From Witcher to Lord of the Empire

As all Redanians know, the capital of Redania is Tretorg.

But in fact, Tretorg was not the first choice for the Redanian nobles to inherit their families. After all, with the academic sanctuary of Niubao and the commercial center of Novigrad, the two gems are in front of them, and Tritog as the capital of the country seems a little too ordinary.

Many nobles are willing to set up their family manors in Oxburg or Novigrad, including the Everec family, the founding heroes of Redania.

As the prominent founding aristocrats of the time, the Ifric family's manor is extremely luxurious and elegant.

The manor is located in the Niubao area, and is most famous for its huge family cemetery. Many small estates are not even as large as the Everec family cemetery.

The estate was as ill-fated as its owner. After a glorious founding period, the Ifric family quickly fell into ruin due to the poor management of the descendants, and even had to sell the ancestral house.

The patriarch of this generation finally bought the manor back after untold hardships, but then a series of unbelievable events broke out, which eventually led to the departure of the manor and the abandonment of the manor again.

A panting horse stood before the gates of the manor, sweating profusely, having galloped here from Novigrad almost non-stop all day.

On its back sat a lean man in a cloak and hood. Judging from the face that was occasionally blown up by the wind, this person not only has no hair, but even eyebrows, eyelashes, and beard. The whole head is like an egg that has been peeled off.

At this moment, the man looked at the endless manor and couldn't help sighing:

"It's really big... The nearby residents have heard that scavengers and explorers never came out after entering. I don't know what's inside... demon spirits?"

The man lifted his cloak, revealing his fine leather armor. Although it is not the kind of high-end customized goods, it can also be seen that it is the highest-grade finished product in the blacksmith shop, and the price is definitely not cheap.

On his back is a long sword with a lion's head, which looks like the cavalry style of Sintra, and a dagger is pinned to his waist, with a sculpture of a snake's head on it.

A pair of eye-catching red pupils cast their gaze into the darkness of the manor, full of curiosity.

This man is Lan's new entourage, the cat sent demon hunter - Keyan.

Because of the rush of time, Lane was unable to equip him with good enough armor, and even the equipment was improvised, and he was only equipped with a Sintra steel knight sword, which was improvised from the Snake Witcher. Borrowing a silver-plated dagger is barely enough to deal with monsters.

And Lann asked Kaiyan to come here alone at this moment, naturally with a mission.

Kayan recalled Lane's repeated warnings "Don't enter the manor, don't enter the manor, don't enter the manor", shook his head and gave up the plan to explore a little bit, lightly pulled the rein, and walked towards Everec's family cemetery.

In front of him is an abandoned building covered by various shrubs, wallweeds, and trees. If Lan was here, he might feel a bit like the Wizard of Oz.

But the Cat Pie Demon Hunter was obviously not so carefree. He walked all the way inward, trampling on the little sunlight that came in on the deep path, and soon came to the door of a basement.

He walked around for less than 200 meters, and only now did he see the real intersection of the Everec family cemetery.

He raised his head and drank a bottle of [cat] potion, the whites of Kayan's eyes began to be smudged with red light, and those red pupils glowed red in the dark, if they were seen by other demon hunters, they might be misunderstood as monsters on the spot Draw your sword.

All the way down, this underground cemetery has many forks, and the end of each fork is a small tomb. The atmosphere here is oppressive and gloomy, in stark contrast to the sunlight and plants on the ground.

"Huh?" Kayan suddenly made a suspicious sound.

He checked the graves one by one, looking for his target, but suddenly found an unexpected harvest.

In front of him is a nomadic machete, which looks old. But it is well maintained, and it is obviously a funeral object of the owner of this tomb.

If Lann is here, [Inventory Bar] may give a hint of [Ophir Scimitar].

Kayan naturally didn't know the origin of this knife, but he tried to swing it twice, and found that the feel was much better than the standard Sintra knight long sword, so he accepted it without any psychological burden.

"It's a pity that it's not a silver sword. But that's right, who would keep a silver sword in a normal person's house..."

Before Kaiyan's muttering was over, the pair of red cat pupils shrank suddenly, as if he had sensed something, and even the blood that he spit out became solidified a lot.

He looked in a certain direction in the void, thoughtfully. Then he took out a bottle of sword oil from his bag and began to apply the silver-plated dagger and the newly-arrived scimitar, his face was cold.

"Buzz."

It wasn't until this time that the cat's head badge on Kyan's neck began to vibrate slightly.

A bloodthirsty grin ripped from the witcher's face, revealing two fangs. Then he slapped the ground with his left hand, and a small purple magic circle surrounded him.

At the same moment, two green will-o'-the-wisps lit in midair, and two demon spirits in worn cloaks appeared in midair, screaming and attacking with iron bars held high.

Kaiyan seemed to have expected it long ago, and with a dexterous turn and sideways movement, he passed through the gap between the attacks of the two demon spirits. Turning around, I happened to see the sneak attacking monster being attached to its body by purple light.

"Ambush me?" Kaiyan sneered, "I am the one who attacked you!"

With a touch of both hands on the alchemy backpack, the two [Moon Dust] exploded to the ground together, dyeing the purple magic circle with a circle of silver brilliance.

As a result, the two demon spirits could no longer be blurred, completely exposing their damaged bodies to the enemy.

Without giving the enemy any time to react, the Maopai demon hunter rushed into the middle of the two demon spirits like lightning, and his blood-red eyes even drew a breathtaking trajectory in the darkness because they moved so fast.

Cat School Sword Dance!

There was no light in the dark underground chamber, only the sound of "噗嗤噗嗤" was heard. The two demon spirits kept trembling in mid-air while holding the iron bars high. Smoky scars were cut on his body that looked like they were being roasted.

The steel sword may not be powerful enough to fight against the enemy, so use the quantity to make up!

Kaiyan's rotation seemed endless, ten knives, twenty knives, thirty knives, forty knives, he had never felt that the sword dance was so handy in his hands, and he actually used the steel sword to forcibly kill two demon spirits. It was chopped into powder and scattered in the wind.

After the battle was over, Kayan took a breath, looked at the demon spirit, and touched the remaining six [Moon Dust] on his body.

"Very advanced stuff, much better than what I used before, should it be called the Griffin School?"

Then he continued to taste the battle just now: "My perception of demon spirits has improved, and I even detected the enemy before the badge of the school; the sword dance is also smoother, and many previously forgotten skills seem to be re-engraved into the muscles... ...Is this all because of the power of the 'Ancient Blood'?"

"If so." The witcher took a deep breath, "That would be great..."

Pulling his consciousness back to the task, without the interference of other demon spirits, Kayan continued to search in the underground tomb.

Follow the passage to an open basement, and dozens of tombs are densely covered on the round wall.

In these tombs, Kayan finally found his target: "Vlodimy Ifric, it is you!"

The witcher stepped forward and kicked over the coffin board, revealing the shriveled bones inside. He had expected to take a step back to avoid the oncoming stench, and then pulled out part of the corpse's torso.

Step back, this basement happens to have a prayer basin used to pray to the dead, which is now being used as a brazier by Kayan.

He used the [Igni Sign] to ignite the part of Flodimi's torn arm, and after the burn was exhausted, he used the ashes to draw a hexagram circle on the ground, and lit a candle on each of the six corners.

Then he knelt on the ground in a meditative position, and Kaiyan began to say something:

"Life and death, fire and blood.

Reborn from the fire, returned from the ashes.

Those who have departed, come back to the world—”

Kaiyan opened his arms, and the whites of his pupils were turned up. After repeating the spell five times, a green flame as high as a person suddenly rose from the six candles. The remaining ashes in the brazier were blown up by an invisible wind, misty outline a human figure.

Then the ashes disappeared, and a transparent figure appeared in front of Kaiyan. Ordinary people may not be able to see this person with their naked eyes, but in Kayan's [spiritual medium] perception, he is more dazzling than a torch.

Kaiyan muttered to himself: "It's done once, I thought I had to burn half of the corpses."

"That's because I couldn't wait to come out!" Unexpectedly, the transparent figure echoed Kaiyan's words and began to chatter, "You'd better explain why you lifted my coffin. It also comes with my great-grandfather's knife!"

As the low-pitched words echoed in the basement, the figure of this ghost gradually became more solid. This was another young man with a wild boar head, wearing a nomadic robe with slanted buttons, and he looked like Ogild. Similar, but very immature, and far inferior in temperament.

"You are Vlodimy?"

"You just lifted my coffin, and you still ask who I am?"

Kayan's hands were a little itchy, and there was still some sword oil left on the scimitar. He wanted to see how much the ghost in front of him could resist him.

But thinking of Lann's instructions and what the ghost would encounter later, Kaiyan laughed viciously again.

"I was found by your brother Ogild, and I asked him for something. In exchange, he asked me to summon his dead brother—that is, you, and let me take you to have a good day."

Hearing his brother's name, Vlodimi's murderous feeling subsided immediately: "You were sent by my brother? How do you prove it?"

Keyan began to think of Lane's instructions again.

"A few days ago, your brother just taught a subordinate because your horse was too dirty, and then set a manor as a bonfire."

The ghost laughed when he heard it: "Ha, it's something he can do!"

Vlodimi became excited. I don't know if it's because he has a lack of brain or because he has lost part of his IQ because he became a ghost, but he believed Kayan's words so easily.

"How are you going to take me to enjoy the day when I return to the world? I can't wait, good wine, strong horses, girls, I've already had enough of this dark place!"

Kaiyan shook his head, and in the doubtful eyes of the other party, he said:

"I thought you would prefer knives and swords. Let the knife in your hand split the enemy's body, but turn a blind eye to the enemy's attack. Isn't this unscrupulous feeling more intoxicating?"

"I recently just happened to know about a big stage that's going to be set up, and there's going to be a great, great party..."

As he spoke, the blood in Kaiyan's eyes became more intense.

The instinct of the bloodthirsty cat was excited.

Vlodimi looked at his transparent body, which was enough to ignore the attack of the corpse, thoughtfully.

"The party you just mentioned, what exactly do you mean?"

Keyan lowered his voice and replied, "Eternal Flame, remember?"

"I'm just dead, not stupid." Flodimi said dissatisfiedly, "A group of chattering guys almost fought us several times back then."

"Now that you know it, it's easy to explain: I have received news that the Eternal Flame has internal strife, believers kill believers, knights kill knights, flames fight flames."

Kaiyan's voice was deep, like a demon whispering: "Infiltrate into the team of the temple knights, find a hapless guy possessed by an evil spirit, kill the hapless guy's original companions openly, and then leave, looking for the next hapless guy, Repeat again. Does it sound interesting? If you want, you can even possess their leader to command your former enemy to fight. This level of infighting is rare, and it will never happen again in the future Here's the chance..."

On Vlodimi's illusory figure, the part of the eyes suddenly became solid.

For him, Keyan's proposal is indeed very attractive, or rather - too attractive!

"You're a genius, red-eyed guy, and you're a man of enjoyment!"

Vlodimi was gearing up: "Let's go quickly!"

…………

One day later, Temple Island, the headquarters of the Eternal Flame.

Eternal Flame is a very special religion. It is special because it does not have a specific god. Believers worship the "eternal flame", and they believe that the eternal flame is a symbol of survival that can guide them through darkness, progress, and usher in a better tomorrow.

I don't know if it was influenced by this religious view. Because there is no "god" on the head, the high-level officials of Eternal Flame are extremely enthusiastic about politics and actively organize armed forces until they become the main power holders in Novigrad today.

At this time, believers are gathering in the auditorium for today's morning prayer.

In each brazier, the fuel mixed with fish oil, beeswax, rose essence and carmine burns fiery red flames, which are not only bright, but also have a strange fragrance.

Caleb Manji was outside the auditorium, watching this scene intoxicated, as if he was the one being worshiped by everyone.

"Where are the Chapelles?"

Hearing the leader's inquiry, a temple guard stepped forward: "He is..."

Before waiting for his subordinates to continue, Caleb Manji immediately reprimanded and interrupted: "Slow down! Didn't you see the morning prayer?"

In fact, no believers noticed the situation here at all, but the guards of the temple immediately lowered their voices and said softly: "He is mobilizing the guards on patrol before the battle. The gangsters have been a little frequent in the past two days, and there have been many conflicts. He is going to take people out to suppress the rebellion."

Caleb Manji smiled with satisfaction: "It seems that everyone can't wait."

"But I can't just let Chapelle go. If I want the Eternal Flame to have only one voice in the future, I have to bring him down in full view..."

Caleb Manji muttered to himself: "Evil heretics, dangerous spellcasters, dirty inhuman races, after today, these filth will disappear in Novigrad."

"Gather our men and target Chapet."

"Also ignite our signal, let Ogierd and that warlock enter the city, and the action begins!"

The temple guards shouted in unison: "Yes!"

This time Caleb Manji had no voice to criticize them.

One person shouted with a particularly high-pitched voice, so excited that it was almost abnormal. But Caleb Manji didn't care, the soldiers were fighting high, wouldn't it be a good thing for him?

…………

Outside the city of Novigrad, in a manor closest to the city, the wild boar army is entrenched here.

Liens proposed to find a closer village to occupy, but was rejected by Ogierd. The reason is that I don't want to disturb the normal life of the villagers, and the manor is more decent.

Liens was furious. Looking at Ogierd, who was carefully maintaining the scimitar and preparing for the battle, he said loudly:

"Are you a family of martial arts? I heard that you used to be nomads, but now you are more courteous than those court nobles! It's so far away, if Caleb Manji didn't send us the signal in time What should we do when we arrive?"

Contrary to the Warlock's impatience, Ogierd was quite calm: "Don't worry, we won't miss Lannister, just like Lannister won't miss us."

This sentence caught Reins in a daze, as if he didn't fully understand: "What do you mean?"

Ogierd chuckled. Compared with the dropouts from the Magic Academy and the chief military officer of the temple guards, Ogierd has received a good education since he was a child. Therefore, his sense of smell is relatively sensitive in some matters.

Ogierd originally thought that the duel with Lann would be the greatest fun during this period, but he didn't expect that he had already watched several good shows before the fight started.

"What was your original plan?"

Liens said dissatisfiedly: "Don't you remember it until now? Let the gangsters stir up riots to confuse the city, forcing Lannister's cavalry into street fighting; Time to seize the Eternal Fire, and finally we all join together to take down Lannister, is there a problem?"

Ogierd smiled disdainfully: "It's not just a problem, it's a big problem. First of all: what about the four demon hunters you brought over?"

Liens frowned: "You know, their task is to monitor Lannister, and then wait for us to join the city. They are the aid sent by His Majesty the Emperor, and they are not affiliated with me, so they did not report to me obligation."

Ogierd shook his head: "Before the big battle, you didn't gather your strength, and you didn't even know how many knives you were holding and who the blade was facing. I didn't expect your plan to go smoothly from the beginning. go down."

This was blatant ridicule, and the information contained in Ogierd's words made Reins smell a little wrong. He was about to speak, but was blocked by Ogierd's words:

"You and I are targets of the Lannisters, and I believe you are high on the Lannister's kill list. I don't know how the gang will do things, I don't know what Caleb Manji will do, whether they make it or not Success has nothing to do with me. I just want to have a good time with the Lannisters."

Ogierd finally oiled his scimitar. He wiped off the excess oil with a piece of silk as if stroking his lover, and continued:

"Haven't you always wondered why I should go with you? Here's why: I know where you are, the Lannisters will come."

Seeing the sudden change in Liens' face, he laughed and said, "Otherwise, you wouldn't think I respect warlocks, would you? No way?"

Liens no longer cared about the faint sarcasm in Ogierd's words this time, he said anxiously: "You mean Caleb Manji and the gang leader will have an accident? And Lannister will take the initiative to come to us ? Why did they have an accident, and how did the Lannisters find us?"

Warlock's speech was fast and his tone was very urgent. He seemed unable to figure out what would go wrong with the complete team he had gathered with great difficulty and the elaborate plan he had made with great difficulty.

"I guess." Ogierd was indifferent, and even started drinking.

Liens breathed a sigh of relief: "That means you haven't received any real bad news, right? The wrong situation you just mentioned is just your speculation, right?"

"This is your second problem, Warlock." Ogierd shook his head, "Put the success of the plan on luck and prayers, instead of doing something substantial to make up for the loopholes. I really can't think of it Why did Emperor Nilfgaard send you to preside over such a big event."

Liens wanted to say something, but he heard a sound of anxious running from the corridor. A Wild Boar Army soldier slammed open the door and said anxiously:

"Chief, there is fire rising in the direction of Novigrad, the signal is here!"

Outside the manor, all the members of the wild boar army are ready to go, with complete weapons. They looked in the direction of the city, waiting for their leader to appear.

A triumphant smile appeared on Warlock's face: "It seems that the plan is going well."

Ogierd closed his eyes, squatted down and stroked the ground lightly. The sand trembled slightly, and there was a dull sound of horseshoes under the ground.

"Here comes your witcher."

Ogierd smiled, and he no longer looked at the fire burning in the direction of the city, but at the end of the road outside the manor.

There, a group of well-trained cavalry was rumbling forward, led by a blond knight with silver-gray armor and a griffin cloak, looking aggressive.

Beside him there is also a strong bald head.

"Lannister? He really came here by himself! And why is Leto with them?!"

The warlock's voice was almost screaming, and it was not easy for him to make such a high-pitched voice given that his throat had been repeatedly injured several times.

Ogierd began to laugh wildly: "I guessed it! The Wild Boar Army - charge!"