Lann was riding on the horse holding Ciri, and with their cloaks on, they looked like a big griffin holding a little griffin.

The little griffin was holding a rapier in its arms. Lann looked at Ciri with amusement as she couldn't let go of the sword after regaining it and said with a smile: "Don't lose the Swift again."

The roadblocks created by the warlocks were quickly cleared by more than a thousand people. Lann talked to his retainers and comrades one by one, accepted their salutes, and then gave a simple speech to the soldiers present to boost morale.

After temporarily dealing with the Nilfgaardian pursuers, although the group was full of energy and morale, the main force of the Nilfgaardians was still in Cintra. The group did not dare to stay there for too long and continued to run northward.

In this regard, Kratz an Klett, the "Wild Boar of the Sea", has a different opinion.

"You should have come with me to Skellige with Ciri, Lann. We are family."

Kratz solemnly admonished. When Ciri was a child, she often went to Skellige Island for vacation, and the young Lann before she was time-traveled often went there with her. Although the relationship between Skellige and Lann was not as close as that between Skellige and Ciri, they were still family after all.

When faced with the crisis of national destruction, the Clet family, to which Kratz belongs, and the Tursek family, to which Easter belongs, would lend a helping hand without any political considerations, simply because of "family."

Lane sincerely refused: "We will indeed need Skellige's help, Kratz. But not in this form." Interestingly, he is about the same age as Kratz's son, but he and Kratz are of the same generation.

"If we leave now, Cintra will be destroyed immediately. Nilfgaard is fighting on multiple fronts, relying on the overwhelming numbers in a short period of time to catch us off guard. But if they want to occupy the entire territory of Cintra, their forces must be dispersed again and again, and this will be a protracted war. Only Ciri and I can unite the scattered Cintra and preserve the last spark of Cintra."

Lann said solemnly: "If I run away now, I will be sorry to my aunt and to Cintra."

Lann is confident in preserving the last spark of Cintra, firstly because of Brokilon's unique geographical location, and secondly because in the near future, a great war will break out in the North to defeat the Nilfgaardian invasion of the North.

Even at that point in the original novel, when Ciri disappeared and was even rumored to be dead, Cintra, which had lost its legitimate heir and had become a mess, still stubbornly resisted Nilfgaard for a whole year and had not yet completely fallen.

Afterwards, the Nilfgaardians would sign a peace treaty with the Northerners, and Cintra would be ceded to Nilfgaard in name only as a vassal state. The Cintra people, who had waited in vain for the royal army, gradually gave up resistance and eventually became a province of Nilfgaard.

Now, Lane believes things will be very different than they were then.

At this time, Lann had already learned the news of Calanthe's death from the Skellige people. What surprised him was that Easter was still alive, and that Kurtz and his party had actually followed his original advice and split off from the main force, which allowed them to arrive in Cintra at this point in time and change part of history.

According to the original plot, Easter should have died in that battle, while Calanthe was seriously injured and was brought back to the capital by Mossak, but after failing to recover, he jumped off the building and died for his country.

At least one person was saved now. But according to Kurtz, Ester's current situation was of no help to Cintra. Moreover, Ester's situation was special. For Cintra, he was more like the "queen". After Calanthe's death, his cohesion with Cintra was not even as strong as that of Lann, who was born in the royal family.

Kurtz could only sigh after hearing what Lann said. As the head of the family, he could fully understand Lann's thoughts: "But if it really comes to a critical moment, you must not be stubborn. Skellige will always be your safe haven."

After he finished speaking, he looked at Ciri, who had fallen asleep in Lann's arms after crying over the news of Calanthe's death. "But, at least let me take Ciri away. It's too dangerous for her to stay in Cintra..."

Lann shook his head and looked towards where Geralt was. "I have my own priorities and will not put Ciri in danger. But she has a safer place and more important things to do."

Kurtz stared at Lann's lion eyes for a long time, trying to find some sincerity, until he got goosebumps and turned his eyes away.

"You can't see anything in your eyes... I don't know how you became like this. But I believe you won't harm Ciri."

Kurtz hesitated for a moment, then suddenly said, "Lan... have you become a demon hunter?"

Lan nodded, and Kurtz's expression became more complicated.

Now the total number of demon hunters in the north and south may be less than 20, and the number is still decreasing. Many people have no idea that there is such a group of people who make a living by exorcising demons on the continent. Instead, those countries that are extremely hostile to non-human races or try their best to discredit demon hunters remember the demon hunters the longest.

As the head of a big family, Kurtz is familiar with the existence of witchers in Skellige, a place where magic flourishes. He also knows the price of becoming a witcher.

"Perhaps you can better protect the country in the current situation." Kurtz patted Lann's shoulder with a heavy heart and said, "When you come to Skellige, I might be able to introduce you to a friend. He is also a demon hunter, very strong, and he likes to play Gwent..."

…

Lann and his party hurriedly marched through the forest path, and they met many refugees along the way. They were attracted by the armor and three lions of Cintra. Although the Nilfgaardians had not yet arrived here, people had heard the news of the fall of the capital, and many of them lived in the southern part of the country and had seen the Nilfgaardian cavalry.

Lann's team continued to expand, and when they arrived in Brokilon a few days later, the mayor Luca, who thought that a large enemy army had arrived, was organizing the soldiers in the town to guard and prepare for a fight to the death.

Behind Lan were soldiers and refugees, almost the same number as the entire town, with complicated expressions in their eyes.

After recognizing that the princess and all the members of the Lannister family, including Lann, were among the crowd in front of him, the mayor hurried out to apologize.

The old mayor glanced at Lan's lion eyes and then lowered his head, not daring to look again: "My Lord Earl, there have been rumors. I thought you had... Anyway, welcome back to Brokilon."

Lann had a good impression of the old Brokilon man. He helped him up as he was about to salute him and comforted him, "Thank you for taking care of my territory during this period of time. You can see what's happening behind me now—"

Lan pointed behind him and said, "This will be the place where Cintra will be revived in the future. But before that, they need to be settled here."

Luca nodded at first, but his face looked embarrassed.

Lann patted the other person on the shoulder after seeing this: "I know that the town can't accommodate so many people, and can't even provide for them. Don't worry, they just need to spend some time in the camp set up nearby, and the war will soon turn around.

During this period of time, your task is to manage them together with my butlers. After all, you are more familiar with Brokilon."

The embarrassment on Luca's face disappeared immediately after hearing this. He smiled modestly and said, "You are joking, Lord Earl. During the time when you were away... Mr. Ens often came here. He brought a lot of resources from the capital. I can't say that I am more familiar with Brokilon than he is."

Lann looked back at the old butler in surprise, and Ens humbly returned the greeting. When Lann was away, the old butler had been working hard to build Brochelon, the last territory of the Lannister family. Since Ciri was nominally the manager here, the princess's territory could also receive more resources.

Many supplies, weapons and even injured craftsmen eliminated from the battlefield were moved here. Even Calanthe condoned this behavior. Brokilon was no longer the same as it used to be. It even had the flavor of a small country castle.

Walking on the street, Lan looked at the town of Brokilon, which was completely different from what he remembered. He sighed in his heart, but he noticed that there were no people here. There were no voices in the decorated houses, and there were no women or children on the streets.

Lann frowned: "Where are the people here?"

Luca looked at Lann's expression and suddenly realized: "You don't know yet... a lot of things happened in Brokilon when you were away. In order to prevent the destruction of war, we moved all those who were unable to fight into the Brokilon Forest..."

"Wait a minute..." Lann interrupted, "Does Esna agree that you can go directly into the forest to take refuge?"

Luke nodded. "Like I said, a lot has happened in Brokilon."

Brokilon Town, Lord's Mansion.

As Lann listened to Luca's report on the relationship between the tree elves and the townspeople of Brokilon during this period, his eyes became more and more weird.

"Our hunters are allowed to go into the forest to hunt and set up camps at designated locations. Hunters can hunt during the day and rest in the camps at night, which has improved everyone's lives a lot... The shelters that the townspeople built to avoid the war were built around these camps."

"Our craftsmen and women and children who have more free time would make some items to exchange with them. Although this often led to scolding from the tree spirits, who thought we treated them as barbarians, they are just a civilization different from ours. In order to prevent conflicts, we later let the children trade with them..."

Lann suddenly interrupted and asked, "Have the townspeople allowed the child to enter Brokilon alone to find the tree spirit without anyone to supervise him?"

Luca nodded and said, "At first, some naughty children took things from home into the forest to play, but when they came back, they brought back a small piece of gold. After the news spread among the neighbors, it became more and more strange. It was said that there were generous magic elves in the forest who would reward smart and innocent children. The children at the entrance of the village even started singing related nursery rhymes. At first, we wanted to stop those who wanted to take advantage of the children and disregarded their lives..."

Lan's eyes turned dangerous: "What happened next?"