Several dryads went deep into the woods and stopped at a place where they could be seen from a distance. The witcher estimated the distance and nodded towards Lann.
"I am Lord Lannister of Cintra. Since you say you are my subject, you are my property. Do you understand?"
"Now tell me, your name? And, who are you?"
The huntress who was huddled on the ground glanced in the direction of the dryads, her whole body trembled, and she nodded hurriedly.
Judging from what she just heard, if it weren't for the kindness of the earl, she would definitely have been killed by the dryads.
She knelt down and said: "You saved me, and from now on you are my lord. I am Maria Barring of Upper Sodden."
Lann nodded, asked Geralt to keep an eye on the new citizen for a while, and walked in the direction of Eithné and the others.
Behind him the voices of Geralt and the girl could be heard talking.
"Girl, you shouldn't have come to poach in the dryads' territory. How old are you?"
"I'm sixteen years old... I've lived like this all my life, since I was little."
As he walked, Lann began to organize a series of words in his mind: Brokilon, dryad, sixteen, trap, poacher, Upper Sodden, Maria Barring.
There was a feeling of familiarity.
Lann frowned and thought, 'Maria Barring... Maria... Milva... Milva?' A name flashed in his mind: 'Red Kite Milva!'
Lann turned around and walked back, startling the two people who were talking again.
"Tell me why you are here and how you started poaching, right now!"
Maria began to stammer about her experience:
She came from a long line of hunters that lived in Upper Sodden, though she wasn't initially trained by her father until her brother died in an accident, despite taking down her first roe deer at only 11. After her father died, her mother remarried, but she did not get along with her stepfather, who made advances to her when her mother was not looking. Finally fed up with his unwanted advances and refusal to back off, she one day took a rake to him, knocking him out, and then kicked him several times. A couple days later, he was still lying and spitting blood, so at 16 years old, ran off, not daring to see if he survived. She later heard rumors he had in fact died, and her mother too shortly after. For a time she made a living as a hunter, but since she was young and a woman, several rangers were constantly chasing her, so she was forced to poach in the Brokilon forest.
What the girl was saying coincided almost point by point with what Lann had read in the history of The Witcher Series.
Lann looked at the girl with determined eyes, as if he saw her future.
It was originally supposed to be tonight, after the sixteen year old girl got caught in the dryads trap, she was supposed to spend the entire night in the cold. She would later be discovered by the dryads and welcomed by Eithné, who would accept her. She would retain her human identity, and would be given the name 'Milva', which in Elder Speech means 'Red Kite'.
In the future, Milva would join Geralt's company after he lost Ciri again, and because of that, he would sacrifice his life.
Lann knew even more how amazing and beautiful this girl actually was.
Milva has two main achievements.
Firstly, as a human, passed information to the dryads and carried out infiltration work. As a spy, he thwarted four human expeditions against Brokilon.
Secondly, in the final battle to save Ciri, in order to cover his teammates, she single-handedly used his life to suppress all the archers of an entire mercenary group on the opposite side, almost creating a vacuum zone for long-range attacks.
This is a top talent in multiple fields. In more direct terms, Milva depicted in the Gwent deck is a legendary rarity card with a combat power of 10.
Looking at Maria Barring, who was nervous and with her head lowered, Lann couldn't help but let out a sigh.
After being transmigrated for so long, I've never had time to play the card game Gwent. Unexpectedly, I first gathered the real person who would be a gold tier legendary card.
With the sudden appearance of a character with so much potential, Lann, who was already feeling good about signing a peace treaty, happily headed towards the dryads, only to see them conversing in low voices.
The expressions of Ellie, Dunkar and Braenn seemed solemn.
"Ms. Eithné, I've finished handling the matter here. I heard that you have any other personal matters that you would like to discuss with me?"
The Dryad Queen nodded.
Ellie took out a water bag, and Dunkar and Braenn each took out a silver cup to fill the water.
Lann's eyes suddenly lit up, he was quite expecting it, thinking it was the water of Brokilon.
Unfortunately, the Cat School Medallion on his chest did not light up, and the system did not respond accordingly when he took the silver cup.
Seeing the change in Lann's expression, Eithné covered her mouth and chuckled: "This is just a celebratory drink to celebrate the signing of our agreement. It seems like you were expecting it to be Brokilon water."
"When you were in Duén Canell, after you drank the water of Brokilon, there seemed to be fleeting magic fluctuations in your body, but you didn't seem to be the Source of magic. "
Eithné's eyes were playful: "So, I guess the water of Brokilon has benefits for your body that we don't know about. Is that right, son of the Elder Blood?"
Lann's heart skipped a beat, but he looked at the three dryads quietly, and they seemed to have no intention of attacking. And Eithné didn't seem to show any anger after revealing her secret, which made Lann feel a little relieved.
Lann smiled awkwardly and said: "Destiny is always wonderful. I didn't know that the bloodline I carry would have such magical power. Maybe this is why fate guided me to come to Brokilon."
Eithné stepped away, gently stroking the overhanging branches as if she were a mother pampering a child.
She said: "Yes, fate is always wonderful. My daughter once hoped to have a child with Gwynbleidd, but unfortunately the witcher could not bring him anything. But many years later, he brought us the son of Elder Blood."
"At first, I thought Princess Cirilla was the person I had been waiting for, the person who would break the predicament of the dryads. Turns out she wasn't."
The branches, under Eithné's loving touch, swayed with a light rustle in the breeze.
The Dryad Queen looked at Lann, whose expression changed, and said in an almost chanting tone: "The Sword of Destiny has two edges, and you are one of them. It turns out that you are the son of the Elder Blood we are looking for, Lann Lannister."
"Originally, I planned to put this in the terms of the peace treaty. But to you human nobles, this doesn't seem very decent? So I decided to use a private request to negotiate with you."
"I hope that the Elder Blood can join the dryads family, Lann."
The Dryad Queen's tone was indescribably gentle, a tone she had never shown to humans before.
Listening to all this, Lann almost lost control of his expression, and a suspicion slowly amplified in his mind.
"Uh... the water of Brokilon is ineffective on me, and if I remember correctly, the dryad clan has no other conversion magic, so if I understand correctly..."
Eithné said softly: "The dryads family has more than one way to increase its population, you know."
Lann hesitated between continuing to speak or remaining silent, debating internally.
"In principle, I have no problem."
For the peace and friendship of Brokilon Town and Brokilon Forest, this is a necessary sacrifice!
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