Lynn took out a few vials of Superior Potions, sharing them with Letho.

After consuming them, the two headed towards the rising column of smoke.

Due to their mutations and training, witchers could, if they wished, make their footsteps as silent as a cat's.

As for the slight clang of armor with movement, there was no helping that.

They couldn't just go in without armor, could they?

Fortunately, Lynn's Grandmaster Wolven Armor and Letho's Grandmaster Viper Armor were both medium armor, so even if there was noise, it wasn't significant.

After walking for about twenty to thirty minutes in the direction of the smoke, a village situated at the edge of a forest appeared in their sight.

The towering smoke column was rising directly from the village.

Lynn and Letho moved into the wheat fields outside the village.

This village should have been a peaceful place, but now, everything was destroyed.

The villagers' bodies were piled in an open space outside the settlement.

Fires raged, and black smoke billowed.

"Looks like the attackers have left."

"No, wait a moment."

Lynn pulled Letho down, and they lay prone in the half-grown wheat field.

Before long, a troop of riders appeared on the road to the right of the village.

They wore leather armor and carried no banners, but the shields strapped to their horses bore the Kaedwen standard.

"Are those Kaedwen soldiers?"

Far from relaxing, Lynn remained hidden in the wheat field.

Due to King Henselt of Kaedwen, the entire nation, from top to bottom, held immense malice towards non-human races.

And in the eyes of many, witchers were also considered non-humans.

Therefore, Lynn had no intention of revealing himself.

If he and Letho were to walk out, this troop of Kaedwen soldiers might mistake them for the perpetrators who had murdered these villagers.

At that point, they would have no way to explain themselves.

It was better to remain hidden in the wheat field and wait for the soldiers to assess the situation and leave before emerging.

Lynn exchanged a meaningful glance with Letho.

Letho was much older than Lynn and had encountered many more hardships and suffered more losses in society.

Lynn didn't need to speak; Letho already understood his meaning.

He, too, was unwilling to deal with these soldiers.

Because these soldiers were accustomed to oppressing common folk, this undesirable habit often extended to witchers as well.

It truly was strange how humans behaved.

Logically, work should not be divided by status, nor labor by worth.

Yet, some people, upon seeing those engaged in low-tier jobs, would involuntarily burst forth with a superior air, as if in their dictionary, low-tier individuals deserved to be humiliated.

If you have a high-paying job, stable employment, good salary, and it's easy, isn't that good enough? Do you really need to demean those in low-tier jobs, saying "it's your fault for not studying hard, so now you're stuck with lowly work," just to feel satisfied?

Letho was no White Wolf.

And this was the perfect place to kill someone and dispose of the body, out in the wilds.

While he wouldn't indiscriminately kill innocents, he couldn't guarantee he'd control himself if those soldiers started pushing him around.

Better to remain hidden in the wheat field.

Lynn and Letho lay silently in the wheat, and the Kaedwen soldiers didn't notice the two men.

Initially, both assumed the soldiers would soon depart.

But the ugly events that unfolded next surpassed their expectations:

The soldiers dismounted at the village entrance.

One soldier watched the horses, while the others entered the village.

Before long, cries and shouts echoed from within.

Lynn and Letho exchanged glances, seeing the same expression on each other's faces.

Yet, neither made a move.

They continued to lie in ambush in the wheat field.

Until the soldiers who had entered the village drove out over a dozen villagers.

When Lynn saw the villagers' pointed ears, he instantly understood everything.

When they had first arrived at the village, the villagers' bodies had already been burned to charred remains by the fire, making identification difficult.

But as the soldiers drove the villagers out, it became clear that all of them were elves.

This meant that this village was, in fact, an Elven settlement within Kaedwen.

"It wasn't bandits at all," Letho instantly realized. "It was these Kaedwen soldiers who attacked the village, killed the villagers, and then piled their bodies together to burn them."

"After they left, they probably thought there might be people still hiding in the village, so they sent these men back to search."

Even though Letho had lived in the South for most of his life, he knew how miserable the non-human races' plight was within Kaedwen.

But even with what he'd heard, Letho had only assumed it meant non-humans had to pay more taxes, and were forbidden from better professions, relegated to only lowly ones, and so on.

He never imagined that the Kaedwen people would actually slaughter the non-human races within their own country.

Did the King of Kaedwen not know that even non-human races were still labor, and as long as they were labor, they were beneficial to the country?

Guessing what the soldiers would do to the elven civilians next, Lynn gave Letho a throat-slitting gesture: "Let's go, Letho."

"You're going to save them?" Letho looked at Lynn, surprised.

"If I hadn't seen it, fine, but since I have, and I have the ability to help, I naturally will. But first, we need to ensure they can't escape… See those horses?" Lynn gestured with his chin towards the lone soldier guarding the horses at another point near the village entrance.

Letho nodded silently.

"The enemy guarding those horses is yours. If anyone tries to steal a horse to escape, you're also responsible for stopping them. Leave the rest to me."

"Understood."

Letho did not try to dissuade him.

A mere dozen soldiers; he alone would be enough to kill them all, let alone with an extra helper now.

Experts who disliked witchers often slandered them as emotionless monsters.

But in truth, witchers felt far more deeply than humans.

For example, witchers never killed pregnant women or children, yet Kaedwen soldiers would laugh as they cut open the bellies of pregnant elves.

It was only the cold, harsh reality that led witchers to encounter setbacks and feel disheartened time and again, slowly teaching them "realism."

But now, with Lynn's command, Letho was naturally happy to comply.

Lynn took out a Superior Swallow and a Superior Raffard's Decotion, handing them to Letho.

While Letho's strength, coupled with the alchemical bombs Lynn had prepared for him, made it unlikely he'd be injured, it was always better to be safe than sorry.

Swiftly, the two split up.

Letho headed towards the soldier guarding the horses alone.

Lynn advanced towards the village.

As the two moved, the soldiers drove the villagers to the back of a house, loudly ordering them to line up.

Any villager who moved slowly or didn't cooperate was immediately beaten by the soldiers.

The soldiers, armed with spears and swords, formed a semicircle, surrounding the villagers.

.....

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