The Witcher: Darkness Falls

"Leon? Is that you?"

Leon stared at the wizard who was slowly walking towards him and finally recognized him.

"Strigob? How come you've become so old?" Leon was surprised.

He felt that the wizard looked familiar the first time he saw him, because his outfit was so memorable.

Anyone who sees Stregobor will remember him deeply, because his dress is almost a replica of the image of a wizard in people's minds.

He was short and thin, a little hunchbacked, and wore a conical hat with the end bent down.

There is a mole at the end of his long hooked nose, and his gloomy eyes give people a sinister and cunning feeling.

He was wearing a floor-length black robe with wide and exaggerated sleeves.

In his hand, he held a staff that was thick at the top and thin at the bottom, made of some unknown wood, with a cloudy crystal inlaid on the top.

When he stood in the crowd with this image, everyone knew that he was a wizard, an undisputed wizard.

But in fact, he was not only a wizard, but also a high-level wizard, one of the few wizards who had escaped the witch hunt.

In fact, Leon should have recognized the other person at first sight, but the other person's shrunken body and face that was as old as a chrysanthemum made him dare not recognize him.

As a good friend of Sikori, Stregobor visited Sikori eight years ago.

At that time, Leon was only twelve years old, and although Stregobor looked a little weathered, he only had the appearance of a middle-aged man, with a tall and thin figure, which was completely inconsistent with his current appearance as he was about to be buried.

That's why Lyon didn't react immediately.

"Time makes people grow old. You have grown so big. You are already in your twenties?" Stregobor said as he walked forward with a smile.

"Twenty." Leon said, "Why are you here?"

The earl stood up, invited Stregobor to sit next to him, and poured him a cup of tea.

He turned his head and looked at Leon and said, "It seems that you know the magic consultant Bern, so it will be easy."

"Oh? Restore the reward of 5,000 florins?" Leon asked.

The Earl frowned and said, "No, what are you thinking about? I mean to help."

Leon spread his hands and said, “Two different things.”

"Damn you, you are so obsessed with money!" the count scolded.

Leon ignored him and just asked Straeger: "Bourne Magic Consultant? What is this?"

Stregobor smiled and said, "Bourne, that's my current name. Magical Advisor is an official position in Nilfgaard. This position has existed for a long time. Don't you know?"

Leon shook his head, indicating that he had never heard of this.

All in all, it had only been six years since he escaped from Sikori, so it was impossible for him to know all this.

Stregobor explained simply, "Well, it's a position set up by Nilfgaard to recruit wizards. From top to bottom, it's divided into Chief Magic Advisor and Magic Advisor. I am one of them."

Leon asked, "Are there other wizards in Nilfgaard?"

Stregobor nodded and said, "Yes, there are five people. If you are interested, I can introduce them to you. I believe one of them will be interested in you."

Leon shook his head and refused.

Interested in him? Maybe you're using him as a test subject, since demon hunters are rarer than endangered monsters nowadays.

“I can’t believe that a high-level wizard like you is not the chief advisor.” Lyon said.

Wizards are divided into four levels: apprentice, low-level, mid-level, and high-level. Strictly speaking, there are only three, not counting apprentices.

This is determined by the current Wizarding Association based on comprehensive considerations and evaluations of wizards.

A powerful wizard is not necessarily a high-level wizard, but a high-level wizard is definitely powerful.

Stregobor is definitely a powerful wizard, but he is not the chief advisor.

"Everyone has his own specialty," Stregobor explained. "I'm good at illusion and weather magic, and I only know a little about the others.

The chief consultant is a young man of about a hundred years old. He knows a lot. Although he is not a high-level wizard, he may become one in the next review.

It's true that the waves behind push the waves ahead! "

Leon ignored Stregobor's sigh and continued the previous topic and asked, "Why do you want to come here?"

"The Emperor asked me to come here," Stregobor said after drinking a cup of tea. "It's mainly to solve the Earl's problem. You should have accepted the bounty for the heart of the poisonous horned lizard, right? I asked the Earl to issue that, but I didn't expect you to complete it."

Leon nodded and said, "I took the mission in Nilfgaard City. At that time, they only said that they needed a horned lizard heart and five thousand florins. But when I arrived here after all the hardships, there were only three thousand."

As he spoke, he looked towards the Count.

The Count immediately said, "Huh? Five thousand florins for a monster heart? It's not even fresh. Impossible."

"Then give me three thousand florins, and I will leave immediately and no longer be a nuisance to you," said Leon.

Stregobor advised, "Don't be like this, Leon. We haven't had a good reunion yet."

As he spoke, he turned to the Earl with a serious expression and said, "You have seen Sislia's symptoms. If she continues to suffer, she will really become a monster. Then I will be helpless. This is a curse, do you understand? Magic drugs cannot completely eliminate the curse, they can only delay it."

The count seemed to compromise and said, "Okay, okay, witcher, I can give you 5,000 florins, but you have to help me solve two problems. Otherwise, take 3,000 and get out of my castle. I can find someone to help me with the rest with 2,000 florins. Do you understand me?"

"Didn't you say it was just one piece? How come it became two pieces?" Leon raised his eyebrows.

The Earl stared at Leon and said firmly: "Two! It's not difficult for a demon hunter. I guarantee it in the name of the Earl!"

"Okay." Leon thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. Two thousand florins was not a small amount. "Tell me, what's going on? I still don't understand what to do specifically."

The earl smiled triumphantly, pointing to a seat near him, opposite Stregobor, and said, "Come sit here, don't be so restrained, would you like some tea?"

Leon stood up and walked over to sit down, and the count personally poured him a cup of tea.

However, the next narrator was not him, but Stregobor.

“To put it simply, Sislia was struck by a strange curse, similar to the Law of Accident, which cannot be removed by magic medicine. Someone has to complete a specific task to remove it.

By the way, you know what the Law of Surprise is, right?" Stregobor said.

Lyon nodded. Of course he knew the law of accidents. He had seen it in Sicori's notes.

The so-called law of accidents is actually an ancient form of contract in this world, which is even as old as the history of human beings.

That is to say, if you save a person, you can ask that person for money or other items as a reward.

But if that person has nothing, then you can make an agreement with him, for example, asking him to give you the first thing he sees when he gets home, or something he already has but doesn't know about it, as a reward. This is the law of surprise.

Although this is a verbal promise, without any written record and possibly even without a third party witness, once both parties agree, the law of surprise is established.

At this time, a mandatory contract will be formed between the two parties who have agreed to the law of accidents. Once one of them breaks the contract, he will be cursed.

The thing required by the law of accidents and the one that makes the agreement may be an object or a person, and a strong causal entanglement will be established between them, which cannot be changed.

Therefore, those who believe in this will be very cautious when entering into unexpected agreements with others, and only those who do not believe in it will make oaths casually.

Later, with the emergence and improvement of laws, fewer people would conclude accidental agreements. Most of them were in written form, the so-called contracts, which needed to be notarized.

In this way, if one party breaches the contract, the other party can take the contract to court to demand compensation from the breaching party, or force the other party to perform the agreement, instead of relying on the illusory constraints of the law of accidents.

Leon turned to look at the Count and asked, "Did you agree on the law of accidents with others?"

The Count became embarrassed and his expression became very unnatural, but he finally nodded and said, "Yes, that was when I was young.

I was once hunting in the forest, I got separated from my guards, and then I was besieged by wolves.

At this time, a hunter appeared and saved my life. I had nothing to repay him at that time. Even my horse was killed by a wolf. I didn’t want to owe him a favor, so I had to make an accidental agreement with him that I would give him the first thing I saw when I returned home.

Who would have thought that when I returned home, the one who opened the door for me was not the servant, but my lovely daughter Sisliya, I... huh! "

The count took a deep breath and continued, "I was worried about this matter, but nothing happened. Later, I sent people to look for the hunter there, but they didn't find him at all. I forgot about it. After all, it happened fifteen years ago.

As a result, just two years ago, a hunter came to my door with a young man and asked me to fulfill my promise. I recognized at a glance that he was the hunter who saved me that year, because he had not changed much over the years.

I lied and gave them ten thousand florins, telling them that the first thing I saw when I got home was the money dropped on the ground. It was natural for a count's family to have money, and it was normal for it to drop money at the door.

But they didn't believe me, you know? It was fucking ridiculous. The hunters knew I was lying right away.

He also affirmed that the first person I saw should be my lovely daughter, and he said that according to the law of accidents, I must hand my daughter over to him and then marry her to his son! "

Leon frowned, while Stregobor drank his tea calmly, showing no intention of interrupting.

"And then?" Leon asked.

The count said, "He saw nothing, so I naturally refuse to admit it. Besides, you know his bastard son. Sorry, I'm not talking about you.

Do you know how ugly his bastard son is? Ugly is not the right word to describe it, it is simply abstract. He is hunched over, his spine seems to be folded together, and when he stands up, he is not as tall as me.

The most disgusting thing is his face, his facial features are not in the right place!

It's just like eating the melon pulp and seeds together, and then pulling them out into a paste. Do you understand my analogy?

Oh my God, I still feel sick when I think about it now. How could I possibly hand Sislia over to him?

I don't know what kind of monster that hunter fucked to give birth to such a bastard. He is not even human at all!"

Leon was silent. If it really looked like this, he really needed to think about whether it was a human being.

None of the deformed children he had ever seen was as bad as the one the Count described.

Stregobor spoke up at this moment, and he said, "This is the source of the curse. I suspect that the hunter is not a human, and neither is his son. It's just a hunch.

But this is not important now. What is important is to lift the curse of Sislia.

Because the Earl violated the law of surprise and blatantly lied, Sisliya, as the promised object, was also caught in the trap. She began to change into the monster that the Earl just described, or even worse. "

Leon said nothing. At this time, Stregobor and the Earl turned to look at him.

The demon hunter's intuition told him that what happened next might not be so simple.

Finally, Stregobor took a deep breath and said slowly: "Listen, Leon, although this matter is indeed incredible, this is the only way.

You need to help Sisliya lift the curse by kissing the princess like in the fairy tale."

Leon's pupils trembled violently, and the demon hunter felt a chill on his back at this moment.