Dim and dilapidated dwellings.
The pupils of four pairs of beasts shone strangely—four witchers around a Gwent chessboard, with glasses of malt and hop-scented beer at hand.
"Snapped!"
The young witcher slammed the Gwent card onto the chessboard, then grinned at the hooded man opposite.
"you lose!"
"Damn!" Oakes scratched the back of his head angrily. "I said Roy, did you lie about your age, fourteen years old? You can beat me, and you won two in a row."
"Unprecedented, big failure!"
After complaining, Oaks took a glass of beer and gulped it down, wiped the wine stains from the corner of his mouth with his gray sleeves, and then reluctantly took out a glittering Quint card from his arms.
"My baby hasn't been warmed up yet, but you won it again!"
"You know how powerful it is now?" Lesso sneered at the side with sarcasm in his eyes, "I warned you a long time ago, just have a good drink, but I want to play cards with this kid."
"What do you know, playing Quint is the best way to judge a person's character... um... Now it seems that the young man is not very good at being a man, no matter how big or small, and he knows how to pay attention to seniors at all!"
Oaks cocked his neck and stared stubbornly at Roy,
"Listen to me! In the next round, I will win it back with color! Serrit, please don't drag me! After three rotations, why are you in a hurry, you can't let me get angry first!?"
Roy put away this Gwent card with a smile. The card was a familiar white-haired face, a character who was included by the Gwent Committee because of a Bulavican massacre many years ago—Levy Where is Geralt of Ya, the legendary witcher
The boy's gaze shifted to the opposite side, and the witcher Oaks acted like a heartless, careless guy. Of course, it cannot be ruled out that this is his disguise, after all, he has not been in contact with each other for a long time.
"Eighty-one years old, the same age as Serret. Are these two guys not just brothers, but twins?"
Ox and Serrit have the same attributes as Letho, and there are still a lot of question marks in the attributes. As mature witchers, their fighting power is far superior to Roy, and in addition to the difference in appearance, they are also completely different in character.
Oaks is warm and cheerful, a little talkative, while Serrit is gloomy and quiet, with a hooked nose and narrow slits, as if thinking about conspiracies anytime, anywhere.
"With their contradictory personalities, how can they live together peacefully for decades, is the blood relationship so strong among witchers?"
"Almost forgot about business!" Roy patted his head suddenly and asked eagerly, "Don't quarrel with the two of you, how are old Moore and Susie doing in Novigrad?"
"I thought you had completely forgotten about the old couple." Oakes glanced at him, and the latter was slightly ashamed.
He did ignore the old Moore and his wife, and for half a year, he didn't contact them again except for one letter exchange.
"Don't worry, boy, their food business in Novigrad is very smooth - in fact, without your oil bottle, not to mention how nourishing life is."
"Really?" Roy breathed a sigh of relief, with a happy expression on his face, but also a little unspeakable loss.
"They also let me bring a good news, a surprise," Oakes gave Roy a half-smile, and the brother Serrit next to him looked strange.
"What surprise?"
"Your old mother Susie is two months pregnant! The next time you see them, you will have an extra brother or sister."
"Are you surprised?"
"Uh... Pregnant? Brother, sister?"
Roy's eyebrows were twisted into a ball, his mood was extremely complicated, and he was stunned for ten seconds.
A long sigh of relief.
"I don't accompany them, the old couple is alone, having a lively child again, what's the problem?"
The three witchers sensed his anomaly, exchanged glances, and silenced him for a few minutes. Then, Leto softly comforted, "Little brat, you must understand a little bit, you have to choose the green grass trial, and you will say goodbye to the normal life."
"The environment you live in and the people you interact with are completely different from those in the past ten years. Your life trajectory will gradually drift away from your parents until there is no more intersection!"
"You mean I'm going to cut ties with them?!" Roy was slightly annoyed and a little dazed.
"It's not a moral issue... We're destined to be adrift, and when you want to settle down, the normal old Moore couple are long gone."
Resso sighed.
"You'll understand later."
Roy lowered his head and fell silent.
Oakes brought a glass of wine in front of him, "I have to add to what Lesso said just now..."
He pressed the young witcher's shoulder heavily, "The environment of the northern countries still discriminates against the witcher. It is no exaggeration to say that if you are often around the old Moore couple, you will greatly benefit from it. affect their normal lives."
"We're not forcing you to make a choice. You have to be prepared. As far as I know, no child can return to the family of origin after becoming a witcher."
"It's only going to be a complete split."
…
"Okay, let's put aside the matter of old Moore, let's continue playing cards."
Roy shook his head and dispelled the chaotic thoughts in his mind. These questions could only be verified by him in Novigrad in the future to face his heart.
"Sorry, three, I'm not in the mood to continue playing cards right now."
"Drinking? The newcomers must have a good time with us!" Serrit said, staring.
"Of course, but allow me to ask a question first."
Roy glanced at the bald man, "I've been following Leto for more than half a year listening to him nagging in his ear that the Viper School is on the verge of extinction, so we came to Sintra to make some special arrangements to save the school?"
"Can you tell me how critical the Viper School is? Leto, Oaks, Serret, the four of us are the only remaining demon hunters from the Serpent School?"
"Look, I said he would definitely ask that!" Oakes showed off to his brother in a serious manner.
"Boy, except for the four present, Cogrim, the Snake Sect witcher, has been collecting Snake Sect's lost weapons all over the world. Another Snake Sect's most powerful witcher, Ivar Evil Eye, twenty years ago After disappearing, no news was returned."
"The last two stupid guys, don't mention it!" A trace of anger appeared in Oakes' tone.
Cogrim? Roy's attention was drawn to the familiar name. In my memory, the body of this guy was found in White Orchard, but it is still ten years before that time point, and it is uncertain whether he is dead or alive now.
"So, there are still four to eight snake witchers in existence?"
In fact, this size is not uncommon among witcher schools - all witcher schools are in decline.
"How did our school decline to this point? Is there a snake school in the Nilfgaard Empire in the south?"
"There are so many questions, boy!" Oaks grabbed the glass in front of him and took a sip, a deep loneliness flashed in his eyes,
"The Snake School Academy is located next to Nilfgaard, in a fortress named Guthvid in the Tyr Torsha Mountains..." Ox's face showed pride, "there is an eye-catching tower, hovering The terrifying staircase is surrounded by a moat that is hundreds of deep. It is a fortress like a moat."
"Unfortunately, it has declined after all. As for the reason, it is more complicated."
"First of all, in recent years, the Nilfgaardian Empire has become more and more demanding of law and order," Leto took over his words and laughed at himself, "Skilled aliens like us are easy to stray from the law. It was not tolerated by the Empire, and was suppressed because of it.”
"The Empire's negative propaganda has made life more difficult for the witchers in the South. The people no longer believe in us, and the Law of Accidents seems to them to be a filthy sorcery. It's even more impossible to give us their children as a reward for training. "
"We thought about adopting those displaced war orphans, but it was reported as evil."
Roy agreed that even in the north, there are fewer and fewer accidental children, and people's prejudice against witchers is deepening.
"Without the soil for the witcher academy to survive in the south, the academy will naturally wither. But I firmly believe that this situation can be improved. The misunderstanding of the people and the country about the witcher will eventually be eliminated."
Leto clenched his fists.
"But it was the disaster 20 years ago that dealt the fatal blow to the Viper Academy."
"Disaster? What disaster?" There are very few documents about the Viper School, and even the specific address is mysterious, not to mention the academy disaster.
"This is a disaster caused by the Wild Hunt." Leto said, looking at the young witcher, "Little brat, don't you know a lot about it, have you heard of the Wild Hunt?"
The latter's face sank, of course he knew about the famous Wild Hunt.
The bald man began to introduce again,
"In folklore, the Wild Hunt are a group of immortal ghost riders. They wear rusted armor, wield lightning-shaped longswords, and ride skeleton horses in packs across the sky. They usually appear in winter, Or the long night before the war, wreaking havoc, burning down orchards and houses, taking away the living...mostly children."
However, in fact, Roy knew very well that the true identity of Wild Hunt was the Ain El tribe of another world, which is one of the branches of the elves.
They traveled across countless worlds and turned into ghost knights, only to find the heirs of the ancient blood and regain the complete ability to travel through time and space.
"This is not a legend." At this time, Leto gritted his teeth and said, "More than 20 years ago, due to the absence of Lord Evil Eye and two idiots, the Viper School was unable to withstand the attack of the Wild Hunt, and the academy just passed the The two children of the Green Grass Trial were all kidnapped by the Wild Hunt army. The school has no successor since then and is facing disbandment."
"Wait!" Roy said in surprise, "I heard what you said, Wild Hunt attacked the Viper Academy more than once?"
"That's right..." Serret's expression on the other side was cold and frosty, "Each school has its own power test, and the Viper Academy, every ten years, will accept the baptism of the Wild Hunt, and use the This will test the new witcher."
"In fact, from the very beginning of the school's founding, the Wild Hunt was identified as a lifelong enemy. Because the great founder, our mentor, Ivar Evil Eye, had a lofty ideal to defeat the Wild Hunt and end the world they brought to the world. of fear!"
"Little devil, you have to remember that this is also the ultimate goal of any snake demon hunter, and the priority is no less than the revitalization of the school."
"I remember, I assure you, defeating the Wild Hunt will be my life's quest..."
Roy made a solemn promise, and a question in his mind was answered,
"There will be a lot of wild hunting literature in the Snake Sect, so that's what happened."
However, the Snake School is really a complicated school. It has engaged in vicious assassinations, but it has lofty ultimate ideals.
"Several, I have always been curious, why is the name of Lord Ivar called Evil Eye, and what is the special meaning?" There is no such surname in the world of witchers, and it was definitely made up by the Lord himself.
"Because Your Excellency Ivar..." Leso Amber's pupils showed reverence, "his eyes acquired a unique ability through mutation... He can see other infinite worlds, hence the name 'Evil Eye'."
"Through the evil eye, he continued to see the robbery, slaughter and conquest of the ghost riders of the Wild Hunt. These ghosts became the teacher's obsession and the original intention of his founding."
So is the missing Snake faction founder still alive
Roy had a hunch in his heart that maybe that Your Excellency was just lost in other planes.