"Witt, have you ever had a taste of a succubus?" Sabrina arched an eyebrow, a teasing smile on her lips.
"Uh..." Witt looked embarrassed. Never mind doing it with a succubus-since his rebirth in the Witcher world, he had never...
Sabrina seemed to read something in his expression and burst into surprised laughter. "Well, this is a novelty! There are still virgins among you witchers?"
"Let me have a look." Sabrina rose from her chair and pinched Witt's clean, handsome face with her delicate hands.
"Miss Sabrina, let's stick to business." Witt turned his face away, struggling free of Sabrina's hands.
"All right, all right." Sabrina clapped her hands and sat back down in the wooden chair, sighing. "Ah, what a shame a succubus will be taking this fledgling's first time."
"What do you mean, Miss Sabrina?" Witt asked in confusion.
"You think it's a shame too, don't you?" Rather than answering, Sabrina looked his tall, muscular frame up and down, her gaze finally settling on a certain spot. "How about..." Her eyes were suggestive.
"Business."
"Compared to Geralt, you're the one who acts like an old man, little Witt."
After a round of teasing, Sabrina finally got down to business:
"Since last year, Dorregaray has been busy with academy affairs and magical research, so he handed Ban Ard's administration over to me. Not long after I took over, I discovered that many apprentices at the academy were visiting a succubus named Filarey in a village outside the city..." Disgust crossed Sabrina's face as she spoke.
"I couldn't be bothered with these male apprentices running wild, but apparently quite a few have recently been found to have disappeared after mating with that succubus. I was going to go there myself, dispose of the monster, and take its heart to brew potions. Since you happen to be here, I might as well leave it to you and spare myself dirtying my hands."
Female night demons, also known by some as succubi-the name probably gave some idea of what sort of monsters they were-were often mistaken for higher vampires, but that was not the case. Although they too were creatures that had arrived in this world after the Conjunction of the Spheres, they neither killed people nor drank human blood, and usually bore no ill intent.
Succubi had the appearance of beautiful women, but had hooves in place of feet. Those seduced by their beauty would lose their senses and believe them to be real women. They accepted every overture, then led young people into depravity and absorbed their vital energy.
"Surely not?" Witt rubbed his chin, recalling what the books said about succubi. "Succubi have humanlike intelligence. They usually feed on human vitality and sexual essence, so many live near densely populated cities. The atmosphere here in Ban Ard suits their habits perfectly. Surely they wouldn't kill mage apprentices and bring death upon themselves?"
"Does that matter? Just kill the monster, that's all," Sabrina said indifferently. She did not care in the slightest what the truth was.
Witt shook his head. "It matters a great deal. If the succubus hasn't killed anyone and someone else has framed her, neither Geralt nor I would choose to kill her."
"As expected of a witcher who travels with Geralt," Sabrina said with a laugh. "You have exactly the same fussy temperament. Don't you find it a nuisance? Every time you accept a contract, you have to spend all that effort playing detective and investigating. Doesn't it tire you out? None of the other witchers I've met were like that."
"Perhaps it's a quirk of witchers like us," Witt said with a smile. "After all, plenty of people treat us as monsters. It's reasonable that we can understand monsters not wanting to be falsely accused either, isn't it?"
"Handle it however you and Geralt like. If someone really has framed the succubus, find that person and deal with them yourselves. I just want this matter cleared up as soon as possible." With that, Sabrina tossed Witt the purse.
Witt caught the purse and found that it seemed to contain too much money-just over two hundred crowns.
"Miss Sabrina, this is too much. Even in Oxenfurt, a griffin's head is worth no more than a hundred crowns."
While the three of them were still on the road to Ban Ard, Witt had asked Old Graz about the approximate prices of various monsters' magical organs in Oxenfurt. For one thing, it would protect him from being deliberately cheated; for another, being able to casually quote the correct prices in Oxenfurt would give people the impression that he was not easily fooled.
"Little Witt, being so honest isn't a good thing for a witcher." Sabrina looked him over again and smiled. "I don't have a steady, long-term lover yet. Why not be mine? Give up being a witcher. As long as you stay with me, you can have anything you want in Kaedwen. If we get bored, we can even find other mage couples to have fun with. What do you say? That's a generous enough offer, isn't it?"
"Goodbye." Witt rejected Sabrina without so much as looking back.
He was not about to believe that a single meeting could make a renowned sorceress fall completely in love with him. To these sorceresses, whose desires were almost as long-lived as they were, men were merely playthings for satisfying their lust.
They were no different from succubi, except that they also wielded something even harder to resist than lust: authority and power.
Besides, Sabrina Glevissig was notorious within the Brotherhood of Sorcerers for her temper. Perhaps one morning after a night of lovemaking, her shrill screams would be accompanied by a fireball powerful enough to melt steel.
As Witt stepped out of Sabrina's magic shop, the pungent stench hit him in the face and invaded his nostrils once more. After spending so long in the fragrant shop, he found the smell even harder to bear.
"No wonder Sabrina won't do it herself. Who would want to walk the streets of Ban Ard?"
Witt grumbled, suppressing the urge to turn back, and decided to return to Old Graz's courtyard first to tell Geralt what he had learned. They would discuss it before taking action.
But shortly after leaving the shop, Witt ran into someone he knew.
Hector stood a short distance away, looking around as though searching for someone. Witt went over to greet him. "Hey, Hector, who are you waiting for? Have you had lunch? How about taking me somewhere that doesn't stink so much for a meal? My treat."
The heavy purse gave Witt confidence.
Hector's eyes lit up when he saw Witt approaching, and he hurried over to ask, "Are you all right?"
Puzzled, Witt looked behind him, thinking Hector was speaking to someone at his back. Finding no one there, he pointed at himself in bewilderment. "Me? I'm fine."
"Did you just go into Lady Sabrina's magic shop?"
"Yes! What about it?" Witt grew even more curious.
"You're really all right? Lady Sabrina hates male apprentices like us going into her magic shop more than anything, yet you can just walk in and out so easily?"
Hector's eyes held disbelief and something else. No mage apprentice would be unwilling to become a famous sorceress's lover, even if he might not be her only one.
"I'm fine. Miss Sabrina is quite nice, actually."
Witt patted Hector on the shoulder, then headed back the way he had come, while Hector followed behind him with a strange look in his eyes.