Farewell, You Wretches! Air Raid on Dragon City?!!

"Impossible."

Vesemir shook his head. "When we passed Drakkenberg, even the Greater Griffin restrained their aura."

"And after we landed, we searched for a long time at the end of the Kemba River in search of your trail."

"If the Foglet leaves even the slightest trace there, it will be impossible for us to ignore it."

Dante frowned upon hearing this.

"Master Dante," Ernie echoed, "The captain checked the area many times and only found some ordinary wild beasts, using the same tactics..."

He glanced at Ailin, paused, and then changed his words:

"In the same way, the leader found you hiding in the bear den, nearly a kilometer away..."

"Huh?" Dante was taken aback. What kind of Tracking method could find him from that distance?

Etc!

I don't think I told Ailin and the others that I was hiding in the bear cave.

Dante gave Ernie a deep look, and seeing that Ernie was deliberately hiding her feelings, he didn't press the matter further, but became even more curious about Ailin.

"I'm not doubting Ailin and Vesemir," he shook his head, "But the ones who give the commissions aren't some reckless children. In recent years, due to the Falga's Rebellion, Monte Cavo has often been attacked by monsters. Because of its remote location, it can only rely on passing witchers to take on the commissions."

"They have no reason to deliberately offend a Witcher by fabricating a non-existent Foglet."

"Perhaps they mistook the Leshen for Little Mist..."

"No!" Ailin suddenly interrupted Dante, "The Foglet was fabricated!"

The dried-up riverbed suddenly became quiet.

No one expected Ailin to be so resolute.

What did you discover?

Vesemir noticed his expression and took a step closer, feeling uneasy.

Ailin's face darkened. "Bont has been drugged here!"

In an instant.

"What?! Bont was drugged?!"

"Who dares to be so bold!"

The noise suddenly rose and then stopped.

All eyes immediately turned to Dante, including Ailin.

Bont wasn't seriously injured, and being a physically strong witcher, there was no possibility that he had suddenly fainted due to blood loss.

In this desolate wilderness, neither hunters nor loggers would venture this far.

Moreover, when Bont first encountered the newcomers, he was not wary. Instead, he stood on tiptoe and greeted them excitedly. He was even drugged by someone who approached him. Therefore, there must be someone he knows among the newcomers.

Considering the poison that can knock out witchers, it can be said that the plan was premeditated.

After all, what kind of acquaintances would a demon hunter who has just come down from the mountain have in this kind of place?

"Dante! Did you encounter a sorcerer in Monte Cavo?" Upon hearing of the attack on Bont, Vesemir immediately thought of the School of the Wolf's archenemy.

"No..." Bont frowned. "Monte Cavo is just a small town with less than a thousand people. The largest House Family, is headed by a hereditary baron. Where would they get the resources to recruit a wizard?"

"Moreover, the House Family has no connection with magic, and there has never been a single sorcerer apprentice in the family genealogy."

"Are you very familiar with them?" Vesemir asked.

Bont shook his head. "I'm not familiar with the current chieftain, but I know his father."

"Old Huus was also known as Old House the Cripple, because he broke his leg when he fell off his horse during the Falga's Rebellion."

"But this leg also earned the House Family a baron; otherwise, based on his contributions at the time, he would have been far from being promoted to a baron."

"However, Old Huus is a good man and a very generous employer."

"When he was still alive, I would come here to drink with him every few years."

"After Old Huus passed away more than a decade ago, I started only accepting commissions booked the previous year and rarely came to Monte Cava anymore."

"I happened to be training apprentices this time, so I stopped by to take a look."

"I didn't expect this..."

As Dante spoke, his voice lowered.

Vesemir patted him on the shoulder, saying that the death of an old friend due to old age, illness, and death is an unavoidable tragedy for every Witcher who lives long enough.

However, his old friend's descendants were highly suspected of deliberately harming him...

Putting himself in Vesemir's shoes, he couldn't help but sigh softly to himself.

"Ailin, are you sure it was someone sent by the House Family?" he asked on Dante's behalf. "Could it be that Dante and his group were passing through somewhere, were spotted by someone with ulterior motives, and then followed them until they found an opportunity?"

Dante also looked up at Ailin.

"Maybe..." Ailin could only nod in agreement.

After all, he could only see Bont's two legs moving, and all his guesses were deductions.

It's possible that Bont just fainted.

No one knows what else he encountered along the way, besides the crows summoned by the Leshen.

Vesemir's statement is also a possibility.

The story of Dante's enemies encountering Dante on the road and coming to seek revenge, only to run into Bont, is somewhat far-fetched, but it's still plausible.

"That's good."

Vesemir patted Dante on the shoulder.

Dante forced a smile, "Now that Bont's whereabouts have been cut off, is it still possible to track him down?"

"No problem," Ailin shook his head, "There are still traces of the drugged people here... that took away Bont's people..."

Unless, like when they first landed at the Kemba River, there were no clues whatsoever, and the Leshen had granted them access to Mother Nature.

Otherwise, there probably isn't another person in the entire Witcher world who knows better how to find people than him.

Two Tracking, Primal Tongue, Life Whisper, Fire Divination, Water Divination... there's bound to be one you can use.

Ailin had a thought.

A dense array of red footprints appeared on the dry, dark riverbed, like a winding red serpent heading south into the dense forest.

Too lazy to select each footprint one by one and examine the movement of the legs, he directly selected the pair of footprints closest to where Bont's footprints disappeared, whose depth had changed.

With a wave of his hand.

The red marks that had stained the entire field of vision disappeared, leaving only one pair.

"Let's go..." Ailin said softly, then quickened her pace.

——

Excluding the conspiracy against the School of the Wolf by Kedwen's former king Haxor, the Ban Ard Warlock, and the School of the Cat at the beginning of the year.

At this time, the School of the Wolf was at its peak, enjoying immense popularity and prosperity. It was the most prosperous period since the establishment of the school in Kaer Morhen.

The Witcher was far from being as infamous as he is today, where he could be fooled by anyone.

Even in Kedwen, where the rumors had spread far and wide, only Ban Aard dared to speak disrespectfully to the Witcher. In other places, let alone the village chiefs deliberately withholding their wages, even the nobles wouldn't dare to do so.

They all have their own territories and businesses. Aren't they afraid that if their reputation for mistreating demon hunters spreads, no more demon hunters will be willing to come and clean up the monsters?

therefore.

Although Dante did not refute him as he had when he Tracking Bont, he probably did not quite believe him... no... he was unwilling to believe that someone other than Kedwen would deliberately harm a Witcher.

Vesemir probably felt the same way.

Change always happens quietly before people realize it, and by the time it is noticed, it has already taken deep root and become difficult to reverse.

Before Ailin arrived in this world, the Witcher had already reached its peak, and was officially heading towards an irreversible abyss.

Just as Geralt's poet friend Dandelion said in the original book:

"Witchers always end their careers slowly but surely. The better you do, the more responsible you are, the less work is left. After all, your goal is a world without monsters, a peaceful and tranquil world, a world that doesn't need witchers..."

Those caught up in it, like Vesemir and Dante ... are always the last to discover it, in the ugliest and most shocking way, when the dust has settled and there is no way to resist...

fortunately...

That happened in another world, another world without Ailin.

The clouds parted and the moon appeared.

The moon, which had been obscured by thick dark clouds for most of the night, finally revealed its graceful form.

The majestic castle is nestled in the steep mountains and clings to the cliff.

Although bathed in the soft moonlight, it did not diminish its oppressive, eerie, and ferocious nature in the slightest.

Torches glowed brightly on the dark, pitted city walls, crossbow bolts gleamed coldly, and a dark, deep moat flowed below the city. Faint, mournful screams echoed from within the city.

The moment the castle came into view, without Ailin's prompting, everyone knew what their destination was.

"Drakkenberg ..." Dante took a deep breath, "We should have realized that, besides Drakkenberg's men, who else would venture deep into the Kaer Trolde Mountains and bring Bont south..."

"But why did Drakkenberg's men capture Bont?"

"No..." Vesemir's expression was so somber it was almost dripping with gloom. "Bont will not trust anyone just because they are human, Dante."

"The question now is, why does Bont know Drakkenberg's people? Did you bring them here?"

"How could that be?" Dante shook his head. "We've never been to Drakkenberg, and the people from Drakkenberg don't go far..."

His tone faltered.

I won't go too far...

Monte Cava is the closest town to Drakkenberg.

"This is a conspiracy, Dante!" Vesemir's expression suddenly turned serious. "A conspiracy against you! No need to think about it, that baron from the House Family is definitely involved!"

"Damn it! I've never encountered a nobleman who dares to deliberately swindle a demon hunter before!"

Dante's face also turned bright red.

Just moments ago, he was trying to convince Ailin, Vesemir, and even himself: "Ailin makes mistakes too," "Bont was rescued," "Young Huus had nothing to do with it"... It was just a coincidence, a perfect coincidence, that he hadn't noticed someone was following him while he was off guard...

The humiliation of being betrayed made the veins on his forehead throb and his teeth grind.

Because of his trust, Huus was seriously injured and almost lost his life.

If it weren't for Vesemir and Ailin, he and Fred would have been dead for sure!

And there's Bont... Bont!!!

Drakkenberg is the most brutal prison in the entire Northern Continent!

What were they planning to do by drugging Bont?

Recalling the bloody tales he had heard in the past, his eyes turned bloodshot as he growled, "I'll kill them! I'll bring Bont back!"

There was a loud "clang".

Dante drew his gleaming longsword and was about to charge towards the heavily guarded fortress.

"Don't let anger cloud your judgment," Vesemir grabbed Dante. "Calm down in front of the apprentices, Dante!"

"You are a Witcher Master, not a brute who only knows how to swing a sword!"

After a long and persuasive speech from Vesemir, Dante gradually calmed down, slumped to the ground, and covered his face in shame.

Vesemir sighed, stood up, and looked at Ailin:

"Ailin... what do you think we should do now?"

Ailin didn't answer immediately; he squinted and looked into the distance.

The footprints shimmered with a scarlet light, following the winding mountain path and disappearing inside the city gate.

The city gates were tightly closed, and the drawbridge had been raised.

The Kemba River is turbulent, nearly twenty meters wide, and its depths are unfathomable.

Although the moat was wide, it was no problem for a group of witchers to leap across it in one go, especially since they also had Greater Griffin.

But they can't really get through it like Dante said in anger.

Leaving aside the issue of defense forces, they had no idea where Bont had been taken.

Drakkenberg is not a small place, and as Vesemir had previously said, even the local "residents" of Drakkenberg don't know the layout of the castle.

"Have you been inside this castle?" he asked, turning back to ask.

"We've all been there..." Vesemir glanced at Dante. "As I mentioned before, Drakkenberg's commissions are very lucrative, and almost all the Witchers from the School of the Wolf have been there..."

"When I was short of money, I was commissioned by the then King of Riedania to clean up some wraiths, Rotfiend and Grave Hag here."

"Of course, that was many years ago... it must have been twenty years ago..."

"Eight years ago," Dante took a deep breath and looked up, "When Drakkenberg was being repaired, a large group of Scorpion Spider and Giant Centipede emerged from the collapse of the East City. Aristo and I took on the commission, and the client was also the King of Riedania."

He was already used to the strange phenomenon of the Witcher's traveling team being led by an apprentice, and now he just wanted to rescue Bont as soon as possible, so his answer was straightforward.

After saying that, he continued, "I am more familiar with Drakkenberg than with Vesemir, not only because it happened more recently. After the collapse of the East District, we lived in the nearby North District, but because of the commotion, some of the Scorpion Spider roamed to the South District."

Ailin pretended not to hear Dante's explicit suggestion and continued to ask, "Is Drakkenberg's defense strong?"

"I mean, if I ordered the Greater Griffin to bring us down from the sky and attack this fortress, do you think we could rescue Bont?"

"Yes..." Dante immediately stood up excitedly, seemingly about to agree.

But he only said one word before stopping.

He frowned, thought carefully for a moment, and then shook his head dejectedly. "No."

"Why?" Ailin frowned.

Dante had witnessed their strength firsthand.

Even disregarding Ailin and Vesemir, the seven young witchers, including Ernie and Klar, alone could easily handle at least fifty armored knights.

Moreover, there was him, Vesemir, and a Greater Griffin that even the Ard capital of Vengerberg was helpless against.

"Ailin..."

Dante thought for a moment and said:

"Drakkenberg is different from other cities..."