Investigation and Speculation

The next morning, Roy, who had spent the night in meditation, woke up refreshed and clear-headed.

Having completely replaced sleep with meditation, he only needed five hours of rest and felt full of energy every morning. This kind of life was unimaginable to his past self, who had often suffered from insomnia and even nerve weakness in his previous life.

Moreover, though this young body was thin, its constitution wasn't bad—in fact, it was better than his former self's foundation.

In the other room, Master Letho had already left earlier, sitting on the first floor of the tavern drinking wine and eating pie, his poker face unchanged, showing no signs of last night's dalliance.

"Not sleeping in a bit more?"

"Relaxation is one thing, but a witcher can't lose basic discipline."

The two chatted as they ate, and Roy brought up the dwarf's matter. To his surprise, the man himself showed up the moment he started.

Compared to yesterday, Seville's eye bags seemed heavier, and he looked utterly exhausted, but he still forced himself to stay alert as he recounted his troubles to them.

Witchers naturally wouldn't turn down too many contracts, so Letho listened patiently.

"Three months ago, nightmares suddenly latched onto me, from midnight till dawn, like a demon giving me no chance to relax."

"I sleep terribly every night. Sometimes I jolt awake in the middle of the night, and after a while, my health took a serious hit."

"Can you imagine? The little squirrel of Mahakam, Seville Hogg, who used to stay energetic even after three days and nights without sleep, now dozes off if his focus slips even a little. I feel like I'm no longer a sturdy dwarf but a gnome from the Tir Tochair mountains."

"I've scoured all of Edessberg, but the doctors can't find anything wrong—no solution at all."

"I've turned my whole house upside down and found no sign of anything strange. But I have a feeling something filthy is hiding in my home, cursing me, corroding me, keeping me from peace."

"Ordinary people can't solve my problem, so Master Letho, please help me."

The dwarf spoke earnestly, his gaze at the witcher lacking the common prejudice often seen in human eyes.

After hearing his account, Letho lowered his head in thought, his carrot-like fingers lightly tapping the table. Roy tried to connect this to any monsters he knew of in his mind.

"Two hundred Crowns."

Letho named his final price, double what he'd charged for killing the Grave Witch in Kaye. The dwarf before him clearly wasn't short on cash, and since employers varied in wealth, witchers had to "price flexibly."

Sure enough, Seville Hogg didn't haggle at all and agreed readily.

"Now take us to your home to check things out."

As the general distributor of Edessberg's alcohol, Seville Hogg was wealthy. His mansion sat in the western district's wealthy quarter, surrounded by four towers.

The wealthy quarter sprawled wide, housing all the notable figures of Edessberg, like Baron Tavik, weapon and ore merchants, and liquor dealers. The density of patrol guards and greenery here far exceeded the commoner districts.

Beyond the western wall of the wealthy quarter lay the endless Mahakam mountains. Some bards joked that this mountain was built long ago by the nobles guarding Edessberg to prevent their troops from fleeing.

Seville's mansion, with its high walls and green tiles, was patrolled inside and out by many dwarf guards with braided beards, carrying great axes and heavy hammers, under tight security.

The guards all bowed to Seville with genuine respect in their eyes.

"Looks like this guy has quite a reputation among the dwarves."

Roy also noticed that besides totem-like patterns of unclear meaning on the outer walls, some places bore lifelike carvings of Prophet Lebioda.

Once they entered the gate, Seville waved off his other subordinates, leaving the two in an undisturbed quiet, then yawned.

"After you've checked the courtyard, tell the guards and you can go inside to look around. I'm terribly sleepy and need to catch up on rest." The nightmares had ruined Seville's sleep quality, so he had to nap whenever he could.

After Seville left, the two quickly began their investigation.

Letho roughly surveyed the courtyard's layout. In the center was a small fountain, and three sides were planted with neatly trimmed ornamental shrubs.

There were also many man-high green potted plants arranged end to end, forming maze-like branching paths.

A strange light flickered in his pupils, and he began searching slowly in one direction.

Roy knew the big man had quietly activated his Witcher Senses, now acting like a radar emitting microwaves outward. He stepped closer curiously and asked, "I've always wondered—how do witchers track monster traces?"

Letho was patient when it came to witcher expertise and explained carefully, "Witchers, through mutation, perceive things differently from ordinary people. Specifically, we can take all the clues gathered from sight, smell, and hearing and reconstruct them through sensory reshaping."

"Shaping them into a faint ribbon of gas... rings of invisible sound waves... a set of shallow footprints..."

"These all point the way."

Letho paused. "A witcher's perception is very sharp—we see farther, hear clearer, and smell scents ordinary people can't detect."

"Like the smell of blood left months ago, a monster's body odor, pungent perfume..."

"And the aroma of fine wine sealed in a cellar." Roy couldn't help but interject.

"Right. Following these clues like a vine leads you to the culprit." Letho's expression then turned serious as he said solemnly to Roy, "But before you find suspicious traces and start tracking, you'd better judge what kind of enemy you're facing."

"Whether it's something you can handle or something you can only look up to... If you misjudge, you might face a terrifying existence and lose your life."

A hint of melancholy flickered in Letho's eyes, as if recalling something.

"Whether your target judgment is accurate depends on a witcher's experience. For example, a Drowner's scent carries a fishy mix of waterweed and fish, Ghouls leave rotting corpse stench where they roam, White Widows damage the ground and leave green slime at tunnel entrances, and Griffins only appear on high mountains..."

The witcher patiently guided with hands-on practice and detailed explanations, while Roy listened, absorbed, and memorized with all his might.

"Having said all that, kid, based on my words and the clues in the courtyard, give me a judgment, a guess." Letho tested Roy with a blank expression.

Roy rubbed his chin, ran through the new knowledge in his mind, and said hesitantly, "My opinion only applies to this courtyard. The search didn't find any strange footprints, so I can first rule out... a Katakan, that kind of invisible, hypnotizing blood-sucking creature."

"Good memory." Letho offered a rare compliment. "Rule out the Katakan. Now let's go inside and look for other possibilities."