NOVEL SIMPLE 156. The Unexpected Guest.
Deep within the castle ruins.
Thunk~ Thunk~ Thunk~
The clear sound of footsteps echoed through the empty corridor.
Following the direction where the black magic energy was most concentrated, Allen led Vesemir to the place where they had hunted those ten wraiths. Dim light filtered through the dried-up vines, casting shadows inside.
From the broken crystal chandelier that had fallen in the middle of the dance floor, the dusty carpet, and the paintings on both sides covered with dust, one could vaguely see the splendor this place once had. This was once a banquet hall, or at least it used to be.
"Huh!"
The young witcher's soft exclamation of surprise broke the silence. He widened his eyes, focusing his gaze on the east side of the dance floor.
In the center between two oil paintings, dense black magic energy seeped out from the carved gray wall, as if the wall itself was generating the black magic energy.
What exactly is this black magic?
So eerie, so grim.
So... ominous!
Isn't the magic that makes up the witcher's world only composed of earth, air, water, and fire?
Allen pondered uneasily.
He had initially thought this was just some residual magic, akin to necromancy, but he hadn't expected that there seemed to be a source of these black magical elements within the castle.
At the same time, it was unclear if it was just his imagination. The closer he got to this wall, the more he could faintly feel a bone-chilling coldness invading his body. Yet, upon careful observation, it seemed to come and go, and the surrounding temperature hadn't actually dropped.
"What's the matter?"
To Vesemir, the young witcher was just staring at an ordinary wall. However, Allen's reaction made him raise his right hand, loosely gripping the hilt of his sword in a cautious stance.
"Master Vesemir, the black magic energy I was just telling you about is coming out from behind this wall!"
Thunk~ Thunk~ Thunk~
Vesemir gripped his sword and quickly approached, examining the wall from top to bottom.
After about ten seconds, he sighed, glanced enviously at Allen, shook his head, and said somewhat despondently: "Ordinary witchers can't perceive magic... I... I can't see anything."
"Let's search around. Since there's something unusual behind the wall, there must be a hidden chamber here."
Allen nodded slightly at his words and began to search around. Many people have a misconception about hidden chambers in noble castles. They think that the more intricate and complex the mechanism, the more concealed the chamber, making it harder to discover. But that's not the case.
The principle of a hidden chamber is secrecy.
As long as no one knows about it or suspects that there's a hidden chamber in a room, even covering it with a carpet makes it a qualified hidden chamber. Conversely, once someone knows the location of a hidden chamber, no amount of complex mechanisms can stop someone determined to uncover it. Thus, Allen only needed to use two tracking skills for three minutes before he found the spot where the hidden chamber's mechanism was located.
It was behind the hooks of the two oil paintings.
Seeing the human fingerprints on the hooks, Allen and Vesemir exchanged glances, then simultaneously pressed down.
"Boom~ Clunk~"
The heavy sound of stone grinding against stone echoed. The dance floor in front of the wall slowly sank, revealing a set of stairs leading down into the darkness, so deep that the bottom couldn't be seen.
Pop!
Glug~ Glug~
Clang!
The two witchers, staring at the pitch-black passageway that seemed to lead straight into the abyss, exchanged another glance, then almost simultaneously drank the Cat's Eye potion and cast the Quen sign on themselves. Next, they raised their right hands, drawing their silver swords that gleamed with a cold, harsh light, and evenly coated them with specter oil.
Witchers never fight unprepared.
Once everything was ready, Vesemir, with eyes turned entirely black from the potion's effects, gave Allen a slight nod before stepping into the hidden passage first.
Allen followed closely behind.
Thunk~ Thunk~ Thunk~
Inside the passage, it was so quiet that they could hear their own breathing and heartbeats. In such a narrow path that could barely accommodate one person, encountering a specter-type monster would be a nightmare. But fortunately, they didn't.
Descending stairs, climbing steps.
In the magic vision, the black magic energy in this narrow passage had already gathered from a small stream into a river.
As they delved deeper into the passage, Allen's body felt increasingly cold. This wasn't due to a drop in the surrounding temperature, but rather the kind of natural, weak chill one feels after losing too much blood.
"Allen! Use the Yrden sign!" Vesemir suddenly stopped in his tracks, turned, and shouted.
"Something is draining our life force!"
Something?
Draining life force?
Allen's expression changed abruptly. He quickly circulated his internal magic and swiftly crossed his hands to cast the Yrden sign. This sign was specifically used to counter magic.
A faint purple, transparent spherical shield formed from the ground up, closing at the top almost simultaneously. The chilling sensation Allen felt immediately lessened, but it still lingered. He watched as the black magic energy points, blocked by the Yrden sign and repeatedly repelled by the shield, couldn't help but think:
"Is our life force being drained really due to some monster's magic?"
Tap~ Tap~ Tap~
Ahead, Vesemir, under the protection of a deep purple transparent shield, quickened his pace with a solemn expression. Soon, they reached a door blocking the passage.
Allen sensed that the position behind the door corresponded to where the two oil paintings had been.
Bang!
The wooden door was suddenly kicked open. The fierce witcher master was about to rush in but froze at the sight within. In the Cat's Eye vision, there was only a single shelf in the secret room, and nothing else.
"If there's nothing here, then what's draining our life force?" the witcher master wondered.
He extended his right hand out of the purple Yrden shield. The bone-chilling coldness remained.
Huh!
A soft exclamation.
Peering through the gap in the door, Allen's gaze fell on the scene inside the secret room, and he was filled with uncertainty.
Isn't this an elemental Circle?
Magic elements continuously emerged from a point in the void within the secret room. The shape they took as they dispersed resembled a comet with a long tail. The point in the void was the core of the comet, with the long black tail extending directly through Vesemir and Allen, reaching out into the distance.
As if something far away was drawing these unknown elements.
Staring at this astonishing sight, Allen's two blue cat eyes widened in shock.
A world convergence point.
Magic elements continuously emerging.
Except for the color being black and the distribution of elemental points being different, this scene was almost identical to the elemental Circle near Kaer Morhen.
Allen instinctively opened the Witcher's Journal.
[Do you wish to use the Conjunction of the Spheres—Drowner (cooldown time: 30 days)?]
Alright.
He had forgotten that the Conjunction of the Spheres had long since cooled down.
No wonder the unknown elements here hadn't diminished.
After leaving Kaer Morhen, Allen had been on the move, with no time to find a suitable place to use the Conjunction of the Spheres.
"However, could these black magic points reduce the cooldown time of the Conjunction of the Spheres?" Allen wondered.
Vesemir, hearing the young Witcher's puzzled voice, turned his head to look over. The astonished expression on Allen's face told him that there was something remarkable inside the hidden room. He scratched his head and glanced back at the room. Still, there was nothing there.
"Allen, what's going on? What do you see?" Vesemir patted Allen's shoulder.
Allen snapped out of his amazement at the dark element Circle and, after another glance at the "comet" formed by the unknown elements, said excitedly, "Vesemir Master, I think I know where to find that couple!"
Vesemir glanced back at the empty room. Even though he knew that Allen's perception was different from his own, he couldn't help but tilt his head in confusion and ask, "Huh?"
----------------
After explaining the strange phenomenon in the hidden room, Vesemir agreed with Allen's idea of tracking the fading black magic points along the "tail of the comet." After all, there were no other clues in the empty room. The only remaining oddity in the castle was the "elemental Circle." Since it was the only anomaly, it was naturally the only clue.
Soon after, the two Witchers left the hidden room. They buried more than thirty skeletons in a small overgrown garden in the castle and then rode away.
----------------
Night is not friendly to humans, especially in the wild.
With low light conditions, combined with wolves, bears, dogs, and wandering ghouls and wraiths, even Witchers avoid traveling at night. It's a matter of respecting their own lives. So, after leaving the castle ruins, the two Witchers returned directly to the inn.
"Is that so? There's really no way to identify Lord Hudson's remains?" Bob, leaning forward over the table, asked persistently. Both he and Mary couldn't hide the sadness on their faces.
According to the agreement made before the two Witchers returned, Vesemir didn't tell them about the possibility of the viscount's family escaping or Bowen's suspicions involving nobles, sorcerers, and kings. Such irrelevant information would only cause trouble for them. The Witchers had completed their mission, and the past souls had been laid to rest. That's all Bob and Mary needed to know.
Vesemir shook his head, patted them on the shoulders, and comforted them, "I buried them all in the garden behind the castle. Since Viscount Hudson was so attached to his home, I'm sure he'd want to stay with his family."
Mary wiped away her tears, gently held Bob's arm, and nodded softly, saying, "Yes, Viscount Hudson loved his home so much."
"Unlike other nobles, I've never heard any rumors about him with other women."
"Even when he went out, he always made sure to visit his wife and daughter first..."
"The lord was a good man, and his wife and daughter were kind-hearted too..."
"Such a good family... such a good family..."
The more Mary recalled, the more she couldn't hold back her tears, which eventually flowed uncontrollably despite Vesemir and Bob's efforts to comfort her.
Allen watched this scene and thought, "For two servants to remember him after ten years, Viscount Hudson must have been a rare and good noble."
"But why did such a good nobleman suffer such a tragic end?"
"Sorry, you two have been working all day and haven't eaten anything yet. Let me get the stew for you," Mary said, snapping out of her grief, and hurried to the kitchen. Soon, she returned with a large pot of stew, clearly prepared in advance.
The rich aroma of the meat filled the air, making everyone's mouths water. Bob also brought over a basket of soft, buttery bread from the kitchen.
"Come on, try my new stew," Mary urged.
Vesemir caught a whiff of the aroma and asked in surprise, "Is this Viscount Hudson's beef and tomato stew?"
Beef wasn't cheap during these times; just one piece in the pot would cost at least twenty orens. Combined with the basket of buttery bread and the spices in the pot, it would easily total fifty orens. Bob and Mary probably wouldn't make that much money from running their inn for two months.
Mary nodded, a smile deepening the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. "A family in town lost a cow, so I had Bob buy some meat."
"Eat it while it's hot and see how my beef and tomato stew compares to what Lady Rena used to make."
Vesemir looked at the meal on the table. It wasn't extravagant, but it was clearly prepared with care. He hesitated to say something but ultimately decided against it, silently bowing his head to enjoy the meal after Allen joined in.
As Allen took a sip of the slightly hot stew, his eyes lit up. The temperature was just right, bringing out the meat's rich flavor and the tomatoes' slight acidity. The broth was thick and savory, making his mouth water. Before he realized it, he had finished the whole bowl. Allen now understood why Vesemir had always spoken fondly of the viscount's cook.
About half an hour after the two Witchers finished their meal, Hughes, Bond, and Fred returned, reeking of drowners.
"Allen, the drowners down the mountain aren't like those in Kaer Morhen. They don't even know to hide when they see a Witcher..."
"Yeah, we took out fifteen drowners today..."
"Uh? What's that delicious smell?"
"Go clean yourselves up, then come and eat," Vesemir said sternly.
Seeing Vesemir's stern expression, the young Witchers became timid and obediently went to clean up.
Allen chuckled at the sight of the three young men looking so sheepish. Thinking about the drowners they hunted today, Allen suddenly realized it had been a while since he upgraded Hughes and the others' skills. He focused and opened the Corps interface.
[Corps Name: Wolfpack]
[Rank: Tier 3]
[Battle Points: 1740/5000]
[Battle Points Available: 967]
The battle points were close to reaching 1,000.
With a thought, Allen spent 300 battle points to upgrade the Aard Sign for all three to level 2. Then, he spent another 500 points to upgrade Hughes' Wolf School Two-Handed Sword to level 3. His current goal was to upgrade Bond's and Fred's Wolf School Two-Handed Swords to level 3 before the apprentice combat tournament.
With Quen, Igni, and Aard Signs at level 2, and their Witcher Two-Handed Swords at level 3, even if the Cat School sent out their strongest Witchers, they wouldn't lose.
After closing the interface, Allen turned to discuss tomorrow's plans with Vesemir. Meanwhile, the White Orchard had some unexpected visitors that night.
Dressed in black nightwear and masks, they gathered in small groups on a hillside outside the town.
After a moment, another similarly dressed figure cautiously emerged from the town. One of the masked figures stepped forward and coldly asked, "Is the target in place?"
....…
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157. The First Clash Between Cat and Wolf.
158. The Death of the Cat.
159. How Do You Know My Name is Fredeca?
160. A New Beginning.
161. The Rage of Being Fooled.