"Mm... Ailin, are you finished?" Vesemir asked, sounding unsure.
Leto was too shocked to speak, but hearing Vesemir's tone, he shot him a sideways glance and thought:
You didn't know either? Why were you acting so smug just now?
Ailin steadied himself and said, "Yes, I'm done."
Leto could not help patting Vesemir on the shoulder as he asked:
"Damn it... what was that mushroom soup brewer doing? Did she get muddled from reading smut? She dared cut corners even on an apprentice's mushroom soup?"
"You'd better watch your mouth. Lady Vesemir is the one who brews the mushroom soup." Vesemir valued companionship, so he could not help warning Leto.
"Vesemir? Which Vesemir?"
"Vesemir of Toussaint, the Bloody Red Fox..."
"Holy shit... the Chief's old flame?" Leto was beyond shocked. "Has the Chief finally realized how hard it is for a school to have no proper witchers?"
Before he had even finished asking, Leto eagerly pressed on, "How did he lure a sorceress over? Do you know anything?"
"I don't. And one more reminder..."
Vesemir glanced at Ailin, who was pretending not to have heard anything, then warned Leto again:
"Ailin is learning alchemy from Lady Vesemir now... They see each other every day..."
Leto's face immediately darkened.
He believed apprentices did not talk nonsense, but most sorceresses could read minds.
If Vesemir read what he had just said...
After his brain raced at high speed, Leto's face darkened even further.
"Vesemir, why didn't you warn me just now?" Leto snapped accusingly.
"Are you sure I didn't warn you?" Vesemir's face plainly said he had done all he could.
Smack.
A palm landed on Leto's forehead.
Still unwilling to give up, Leto asked, "What is our most esteemed Lady Vesemir's signature spell?"
"Vesemir's Transfiguration, also respectfully known as the Leech Transfiguration Spell. It is said that... leeches transformed from witchers have extremely high medicinal value..."
"Can I ask the Chief to plead for me?"
"If the Chief learns what you just said, he may not help you..."
Amber cat eyes trembled in their sockets as Leto paced back and forth before everyone, only stopping abruptly after a while.
"What is it? Did you think of something?" Vesemir asked curiously. "Actually, you don't need to worry. Even for the Chief's sake, Lady Vesemir wouldn't kill you."
"There are plenty of fates crueler than death, and Lady Vesemir is the best at them." Leto rolled his eyes. "I'm going outside to lie low."
"You aren't planning to winter at Kaer Morhen this year?"
"What do you think? Hurry up. Aren't you taking the apprentice to hunt drowners..."
Leto frantically urged Vesemir onward.
Helpless, Vesemir hurriedly said goodbye to the apprentices, then called Ailin over and headed out of the castle.
"Lady Vesemir... isn't that vicious, is she?"
As they walked down the mountain path, Ailin could not help asking.
"Are you joking? The Bloody—"
"Leto!"
Hearing Ailin's doubt, Leto could not help wanting to explain to the ignorant apprentice what the Bloody Red Fox was.
Vesemir swiftly stopped him.
Leto could only smile apologetically, then shut up and walked at the very front of the trio.
Vesemir withdrew his gaze, carefully considered his words, and explained to Ailin:
"Leto has no brains. He didn't mean to offend Lady Vesemir..."
Rather than speaking to Ailin, Vesemir seemed to be apologizing on Leto's behalf to some sorceress who might be watching this scene.
After delivering a long Vesemir-style "Leto's self-criticism," Vesemir seemed a little embarrassed and advised:
"Ailin, be more respectful toward Lady Vesemir. She comes from an era even more distant than my birth. Back then, even my grandfather's grandfather had not yet been born..."
Ailin's expression turned strange.
He suspected that if Lady Vesemir truly knew about today's conversation, she would punish Leto—or Vesemir.
A Witcher Master's age was a woman's greatest taboo!
"...Lady Vesemir's methods can occasionally be rather extreme, but that was a chaotic era. Whether righteous or evil, everyone treated their enemies in much the same way."
"As far as I know, Lady Vesemir has never bullied the weak, so you needn't be afraid."
Because Lady Vesemir never bullied the weak, he did not need to be afraid? Ailin could not help rolling his eyes.
Vesemir really knew how to talk.
It was truly hard on the Witcher Master to say he was weak so tactfully.
"Shh! We're here!"
Leto suddenly stopped at the front of the group and turned to warn them.
"The first lesson in hunting monsters: Tracking." Vesemir's expression turned serious. Pointing beneath them, he said softly, "Use your sharp Witcher Senses to find this group of drowners."
Ding! A Main Quest has been discovered: Tracking (Find the drowner group 0/1) Quest Reward: Tracking LV1
The damn system had finally made a move.
Heaven truly lay outside Kaer Morhen Castle.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Ailin lowered his head and looked.
The late-autumn ground was covered in scorched yellow fallen leaves, scattered without any pattern.
At first glance, Ailin saw nothing unusual.
If Leto had pointed out the trail, Ailin might have suspected he was messing with him. But Vesemir would not. He took teaching apprentices very seriously.
So Ailin calmed down and tried observing from different angles.
Since both Vesemir and the system had identified them as a group of drowners,
starting from a drowner's traits could not be wrong.
After looking up to determine the sun's position, Ailin walked to the side opposite it.
Sure enough, a small patch of the place Vesemir had pointed out glittered faintly.
It was liquid reflecting light. It had to have been left by the drowners.
"Not bad. I didn't expect you to find a clue on your first hunt." Vesemir nodded approvingly. "Keep going. Find them, then deal with them."
Ailin nodded seriously.
Crunch~ Crunch~
The autumn leaves were dry and yellow, making soft crackling sounds beneath their feet.
Ailin walked at the front of the three-man group, Vesemir watched from behind, and the distracted Leto brought up the rear.
As the air gradually grew damp, a stream soon appeared before Ailin.
Gurrah~ Gurrah~
Ailin quietly crouched down and looked in the direction of the sound.
About eight drowners were playing around on the grass beside the stream.
"Judging a drowner's strength is simple..." Vesemir reminded him softly from the side.
"Look at their size," Ailin finished.
"That's right. So none of these are weak. They're far stronger than the ones you killed yesterday," Vesemir said.
"It really isn't easy to find that many drowners that weak." Leto cut in, seemingly still resentful.
Vesemir ignored Leto.
He looked at Ailin and asked softly, "How many do you want?"
His tone was as casual as if he were asking how many loaves of bread they wanted for dinner.
Ailin did not answer immediately. He used Appraisal on the closest and strongest drowner.
Name: Drowner
Level: LV6
Attributes: Strength 13, Agility 11, Constitution 23, Perception 8, Mystery 1
Only LV6. This was within the difficulty I could handle.
Ailin's eyes lit up slightly as he turned to Vesemir and said:
"I want them all!"
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