Lambert took a few steps back.
He carefully looked Lynn over from head to toe as he stood before him.
A rare look of satisfaction appeared on his face.
"Good. Looking sharp."
Lynn had now changed into the same standard-issue School of the Wolf medium armor as everyone else.
He carried two swords on his back.
One was a steel sword, and the other was also a steel sword.
All right, just kidding. The other was actually a silver sword.
The steel and silver swords witchers used were actually hand-and-a-half swords rather than one-handed swords.
Hand-and-a-half swords had an advantage over one-handed swords in reach, chopping, and slashing, while being easier to carry than two-handed swords.
That was why many characters in fantasy works actually used hand-and-a-half swords as well.
Vesemir's eyes were slightly red.
In fact, this set of equipment had been ready since he brought Lynn back to Kaer Morhen a few years ago.
What he had not expected, however, was that the day it would be needed would come so soon.
Among the members of the School of the Wolf, Lambert was always talking back to Vesemir, but after seeing his reddened eyes, he said nothing more.
Geralt cleared his throat and spoke up.
"Lynn, I know your skills are already good enough for you to head out on your own, but you mustn't let that make you arrogant or complacent."
"Back in our day, we had to leave the mountains alone as soon as we completed the Trial of the Mountains, but I think rules should change with the times. So, come with me for now. We'll travel together."
Eskel, standing nearby, also spoke.
"Plenty of witchers managed to complete every trial, only to die within a few years of leaving the mountains."
"And they weren't killed by monsters, but by humans. That's what a lack of experience leads to. While you're with Geralt, make sure you watch carefully and learn."
Vesemir was the last to come over and say goodbye to Lynn.
At that moment, Vesemir seemed like nothing more than an ordinary old man.
He always had more to say, always had more reminders to give.
Lynn showed not the slightest impatience.
Instead, he listened patiently to it all.
Finally, Vesemir let out a long sigh.
"It used to be so simple. Monsters were bad, humans were good. Now, well, everything's complicated."
Geralt, standing beside him, disagreed. "It was just as complicated back then. You're just old and don't remember."
"Don't talk to me about age. Aren't you several decades old yourself?"
Finally, Vesemir offered one last earnest piece of advice.
"Child, never forget that witchers should remain neutral. Don't get drawn into the whirlpool of political intrigue."
Lynn nodded.
Then he looked at Geralt.
Geralt was somewhat baffled by his gaze.
"What are you looking at me for?"
Lynn sat behind Geralt, letting Geralt's mare, Roach, slowly carry him out of the Blue Mountains.
Behind them, Vesemir and Kaer Morhen gradually disappeared into the Blue Mountains.
Vesemir was always the last to leave Kaer Morhen.
But he was also the first to return.
He would clean the castle after a year of neglect to welcome the other members of the School of the Wolf, whom he regarded as his children.
It was precisely because Vesemir insisted that everyone return to Kaer Morhen each winter that the witchers of the School of the Wolf were so united.
"Lynn, make sure you listen to Geralt. I don't want you, the last witcher of the School of the Wolf, missing this winter's gathering."
Lambert rode to Geralt's left.
He had barely finished speaking when Eskel could not help interrupting him.
"Lynn won't be the last witcher. Even without relying on the Law of Surprise, we can bring in fresh blood from parents who live in poverty and can't afford to feed any more children."
But Lambert immediately retorted.
"I'm sure those parents would rather send their children to artisans in town to learn a trade that can support them, instead of having them become witchers who are despised wherever they go."
He shrugged and continued, "Assuming, of course, they're lucky enough to survive the Trial of the Grasses."
Lambert was unlike Geralt and Eskel.
He had an irresponsible father who would beat him and his mother black and blue whenever he got drunk.
Later, a witcher saved his father.
And Lambert was the payment.
Precisely because Lambert did not want what had happened to him to happen to other children, he loathed the Trial of the Grasses and the training of new witchers so much.
Eskel gave him a puzzled look.
"Lambert, what's gotten into you today?"
Lambert avoided Eskel's gaze. "Nothing. I just think, since there are fewer and fewer monsters, why should we train more witchers?"
At that moment, Lynn, seated behind Geralt, suddenly cut in.
"Because if witchers die out, who will deal with the monsters when the next Conjunction of the Spheres happens?"
"We all know that the only races originally in this world were gnomes and the now-extinct lizardmen."
"Although humans now call gnomes, dwarves, and elves the Elder Races, dwarves and elves actually came later."
"Only after that did humans set foot on this land."
"Afterward, several more Conjunctions of the Spheres occurred, one after another, and countless monsters poured in, threatening people's safety."
"Though monsters have indeed grown fewer and fewer through centuries of tireless effort by witchers."
"And it's true that, unlike in the past, not every village now has notices and contracts posted asking for witchers."
"But that doesn't mean another Conjunction of the Spheres won't happen in the future."
"Like the tides, like sunrise and sunset, the Conjunction of the Spheres is a natural phenomenon. It can't be stopped, and it can't be changed."
"Perhaps one day, the monsters in this world really will be wiped out, but when the next Conjunction of the Spheres happens, monsters from other worlds will descend upon this one, and this world will need witchers again."
"So, thinking that fewer monsters means witchers are no longer needed is completely wrong."
Lynn knew very well that this era was a time of upheaval unlike anything seen in a hundred years.
In the tide of the era to come, no one, from kings and nobles down to ordinary people, would be able to remain uninvolved.
Even the oldest organization of sorcerers-the Brotherhood of Sorcerers-would, in the near future, reap the bitter fruits of its sorcerers' ever-growing ambitions and fall apart.
Sorcerers were the creators of witchers, as well as advisers and honored guests of the northern kings.
They were also the hidden force behind the witchers' terrible reputation and standing.
Originally, witchers could very well have become a respected and prestigious profession, like bracers.
That they had sunk to their present state, like rats in the sewers, was entirely thanks to sorcerers.
As long as the behemoth that was the Brotherhood of Sorcerers remained, witchers would continue to decline.
But who could have imagined that, in the near future, the seemingly unbreakable Brotherhood of Sorcerers would fall apart in an instant, vanishing like clouds and smoke?
Along with it, the standing of the sorcerers who had once been advisers and honored guests of kings would immediately plummet in the North. Like rats scurrying across the street, they would be either hanged or burned at the stake.
It was the worst of times, and it was the best of times.