The Witcher: Darkness Falls

"That's really dangerous." After hearing this, Lyon realized the seriousness of the problem.

If it's just drinking blood, it can only be regarded as a matter of personal preference.

But if this blood must be human blood, then it will definitely cause panic.

This panic is contagious from person to person. If someone with ulterior motives fan the flames, it may spread to the entire Nilfgaard if it is not controlled properly.

This is not alarmist. The witch hunt movement back then started in almost the same way.

Although the northern countries signed a truce agreement with Nilfgaard, and Nilfgaard had been obedient for nearly two hundred years.

But no one will forget the Nilfgaard Empire that once almost swept everything and unified the continent.

The glory of the empire is gone, but its reputation remains, and the northern countries are still wary of this ferocious beast in the south.

Therefore, the Emperor of Nilfgaard would not allow such a panic to happen if it could be avoided. It would be terrible if it was taken advantage of by the northern countries.

Soon the two men rode to the gate of Dan Rowan Castle.

Cleto dismounted and explained his purpose to the soldiers at the door. The castle gate opened and the soldiers let the two men in.

Entering the castle, Leon looked around.

The castle was surrounded by high walls, and there were a small number of soldiers patrolling on the city walls.

Inside was an open space with horse farms on both sides. The horses were tied up and sleeping standing up.

More than a hundred meters ahead is the main body of the castle.

The highest point is more than ten meters high, and the outer wall is surrounded by solid stone in an arc shape.

Seen from the front, the castle is divided into three parts, with the middle one being the highest and the two sides one-third lower, distributed symmetrically.

As soon as the two men came in, a servant came forward and took the reins from them.

Leon took down the bag hanging on the saddle, in which was the heart of the poisonous horned lizard.

"Where is the Earl? A demon hunter has brought the heart of a poisonous horned lizard. Go and report it quickly."

Arriving at the castle gate, Cleto said to the servant guarding the gate.

The servant looked at Yanong in surprise, then hurried into the castle, leaving the two waiting outside the door.

"By the way, where is that wizard?" Leon asked while waiting.

Since the witch hunt two hundred years ago, most wizards have been killed and the rest have gone into hiding.

The remaining wizards hid in forests, swamps and other inaccessible areas, while some fled from the northern continent to the southern continent, which is Nilfgaard.

After all, the witch hunt at that time was launched in the northern countries, and Nilfgaard did not participate, but just watched from the sidelines, so it was relatively safe here.

Thirty years later, an unprecedented plague broke out in the northern countries, known as the Catriona Plague.

The plague originated in Vizima, the capital of Temeria, and swept across the northern kingdoms, even spreading to Nilfgaard, killing millions of people.

It was at this time that people discovered the importance of wizards, because in addition to using terrifying magic, wizards were also doctors, pharmacists, alchemists, and so on.

Then, the nobles of the northern countries, including the king, began to beg the wizards for help and promised to help them clear their names.

In the end, the wizards worked together with other doctors and it took them seven years to eradicate the plague.

The status of wizards has reached an unprecedented height in people's hearts.

Those high-level wizards who died in the witch hunts were posthumously canonized as martyrs or saints.

But even so, the wizards who experienced the witch hunt became particularly sober.

They possess great power and extraordinary lifespan, which is intolerable to the ruling class.

When they are needed, the ruling class will kowtow to them.

Once they lost their effectiveness, the bigwigs of the ruling class would bar their fangs, revert to their beastly natures and pounce on them.

Therefore, the wizards knew very well that people were grateful to them now, but who knew if, after peace was restored, these people would be instigated by the nobles to define them as evil people who needed to be eliminated.

After all, thirty years is enough to replace a generation. Will the descendants of those who were rescued still remember the contributions of the wizards?

Therefore, even though their grievances were cleared, the wizards became cautious.

Some of them still did not trust humans and went into seclusion again.

Some became royal advisers, lived in the palace and rarely appeared in public.

They do all this to dilute their influence among the crowd and become a legend if possible.

All in all, there aren't many wizards walking around in the world, perhaps even rarer than witchers.

During his apprenticeship, Leon had only met two wizards.

Both of them were old acquaintances of Sikori, and they traveled to Nilfgaard to visit Sikori.

But the results were not very good both times, and both ended in fierce quarrels.

"He should be living in the castle, but we haven't seen him." Kreto said after thinking for a moment.

Leon nodded and said no more. He just asked casually and had no intention of meeting the wizard.

Now he just wanted to complete the task and get his reward, and then find a place to take a shower and relax.

The next step was to go and catch up with his dwarf friends and maintain his equipment.

He didn't have much equipment, and he often used steel swords and silver swords, a close-fitting dagger, and a crossbow.

However, he didn't use the crossbow very often, mainly for sneak attacks.

So far, the missions he has taken basically do not require sneak attacks.

Powerful monsters hide in the deep mountains and swamps, and common ones are water ghosts, low-level vengeful spirits and the like.

There are even scavengers, disgusting monsters that live in city sewers and are born from the garbage and excrement of city residents.

There is no need for sneak attacks on these, Lyon can defeat them head-on.

But because of this, the remuneration for each commission was pitifully low, only a dozen or twenty florins.

This money was not enough for him to maintain his weapon properly. He usually used the cheapest sword oil to maintain his steel sword, and he even mixed most of it himself.

After several years of fighting, it is not easy for his weapons to maintain their current condition.

That's why he accepted the commission from far away Dan Rowan.

Five thousand florins, that would be enough for him to rest for a long time.

Of course, it has become three thousand florins now, but it is tempting enough for him.

The door opened and the servant came out.

"Witcher, the Earl wants to see you, follow me." The servant said proudly.

Then he immediately changed his face to a humble one and apologized to Creto: "Commander, the Earl wants to meet with the demon hunter alone. Please go back."

Kreto nodded and said, "I'll go outside the city gate to see what's going on over there. The strange things that happened this evening are really worrying."

Having said that, he turned and left, and Leon was taken into the castle by the servants.

"Don't look around, don't touch anything in the castle casually, and please breathe lightly. Witchers don't have infectious diseases, right?" The servant walked in front of Leon with disdain, always keeping a distance of one meter from him.

Lyon had long been accustomed to this kind of discrimination, especially from servants like this.

The servant kept chattering in front, but Leon ignored him and followed silently.

Finally, the servant's voice died away and he turned serious.

"Hand over your weapons and place them here. I will keep them for you." The servant pointed to the shelf at the door and said.

Leon stepped forward and placed the two swords and the dagger on them, then he opened his hands to indicate that he had no weapons on him and could be searched.

However, the servant frowned and said with disdain: "I will open the door. The Earl is inside. Don't do anything rude after you go in."

Then he opened the door and said humbly to the inside: "Sir, the demon hunter is here."

Then he motioned for Leon to go in by himself.

Leon walked in calmly.

The room was spacious, and under the candlelight, he saw a man in a red nightgown sitting on a chair waiting for him.

Leon walked forward, and the man raised his head. Leon could finally see the man's appearance clearly.

He was a long-faced man with unshaven beard, sunken eyes and a tired look, as if he had not slept for a long time.

Lord of Darn Rowan, Count of Berne.

The Count raised his eyelids and looked at Leon. He said in a low voice: "Come closer, Witcher. Let me see you clearly."

Leon walked forward.

"Enough, no need to be so close, go over there, yes, there, and sit down." When he was two meters away from the count, he asked Leon to stop and asked him to step back and sit down.

"I'm so lucky to meet you. It's just like the legend. Answer me, can you see how many fingers I stretched out?" The count asked with his hands behind his back.

"My Lord, my night vision is very good, but I can't see through things," Leon replied sincerely.

He saw a look of disappointment on the count's face.

"I wonder why the Earl asked me to come in? Is there anything you want me to do?" Leon asked directly. "I have brought the heart of the poisonous horned lizard. Where can I claim the reward?"

The Count looked at him and said, "Of course, there is a reward, but I have to check the goods first. Wait a minute, how do I know if you will find a pig, a cow or a horse's heart to pretend?

However, I do have other tasks for you, but they are included in the previous task."

Leon asked calmly, “What do you mean?”

The Count explained: "In order to lift the curse on my dear daughter Sisilia, in addition to the heart of the poisonous horned lizard, there are other things that require your cooperation."

Leon shook his head and said, "My Lord, these are two different things. The mission I received only requires the heart of a poisonous horned lizard."

"No, it's one thing. Damn it, do you think a poisonous horned lizard heart is worth so much money?" said the count unhappily.

Leon said confidently: "It's worth it. The poisonous horned lizard is not easy to deal with. My sword is badly worn out. I may even need to buy a new one. It costs at least 300 florins. Moreover, in the deep mountains and old forests, the poisonous horned lizard is almost an endangered species.

Sir, I searched for a long time before I found it. If it is really worthless, it would not have taken so long for someone to complete it, right? "

The count waved his hand to stop Leon from speaking, and asked, "Then let me see where that damn heart is?"

“I put it outside. You have to pay first, or pay part of it first.” Lyon said.

The count stared at Leon, took a deep breath, and said with disgust in his eyes: "Damn bastards, you are just like the legend, you are obsessed with money.

Fine, I will pay you, but if you don't give me the heart of a poisonous horned lizard, you will pay for your fraud, witcher, do you understand?

The last thing this city lacks is prisons. You will spend the rest of your life in a cold and damp prison!"

Leon nodded slightly and said, “Don’t worry, sir, it’s definitely worth the money. Next, how about we talk about the new commission?”

"Damn it! I paid for it readily, can't you be kind enough?" The count pounded the table angrily.

Leon shook his head and said, "Two different things. I think the Earl has the tax revenue of the entire Dane Rowan. He must have no shortage of money and will definitely be very generous, right?"

The count took a deep breath and was about to say something when there was a knock on the door.

"Sir, the wizard wants to see you!" A servant's voice came from outside the door.

"Let him in!" cried the count impatiently.

The next moment, the door was pushed open again, and Leon turned his head to look over.

Outside the door, a thin old man wearing a black pointed hat, a black robe and holding a staff slowly walked in.

"Demon Hunter... eh? Leon?"