An Uninvited Guest

Deep within the castle ruins.

"Ta-da~ Ta-da~"

Clear footsteps echoed in the empty corridor.

Following the direction of the concentration of black magic points, Ailin led Vesemir back to the place where they had hunted the ten demon spirits.

Dim light filtered through the withered vines.

The former glory of this place can still be vaguely discerned from the broken crystal chandelier lying in the center of the dance floor, the dusty carpet, and the portraits covered in dust on both sides.

This is a banquet hall, or at least it used to be.

"Huh!"

The tranquility was broken by a soft gasp of surprise from the young witcher.

His eyes widened, his gaze fixed on the east side of the dance floor.

At the center of the two oil paintings, dense black magic dots seep out from the carved gray wall, as if there were a generator of black magic dots in the wall.

What exactly is this black magic?

So eerie and gloomy.

Such an ominous sign!

Aren't the magical elements that make up the wizarding world only earth, air, water, and fire?

Ailin pondered anxiously.

He initially thought it was just some kind of necromancy remnant, but he never expected that these black magical elements seemed to have another source in this castle.

At the same time, I don't know if it's just my imagination.

The closer you get to this wall, the more you feel a chilling cold seeping into your body.

But upon closer inspection, it seemed faint and indistinct, and the surrounding temperature did not drop.

"What's wrong?"

Within Vesemir's field of vision, the young witcher was staring at nothing more than an ordinary wall.

However, Ailin's unusual behavior made him raise his right hand, loosely gripping the hilt of his sword, and become alert.

"Master Vesemir, those black magic dots I just told you about came from behind this wall!"

"Ta-da~ Ta-da~"

Vesemir gripped his sword and quickly approached, staring at the wall, looking it up and down.

Ten seconds.

He sighed, glanced enviously at Ailin, shook his head, and said somewhat dejectedly:

"Ordinary witchers can't sense magic... I... can't see anything."

"Let's search around. Since the anomaly is inside the wall, there must be a secret room here."

Upon hearing this, Ailin nodded slightly and began searching around.

Many people have misconceptions about the secret rooms in aristocratic castles.

The more ingenious and complex the mechanisms of a secret room are, the better its concealment and the less likely it is to be discovered.

Actually, no.

The principle of a sealed room is secrecy.

As long as no one knows, no one will suspect that there is a secret room in the room.

Even if it's just covered by a carpet, it's still a proper secret room.

on the contrary.

Once someone knows the location of the secret room, no matter how complicated the mechanism, it won't stop someone with a keen eye from figuring it out.

Therefore, Ailin only needed to use his two tracking skills for three minutes to find the location of the secret room's mechanism.

Those were the nails hanging behind the two oil paintings.

Looking at the human fingerprints on the nail, Ailin and Vesemir exchanged a glance and pressed the button simultaneously.

"Boom!"

A heavy, grinding sound rang out between the boulders.

In the dance floor in front of the wall, a bottomless downward step slowly appears.

"Pop!"

"Gurgle~ gurgle~"

"Clang!"

The two witchers stared at the dark passage that seemed to lead straight to the abyss. After exchanging a glance, they almost simultaneously drank the Cat Eye Potion and then cast the Quen Sign on themselves.

He then raised his right hand, drew out a silver sword that gleamed with a chilling light, and evenly applied the Specter Oil to the sword.

Witchers don't fight unprepared battles.

Everything is ready.

Vesemir stared with his eyes, now completely black from the potion's effects, nodded slightly to Ailin, and then stepped into the passageway of the secret chamber.

Ailin followed closely behind.

"Ta-da~ Ta-da~"

The passageway was so quiet that you could hear your own breathing and heartbeat.

In such a narrow path, barely wide enough for one person to pass through, encountering a ghostly or demonic creature would be a nightmare.

Fortunately, it didn't happen.

Go down the stairs, go up the steps.

Under the magical vision, the black magic in the short, narrow passage has turned from a stream into a river.

As they ventured deeper into the passage, Ailin felt increasingly cold.

It wasn't that the surrounding temperature was dropping, but rather a natural weakness and coldness, as if one had lost too much blood.

"Ailin! Use the Oterrohp Sign!" Vesemir suddenly stopped and turned around to shout.

"A monster is draining our life force!"

Are there monsters?

Drawing on life force?

Ailin's expression changed abruptly. He quickly circulated his magic power and crossed his hands to form the Oterrohp Sign.

This is a sign specifically designed to ward off magic.

A pale purple, transparent, spherical protective shield formed from the soles of the feet and closed almost simultaneously above the head.

The chill that Ailin felt instantly lessened, but it still lingered.

He looked at the black magic dots, blocked by the Oterrohp Sign and constantly being deflected by the shield, and thought:

"Was the absorption of life force truly due to magic used by the monster?"

"Tap~ Tap~ Tap~"

Vesemir, with a solemn expression, quickened his pace as he walked ahead, a deep purple transparent protective shield above him.

Soon a door blocked the passage.

Ailin sensed it and realized that the location behind the door corresponded to the back of the two oil paintings.

"Smack!"

The wooden door was kicked open violently.

The imposing Witcher Master was about to rush in when he suddenly froze in place upon seeing the scene inside the wooden door.

From a cat's-eye view, there is only a shelf in this secret room, nothing else.

"If there's nothing there, then what's draining our life force?" the Witcher Master wondered.

He extended his right hand out of the purple protective shield of the Oterrohp Sign.

The biting cold persisted.

"Huh!"

A soft gasp.

When Erin peered through the gap in the door and saw the scene inside the secret room, Ailin somewhat surprised and uncertain.

This... isn't this the Circle of Elements?

Magical elements kept emerging from a point in the void within the secret chamber.

The shape that then dispersed resembled a comet with a long tail.

The point in the void was the core of the comet, and its long, black tail pierced through Vesemir and Ailin, stretching into the distance.

It's as if something there is attracting these unknown elements.

Seeing this astonishing scene, Ailin's two blue Cat Eyes widened in surprise.

The link in the world.

Magical elements kept emerging.

Aside from the fact that the color is black and the distribution of the elemental points is different, the scene here is almost identical to the Circle of Elements near Kaer Morhen.

Ailin subconsciously opened the Witcher's Handbook.

[Use Conjunction of the Spheres - Water Ghost (30-day cooldown)?]

All right.

Forgot that the Conjunction of the Spheres has long since cooled down.

No wonder the number of unknown elements here hasn't decreased.

After leaving Kaer Morhen, they had been on the move Ailin naturally had no time to find a suitable place to use the Celestial Union.

"But could these black magic dots reduce the cooldown time of the Conjunction of the Spheres?" Ailin wondered.

Vesemir turned his head to look when he heard the young witcher's surprised and doubtful voice.

Ailin's astonished expression told him that there was something strange in this secret room, so he scratched his head and turned to look again.

It was still empty.

"Ailin, what's wrong? What did you see?" Vesemir patted Ailin on the shoulder.

Ailin snapped out of his reverie at the spectacle of the Dark Circle of Elements, glanced again at the "comet" composed of unknown elements, and said with some excitement:

"Master Vesemir, I think I know where to find that couple!"

Vesemir glanced back at the empty secret chamber.

Even knowing that what Ailin saw was different from what he saw, he couldn't help but tilt his head and ask in confusion:

"Ah?"

After describing the scene inside the secret chamber to Vesemir, Vesemir agreed with Ailin's idea of searching along the black magic points where the "comet's tail" had dissipated.

After all, no other clues could be found in the empty, sealed room.

The only remaining mystery within this vast castle is the origin of this "Circle of Elements".

This is the only point of doubt, and naturally, the only clue.

Then.

The two witchers left the secret chamber.

After burying more than thirty skeletons in a small, overgrown garden inside the castle, they rode away.

Nighttime is unfriendly to humans, especially in the wild.

In the dim light, along with wolves, bears, dogs, Ghoul, and wraiths roaming around, even witchers would not choose to travel at night.

This is disrespect for one's own life.

Therefore, after leaving the castle ruins, the two witchers went straight back to the inn.

"Is that so? Is it really impossible to identify Mr. Hudson's remains?"

Bob, sitting at the dining table, leaned forward and pressed for an answer.

Both he and Mary could not hide their sadness.

As agreed before the two witchers returned, Vesemir did not tell the two ordinary people about the possibility that the Viscount's family had escaped, or about Bowen's speculation about a conspiracy involving nobles, wizards, and the king.

This irrelevant information will only cause trouble for the two of them.

The Witcher has completed his mission, and all those who came before him have found peace.

That's all they need to know.

Vesemir shook his head, patted the two men on the shoulders, and comforted them:

"I buried them all in the garden behind the castle. Viscount Hudson, being such a homebody, must have preferred to be with his family."

Mary wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, gently hugged Bob's arm, nodded softly, and said:

"Yes, Viscount Hudson is very attached to his home."

"Unlike other nobles, I have never heard any rumors about him or other women."

"He occasionally goes out for a short while, but when he comes back, he always goes to see Miss and Madam..."

"The master is a good man, and the madam and young lady are kind-hearted..."

"What a wonderful family... what a wonderful family..."

Mary, who had managed to stop crying, found it increasingly difficult to hold back her tears as she reminisced about the past. It was only after much comforting from Vesemir and Bob that she was able to calm her turbulent emotions.

As Ailin watched this scene, he thought:

"For two servants to remember this for ten years, this Viscount Hudson is truly a rare and fine nobleman."

"But what could have caused such a noble family to suffer such a horrific massacre?"

"Sorry, you've been busy all day and haven't eaten yet. I'll go and bring you some soup."

Recovering from her grief, Mary hurried to the kitchen and soon returned with a large pot of stew, which must have been prepared long ago.

The rich aroma of meat that wafts over you is enough to whet your appetite.

Bob also brought over a basket of soft, creamy bread from the kitchen.

"Come, come, try my new stew," Mary invited.

Upon smelling the aroma, Vesemir exclaimed in surprise, "Is this the Beef Tomato Stew that Viscount Hudson made back then?"

Beef was not a cheap cut of meat at this time; a single piece from this pot would cost at least twenty Oren.

Including this basket of cream bread and the spices in the pot, it comes to at least fifty Oren.

Bob and Mary might not earn this much even after running a hotel for two months.

Mary nodded, her eyes crinkling with a smile, and said:

"There happened to be a family in town whose cow died, so I asked Bob to buy some meat."

"Eat it while it's hot, and see how much better my Beef Tomato Stew is than Mrs. Lena's."

Vesemir stared at the food on the table, which, while not lavish, was certainly meticulously prepared, and hesitated to speak.

However, seeing Bob and Vesemir's genuine smiles, he ultimately said nothing, greeted Ailin, and silently lowered his head to enjoy his food.

After taking a sip of the slightly hot stew, Ailin's eyes lit up.

The perfect temperature brings out the aroma of the beef and the slight acidity of the tomatoes, resulting in a rich and delicious broth that makes your mouth water.

Before I could even think, a bowl of soup was gone.

It was then that Ailin realized why Vesemir couldn't forget the taste of the Viscount's cook.

About half an hour after the two witchers finished their dinner, Huus, Bont, and Fred returned, reeking of the stench of water ghosts.

"Ailin, the water ghosts down this mountain are no match for Kaer Morhen. They don't even know to hide when they see a witcher..."

"Yes, the three of us dealt with a total of fifteen water ghosts that day..."

"Hmm? What smells so good?"

"Go and tidy up, then come and have your meal," Vesemir said expressionlessly.

Several young witchers were intimidated by Vesemir's stern appearance and obediently went to clean their bodies.

Ailin smiled when he saw the three little people looking timid and cowering.

Thinking about the water ghosts they hunted today, he suddenly realized that it had been a long time since he had upgraded Huus ' skills.

So he opened the Legion interface with his mind.

Legion Name: Pact of the Wolves

[Rank: Third Rank]

[Score: 1740/5000]

[Combat Points: 967]

My Combat Points are almost full, reaching 1000.

With a thought, Ailin spent 300 Combat Points to upgrade the Alde Sign of all three to LV2.

Then I spent another 500 to upgrade Huus ' School of the Wolf Two-Handed Sword to LV3.

His current goal is to upgrade both Bont and Fred's School of the Wolf Two-Handed Sword to LV3 before the Apprentice Combat Tournament.

With Quen, Igni, and Ald's three signs at level 2, plus the Witcher's two-handed sword at level 3, even the strongest Witcher sent by the School of the Cat wouldn't lose.

After putting away the panel, Ailin turned to Vesemir to discuss tomorrow's plans.

at the same time.

As night fell, the Hundred Fruit Garden welcomed a group of unexpected guests.

They were dressed in black night clothes, their faces covered, and stood in twos and threes on the hillside outside the town.

A moment later, a figure dressed similarly looked around cautiously as he walked out of the town.

One of the men in black stepped forward and asked coldly:

Are all the targets present?

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Two chapters combined