Early the next morning, Wayne woke up from his sleep and instinctively stretched out his fingers. He felt warmth in his hand and carefully explored it. Turning around, he saw that Syanna was lying beside him, tears glistening at the corners of her eyes, her fair body curled up, still lost in sleep.
He had to admit that the healing potion was quite effective. During last night's encounter, Wayne also discovered other remarkable uses for it. Without the potion, an ordinary human like Syanna wouldn't have been able to endure a Witcher's strength and stamina.
In the future, this healing potion might become an essential item for finding pleasure. However, the daughter of the former duke also possessed exceptional qualities. Not only was she fair and beautiful, but her figure and physical strength were also quite remarkable.
Thanks to her noble upbringing and court etiquette training since childhood, her demeanor was far superior to that of ordinary girls. This might be the source of the so-called noble temperament.
Gazing at Syanna, still sleeping, Wayne reached out to gently squeeze her hand, teasing her awake. As she stirred from the slight sting, he smiled, running his fingers through her long black hair. In a slightly commanding tone, he said:
"It's time to wake up, Syanna."
"Come closer, yes, just like that."
"It's time to start our morning exercise."
After some morning exercises that left him feeling refreshed, Wayne decided to reward Syanna for her obedience the previous night. He personally prepared a sumptuous breakfast and even took out some cakes and sweets from his magical pouch, specially designed to indulge her.
During their past two days on the road, Syanna had been deprived of food due to the cruel treatment by the knights. The intense events of the previous night had also left her exhausted. Watching her pick up the delicious cake with the grace of a noble and then devour it eagerly, Wayne couldn't help but smile.
He downed a glass of cherry honey wine in one gulp, noticing how Syanna's blue eyes looked at him nervously, perhaps confused by his laughter.
With a smile, Wayne reassured her, "Don't be nervous, Syanna. Relax, I am not a harsh master."
"As we spend more time together, you'll find that I am a generous host."
He continued, his tone both firm and persuasive, "As an ordinary person, the status of a duke's daughter might seem noble, something many commoners might admire. But now that you are my servant, you are no longer bound by mortality. You have the potential to obtain things that even royalty and nobility cannot."
Seeing Syanna's uncertain expression, Wayne added with a seductive tone, "I am an immortal, with a lifespan of thousands of years. I won't allow my servants to wither away so quickly. It would be a waste for a beautiful woman like you to age and fade after just twenty years."
"I have many ways to preserve your youth for hundreds, even thousands of years. When your homeland, the Kingdom of Toussaint, is long gone, you will still be as young and beautiful as you are now."
"At that time, you will realize just how fortunate you are to be my servant."
"Of course, the condition is that you must earn my favor. Otherwise, I won't spend any extra time on you. I have many choices, but you have only one. Do you understand?"
Immortality! Eternal youth! These are among the greatest desires of all humans.
After hearing Wayne's proposition, the deep fear in Syanna's eyes began to fade, replaced by a longing for eternal youth. She adapted quickly. Though doubts lingered in her heart, her face showed no resistance. With a submissive tone, she responded to Wayne:
"I understand, Master. I will do my best to meet your expectations and will not disappoint you."
Wayne was pleased with her attitude, though he was fully aware that her outward submission likely didn't reflect her true feelings. But that was enough for now. He was not a simple, naive vampire like Dettlaff, easily deceived by Syanna's tricks.
There would be plenty of time to come. As long as he firmly controlled her weaknesses, he had ample opportunity to train her as he saw fit.
Wayne sipped his wine, pondering for a moment. Then he retrieved a box from his magical pouch, containing a sapphire necklace, and placed it in front of Syanna.
"This is my gift to you, Syanna," he said.
"Once you put it on, your appearance will be disguised by magic. No one will recognize you anymore. And now, I have a test for you."
"Joel, the tobacco merchant, is my alias in Beauclair, and I will soon be opening a tobacco shop in the city."
"You will serve as my agent, manage the store, and sell the tobacco for me."
"I don't care how much profit you make, but this is a test of your abilities. If you're just a beautiful decoration, you won't hold much value for me."
"But if you can demonstrate your worth and showcase your talents, I'll consider you more highly. You understand what I'm saying."
The magic necklace was a gift from Francesca. Wayne had several similar enchanted items in his magical pouch. Unlike other destructive magical artifacts, these enchanted items were ideal for disguising one's identity. They were easy to use, inexpensive, and difficult to detect—perfect for his needs.
As Wayne spoke with such casualness, Syanna couldn't help but feel a sense of unease. While she was confident in her appearance, she knew from the many aristocratic tales she had heard since childhood that beauty alone was not enough. A woman who relied solely on her looks would become nothing more than a sad commodity, an ornament without freedom or rights, and certainly without the respect of men.
She understood that only by proving her value could she gain the attention and respect of others—a principle that applied universally, no matter where she found herself.
With this realization, Syanna reached for the sapphire necklace and placed it around her slender neck. As a burst of magical light enveloped her, her appearance transformed. Though still quite beautiful, she now lacked the noble elegance she once possessed, becoming more ordinary. No one would recognize her true identity with this new face.
However, unlike the confusion and helplessness she felt before, new hope began to blossom within Syanna's heart. In her blue eyes, a flame of ambition was ignited.
...
Two days later, Wayne purchased a shop in Beauclair City. The location was somewhat remote, but the space was large, serving as both a store and a residence—quite convenient.
Soon after a simple cleanup, without any elaborate decoration, Wayne's pipeweed shop officially opened its doors.
Gaitan also received a pair of enchanted glasses to disguise his distinctive vertical pupils, allowing him to act as a bodyguard and maintain order in the shop. Meanwhile, Syanna officially took on the role of saleswoman, selling pipeweed in the store as Wayne's representative.
Though Syanna had once been an aristocratic girl with little real-world experience, her higher education and broad perspective set her apart from most common folk. After a few days of stumbling through her new role, she quickly adapted and began assisting Wayne, who preferred to keep a hands-off approach to running the shop.
Thanks to Wayne's efforts in promoting the store, this high-end tobacco from another world quickly became highly sought after. In fact, if Wayne hadn't employed a strategy of scarcity—limiting the supply available to customers—other merchants might have snapped up the pipeweed at high prices.
However, Wayne's purpose in establishing the tobacco shop wasn't just to sell pipeweed. He also tasked Syanna with another mission: to acquire a large number of Gwent cards.
Interestingly, Gwent, a card game that had become increasingly popular in the Northern Realms, lacked a dedicated store for purchasing cards. Most people engaged in private transactions or wagered the cards in games of chance.
In the medieval world, where printing and manufacturing technologies were relatively primitive, these finely crafted cards were all hand-painted. Even identical cards displayed subtle differences upon close inspection.
This method of production made Gwent cards not only rare but also highly collectible, especially the more exquisite and rare cards. Depending on their rarity, the price of each card could range from a few crowns to dozens of crowns.
All Gwent players knew that the game originated from the dwarves of Mahakam, who had invented it. Yet, no one knew the true origin of these cards or where they could reliably purchase more.
Unlike others, Wayne took Gwent far more seriously, viewing it as a crucial aspect of enhancing his abilities. He recognized the game's potential—not only as a profitable business but also as a powerful social tool and a significant bargaining chip for increasing his own strength. Wayne was determined to be more than just a powerful Witcher; perhaps, before becoming the most formidable witcher in the world, he would first establish himself as the most renowned King of Gwent.
After arranging the affairs of the shop, Wayne embarked on his journey to find the underwater ruins in the Valley of Nine. However, unlike the original story, Wayne didn't have the letter provided by Triss nor specific information about Dr. Thomas Moreau. The only thing he knew was that the underwater ruins were located somewhere in the Valley of Nine.
Despite the lack of information, Wayne wasn't worried. Unlike Geralt, Wayne was a knight of the Lady of the Lake—a knight in every sense of the word. To some extent, Toussaint was also considered the domain of the Lady of the Lake, the birthplace of the Five Virtues of Knights. For matters where he lacked information, he could seek guidance from the beautiful and holy Lady of the Lake, Her Excellency Lilith.
The only drawback was that visiting the Lady of the Lake always took a considerable amount of time. Wayne would set out in the morning and often wouldn't conclude his visit until the afternoon of the following day. Although the process was always pleasant and allowed him to improve his proficiency in divine blessing skills, it was indeed time-consuming.
But this time, his visit to the goddess wasn't without reward. Unexpectedly, the Lady of the Lake gave him a task—a master-level mission.
Ding! Mission triggered: [Destroy the Evil Objects in the Ruins] (Master Level).
Would you like to accept?
Faced with a master-level task, especially one entrusted by the esteemed goddess Lilith, Wayne had no intention of refusing. The mission's target was an ancient evil god, sealed within an underground ruin to the west of Beauclair, in an area known as the Wilderness.
This evil god was so old that neither its name nor its origins could be traced, and its abilities were akin to those of powerful malevolent spirits. According to the information provided by the Lady of the Lake, the seal containing the evil god was nearing its expiration. Though millennia of confinement had diminished the god's power, if it were to break free, it could quickly regain strength by absorbing the world's negative emotions, becoming a catastrophic threat.
The best course of action was to destroy the evil god before its seal fully unraveled. While this would be a temporary solution, as the god might eventually resurrect after thousands of years, it would significantly reduce the current threat and the evil power in the world.
However, the task wasn't urgent. The seal had held for thousands of years, and though it was weakening, there was still some time. Even if Wayne delayed for a month or more, it wouldn't be too late. He planned to complete his journey to the Valley of Nine first, and afterward, he would gather a few other Witchers and perhaps some sorcerers to confront the evil god. These allies, whom Wayne had already brought under his influence, would help minimize risks and prevent unforeseen accidents.
As a deity skilled in various spells, blessings, and prophecies, the Lady of the Lake provided Wayne with precise information about the ruins in the Valley of Nine, which lay submerged underwater. Her guidance was accurate, and she quickly revealed the location of the ruins to Wayne.
But that wasn't all. Through her prophecy spells, the goddess also imparted additional, critical information to Wayne.
The goddess informed Wayne that the person he sought was now buried in the cemetery outside Beauclair. Certain information could be obtained from that person's grave, which would make his journey of exploration much easier.
After hearing the goddess's prophecy, Wayne patted his head in mild frustration. The prophecy was indeed valuable, reminding him of a crucial detail he had forgotten—Thomas Moreau's grave was in the Beauclair Cemetery. Although grave robbers had looted it during the events of the game, this was twenty years earlier, and the professor's grave should now be intact.
Indeed, with the passage of years, many memories from his previous life had become blurry, and it was impossible to recall every detail with precision. The difference in timelines also meant that relying solely on past memories wasn't as reliable as predicting the future—something Wayne would need to be more mindful of in the future.
Armed with this new information, Wayne decided not to head directly to the Valley of Nine. Instead, he returned to the Beauclair Cemetery and located Professor Moreau's grave. Although he felt a pang of guilt, Wayne took advantage of the night to dig up the professor's coffin, retrieving Moreau's notes from his now skeletal remains.
These notes not only detailed some of Professor Moreau's final words, the precise location of the Nine Valleys Laboratory, and various traps and precautions involved in its construction, but they also contained confessions about his past actions, as well as expressions of guilt regarding his son and wife.
Wayne couldn't help but acknowledge that Professor Moreau was both a brilliant researcher and a devoted father. Although the professor's original goals had ultimately failed, he had paved the way for future generations of Witchers.
With everything now prepared, Wayne wasted no time. He mounted his magical flying carpet and set out for the Valley of Nine, ready to begin his journey into the ruins.