following directions. They formed a single line, with their hand on the back of the person in front of them, just like they were taught when going on field trips into the forest to look for herbs.
When they stepped forward with their shoes in their hands, Wolfe patted them on the head and forced the lingering effects of the curse out, staining the towel inky black. But he didn't add mana to force their aura to begin to form, and he only gave a gentle cleanse to their mana veins.
He agreed to help optimize their potential, not to do it all in one shot. If they needed more, they could always come to him again with more good stuff.
"Done. See, nice and easy. Next in line, please step on a clean spot on the towel. We will change it when it gets too dirty." Wolfe instructed.
They had lined up from the youngest to the oldest, and there were only fifteen students in the village who met the qualifications today, so it was a quick process, and once he was through them, he wouldn't need the towel anymore.
The last one in the students' line was right at eighteen, and her aura was ready to form on its own, in Wolfe's estimation. So normally, she would have gone to the Academy next year or been taught by local villagers if this was one of the villages that kept to themselves.
Wolfe cleansed her mana gland and then her veins and forced the dust of the curse out before gently pouring mana into her system and stretching her veins a little to get things moving.
Her aura flared to life in an instant, and all the witches behind her gasped in shock at the spectacle.
"Good work. You should have a bright future ahead of you. Your potential is very good." Wolfe congratulated the shocked Witch.
"Next."
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