With the blade so close, the griffin dared not move recklessly and could only obediently remain beneath Yavi's foot.
"I'm giving you two choices: die, or agree to my demand and leave this place forever. Never come back!"
The griffin lay helplessly on the ground, staring up at Yavi with its eagle eyes wide open, a trace of unwillingness in them. Then its throat stirred, letting out a series of low growls as though it were communicating with him.
Yavi stood there without moving. Only after a while did he come back to his senses.
"You're saying those poachers are still trapped in this forest? You attacked passing travelers to stop their people from coming to meet them?" Yavi looked somewhat thoughtful.
Then he put away his sword and leaped off the griffin. Freed from his restraint, it slowly rose and shook its head, but the ferocity in its eyes was gone. Instead, it looked at Yavi with a measure of calm.
After landing, Yavi first brushed the dust off himself, then took a glass bottle from inside his clothes and drained the clear yellow liquid within. He smacked his lips. A moment later, his potion-blackened pupils and the raised black veins around his eyes faded at a visible pace. It was White Honey, which removed the effects of potions.
The griffin quietly watched him. Behind Yavi, Marvin and the others exchanged bewildered looks, unable to understand why he had not executed it.
"If I say I'll help you get your eggs back, will you promise to leave here with your mate forever and never return?"
Back to normal, Yavi questioned the griffin.
The griffin gave no verbal answer, merely nodding slightly.
"Good. I'll come to your nest in a few days, then help you catch those poachers and recover your eggs. But you must promise to leave once you have them back, and you must not attack any more humans while I'm searching. Can you promise that?"
The griffin reacted with considerable excitement, flapping both wings up and down incessantly, its eagle beak stretched wide as it cried out without stopping.
Yavi waved a somewhat impatient hand, signaling for the griffin to leave quickly. It then prepared to flap its wings and fly away.
"I hope you'll keep your promise and stop attacking humans. Otherwise, I'll come looking for you myself, and then it won't end until one of us is dead!"
As the griffin was about to leave, Yavi called out the warning. It merely turned its head slightly to glance at him without responding, then swept its wings and swiftly flew away.
Watching the griffin fly toward the horizon until it became a tiny black speck and vanished, Yavi finally let out a long, heavy breath and dropped onto his backside. A few beads of cold sweat slid down from the top of his head. He truly could not hold out any longer; even those last few moments had been a struggle to keep going.
Marvin hurried over to check on him. Yavi waved to indicate that nothing was seriously wrong and accepted the water flask Marvin offered. Without standing on ceremony, he opened it and took a huge gulp, his Adam's apple bobbing rapidly. Water spilled from the corners of his mouth and dripped down his chin, striking the dry dust and leaving several small, dark pits.
After drinking his fill, he returned the deflated waterskin to Marvin, got up, and whistled. Hooves clattered, and Yavi's little horse trotted over to his side.
"Mr. Yavi, please rest in the carriage for a while. We truly owe you our thanks for displaying your might and subduing that griffin. Otherwise, I'm afraid all of us would have met our end here today."
Marvin activated the nobility's passive skill, "bootlicking." As the saying went, flattery could get through anything, and the facts proved that a few kind words sometimes worked.
"All right. Judging by the look of you, you're headed for Oxenfurt, aren't you? I happen to be going there too, so let's travel together. We can watch out for one another along the way."
Marvin was overjoyed to hear this. Kirk was now badly injured and unable to fight, and the remaining soldiers were poor fighters. He could not have wished for anything better than Yavi escorting them part of the way. Who knew whether that damned griffin would fly back to cause them trouble again?
The remaining people then began dealing with the aftermath, throwing away what needed throwing away and discarding what needed discarding. The guards killed in battle were buried on the spot. By the time everyone finished, it was already nearing the afternoon, and the blood-red setting sun hung low in the west. Yavi and Kirk sat inside the second carriage, where several servants were tending to the badly wounded Kirk and the other soldiers.
Covered with a blanket, Yavi sat in a corner of the carriage. Not long after boarding, he felt utterly exhausted. The battle with the griffin had drained him both physically and mentally. As he gazed at the scenery outside, he drifted off to sleep without realizing it. His breathing grew long and even, his weary body relaxing completely in the gentle rocking of the carriage.
When he opened his eyes again, it was nearly dark. Everyone began setting up camp in a forest clearing. Some started pitching tents, while others went to collect firewood. Yavi joined in, helping build two campfires. Before long, the cook brought over two pots of clean water and set them over the fires, preparing to make soup. After trying for ages to light them without producing so much as a spark, the cook received Yavi's help: he stepped forward and cast a small Igni Flame Sign, successfully lighting the firewood and earning endless praise from the cook. Before long, a rich aroma wafted from the bubbling, thick soup, its appetizing scent making their mouths water. Everyone then split into two groups and sat together to enjoy the piping-hot, delicious dinner.
"Mr. Yavi, there's something I've been wanting to ask you." During the meal, Marvin voiced his puzzlement to Yavi. "In that situation, why didn't you kill the griffin with one stroke? Why did you agree to help it find its missing eggs instead?"
Yavi was enjoying his food and did not answer Marvin, merely nodding.
Yavi swallowed the food in his mouth. Rather than answering immediately, he thought for a moment before replying, "It may be a griffin, but griffins have intelligence too. Besides, it isn't just a griffin. It's also a mother. What would you do if you lost your children?"
At those words, Marvin merely stared blankly at the food left in his bowl, offering no answer.
"In my view, when dealing with intelligent creatures like griffins that we can communicate with, bloodshed isn't necessarily the only way to solve a problem. And if we really want to trace the blame, humans provoked the griffins first, leading to what happened today. Besides, if I really had killed that female griffin with my sword today, it wouldn't have been long before the male started attacking humans and villages in a frenzy. The losses would have been severe then. That isn't something I want to see." Yavi expressed his own views as well.
"Um... Mr. Yavi, are you a witcher? I've read stories about witchers in books. They seem really powerful and cool!"
Elena also took the opportunity to strike up a conversation with Yavi.