After taking a breath, the messenger explained: "Sir Villiers has arrested the witcher who recently came to White Orchard. The Sir accused the witcher of kidnapping the beekeeper's child!

The knight will try the demon hunter in the name of the lord this afternoon, and requires all the people of White Orchard to serve as jury witnesses!"

…

White Orchard, underground cell.

A disheveled man was kneeling inside the fence. The ground was littered with broken and rotten hay, emitting a pungent stench.

He was tall and slender, but now he was exhausted, and from the bruises and several cuts on his face, it seemed that he had been beaten.

He is a demon hunter who came from faraway Nilfgaard, not for any political mission, but for his own school: the School of the Viper.

Demon hunters were once glorious. They once possessed countless advanced technologies, sophisticated alchemical equipment, and amazing school equipment, but with the passage of time, most of these have been lost.

This demon hunter accepted the task of finding the lost equipment blueprints from the school, hoping to create solid enchanted armor and weapons and revitalize the school.

Therefore, he traveled thousands of miles from the south to the north, and ran through countless places. He had completed most of his mission, and the lost blueprint had been found. Now he planned to find a town to rest for a while before returning home, but he didn't expect to encounter the boy's disappearance, and he was arrested as a suspect without any explanation.

In order to safely bring the equipment blueprints back to the school, he chose not to conflict with the local nobles, and willingly let his hands be bound by shackles, waiting for a fair trial.

"Demon Hunter, are you still awake? It's time to eat."

A childish voice sounded, along with the sound of knocking on a bowl as a greeting.

The man didn't move, his eyes were not open, but he still responded to the boy's arrival with a question:

"Is there anyone as young as you among the jailers at White Orchard?"

The boy looked at the witcher with his eyes closed curiously and said, "I'm not a jailer. I just came here to bring you food."

The boy hesitated for a moment, then asked in a slightly expectant tone: "I heard that you are a demon hunter, is that true?"

The man in the cell chuckled and confirmed, "They arrested me for this. You should have heard that they accused me of arresting a child, a child about your age."

The boy wrinkled his nose. "That's York Joan from the beekeeper's family. We played together before. But this wasn't you who did it, right?"

The man knelt in the cell and moved, as if he would never expect a child to say such a thing. Everyone he met these days thought he was guilty.

"The villagers declare me guilty, the lord declares me guilty, but you seem to think differently? What makes you think so, child?"

The boy bit his lip, put the food he brought for the prisoners on the side of the cage, hesitated and said:

"I've heard a poem by a poet, his name is Dan or something... He's a great storyteller and can sing beautifully. He sang about a very powerful warrior named 'White Wolf', and he said that was also a demon hunter!"

The boy's voice was cheerful as he looked at the man in the cage: "The demon hunter he was talking about is not someone like you... Do you also have yellow cat eyes? Can I see them?"

The man sitting in the cell frowned, caught off guard by the boy's request, and even felt it was ridiculous. He asked:

"Whose child are you? Your family actually let you in to deliver food to prisoners who have not yet been tried."

"Cat's eyes, show me your cat's eyes and I'll tell you!"

The boy had an expectant look in his eyes, as if he wanted to witness his little dream come true, but he didn't notice the expression of the man in the cage.

The man smiled maliciously: "You said you have heard poetry, so you think that demon hunters are not like me? No, no... people like me are real demon hunters!"

His eyes suddenly widened, and his amber eyes suddenly seemed like two beams of fire that lit up in the dark cell. Then he jumped up from his kneeling position and approached the edge of the cage, holding the railing with both hands and staring at the boy fiercely, his face was ferocious.

At first, the boy did not react to the actions of the person inside. He only felt the man in front of him flash before his eyes, and then he turned into a black shadow like a poisonous snake in the forest and pounced on him. A cold, terrible, and chilling aura enveloped him as he pounced.

The man's eyes were not as cute as the village cat's eyes. Instead, they were more like cold-blooded snake eyes without a trace of emotion.

"Ah!" The boy screamed and fell to the ground with his back facing the sky. He completely forgot that he was actually protected by the cell fence. He rolled out and crawled, shouting for the jailer to come and save him, causing a commotion.

After the boy walked away, the man with snake pupils returned to his expressionless and indifferent look. He squatted on the ground and meticulously picked up the bowl and rice that the boy had knocked over, then knelt back to his original place and closed his eyes to rest.

"The life of a demon hunter... is not worth longing for, nor is it worth worshipping, boy."

He whispered softly.

The boy ran away quickly, and then a jailer came running down, yelling at the man in the cell in a rough voice with a nervous look on his face.

"What's going on, demon hunter! What did you do to Leo?"

The man in the cage didn't move.

Seeing that the other party did not respond, the jailer seemed to shrink back, but then he immediately laughed viciously. He remembered that he was a jailer, and the bound hands of the man in the cell gave him courage.

"Ha, demon hunter, are you only capable of bullying children? I heard that you are warriors who can defeat griffins? I don't think that's that great."

As if to cheer himself up, the thin, sickly jailer kept muttering to himself, belittling the witcher, mocking his experience of surrendering and being imprisoned without a fight, and mocking his cowardly personality of not fighting back or retaliating in the cage.

Finally, the jailer laughed sinisterly: "As for me... I have always wanted to find a demon hunter to compete with."

The jailer took the chain from the rack nearby and was about to open the cage, wanting to teach this yellow-eyed monster a lesson.

At this moment, shouts suddenly came from the stairs, and soon soldiers came down, just in time to stop the jailer's next action.

"Sir Villiers wants to see the witcher. His trial has begun."

Facing the lord's guards, the jailer did not straighten up his bent back. He hurriedly put down the chain in his hand, turned around to open the witcher's cage, and roughly pulled the person out.

Proper inquisitions only exist in large cities, and White Orchard is an agricultural area that includes multiple villages. Although it can be considered rich, it certainly does not have a political venue of the same level as the inquisition.

So in order to make the trial more formal, Lord Villiers of White Orchard specially asked the beekeepers to build sheds and seats like those used for horse racing in the apiary of White Orchard Village, which is also where the "victim" works.

At this moment, Sir Villiers was sitting on an extra high chair, looking down at the villagers who were gathering here from afar.

This trial was the most arduous task for Sir Villiers, because he encountered a demon hunter he had never seen before. This was also the first time he "upheld justice" for his subjects and the first time he presided over a proper trial, so he attached great importance to it.

He was guarded by his own guards, not many in number, only about ten. After all, this place was next to the capital of Temeria, so there was no need to worry too much about safety.

After looking at it for a while, Sir Villiers said softly, "Butler."

A middle-aged man with a big belly came up immediately and bent over so that he could hear clearly what the Lord said.

"The Lion of Cintra, the Lord Lannister seems to be in White Orchard. Do you know about this?"

"Yes, sir." The butler rubbed his big belly, which made it difficult for him to bend over. "Some of the family guards seemed to have seen them appear at the White Orchard Inn. They must want to pay a visit to the king."

Sir Villiers nodded and held out his hand. The wine waiter beside him naturally had good eyesight and came forward to pour him wine.

"His Majesty Foltest doesn't seem to want to see him."

"Master, what do you mean?" The old butler's forehead was slightly sweaty, "We... ignore him?"

"Fool!" the Lord of White Orchard scolded, "He is an earl, how can he be so rude!"

The butler bent his waist even harder, and the fat on his belly almost squeezed out oil.

"Send the messenger to receive them, but don't arrange too high a standard. Just treat him according to the standard of a viscount... no, a baron. That should be enough to convey His Majesty's message and let him go as soon as possible."

"Of course, sir," the butler praised, "Your wisdom is unmatched. His Majesty the King will surely be pleased to have a subject like you."

Sir Villiers nodded and asked, "Have the guards gone to gather the people and travelers? I want merchants and bards."

The butler replied, "Of course, they are coming here in an endless stream. The travelers will spread your wise and fair judgment throughout the North. From now on, your surname will be preceded by the title of 'Justice' or 'Loving the People Like Sons'."

Sir Villiers drank the wine in the glass with satisfaction, and reached out again, asking the wine waiter to refill his glass while shouting to the guards beside him: "Where is that yellow-eyed freak? Why hasn't he brought him here yet?"

A guard ran over in a hurry, wiped his sweat and reported: "Sir, please wait a moment, we have... they are coming!"

Sir Villiers looked towards the line of defense the guard pointed to and saw the prisoner he was waiting for.

Then, he looked down at the villagers present. He had already ordered all the villagers to gather here to witness the trial, and although he was very unhappy that they were not all present, it was enough to satisfy his vanity.