Four days later, under the urging of Borch and Geralt, Wayne and his party took only a small amount of supplies, traveled day and night, and soon set off from Temeria, crossed the Kingdom of Redania, and arrived at the River near Holobur City.
However, when the group wanted to go to the city of Holobur from the only bridge over the Bula River, they were blocked by a group of soldiers.
These soldiers wore buttoned leather jackets and chain mail, and held metal halberds in their hands. They guarded both ends of the river and built a wooden toll hut at the head of the bridge.
From a distance, the crimson pennant with the silver griffin pattern was planted on the hut, fluttering in the wind, and several heavily armed soldiers stood in a row, which looked quite imposing.
When Wayne and the others approached on horseback, they found that they were not the only ones blocked from the bridge.
In addition to a few villagers and travelers who wanted to go to Holobur City to do business, there were also some people who looked like mercenaries who were not easy to mess with, and they also gathered around the river crossing toll gate, watching the people's arguments.
"Why don't you let us pass? This is a free city-state, and it is not under the management of any Principality, and you have no right to stop us here."
The one who took the lead in the argument was a well-dressed middle-aged man, who should be a well-established businessman. Behind him were not only a few young men, several carriages, and even several heavily armed hired guards.
However, the soldier in charge of guarding the bridge was obviously that kind of rigid idiot.
No matter what the businessman said, the soldier would only reply with one sentence.
"I don't understand the things you said. I just came here to set up this according to the king's order."
"Anyway, no one can pass through this bridge without a pass. This is an order from Lord of Caingorn, King Niedamir."
Faced with such brutal obstruction, the middle-aged businessman was obviously very angry, and he shouted loudly:
"This is the tribute and fruit sent to Cliff Temple in the city. I have been stopped here by you for a day. If I wait any longer, these fruits will rot."
Unfortunately, the soldier didn't even look at him, holding the halberd in his hand, and repeated:
"I'm only responsible for checking the pass. If you have any questions, you can talk to the commander yourself."
On the other side, the tallest of the three mercenaries suddenly said loudly:
"Hmph! The reason why King Niedamir sealed off this place was to deal with the injured dragon. The dragon was poisoned and was dying."
"They must be afraid that the treasure in the dragon's nest will be taken by others, so they deliberately blocked this passage to prevent those capable people from passing."
The soldier who shouted heard the words, glanced at the mercenary, and did not refute, but repeated:
"I'm only responsible for checking the pass, and I don't care about anything else."
Seeing this, Borch looked at Wayne and Geralt. The three of them had agreed before setting off that he would follow the instructions of the two witchers in this matter.
However, Geralt was obviously absent-minded. After driving for four days in a row, he finally got here. His thoughts were all on Yennefer who hadn't shown up yet.
Seeing this, Wayne reached out his hand to signal Borch not to worry and whispered:
"We have just arrived here, and we don't know anything about the situation, so we shouldn't act rashly."
"Let me ask for information first."
After speaking, he got off his horse, walked to the middle of the crowd, glanced around, and finally set his sights on a soldier who looked younger at the edge of the guards.
He approached the soldier, and under the watchful eyes of the soldier, he reached out and took out a gold coin and handed it over, then asked in a low voice, "Soldier, can I ask you a few questions?"
Seeing this, the young soldier quickly glanced at his companions who were still arguing with the passers-by, quickly put the gold coin into his pocket, coughed lightly, and said in a low voice, "You can ask, but I won't tell you about confidential things."
With a smile on his face, Wayne asked softly, "Sir, about the pass you speak of, can you tell me how many people have passed the bridge so far, and when did they leave?"
Seeing that Wayne asked a very common question, it was not a secret, even many people in the city saw it.
The young soldier breathed a sigh of relief quietly and replied, "It's not a secret. Three days ago, in order to kill the dragon, The King issued a pass to all those who are capable of hunting dragon in the vicinity and hired them to hunt and kill the dragon."
"Eyck of Denesle is the most famous one; he is a knight, and he passed the bridge the day before yesterday."
"Afterwards, there are six dwarves, I don't know them, but I heard from my companions that the leader is called Yarpen Zigrin. They once killed the dragon of Quartz Mountain, Ocvista, and they are a group of dwarves with strong fighting power."
"This morning, there were three other fierce-looking hunters with tattoos all over their bodies who also crossed the bridge."
"At present, apart from the king's army, only these three groups of people have passed through here."
After getting the information he wanted, Wayne returned to Geralt and Borch and shared what he had asked.
Among the three groups, he only had a little impression of Eyck and Yarpen, but he didn't know them very well. He only knew that eyck seemed to be a monster killer, a knight, quite powerful, and Yarpen was an officer in the future dwarf army.
As for the Crinfrid Reavers, he had never heard of them.
However, unlike the fledgling Wayne, Geralt had been wandering in the north for so many years, and he still had some understanding of these well-known figures, so he explained:
"Eyck of Denesle, this guy is a knight known for his prowess. Many people call him 'pious and righteous eyck,' a brave and fearless knight."
"This guy is very strong and is very good at dealing with monsters. I heard that he has defeated several dragons, and also killed manticores and griffins.
Borch was very surprised when he heard this and asked, "So, isn't this Eyck knight an expert in dragon slaying? An ordinary knight, is he so powerful?"
Geralt seemed to have a lot of opinions on eyck. Hearing Borch's praise, he snorted disdainfully and said, "It's all rumors. No one knows if it's true. However, since there are so many rumors, it must not be a lucky person. It should be someone with real skills."
"But this guy is a bastard. He doesn't charge any money every time he kills a monster. He doesn't charge a penny. It's a violation of the rules in this line of work."
"Several times, those troublemakers used this as an excuse to ask me to kill monsters for them for free."
"Some despicable idiots who ended up paying me only half of what I was paid."
Hearing what Geralt said, Wayne thought of something else.
This knight is indeed a kind-hearted person in the eyes of outsiders. He often helps the villagers deal with monsters that harm them for free. He seems to have a special hatred for monsters and does not receive any compensation.
But it is precisely because of this that Knight eyck does not stay at home all year round. In order to repair weapons and armor and travel around, he squandered his family's property, leaving only his wife and children to live a poor life.
In the end, he didn't even have money to treat his wife's serious illness, and the son asked him to make money to treat his mother. This guy cut off his relationship with his son directly, which is simply a weird thing.
In the game, his son Siegfried has also grown into an upright knight, and even became the head of the Flaming Rose Knights in the end, but he still has many complaints about his father and refuses to forgive him.
After explaining about eyck, Geralt took out the agnon in his pocket, took a sip of beer, and said, "The Crinfrid Reavers."
"These three are also very famous hunters. They hunted and killed all the dragon lizards and giant centipedes in the entire Kingdom of Redania. It is even said that they killed three red dragons and one black dragon."
"It's a group of hunters who do whatever it takes to achieve their goals and are very good at using traps and poisons."
"As for Yarpen and his bearded dwarves."
"I only heard that they once killed a very famous evil dragon in the Mahakam Mountains, named Ocvist, the Dragon of Quartz Mountain."
"In the end, they got the dragon's treasure, a lot of gems."
As they chatted about information, Wayne suddenly noticed a woman with an excellent temperament and a very beautiful appearance approaching from afar on a tall black horse on the road behind them.