The smell wasn't of ozone or static electricity, as movies often suggest. It was the pungent odor of horse manure, rotting mud, and damp firewood smoke. Arthur felt the impact before he could even open his eyes; the ground beneath him wasn't the laminate flooring of his bedroom, but a cold, uneven, and slimy surface that soaked into his skin. He coughed as the frozen air scraped his lungs, trying to orient himself.
Beside him, a dull thud was followed by an instinctive curse. William was there, crouched down, frantically wiping mud from his hands. The vibrant energy that usually radiated from him was now tinged with genuine confusion. They were in a narrow alley, surrounded by walls of mud and wood that looked ready to collapse under the weight of the grey autumn sky.
"What the hell was that, Arthur?" William asked, his voice low but charged with adrenaline. He stood up quickly, his athlete and Krav Maga fighter reflexes already pulling him into a defensive stance, despite there being no visible enemy.
Arthur didn't answer immediately. He was focused on something only they could see. Before his eyes, a translucent blue screen pulsed softly, contrasting with the medieval filth of the environment.
[DIMENSIONAL SYSTEM]
User: [Arthur]
Location: Border Town, Kingdom of Graycastle.
Attributes: Strength: 6 | Speed: 7 | Endurance: 10 | Agility: 8 | Intelligence: 14.
Magic Power: 0 (Save a Witch to Unlock).
Arthur felt his heart race. His high intelligence didn't just make him smarter; it allowed the pieces of the puzzle to click together with cold, analytical speed. He looked at William and realized he was also staring at his own interface, where Strength 9 and Speed 11 were the obvious highlights.
"Border Town... Graycastle..." Arthur murmured, the realization hitting him like a punch. "Will, look around. These houses, this weather... We aren't just in another world. We're in Release That Witch."
William froze, looking at the alley and then at his own hands. "You're joking. The engineer's isekai?"
"Exactly," Arthur said, standing up and ignoring the dirt on his blue t-shirt and hoodie. He looked at the watch on his wrist; it still worked, but it looked like an alien artifact in this place. "And if the system says magic power is unlocked by saving a witch, and we just got here..."
A muffled roar from an ecstatic crowd echoed in the distance, coming from the direction of what seemed to be the town square. It was an ugly sound, loaded with hatred and religious fanaticism. Arthur felt a shiver. In the chronology of the story he knew so well, there was only one event that defined the beginning of everything: the execution of the first witch.
"It's today," Arthur stated, his voice now firm. "It's the exact day. Cheng Yan just transmigrated into Roland Wimbledon's body. They're about to hang Anna."
William didn't need further explanation. As a practitioner of sports and combat, inertia wasn't in his nature. He started moving toward the sound, but Arthur caught his arm.
"Wait. We can't just storm the execution. Roland is the Fourth Prince, and even though he's an engineer from Earth now, he's still surrounded by knights like Carter Lannis and the Prince's personal guard. We need to observe. If we interfere the wrong way, the plot collapses before it even begins."
They left the alley and began walking through the dirt streets of Border Town. The place was miserable, far more rustic than the manhua illustrations suggested. Peasants passed them with sidelong glances, but the frenzy toward the square was so great that the presence of two strangers in strange clothes was momentarily ignored by the mass of people seeking the bloody entertainment of a "devil's servant's" death.
As they reached the edge of the square, the scene revealed itself in all its brutality. In the center, a wooden platform creaked under the weight of a burly man—the executioner. Beside him, tied up with a coarse rope around her neck, was a young girl with orange-red hair and eyes that, even from a distance, seemed to carry a deep, silent resignation. It was Anna.
Sitting in an ornate chair slightly back from the gallows was a young man of noble appearance and fine features, wearing silk clothes that looked out of place in that mud. He had an expression of confusion and shock, rubbing his temples as if he had the worst headache of his life.
"That's Roland," William whispered, his eyes fixed on the prince. "Or rather, Cheng Yan. He looks like he just woke up."
Arthur observed the scene with surgical precision. He noticed the presence of Barov, the assistant director, whispering nervously in the Prince's ear, and Carter Lannis, the Chief Knight, standing like a steel statue beside the royal chair. The air was heavy with the smell of lime and the dust from the North Slope mine in the background.
The executioner reached for the lever. The crowd screamed: "Death to the witch!", a chorus of ignorance fueled by years of Church propaganda.
Arthur felt a vibration in his system.
[MISSION]: The Turning Point.
Objective: Ensure that Anna's execution is interrupted.
Reward: Unlock Magic Power Flow.
"Will, get ready," Arthur said, his mind calculating every variable. "If Roland hesitates due to a butterfly effect, we'll have to act. Your speed and strength are superior to any peasant here, but Carter is a trained knight. If he moves, I'll try to distract the guards."
William smiled, a defiant glint in his eyes. The "protagonist syndrome" he always carried seemed to have found the perfect stage. "Leave it to me. If that prince doesn't open his mouth in five seconds, I'm taking down that executioner before the rope stretches."
They positioned themselves at the front of the crowd, just a few meters from the platform. Anna raised her head, and for a brief moment, her eyes met Arthur's. There was no fear in them, only a melancholy curiosity, as if she were wondering who these strangers were who didn't scream for her blood.
The executioner gripped the lever tightly. Time seemed to slow down for Arthur. He saw Roland's hand rise, trembling, while the modern engineer inside the Prince's body struggled to process what was happening before his eyes.
"Stop!" Roland's cry finally echoed through the square, cutting through the clamor of the crowd.
Arthur let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding. The original plot was following its course, but their presence there had already shifted the balance. He felt the weight of Carter Lannis's gaze sweep the crowd and stop on them for a fraction of a second.
"He did it," William relaxed his shoulders.
"Look!" Arthur said, watching Roland stand up with a new authority as he ordered the girl to be released. "We need to ensure the local peasants don't turn this into a riot. And most importantly: we need an audience with the Prince."
The story of Release That Witch had just begun, and for Arthur and William, the awakening in the mud was only the prelude to a revolution they intended to shape with the knowledge of the future and the strength of the present.