First Arrival in Ban Ard

After spending a night at the inn in Kaer village, Ailin and his companions embarked on their journey.

It is worth mentioning that before they came down the mountain, the school had already prepared four fine horses for them in the village's large stable.

The two chestnut, one black, and one white mares are all gentle and suitable for novice riders.

Such a high-quality horse would be worth at least two hundred Oren on the market.

According to Vesemir, these horses were all personally selected by the chief.

"Hurry up and choose your horses, then we'll set off."

Seeing the witchers touching this and that with curiosity and chattering incessantly, Vesemir couldn't help but interrupt them.

The next village with an inn wasn't far, and horses were available, but none of the young witchers, including Ailin, had ever ridden a horse before.

Therefore, taking into account the time spent learning to ride despite the stumbles and falls along the way, they would have to speed up if they didn't want to spend the night in the wild.

At Huus's insistence, Ailin chose the pure black mare first and, on a whim, named her "Carrot".

"Radish?"

"What a strange name!"

Upon hearing this, Vesemir couldn't help but retort.

"This symbolizes that my horse is immortal; it can travel across mountains and rivers to my side with just a whistle."

Ailin got interested and made a joke.

Upon hearing this, Vesemir rolled his eyes and ignored him.

"Radish, isn't that a vegetable? Does it have this kind of symbolism?" Huus, standing nearby, seemed eager to try and name it after himself.

However, after being glared at by Vesemir and struggling for a moment, he felt it was inappropriate and named his horse "Cabbage".

He figured that since they were all vegetables, the effects shouldn't be too different.

Upon hearing the two men's naming styles, Bont and Fred exchanged bewildered glances and then collectively named their mounts "Red Date" and "Oatmeal."

The pure red one is "Red Date," and the one with white spots is "oats."

Although Vesemir was somewhat speechless watching from the side, he didn't say much. After explaining some riding techniques, he led a few people off.

On his way to Ban Ade, Vesemir was eager to investigate the king's attitude toward the School of the Wolf.

When passing through some villages, I only accepted some simple quests and killed some water ghosts and Ghoul along the way.

Even though he was in a hurry, Vesemir continued to follow his usual practice of training traveling apprentices, explaining to the four new witchers along the way how to track common and uncommon monsters and how to remove some basic curses.

During this time, Ailin also used Combat Points to upgrade Hughes, Bont, and Fred's Quen Sign and Igni Sign to LV2.

Unfortunately,

Although Ailin jokingly invited Vesemir to join the army more than once along the way using his Witcher skill, it was ultimately ineffective.

Therefore, we can only leave this point aside and try it again when we have the opportunity later.

Along the way.

Ailin noticed that the villagers in the villages he passed through were increasingly distant and fearful of the Witcher the closer they got to Ban Ad.

Fortunately, there hasn't been the same aggressive rejection as in the previous game and the original work.

Even so, Ailin could still sense that the mood of several witchers, including Vesemir, had dropped considerably.

That's understandable.

Even though witchers are paid for their work, it still involves risking their lives.

Which witcher wants to return from a witch hunt, covered in blood and sweat, only to be met with the disgusted and disdainful look of their client?

This made him sigh and raise his guard once again.

Clearly, the enemy's malice is quite evident.

The male wizards of Ban Ade certainly played a part in this malice, but it's unknown how much the king was involved.

Ban Ade is located at the foot of the Blue Mountains and is one of the two largest cities in Kedwen, the other being Ade Kale, the capital of the kingdom.

The city is primarily based on mining, but it is also famous for Ban Ade College.

After ten days, Vesemir finally brought Ailin and the others to the city.

However, because we arrived a bit early, the city gates had not yet opened.

So the five men could only stand in the queue, leading their horses, and wait patiently for the city gate to open.

To Ailin's relief, apart from a few people, he saw them move away.

The others all frowned, but none of them showed any particular reaction.

until...

"Stay away from me, mutant monsters..."

A shout came from the ranks beside him, but Vesemir did not react.

The man's mouth was immediately covered by his companion.

Ailin's keen Witcher Senses heard the man's advice:

"Are you crazy? Those are witchers! Aren't you afraid one of those lunatics will kill you with a single sword strike?"

"What are you afraid of?" The man flung his companion's hand away, looked defiantly in the direction of Ailin and his group, and shouted, "This is Ban Ade, with so many mages here. Do you think they'll tolerate these mutant monsters running rampant?"

The man's companion chuckled and bowed slightly to Vesemir, then lowered his voice and whispered in the man's ear:

"What use are mages? Even the king can't do anything to them!"

"A dozen days ago, I delivered a batch of silk to Ad Kale and witnessed two witchers killing more than a dozen guards in the street."

"The blood stained the entire street red."

Upon hearing this, the man immediately shrank back, took a few steps back, and grabbed his companion's sleeve.

"What?"

"You... you're telling the truth? Two witchers? More than a dozen guards were killed?"

"Then... what about the king? Didn't the king react at all?"

His companion glanced furtively at Ailin and the others again, sighed, and whispered:

"I was so scared that I ran away, but I heard from a friend of a friend of a nephew of a court nobleman that the two witchers were released the next day."

"What!"

Another gasp of surprise rang out.

The man glanced at Ailin and his companion in horror, then grabbed his friend and, in a panic, bumped into several passersby before fleeing in a disheveled state.

They were probably afraid of retaliation from the Witcher.

Ailin could hear it so clearly, then Vesemir must have heard everything they said as well.

Although his face was expressionless, as if he hadn't heard anything, his fists were clenched tightly at his sides.

Clearly, his mood was not as calm as it appeared on the surface.

"Ailin, what were those two whispering about just now?"

Huus glanced at Vesemir's face, handed the reins to Bont, and quietly ran over to ask.

"It's nothing, they're just talking about the scum among witchers!"

Vesemir glanced at Huus and answered for Ailin.

Seeing that the Witcher Master was in a bad mood, Huus didn't dare to ask any more questions. He shrank back and ran to Bont.

Ben Ade's greeting gift wasn't very nice!

Ailin sighed inwardly, sensing that many unpleasant things were bound to happen to Ben Ade and his group.

Just then, a cacophony of curses and whipping sounds suddenly came from behind.

He looked in the direction of the sound.

Several male wizards dressed in black robes walked over, followed by a dozen knights wearing Black Unicorn cloaks with yellow backgrounds. They seemed to be escorting a prison cart.

The sound of wheels rolling over the stone pavement gradually drew closer.

His blue Cat Eyes widened slightly, and he discovered...

The prison cart contained a group of elves with pointed ears and long hair.