Upon hearing the woman's long sigh, the man said nothing.Perhaps he didn't know what to say.
In the end.
The woman pushed the man away. A snap of her fingers, and she tidied herself up.
The sorceress looked up, her face expressionless. "What do you need from me?"
Decades of meticulous makeup, an unchanging tone. If he hadn't looked down and seen his chest still wet, the witcher might have thought what just happened was an illusion.
"Snap"
Another snap of her fingers. A wave of magically warm air swept over, and the red cotton armor returned to its state before entering the room.
"Just like before!"
The witcher nostalgically sighed.
Then, he stopped overthinking, organized his words, and said: "When I was returning to Kaer Morhen, I passed by Ard Carraigh."
"Hakso summoned me and told me two things."
The sorceress asked with interest, "What did the glutton say?"
"One thing about non-human races. Hakso asked me what I thought of the elves."
"What did you say?"
The witcher was about to answer but was interrupted.
"Forget it, no need to say, it's nothing more than the Wolf School adhering to neutrality." The sorceress had a usual look on her face.
The witcher said helplessly, "That's exactly what I said."
"The Path of Glory must not be desecrated. The Wolf School's target is only those dangerous monsters."
"The Path of Glory?" The sorceress conjured a bottle of red wine and a goblet, filling it with the fine wine as she sighed, "Besides in Toussaint and knightly novels, I haven't heard that term anywhere else for a long time."
"And then, my 'knight'."
The witcher, smelling the aroma of the wine in the air, asked helplessly:
"Before that, aren't you going to pour me a glass too?"
"No," the sorceress shook the red wine in her glass, refusing. "I'm in a bad mood right now. I don't want to share anything with anyone."
Swallowing his saliva quietly, the witcher could only continue: "Next spring equinox, he's arranged a competition."
"A competition?" The sorceress was intrigued.
"Yes, a competition between the apprentices of the Wolf School and the Cat School."
"You agreed?" The sorceress put down her glass, her expression changing slightly.
"I had to agree. The winning school will receive double the funding each year."
The sorceress asked, "And the losers get nothing?"
"Yes, nothing, including what they originally had."
"I have a feeling these two things are connected, but…"
The witcher paused, sighed, and sincerely requested: "Vera, you know."
"No matter how powerful the monster, even a dragon, I have never been afraid."
"But politics… it's not my strength, nor is it for the other witchers of the Wolf School. So…"
"Vera, use your wisdom to help me, just like when the Witcher Order fell apart, guide me one more time."
Vera raised her goblet, took a sip of the rich red wine, and replied coldly: "Don't call me Vera, we haven't had that relationship for a long time."
Raising her hand to stop the witcher's protest, the sorceress continued: "But considering you still remember the promise from ten years ago, I will help you gather information."
"Promise? Did you see the illusion pendant?"
"Not only did I see it," Vera suddenly burst into laughter as if remembering something amusing, "After ten years, that pendant almost returned to its creator."
Then, the sorceress seemed to recall something, and her eyes quickly dimmed.
She stood up from her seat, slowly walked to the cold windowsill, lowered her eyes, and stared westward from the tower.
Watching the woman who had just been laughing heartily become dejected in an instant, the witcher thought to himself: "Sure enough, still the same as before, not changed a bit."
Ignoring the noise in the witcher's mind, the sorceress softly chanted in a daze: "Know this, the time of sword and axe is near, it is the era of the cold wolf and snow..."
"The world will die in frost and be reborn under a new sun."
"Ess'tuathesse! This is inevitable! Watch for the signs!"
"To know what the signs are..."
She paused, her voice becoming lighter and more ethereal. Her cool voice was almost indistinguishable, as if it came from the clouds above the Blue Mountains.
"First... Filius Miraculi—the Child of Miracles—will be born in the land of bitter cold..."
"Death and rebirth, the non-human will bring blood and fire..."
"The prophecy of Ithlinne." The witcher listened in silence as the sorceress chanted, his expression complex. "Vera, the Child of Miracles has crossed the tomb of death and is about to be reborn..."
The sorceress still looked into the distance, leaving only her silent, graceful back to him.
After hesitating for a moment, the witcher slowly walked over, gently wrapped his arms around the sorceress's shoulders, and said: "Don't worry, Vera."
"Just as the prophecy said, our child will be reborn..."
Vera sighed, tightened her grip on the witcher's arm, and closed her eyes.
"Sol."
The witcher, Sol, responded gently, "I'm here."
"Do you think he will hate me?"
Before Sol could answer, Vera sorrowfully murmured to herself.
"He will hate me..."
"He definitely will..."
Sol sighed deeply, looking up at the snow-covered peak of the Blue Mountains. He said nothing.
...
At this moment, Allen naturally didn't know that the head of the Wolf School and the sorceress Vera were his biological parents. The thought had never even crossed his mind.
After all, in the game's setting, witchers and sorceresses were not supposed to have offspring. Sorceresses had at least some cases of bearing children. Witchers had no such examples. The probability of two infertile professions having offspring was nearly zero.
After leaving the tower, Allen didn't rush back to his dormitory. He walked slowly along the main road toward the apprentice dormitory, his mind constantly pondering the 9,950 small experience points. The solution was simple.
Either reduce the requirement through learning.
Or increase the stockpile through hunting.
The problem was the time span. He had to learn alchemy before the Trial of the Grasses, which was within a month. Relying solely on the progress of the sorceress's lectures was nearly impossible. Depending on Vesemir's occasional combat classes also wouldn't suffice to gather the necessary experience points.
"I must change the status quo!" Allen thought.
Vera's alchemy classes couldn't be skipped, as they were his only source of alchemical knowledge. The experience points needed to unlock alchemy could significantly decrease with learning. As a student, he couldn't ask Vera to speed up. So, he could only change his current hunting situation. To hunt more monsters, he had to...
"Leave Kaer Morhen!"
As his thoughts became clearer, Allen became more convinced that only by going out to hunt could he solve his current predicament.
Outside the majestic castle, there were countless drowners. And not just drowners.
Wraiths, foglets, ghouls...
These were all targets Allen could hunt.
More importantly, with a greater variety and number of hunts, the chances of triggering quests would increase. Who knows, completing a few quests might directly reward him with Alchemy LV2.
"But... how can I leave Kaer Morhen?"
Allen murmured to himself.
.....
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