A New Hunting Target

"Is this the couple the Red-haired Elf is looking for?"

After a moment's thought, Ailin sighed.

Although he hoped it wasn't true, since that would involve the wizard and the king.

It is dangerous for Ben Ade to go against these two forces. If he is exposed by accident, the King's forces, which he might have had a chance to win over, may become the complete enemy of the School of the Wolf.

But given the various coincidences and the vague notion of "fate" from the Red-haired Elf, he found it difficult to convince himself to draw a negative conclusion.

"Thump~ thump~ thump~"

Heavy footsteps interrupted his thoughts.

Black Wide-brimmed Hat gradually appeared from the corner of the stairs, and Ailin called out softly:

"Master Vesemir, I have something to tell you."

Vesemir paused for a moment, glanced at the other closed doors, nodded, and went to Ailin's room.

"Bang!"

The door was closed.

Ailin looked intently into those dark golden Cat Eyes and said, "Master Vesemir, do you remember the prison cart we encountered at the city gate yesterday morning?"

"Is that the prison wagon escorted by the King's Guard and wizards, carrying a few elves?" Vesemir asked in confusion.

Ailin nodded, and then recounted the story of the red-haired, silver-eyed elf and the request to protect a couple as they left.

"The School of the Wolf adheres to neutrality..." Vesemir's expression immediately turned serious. "Hmm... Ailin, what do you think?"

The quest involving elves and humans clearly presents a choice of faction.

In the past, Vesemir might have outright rejected this troublesome commission, but now...

He hesitated.

Ailin breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this; he had thought that Vesemir would refuse outright.

After a moment of contemplation, Ailin carefully chose his words and said seriously:

"The principle of neutrality is certainly important."

"But given the prophecy of the school's impending demise, if the king is indeed the mastermind, we must prepare in advance and strive for every possible force, otherwise we can only watch helplessly as Kaer Morhen is destroyed."

"The elves' strength in archery and magic can make up for our weakness in ranged attacks."

There are different kinds of neutrality.

In the previous game and the original story, Geralt and Vesemir's so-called neutrality was the only remaining connection between them and the ruined school, apart from their companions.

It was also a helpless compromise due to the destruction of the school and the insufficient power of the Witcher.

They lacked the power to intervene in the conflicts between various forces on the continent, so they could only seek survival by maintaining a neutral stance.

The School of the Wolf at this time was different.

In the library, Ailin read about the history of how the Witcher Conclave fell apart due to the influence and interference of external forces.

The School of the Wolf's current principle of neutrality seems more like a way to avoid interference from external forces, setting the entire school's goal on eliminating monsters that threaten human survival based on a definite principle.

Its core purpose is to ensure the survival of the school of thought.

But in essence, given the strength of the Wolf School Witchers and their reputation for hunting monsters for humans for hundreds of years, they are capable of not remaining neutral.

Reality has now proven that even if Witchers maintain neutrality, other forces will still provoke them and even try to eliminate them.

At this point, any Witcher who knows the truth will have this question deep in their mind.

Is neutrality really useful?

Vesemir fell silent upon hearing this.

Ailin knew that even though Vesemir had wavered in his principle of neutrality with the School of the Wolf because of what had happened in the past.

Holding fast to a lifelong belief is not something easily compromised, so the topic was shifted to Viscount Hudson.

"Master Vesemir, when do you plan to go to Viscount Hudson's castle?"

"You want to go?" The Witcher Master, who was deep in thought, paused for a moment, then frowned as if he had realized something.

"Do you think those two people Viscount Hudson brought back to the castle ten years ago are the people the elves are looking for?"

"I don't know," Ailin denied, "But I think it's all too coincidental. The elf just gave me this request yesterday, and today I heard news about a human couple."

Vesemir hesitated upon hearing this, then cautioned, "There might be wraiths in the castle, and probably more than one."

Ailin, also Witcher Master, is somewhat overrated in terms of skill.

At least in terms of experience in dealing with various monsters, they are far inferior to ordinary demon hunters who have traveled and undergone trials.

These ethereal monsters are especially dangerous to unfamiliar demon hunters.

If it were an ordinary wandering witcher, Vesemir would have agreed, after all, he himself had survived life-or-death situations.

But Ailin is different.

Before leaving Kaer Morhen, the chief made no mention of his safety.

Every other Witcher Master was subtly hinting that he should be mindful of the safety of the School of the Wolf's youngest Witcher Master.

Ailin noticed Vesemir's hesitation and persuaded him:

"Don't worry, Master Vesemir, I won't act rashly."

"Moreover, spirits usually appear at night, so it's generally safe during the day."

"Hmm? You know about the habits of demons?" Vesemir was somewhat surprised to hear this.

"I read it in the library..." Ailin said.

In his past life, he killed countless demons in order to farm Emerald Dust and Specter Essence.

These most basic pieces of knowledge were already etched into my mind.

Seeing this, Vesemir knew that he understood the importance of things and was not blindly acting on impulse, so he nodded with satisfaction and said:

"Alright, come with me!"

"Captain Serio, why don't you find a chance to teach those freaks a lesson?"

"Yes, Captain! I've wanted to test this for a long time: which is faster, the swords of these witchers or the swords of us knights!"

Serio shook his head, leaned against a sycamore tree in the southeast corner of the inn, and said:

"After all, they were guests invited by the king."

"Tch~" A knight sneered, "What kind of guest is he? He's just a lowly bastard. I don't know what the king is thinking, treating these freaks so well."

"I heard that he gives 50,000 Oren every year to the Wolf and Cat School, those two weirdos."

"What? So many?" another knight exclaimed in surprise, about to ask for more details.

"Silence! Get out into the shade!"

Serio suddenly took a few steps back and hid behind the sycamore tree.

The two knights were well-trained; upon hearing the order, they did not ask any questions and almost instinctively shrank back into the shade of the trees.

"Slap~ Slap~"

The sound of a wooden window closing came from not far away.

The three knights, seeing the innkeeper acting suspiciously and glancing around through the window, closed all the windows and doors of the inn.

"Captain Serio, they really are suspicious!"