And so, with Lynn and Lambert's help, the harpies besieging the trolls were soon either dead or fleeing.
Once the remaining harpies had all fled, the rock trolls noticed that two uninvited guests had also entered their territory.
Seeing that the atmosphere was turning a little off, Lynn spoke first. "Hey, I just helped you. Forgotten already?"
"Help?" The adult rock trolls scratched their heads in confusion.
Still, they made no further hostile moves.
It was a decent start.
"That's right."
Lynn gestured with his eyes toward the harpy corpses strewn across the ground.
The three rock trolls, two adults and a youngster, looked at one another.
Then their gazes shifted back and forth between Lynn and the harpy corpses.
Finally, one of the rock trolls said slowly, "Witcher help trolls? Witcher good person?"
Lynn patted his chest.
"That's right. We're good people."
The other adult rock troll objected.
"You stupid. Witchers kill monsters. Trolls monsters."
Lynn shook his head. "No, witchers only kill monsters that harm people. Harpies harm people, so we helped you fight them. If you don't harm people, you don't need to worry about us."
The three rock trolls, two adults and a youngster, stared at one another again. All three faces plainly wore expressions suggesting their brains' CPUs had overheated.
Finally, the adult rock troll who had spoken first said in disbelief,
"Witchers not kill trolls?"
"Yes, we won't kill you, provided you don't harm people."
"Witchers good people. Trolls not harm people. Witchers not kill trolls. Trolls not eat witchers."
Having reached an understanding, the rock trolls were very happy.
They even invited Lynn and Lambert to stay for a meal before leaving.
But the two politely declined.
The rock trolls' food might have been free of artificial additives, but it was all hardcore stuff.
The rock trolls' stomachs could digest food this slop-clean and animal-feed-safe, but theirs couldn't.
Better pass.
Before leaving, however, Lynn told the rock trolls that if any witcher apprentices like him passed through in the future, carrying two swords and wearing medallions, he hoped the rock trolls would refrain from throwing stones at them.
The altar of the Circle of Elements stood on the mountain behind the trolls' territory.
A few candles had been placed on a stone platform worn perfectly smooth by years of wind and sand.
There were also four braziers, one on each of the altar's four sides.
Walking into the ruins, Lynn could almost picture their former splendor.
But with the decline of Kaer Morhen and the School of the Wolf, nothing remained here but crumbling walls.
Lambert couldn't help asking, "I still don't understand. Why did you help the trolls back there?"
Lynn said very seriously, "Humans aren't necessarily noble, and trolls aren't necessarily vile. If we can communicate, why fight to the death? Especially when there's no bounty to collect."
Lambert rolled his eyes. "That might carry some weight coming from an assistant professor at Oxenfurt University, but you're a witcher."
Lynn retorted.
"Witchers only kill monsters that harm people-have you forgotten everything Vesemir taught you?"
"Fine, I'm not arguing with you. Activate the medallion, and we'll head back. I can't wait to wash this harpy stink off me."
Lynn pulled a face. "You pampered city boy. Can't stand even this little bit of dirt and stink?"
Lambert protested, "Huh? Then let's see you go without washing and take that stink to bed."
"I'll pass."
"Thought so... All right, time to get down to business. I'm guessing the castle's books also told you how the Circle of Elements works?"
Lynn nodded.
He looked toward the four braziers.
"Like Places of Power, Circles of Elements are places where chaos energy-magic-converges."
"These four braziers weren't placed at random. The Circle of Elements can only be activated by lighting the braziers one after another in the correct order."
"Sorcerers say magic comes from nature, from its four elements: earth, water, air, and fire."
"So all we need to do is light the braziers in that order."
As he spoke, Lynn had already begun moving.
He snapped his fingers four times, lighting the braziers in the four directions in sequence.
Then he took off the wolf's-head medallion he had been wearing around his neck and placed it on the stone platform.
Watching Lynn work so efficiently, Lambert pursed his lips.
"Working with someone smart really saves trouble. I don't even have to open my mouth."
"A witcher's medallion absorbs magic on its own. We just have to wait."
Lambert motioned for Lynn to find somewhere to sit.
"It's a little early to talk about this, but then again, you're heading down the mountain next year, so it isn't really early. That's why I think it's time I told you a few things about dealing with people."
Lynn sat beside Lambert. "I'm all ears."
"In our line of work, sometimes you'll find that ideals are beautiful, but reality is pretty fucked. We're hunters who kill monsters, yet those wretched peasants often treat us like monsters ourselves."
Hearing Lambert's words, Lynn sighed.
This was also why Berengar hated being a witcher.
Lambert continued, "Plenty of witchers head down the mountain full of ideals at first. If they can't get paid, they consider it a noble deed and don't take a penny."
"But they soon change their minds, because they discover that in the North, those wretched peasants will take a mile if you give them an inch."
"What makes them so wretched is that, although they really are pitiful, suffering oppression and exploitation at the hands of kings and nobles, they never know to unite and resist. They never even think along those lines."
"When they're mistreated, they only take it out on other people who work hard and honestly mind their own business."
"Of course, not all northerners are like that."
"But at least more than half the people of Kaedwen are. That's not because of some inherent flaw in humanity, though. It's because of their 'respectable' King Henselt."
"In my career, I've met thieves who looked like councilors, councilors who looked like beggars, whores who looked like princesses, princesses who looked like pregnant cows, and kings who looked like thieves."
"King Henselt doesn't look like a thief, but His Majesty, 'respected by all,' doesn't seem far removed from one."
"King Henselt plans to eliminate every nonhuman race in his kingdom, including the nonhuman soldiers who fight in his name, shed blood, and die for him, as well as the honest, hardworking nonhuman citizens who pay their taxes."
"You can imagine what sort of attitude a king who treats even his own subjects so harshly would have toward witchers."
Lynn actually knew everything Lambert had said.
Henselt could be called one of the worst monarchs among the kings of the North.
His performance was even worse than that of Redania's later king, Radovid V.
Brutal though Radovid was,
he at least had the ability.
In the future timeline, if Radovid wasn't killed by the conspirators, he would not only defeat the Nilfgaardian Empire but also unite the entire North, becoming its overlord.