[Chapter Size: 2300 Words.]

Third Person POV

Hengfors League.

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"You know... I've been thinking... was it right, what we did? Like... he killed his own brother and we helped him get rid of the ghost...", Ciri broke the silence as they were leaving Lord Abutec's lands in silence.

Geralt remained silent for a few seconds before sighing.

"It's not up to us to say whether it's right or wrong. We take the jobs and we need to stay neutral when hearing what really happened. Our job as witchers is to destroy monsters and evil creatures. Unfortunately, his brother became a monster who would have threatened everyone, even if that was caused by the younger brother's betrayal of the elder." he said.

Still, Ciri was a little conflicted as she looked at the kunai, hoping Madara would give his opinion, but he remained silent. And seeing this, Geralt continued.

"Ciri, I know you're a fair person, and that's the right way to be, but this is a bit complicated — it's not our problem. We can't afford to get involved. Do you want to stay here and try to fix this while we're dealing with a noble who surely has allies throughout this kingdom, not to mention the gold he possesses? While we are just travelers? Madara could kill them all, I know that well, but his identity would be exposed and that would bring us even more problems now. We hold a secret of his. He will surely wait for information from us to keep himself protected as well," Geralt replied after a short speech.

Ciri nodded in the end, even if a bit hesitant, but the girl said nothing else. She had to understand: there are things not worth getting involved in, even if they're wrong.

What could they do? Report him? Execute him? She herself didn't know how to answer.

And so they continued for a while until they found a place to camp. Geralt was eating, while Ciri rested her head on Madara's shoulder, looking at a scroll, when the latter's eyes turned back to the dark forest.

"We have company. Looks like our new noble friend won't let us go so easily. All signs point to him wanting to silence us for good," Madara said, looking into the forest, as Geralt dropped his food.

"He's still going to try to kill us?" Ciri seemed outraged. Not because she felt in danger, but because of the nerve with which that noble was acting.

"You want to take them out? They're definitely going to try to kill us," Madara commented, looking at Geralt, who nodded.

Ciri and Madara hadn't moved while sitting there in front of the fire. The men quickly began to advance, the torches starting to become visible in the middle of the forest along with the sounds of horses and their shouts.

"There! He's there! By a fig tree in the middle of the forest!" They seemed finally excited, while Madara could have finished them all, but didn't, because they were carrying a box toward them and he wanted to see it.

They finally appeared and the eight armed men were advancing directly at the witcher, who already had his sword in hand, in a fighting stance.

"He's already waiting for us! Come on, take him down! Don't kill him, just kill the boy!" they shouted.

As they stopped looking at the witcher and their eyes landed on the fire, they noticed a girl and a boy beside it. Ciri had her hair dyed, which confused them in the absence of the chubby boy — and they didn't even notice Geralt already preparing.

The witcher cast a sign quickly, sending a telekinetic blast toward the group with the horses, knocking several men to the ground, as he closed in and began cutting them down swiftly.

The sound of sword slicing through flesh mixed with screams quickly filled the area, as Geralt moved fast. The men fell into despair. The witcher had already eliminated half of them since knocking them down. The horses fled, and the men scattered, running in all directions through the forest.

The two by the fire remained silent, but Madara only intervened when Geralt was about to get hurt, seeing he had time to stop an attack from behind by the last surviving man. He simply threw a kunai, hitting the man in the neck. As he fell to the ground, Geralt looked at Madara and nodded in thanks.

Then, he saw a box among the men. He opened it and saw something shining: gold coins, more than they had been paid, along with a letter. He took the letter, furrowed his brow, and approached the two to hand it over.

"Take a look at this," Geralt said, approaching Madara.

Ciri was the one who took the letter and saw next to Madara that it was a trap from the noble, to keep them silent. Those men had been sent precisely to kill the witcher's companion and threaten him. At the same time, if it didn't work, they would leave the gold with him. That way, they could accuse him of theft of property along with the murder of eight guards, and he would be hunted throughout the kingdom.

A form of blackmail — obviously effective against a traveling witcher.

"That bastard! We should've let him rot with his brother's ghost!" Ciri immediately exclaimed.

"Well, looks like I'm going to have to pay him a visit," Madara said.

"Are you going to kill him?" Geralt asked, concerned.

"I know it'll draw too much attention, but there's another way to deal with him. I'll meet up with you starting tomorrow, so rest and keep going," Madara said, while performing a jutsu, beginning to create a small house with two rooms, just enough to fit in that area, so they could spend the night. He would return the next day to deactivate the jutsu.

After that, he simply left the clearing, heading straight down the road back to the mansion. He arrived before dawn. He wasn't in much of a hurry, since it didn't take long to get there.

Lucas Abutec suddenly found himself inside the crypt once again, seeing someone with red eyes in front of him.

"What?! Where am I, who are you?!" he immediately asked, heart pounding.

"You know... even after what happened here, I might've let you be. But after you sent those men... well, it's time to make you suffer for everything you did to your brother. And make it very clear who we are, before you think you can just blackmail us," Madara said calmly, as the noble opened his eyes, dazed, not knowing what was happening there or who that boy with red eyes was.

His screams began to be muffled inside the crypt in the next moment. Madara wasn't going to kill him, but he would make him suffer everything he caused his brother. Maybe he would never recover from it.

He returned to the forest a few hours later. He deactivated the house and found Geralt and Ciri standing with an extra horse, after taking one from the men who tried to kill them the night before.

They were looking at a convoy of completely destroyed wagons, with arrows stuck in the wood and especially in the corpses on the ground, already half-devoured and reeking.

Madara wasn't surprised to see carrion-eaters dead by the roadside, which Geralt and Ciri must have taken down as soon as they arrived there.

"Look at this, Madara. Seems like it was about four days ago," Ciri commented as Madara looked at the wagon.

"A group with arrows, full of human corpses... there's no doubt, it's the Squirrels," Madara said, thoughtful.

"Squirrels? Here?" Geralt asked, surprised to see them so far north on the continent.

"I found one of them when you were in the northernmost city. He matched the description perfectly. There's no doubt he was a Squirrel trying to reach our camp. Even if it was unintentional, I just scared him off..." Madara replied.

"And to think they're active here..." Geralt murmured.

"Obviously this has to do with Emhyr... and Francesca, of course." Madara said.

"Nilfgaard is still trying to weaken the North. His ambition to conquer these kingdoms didn't stop after what happened at Sodden... No wonder he's raising an army again," Madara added.

Geralt remained silent while Ciri seemed worried. Madara looked at her, thinking that perhaps the time had come to tell her the emperor was her father.

"They seem to have captured someone," Ciri let go of the thoughts about what Madara had said and kept investigating, then murmured as she saw the tracks on the ground near one of the wagons, the ground sunken as if someone had been dragged.

"That was probably a noble's wagon... I know there's a duke in this region who even commands nobles like Abutec and others. Could've been carrying someone important. Ciri, can you see, through time and space, what happened here?" Madara asked, and Ciri nodded.

She walked to the center of the place and began to meditate, screams starting to echo in her mind along with the sounds of battle, as her eyes opened, affecting the entire space in front of her. She saw the past of that place — one of her bloodline powers.

She saw the elves with arrows, killing men and guards without mercy as they searched for supplies in the wagons. A girl screamed that she was the duke's daughter and that they shouldn't touch her. She was dragged away by them as they argued whether to preserve or kill the girl. In the end, they took her into the forest.

Ciri returned to the present as she opened her eyes. Madara and Geralt hadn't witnessed anything she just did, but they already knew very well what she was capable of.

"They took her that way," Ciri pointed, and the three quickly found the tracks and moved into the forest.

"I'll handle this." Madara said and moved ahead into the woods.

An hour later, he found the site where the elf group had set up camp, busy with their chores, eating and seemingly pulling out gold from here and there to count it.

Madara looked calmly at the place and made a clone to send ahead. Five minutes later, it returned to him, bringing an unconscious young girl.

"Time to put an end to this." Madara said calmly, leaving the girl with the clone. He appeared in front of the camp and began forming hand seals, still unnoticed.

The elves, calmly going about their tasks and not even realizing their hostage was missing... suddenly began to hear a strange sound from below as the ground started to shake.

"An earthquake?!"

"Hey, what's going on?" shouts began to rise, filled with surprise.

This wasn't an enemy they could fight. At that moment, it seemed like nature itself was turning against them.

In the next instant, everything began to crack and plants started to rise from the ground, stunning everyone, who had no idea what was happening. The plants were gigantic, sprouting all over the camp, and began to open like flowers, even catching some elves within them, as they started to release some kind of gas.

The ones closest inhaled the gas and quickly realized it was a toxin.

Screams began to rise throughout the camp. It was a scene of terror among the elves, but they quickly began to fade as the toxin spread across the entire area. No one could escape, and they started dying one by one.

There were no children in the camp — it seemed to be an advanced outpost, meant only to control this part of the road. But men and women alike, everyone there had intended to kill any human who passed through.

Everything ended when silence took over the entire place, with all the elves dead.

Madara returned to the road, where Geralt, Ciri, and the young girl were waiting for him.

"You were quick..." Geralt commented — after all, it had only been two hours since Madara left and came back with a girl in overly noble clothes on his shoulder.

"We've already wasted too much time. I just went to deal with it," Madara replied.

"You handled them alone?" Ciri asked, and Madara nodded.

"You killed all of them?" Geralt murmured, a bit concerned.

"Did I have a choice? They don't let any human leave unless they're worth something. As we saw on the road, there's no reason to show mercy to those who have none..." Madara answered.

Without further discussion, they headed south again.

A search party came directly after the convoy while they were off the main road.

Madara, who had sedated the girl so she wouldn't know who they were, placed her in the middle of the road for the men to find. They quickly rushed to her, checking for injuries, shouting that she was the duke's daughter.

They placed her in a cart they had brought to treat her and went to investigate the fate of the convoy that never reached the city. They'd be surprised if they tracked the elves who were now a day's journey deep into the forest — or rather, what was left of them.

The group still avoided the main cities, and a week later, the three of them entered Redania, finally spotting the city they were seeking.

Yennefer was a bit uneasy. She hadn't received any news from them since they had left Kaer Morhen, and with everything happening in northern Kaedwen, she was quite worried. Still, she remained there, as they had agreed.

It was then that she heard someone step into the house where she was supposed to be alone. She quickly prepared herself, in case it was an enemy — but saw only Madara standing there with arms crossed.

"It's been a while," he said, opening a smile.

-------------Nexts Chapters ----------------

Chapter 229 - Horse Race.

Chapter 234 - A Pause for Truths.

Chapter 244 - Meeting the Giant of Skellige 03.

Chapter 252 - Searching for Vilgefortz 03.

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