Chapter 133: The Friend You Mentioned
"Are you saying that Duchess Carolina Roberta was assassinated?"
After the small talk, they moved on to the main topic.
Toussaint had always had the habit of using abbreviated names.
Carolina Roberta's abbreviated name was Caroloberta.
Just like Anna Henrietta was called Anarietta, and Sylvianna Anna was called Sianna.
"That's what the ranger knight who commissioned me told me."
"The duchess who rules Toussaint was assassinated at the beginning of last year. Although she survived, she fell into a coma. The court searched for good doctors everywhere, doctors came and went, but none could determine the cause."
"So some people suspect that the duchess's coma might also be due to a curse."
After listening to Geralt's words, Lynn frowned slightly.
"A curse? That's not right. I remember Toussaint has court mages, don't they have a solution?"
If he remembered correctly, Toussaint had at least two court mages.
One of them was even a distant cousin of Anarietta and Sianna.
It wasn't just witchers who knew how to break curses.
Some mages even had more knowledge in this area than witchers.
After all, they were both professions that could live for hundreds of years, but unlike witchers, most mages didn't spend most of their time in the countryside, struggling to make ends meet.
Although not all mages could find work similar to court advisors, at least they could live comfortably.
They had plenty of time to study.
Therefore, Lynn found it very strange.
With two court mages, why would they still need to find a witcher?
Could this be some kind of court conspiracy?
As everyone knew, witchers were natural assassins.
Their physical fitness was already superior to ordinary humans.
The various emerging potions and alchemical bombs further enhanced their combat power.
The Signs they used were simple, but their strength lay in their speed and flexibility.
All of the above were where witchers were superior to human assassins.
Of course, if a witcher army were formed, it could also unleash terrifying power.
It didn't even need the entire army to be witchers, as long as there was a special operations team composed entirely of witchers.
If deployed in battle at a crucial moment, it would definitely be able to turn the tide.
Of course, that was another topic, so he wouldn't elaborate further here.
Geralt agreed.
"Yeah, that's what I thought too, so I didn't immediately agree to that knight back then, but instead returned to Kaer Morhen first."
"However, about half a year has passed now. If there really was some kind of political vortex brewing in the Toussaint court, it should probably have subsided."
Toussaint...
Lynn looked up at the sky.
That was probably the last pure land on this continent.
A dreamlike ideal existence.
It was one of the few havens that remained friendly and respectful to witchers.
There, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment; ranger knights also punished evil and promoted good in the name of the duchess...
Everything looked so beautiful, so romantic.
It was as if it only existed in fairy tales.
But Lynn knew.
That seemingly idyllic place was actually built on false peace.
Seemingly beautiful, but in reality, extremely fragile.
The Duchy of Toussaint was a vassal state of the Nilfgaardian Empire.
The country had no army, and the common people had no obligation to provide military service to the duchess.
Therefore, maintaining stability and order within the duchy could only rely on the elite but small number of ranger knights and the ducal guard.
With such armed forces, dealing with the bandits and robbers who invaded the Duchy of Toussaint was certainly no problem.
But if the invaders were a country, it would probably...
During the Second Northern War, the Nilfgaardian army took less than twenty days to conquer the Kingdom of Aedirn.
If Aedirn were replaced by Toussaint, it probably wouldn't last even twenty minutes.
Toussaint's beauty and ideals were precisely obtained by outsourcing national defense to Nilfgaard as the price.
But what if one day, the Nilfgaardian Emperor decided to revoke the privileges granted to the duchy? How would Toussaint respond? As the saying goes, dignity only exists on the tip of a sword.
This kind of approach of placing hope for peace on the mercy of others...
Lynn really couldn't agree with it.
"Hmm, what were you just thinking about?" Geralt noticed Lynn staring at the sky all the time.
He thought there was something in the sky.
So he also looked up at the sky.
But there was nothing.
"Nothing, by the way, did you agree on a meeting place with that knight?"
"The Velen province of Temeria, a village called Midcopse."
Lynn's eyelids twitched.
Geralt really knew how to pick a place.
Anywhere would have been better, but he had to choose Velen.
Velen was so poor it was heartbreaking.
The locals' only entertainment was watching the drowners baring their teeth in the jungles and swamps.
"Why did you choose to meet there?" Lynn looked at Geralt in confusion.
The latter sighed.
"Ah, that's a long story."
Lynn smiled: "Then take your time, we still have a long way to go."
...
A month later.
Lynn, Geralt, and Berengar finally arrived in Novigrad, covered in dust from their journey.
At this time, Novigrad had not yet been poisoned by Radovid's bigoted and extreme ideas.
Even though it had been illuminated by the Eternal Fire, it was still just a faint flame.
Completely incomparable to what it would be a decade or two later.
Therefore, the guards at the city gate, seeing three witchers riding into the city, simply looked away.
They all knew that witchers were all penniless and couldn't get any benefits from them.
But their swordsmanship was quite good.
You had to pick the softest persimmon to squeeze, right?
Therefore, even looking for trouble was out of the question.
"I rented a villa in the upper city. You can wait at my place first. After I finish my business at Vivaldi Bank, I'll come find you."
Because the three of them were surrounded by a crowded and noisy flow of people,
Lynn had to raise his voice so that Geralt and Berengar could hear him.
Berengar nodded.
But Geralt said,
"I don't need to. Do you know where the best brothel in the city is?"
"Sorry, I'm quite picky in this regard and have never been to one."
Lynn said expressionlessly, "But I heard from a friend of mine that Passiflora, next to St. Gregory's Bridge in the upper city, is the best brothel in town."
"Thanks."
Geralt turned his horse, preparing to head towards the upper city.
"Wait."
Lynn's voice came from behind.
Geralt turned back.
But he saw a money pouch flying towards him.
He subconsciously caught it.
Opening it, he found it full of shiny crown coins.
Roughly estimated, there were at least dozens of them.
"What's this for? I have money." Geralt patted a pocket on his Wolf School jacket.
But Lynn only left him with his back.
"Keep it. I don't want you to still have to mop floors to pay off debts when it's time for us to leave."
(End of this chapter)
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