The Possibility of Reorganizing the Witcher Conclave! A Magic Door!

"Master Dante, you are aware of the current predicament of the House Family. The House Kauk is encroaching on and eroding our living space."

"Charcoal burning, farm tools, trading companies, even milling grain in barns... the foolish farmers on the House Family's lands were all lured away by small favors. In order to revive the family, I had no choice but to..."

In order to survive and hold out until Lord Evans and Derek Vascoss arrived, Young Huus, who was being held by the collar by Dante, had to endure the strong winds that were being forced into his mouth, as well as the occasional thuds in his knees, toes, and arms, and used all his strength to persuade Dante to understand his predicament.

However, as he talked, he began to feel that he had sacrificed a lot for his family, and he became more and more self-righteous.

"Yes, Master Dante, I did it to revive the family business that Old Huus had worked so hard to build..."

"Thump!"

A loud thud was followed by a cry of pain.

Young Huus's shin slammed hard against the wooden steps. Instinctively, he reached up to cover it, but his right palm was then cut open by a splinter at the corner.

Fresh blood immediately flowed out.

"Shut up, Young Huus!" Dante said with a grim face, lifting Young Huus up so close that their faces were almost touching.

His brown, beastly eyes were filled with murderous intent, like a vicious wolf in the jungle eyeing its prey.

Fear caused Young Huus, who was in unbearable pain, to break out in large beads of sweat on his forehead and immediately fall silent.

"Don't test my patience, Young Huus," Dante said, veins bulging on his forehead. "You think I don't know what you've got up to?"

"Tom Cock was originally an ally of Old Huus, so why is he now an enemy of the House Family? Isn't it because you almost defiled his granddaughter?"

"And the mill... How dare you even mention it? The usual mill tax is one-sixth, but you only collect half, and you're blaming the people for fleeing?"

"Besides..."

"The moment you stepped into Monte Cava, without even needing to ask any questions, they knew you'd pawned some old furniture or the armor left behind by Old Huus because of gambling..."

"You maggot from a cesspool!"

"If I hadn't held you in my arms, I would have doubted whether you were Old Huus's child!"

"Shut up right now, or I'm afraid I won't be able to hold back and kill you right now!"

Young Huus and immediately shut his mouth in fear.

"Snort!"

Dante snorted and continued running down the dimly lit corridor.

"Who taught you to use the Leshen to frame Master Dante?" Ailin suddenly asked.

Young Huus glanced timidly at Dante, not daring to open his mouth.

"Speak!" Dante growled.

"Lord Derek Vascos," Young Huus said hastily, "He said that we can use the Foglet to lure the Witcher, saying that some material from the Foglet is very important to the Witcher, and it's not difficult..."

"Stop talking nonsense!" Dante gave him a shove. "Answer whatever Ailin asks!"

"Yes... yes... hiss..." Young Huus subconsciously shrank back, seemingly aggravating his wound, grimacing but not daring to make a sound.

"Was it Derek Vasquez who instructed you to frame Master Dante?"

"No, it's Lord Evans."

"Evans?" Ailin was taken aback, and Dante also paused in his steps.

This was an answer they hadn't expected; they had always thought the mastermind was the sorcerer named Derek Vasquez.

"Yes, it is Lord Evans," Young Huus glanced cautiously at Dante, "Drakkenberg is a huge prison, unable to be self-sufficient. Most of its supplies are provided by the nearest prison, Monte Cava..."

"So we've always kept in touch, but of course our relationship isn't... not close..."

"Just a few weeks ago... uh... about three weeks ago... I joined the family caravan to transport flour and spices for Drakkenberg, also in order to... in order to..."

"For what?" Dante frowned.

Young Huus shuddered, not daring to hide the truth. "To discuss whether we could postpone the debt repayment..."

"You still owe Drakkenberg a debt?!"

"I owe...I owe a little..." Young Huus chuckled sheepishly.

"Let him finish," Ailin interrupted Dante, who couldn't resist giving Young Huus another scolding. "Go on, what happened next?"

Seeing that Dante obediently didn't make a move, Young Huus glanced at Ailin in surprise, then said:

"Then... then when I made the request, Lord Evans readily agreed, saying that as long as I could... I could kill... kill any passing witchers, he would forgive the House Family's debts."

"Derek Vasquez happened to be there at the time, and he came up with this idea for me. Then he asked me to send someone to bring the body back for him to study..."

"Wait!" Ailin suddenly frowned, interrupting Young Huus.

"You killed a passing Witcher..." Ailin paused, "Your target isn't Master Dante, but all Witchers?"

"Of course not," Young Huus whispered, "I didn't know Master Dante would be passing by at this time to accept a commission..."

Ailin stopped listening to Young Huus's rambling.

It matches perfectly, it matches exactly.

He said that Master Dante, along with Huus, Bont, and Fred, had only decided to come to Monte Cavour yesterday on a whim to accept the mission, and after completing the task, they only stayed in Monte Cavour for one night before setting off the next morning...

Young Huus had no time to decide to murder Dante and the others the moment he saw them, and at the same time came up with this somewhat crude but very effective plot.

They even rushed to Drakkenberg overnight, persuaded the administrators to send people to investigate Dante and his group's fate, and drugged Bont.

It turns out their target was all the Witchers, and they had already set a trap.

Master Dante and his group simply happened to step into a trap.

That makes sense.

"Drakkenberg's manager, Evans, is just a baron; he wouldn't dare do something like this. There must be someone else behind him..." Master Dante said gravely in his mind. "Ailin, you were right before. This is no longer a conspiracy targeting a single witcher like us..."

"And..."

Master Dante paused, pondered for a moment, and then continued:

"Moreover, although the Foglet is not easy to deal with, the danger lies in the fact that it is in the wilderness where no one knows it. You may encounter this monster without realizing it and be deceived by the Foglet's illusions."

"If we know in advance that we are dealing with Foglet, and we are well prepared, even a demon hunter who has just come down from the mountain can handle it."

"Besides the bounty, the Foglet's teeth, eyes, and heart are all quite valuable materials."

"It's not difficult, and the returns are good."

"A capable or perceived capable witcher is unlikely to resist temptation and is easily deceived..."

If a hundred years from now, the Witcher has completely declined, then actually no one will fall for it... Ailin thought to himself.

The number of troublemakers now is negligible compared to the number in the future.

Encountering such a "good thing," a witcher like Geralt, while not entirely immune to being fooled, would at least not suffer as much as the unsuspecting Dante.

If it weren't for Ailin and his group, they might have lost four lives.

Of course, the fact that there are too few "troublemakers" and that the Witcher doesn't have enough vigilance towards its clients is not the Witcher's fault.

Demon hunters who have endured horrific trials and risked their lives to eliminate monsters for humanity deserve the respect of everyone on the Northern Continent.

"Redania is the hunting ground for both the School of the Wolf and the School of the Griffin. The person behind it all is either targeting the School of the Wolf or the School of the Griffin, but generally speaking, the Griffins are more active in Riedania..."

Dante was still analyzing it in his mind.

However, Dante stirred up Ailin's memories.

He remembered that the School of the Griffin seemed to have declined around the same time as the School of the Wolf.

The reason the School of the Wolf was attacked, according to previous records, was that prejudice and rumors caused public discontent, which accumulated to a certain extent and led to its defeat by a mob.

Of course, it now appears to be the result of a joint scheme by the king and the sorcerer.

However, the School of the Griffin School of the Griffin record that it declined due to an avalanche.

The mages, coveting the vast library of books within Kaer Seren, demanded that the School of the Griffin share it with them. Resentful after being refused, they summoned an avalanche on the mountain behind the castle. The snow-covered mountain buried Kaer Seren, and all the witchers in the city perished, except for Old Kel'dar.

The founder of the school, Eran, witnessed the devastation of his homeland and left in sorrow, disappearing from people's sight. Only old Kelda remained, guarding the ruins of the Kaer Seren.

"So, is the crisis of the School of the Griffin's demise also approaching?" Ailin pondered, his gaze fixed on the scene. "And what can I do about it?"

Rebuilding the Witcher Conclave is not realistic at the moment.

The founders of each school are still alive, so it's hard to determine who is the leader and who is the follower. Given the tragic end of the Witcher Conclave, none of the founders would want to merge.

Moreover, there are clearly incompatible schools like the School of the Bear and the School of the Cat.

But whether it's dealing with the Wild Hunt or welcoming the inevitable White Frost, the School of the Griffin, whose founders are still alive, is an important fighting force, and we certainly can't let them be buried under the avalanche.

in addition...

"Can't a crisis also be an opportunity?" Ailin thought. "I can use this warning to save the School of the Griffin and make contact with Grandmaster Eran."

"If we can't integrate all schools of thought, it's not a bad idea to unite two schools with similar principles first."

"No!"

"Not just the School of the Griffin..."

"Six months have passed. Ernesto should have already led the House Kuhn to the Tir Tosha Mountains. I just don't know if they have encountered the School of the Viper."

"The entire school was established to eliminate the School of the Viper of the Wild Hunt, and should therefore be an ally of the School of the Wolf..."

"Simply developing the School of the Wolf is too slow..."

"Ailin? Ailin?" Dante suddenly called out Ailin's name twice, interrupting his thoughts.

Ailin immediately glanced at the footprints on the ground. "Turn left... keep following the corridor until the end..."

Dante nodded slightly, then asked in his mind, "What were you thinking just now?"

"The matter of the School of the Griffin..."

"Well...it's not necessarily just the School of the Griffin," Dante said somewhat awkwardly. "Because in the Free City of Novigrad, there are quite a few School of the Wolf witchers in Redania who like to take on some commissions while they're in Redania."

"Grandmaster Eran of the School of the Griffin is quite close to the nobles. After thinking about it again, I think it's more likely that he's targeting our School of the Wolf."

Ailin nodded noncommittally. "No need to guess. After we rescue Bont, we'll just 'ask' Evans and we'll know."

"That's right, Evans definitely knows." Dante nodded in agreement.

The noisy shouts drifted in on the breeze from the corridor, and the tower trembled slightly as they drew closer.

Dante stopped talking and focused on making his way, following Ailin's instructions.

This scene seemed particularly bizarre to Young Huus.

There was no need to carefully examine the marks on the ground; Dante seemed to know the Riesberg laboratory by heart, and he didn't stop along the way.

But Young Huus remembered that when they were in the guest room, the two witchers had no idea where the laboratory was, and it seemed that they had never been there before.

As for Ailin's problem, he had long since put it out of his mind.

How could anyone find the lab based on his vague statement?

Then...

Dante suddenly stopped at a corner.

"Where should I go next?" he asked in his mind.

Ailin did not reply for a long time.

"Ailin?"

"No need to go any further," Ailin squinted and observed carefully for a few more moments. "Riesberg's laboratory is right here."

"?"

Dante was stunned for a moment.

At the corner of the tower was a gray and dirty wall, without any graffiti or decoration, and naturally without a doorknob or a door.

Dante snapped out of his daze and frowned.

"Hidden by magic?"

Warlocks do like to use tricks to hide their dwellings, and it's rare that Ailin was able to see through them.

But the key point is...

How do we get in?

Dante asked Ailin for his opinion, "Burn it with the Igni Sign, or break it down with Ald?"

Ailin was silent for a few seconds, then a thought struck him.

"Buzz~"

The Wolf Emblem and the mirage pearl on his chest hummed together.

The next second.

Ah~

As Young Huus exclaimed in surprise.

The filthy walls rippled like the surface of a lake, and a tightly locked brass door, like an inflated ball in water, emerged from within the walls.

The door was inlaid with iron nails and rusted hinges, and decorated with a door knocker with a bluish-green jade-like texture. A faint, dark magical glow flowed across the surface of the bronze door.

This kind of door cannot be broken open by Igni or Alde Sign.

Dante clearly realized this as well, and fell silent.

"Rumble rumble rumble~"

The tower's tremors grew more intense and closer, seemingly approaching the ground floor.

"Thump!"

Dante suddenly threw Young Huus to the ground, gritted his teeth, made the Igni gesture with his right hand, and leaned close to the bronze door. "Let's give it a try anyway!"

"Etc!"

Ailin spoke up to stop his reckless behavior, saying with a hint of uncertainty:

"How about we knock on the door first?"

He then grasped the door knocker in the center of the bronze door.

"Thump~ thump~ thump~"

The sound of the impact echoed in the empty corridor.

It was too late for Dante to stop it.

"We're about to be exposed prematurely..."

Just as he was thinking this...

"Click~"

A strange noise.

The door... opened...