This was someone else's territory. Chen Xu wasn't stupid enough to attack outright.
He crouched down and asked politely, "Are you sure you want me to hit you?"
His calm tone sent a chill through the Sergeant beside him. Even the drunken baron swallowed instinctively.
But the alcohol had already gone to his head. As Chen Xu drew close, he lunged forward with a headbutt.
"Come on! Oww-"
His face slammed into Chen Xu's raised knee. Blood poured from his nose as tears streamed from his eyes.
[You have gained proficiency: [Unarmed Combat] Beginner]
The baron roared and got up again and again, only to be floored repeatedly by Chen Xu's elusive left hooks.
He was much stronger than Chen Xu, but his constitution was only 7, and there were no muscles protecting his face. Before long, his face was swollen and bruised.
When the pain on only the right side of his face finally made him notice that Chen Xu was disabled, he was too ashamed to get up again. A grown man, he covered his face and burst into sobs.
Seeing that he had finally settled down, Chen Xu found a reasonably intact chair and sat down, then wrote out two lists and handed them to the Sergeant.
Recipes for sobering tea and medicine for bruises and injuries.
The Sergeant glanced at them and obediently went to prepare them.
Chen Xu moved his fractured right arm a little. He still couldn't exert any strength with it.
Injuries to muscles and bones took a hundred days to heal. Even with his constitution exceeding that of an ordinary person, he would probably need a long time to recover.
He nudged the baron lying on the floor. "I didn't hit you that hard. You've been lying there this long over those little injuries?"
"Bullshit! You were still eating shit when I survived the Battle of Maribor!" The baron got up resentfully and slumped against the soaking-wet armchair, looking utterly lost.
Once the river water had drained through the doorway and the various gaps, Fringilla stepped down from the table, took out a dossier, and waved it in front of the baron.
"I'm an imperial court sorceress. These are my credentials."
She demanded without the slightest courtesy:
"The empire entrusted all of Velen to your administration, and this is how you repay it?
"You drunken pig!"
The baron lay back in his chair, turning a deaf ear to her insults.
Seeing this, Fringilla had no other recourse. Although the emperor had granted her considerable authority, she wasn't deranged enough to threaten the baron and interfere with the empire's political strategy.
In fact, she disagreed even with Emhyr's decision to send her running around looking for his daughter during a war.
Had Ciri not possessed the Elder Blood that sorceresses held in such high regard, she would have been unwilling to take the assignment.
"We're looking for a girl." Geralt was still focused on their actual business. "A young swordswoman with white hair. Very distinctive. We learned you've had contact with her."
"Tell me what you know."
He curled his ring finger and cast the Axii Sign on the baron.
"All right. The girl escaped from deep in the swamp, covered in wounds. She also saved a peasant and a lost child.
"The peasant knew I was looking for my wife and daughter, so he brought the two girls here, hoping to swindle me out of the reward." A white glow veiled the baron's eyes as he involuntarily began recounting his encounter with Ciri.
"But I welcomed her anyway. She was a clever girl, an excellent fighter. Reminded me of my daughter... damned mutant!"
He suddenly stopped speaking as though a fish bone had caught in his throat. Shaking his head, he cursed furiously, "Guards! Where are the guards? Where the hell have you gone?
"Seize this bastard!"
Geralt had gotten carried away, too. With Nilfgaard backing him up at his side, even his methods had become blunt and heavy-handed.
A large number of guards rushed in, but faced with the Nilfgaardian sorceress, they restrained their urge to attack and merely surrounded the baron to protect him.
"Are you defying the empire? All of you, get out!" Elemental light flared in Fringilla's hand, while the guards tightened their grips on their weapons.
Most of the baron's personal guards were remnants of Temeria's defeated army. They already believed the damned Nilfgaardians owed them a blood debt for their country and families.
The room was cramped. If the sorceress really attacked, the guards would actually have the better chance of winning.
Amid the tense atmosphere, the Sergeant suddenly returned at a leisurely pace, carrying a cup of herbal tea and a dish of paste.
"Please forgive my friend's offense, Baron." Chen Xu took the tray and offered the herbal tea to the baron. "In return, I think you'd be interested in news of your wife."
The baron lifted the cup and sniffed it. The fresh scent of herbs mingled with the sweetness of honey. It wasn't unpleasant.
He drained it in one go. His mouth and stomach felt much better, and even his mind cleared.
Remembering why his men had brought these people in, he spoke solemnly.
"Tell me everything you know, and I can consider pardoning you for attacking the lord of Velen."
He had taken a beating for nothing. Although he had brought it on himself, he still wouldn't swallow the humiliation so easily.
In this world, there was only a fine line between a soldier and a thug. Soldiers lived with their lives on the line and weren't the sort to take a loss easily.
"First, I got your permission before hitting you." Chen Xu was glad he had taken that precaution. These old soldiers really weren't easy to fool. "Second, I can tell you where Anna is, but I'll need your cooperation in rescuing her."
"Rescuing her? Why would you say rescuing her?" The baron grew agitated, tugging at the wounds on his face and making him gasp in pain.
"Tell me where she is!" He rushed over, seized Chen Xu by the collar, and roared, instinctively wanting to set out immediately to find his wife. It was undoubtedly true love.
"She's safe. For now." Chen Xu straightened his crooked collar. "The fewer people who know anything about her, the safer she'll be."
He picked up the dish of paste the Sergeant had brought, motioned for the baron to bring his face closer, and applied the ointment to his wounds.
A cool sensation spread, easing the pain considerably.
Unaccustomed to this treatment, the baron snatched the ointment and applied it himself.
Much of the hostility in the reception room dissipated, and he waved his men out.
"She's raising a group of orphans deep in the swamp." Chen Xu knew these words would shatter the baron's composure.
Anna had suffered a miscarriage before leaving. The drunken baron thought his abuse had caused it, but in truth, Anna had begged the old crones to abort the child.
Once someone's psychological defenses collapsed, they became much easier to manipulate.
"...It was my fault." Sure enough, the overwhelming guilt almost made the baron contemplate suicide. He no longer harbored any doubts or reservations toward Chen Xu.
He clutched his head in anguish. "I hit her. Made her miscarry. Lost our child."
"What a man." Both Fringilla and the White Wolf looked scornful, clearly unable to muster any sympathy for a wife-beater.
"You don't understand... I killed her lover. She hated me, provoked me into violence, and used my conscience and love to torment me.
"She knows me better than anyone in this world. She knows how to truly hurt me." The baron made excuses for himself like most domestic abusers. Fringilla rolled her eyes.
"Blah, blah, blah..."
"My condolences, but what I need to tell you is that she isn't raising these orphans merely to comfort herself. These children are being prepared as food for the old crones." Chen Xu's expression turned exceptionally grave.
"Does Anna worship the Ladies of the Wood?"
The baron didn't understand what he meant. He knew his wife's faith, but worshippers of the Ladies of the Wood were found throughout Velen, so he had never paid much attention to it.
Still immersed in guilt, he could barely summon the energy to answer Chen Xu's question.
"Yes. We have a shrine and an altar at home."
"I wouldn't mistake it." Chen Xu picked up the quill on the table, drew a symbol, and showed it to the baron.
"I've studied these so-called Ladies of the Wood. You should have seen this symbol on her arm."
Geralt leaned over as well and recognized it at a glance as an ancient curse.
Fringilla, on the other hand, as a young sorceress, had become the most bewildered person in the room.
The baron nodded in confirmation, and Chen Xu asked the Sergeant to fetch a portrait of Anna.