This roar seemed to drain a lot of Lugo's energy. After venting his emotions, he began to breathe heavily.
After listening to the accusation of the madman Lugo, Easter was speechless.
The first half of his life was legendary and worth telling, and his story with Calanthe has fascinated countless people.
But to the islanders, to those who once supported him as king, East did owe it. That was why he was so persistent in seeking an honor that no one could find fault with, so that he could return to the throne - such as the previous plan to conquer the ice giants.
This plan, which seemed almost suicidal in the eyes of Lann, King Bran, and Kratz, was more like an explanation to his old friends for Easter.
Lugo took a few breaths, finally calmed down, and adjusted himself back to the face that was called "madman":
"I have said too much nonsense. Easter, since you have chosen the queen of Cintra, there is no place for you in Skellige."
"Kratz, even if East was here today, I would..."
A voice suddenly interrupted the madman Lugo's words.
That voice was not in the group that Crazy Lugo and his group were confronting at the moment.
"Hey, you, do you have any problem with my aunt?"
…
Being interrupted, Lugo, who was choked by his breath, turned red in the face, and his expression became even more ferocious.
He turned around angrily and was about to jump up, but he saw the blond knight wearing a griffin cloak at the place where the sound was just made.
The dark golden lion's eyes were flashing, and at the same time, the knight was moving his fists and feet secretly, as if preparing for a boxing match.
The faint howl of a bear could be heard in the air.
…
"Kratz, since Easter is here today, I won't bother with you! But the matter between us Drummond and Clayt will never be resolved!"
After uttering these harsh words, the current lord of the Drummond family left with his subordinates.
Looking at the madman Lugo walking away, the group had puzzled expressions.
Easter's family knew their own business, that is, when he was once the king of Skellige, the madman Lugo could give him the so-called "face".
And now that I am here, it might even intensify the conflict between Lugo and Kratz.
So, Easter's gaze slowly shifted to Lan.
…
The next person to look at Lan was Kratz. Over the years, he had defeated Lugo countless times on various occasions, but he had never defeated this madman. Every time they met, the other party would bite him like a mad dog.
This kind of situation where there is only threats but no actual fighting is really rare in the history of the two families' interactions.
…
Lann looked at the direction where the madman Lugo left with an unhappy expression. When he turned around, he saw the eyes of his cousin and uncle.
He smiled brightly like the sun: "I found some clues."
Business was important, and East and Kratz's attention was immediately drawn to Lann, who began to analyze what the group had gained from the ruins of the temple in Fulhala Village.
However, Lann did not tell the two about Alice's situation. He just said that he and others found traces of a giant bear attacking people, and then found the still rational demon spirit transformed from the attacked person, and then obtained relevant information.
"Aiglo Village?" Kratz clapped his hands. "As long as it's within the territory of Great Skellig Island, then everything will be easy."
Lann nodded: "This is the clue I got, so it should be my responsibility to continue tracking it down. But I need a guide, so Kratz needs your help."
For everyone, the clues obtained this time were a breakthrough.
The only question is whether there were any survivors of the giant bear's attack, and whether the survivors finally returned to their village.
Easter nodded and made arrangements: "Then we will split up into two groups. Lan, you go and follow up on the clues you got, and we will continue to search the nearby mountains. Since there are giant bears, the Vilka people must still have a tribe here, and they must have left traces that we can search further."
Lann also said: "I will leave my people to help you. You need manpower here. My servants and soldiers are all familiar with and respect you, and are willing to obey your orders. I only need to bring the demon hunters."
House was standing behind Lane, and upon hearing this, he immediately bowed to Easter.
Easter was worried about Lan's safety and seemed to want to add something. But he looked at the four pairs of amber eyes behind Lan, and thought of the fighting power Lan had shown so far, and finally chose to trust Lan.
Seeing that the plan had been finalized, Kratz reached out and called someone in the team.
This man had a typical islander appearance, with a beard and a strong body, but his temperament was not rough at all, but rather rigorous, which reminded Lane of his old butler, Ens.
Sure enough, Kratz then introduced him to Lan: "His name is Guslav, and he used to be my adjutant. After being injured in a battle, he followed the steward in my castle to learn some management matters and became a member of the steward group. He was soon second only to my steward. But he couldn't forget the life of holding a shield and an axe. So I will bring him out from time to time, and he will take you to Aigro Village."
Steward Guslav performed standard northern court etiquette towards Lann: "It is an honor to be your guide, Lord Lannister."
This serious look even made Lan, who had been in Skellige for some time, a little uncomfortable.
Lord Lannister took a deep breath and said, "It is my honor as well. I will leave the rest to you, Mr. Guslav."
…
Aigro Village is backed by mountains and faces the sea, and has very little connection with the outside world.
If you want to reach this village, you have to go over the hill and pass through a narrow mountain path where even water ghosts pass by from time to time.
Or use a more islander way, which is the way Guslav and Lan chose at this moment - taking a boat.
A small boat carrying five demon hunters and the butler sent by Kratz came to this rarely visited village. Before they reached the shore, villagers saw them from afar.
Lan and the others saw that the villagers suddenly became very excited, shouting something from afar and waving their hands.
"What are they talking about?" Gerd asked in confusion.
Everyone shook their heads.
Only Kolgrim narrowed his eyes and stared at the mouth shapes of those people from a distance:
"He's asking us to get to the shore quickly." The snake-faction witcher, who had experience as an assassin, could read lips. "He's also warning us: Be careful, there are... sirens in the sea?"
After hearing Kolgrim's translation, the expressions of the demon hunters suddenly changed.
They knew too well what would happen if a small boat encountered a mermaid on the sea.
The intelligence of sirens is not low. Compared with humans, they prefer to attack ships and can easily tear the vehicles under people's feet into pieces.
The demon hunters were still fully armed, with a lot of iron armor on their bodies. Except for Lann who could put his armor back into the [Inventory] at any time, the others would sink to the bottom as soon as they fell into the water.
Steward Guslav, who was born and raised on the Great Skellige Island, quickly comforted the demon hunters who had changed their expressions: "Don't worry, sirens usually only appear in places far away from human habitation. We are near the sea and will not be attacked."
This is true in theory, but when Lan and his friends looked at the panicked villagers, they felt that the anxiety on their faces could not be fake.
Fortunately, things finally turned out as Butler Guslav had expected. The Siren did not appear after all, and the group safely reached the shore by boat.
The villagers who were originally on the shore immediately gathered around, and seemed eager to check on these strangers who had rashly come to the village. A few villagers ran over here not far away, but they all had harpoons in their hands.
The islanders are warmhearted, but they are also extremely defensive. They are the kind of people who will ask you if you are okay when you are lying on the ground with an ax in hand. If you say you are fine, they will help you up; if you take the opportunity to think of something bad, the ax will fall.
After seeing the five pairs of strange eyes coming down from the boat, they tightened their grip on the harpoons.
But then they saw Guslav wearing a shield with three ships, so they put down their harpoons easily.
The crowd discussed in low voices for a few words, and soon an old but strong elder came forward and asked, "Mr. Guslav, I didn't expect you to come here in person, but there is still some time before the tax collection day, right?"
The person who spoke was the village chief, who was obviously familiar with the ancient Slavs, thus saving a lot of communication time.
"I am here with Lord Kratz's orders. I need to ask you something." Guslav stepped aside and said, "This is Lord Lann Lannister Rayanron, the Duke of Cintra."
The village chief bowed politely to Lan, but his eyes were still on Guslav.
Butler Guslav frowned and added, "He is Lord Kratz's cousin."
This time, the village chief showed an expression as if he had just woken up from a dream. He saluted Lan En again and made a gesture as if waiting for orders.
Lann smiled amiably at the old man. "I came from the north of the continent to visit my cousin. I've been visiting the Great Skellig Island recently. I heard some time ago that there were historic sites worth remembering in the village of Fulhalla, so I went to see them..."
Lane did not speak clearly about the matters of Svablo and the Velka Berserkers. These were not things that could be told to just anyone.
But Lann keenly observed that the old village chief's expression suddenly changed after hearing the name "Fulhala".
There is a problem.
Lan continued calmly: "We found a young man there who was seriously injured. He told me that he was from Aigro Village. He also told me that there were several companions who were traveling with him at the time, and perhaps they escaped."
At this point, Lann shook his head: "Unfortunately, he was seriously injured and died soon after. But until the end, he was still thinking about his companions and wondered if they had returned to the village safely."
Hearing Lann's words, the village chief did not answer immediately. Instead, he looked very embarrassed and began to talk about other things: "I don't know why Lord Lannister is interested in what happened in a small village like ours..."
Guslav took over Lann's words very smoothly: "This is what happened on the Great Skellige Island. Lord Kratz was very concerned and sent me to find out the details. Lord Lannister is kind-hearted and hopes to fulfill the warrior's last wish."
"So did any of your young people go to Fulhala Village some time ago? Did anyone come back afterwards?"
The village chief's expression suddenly changed several times and he began to hesitate.
Guslav glanced in Lan's direction with some concern, frowned, and scolded the village chief without being polite: "Yes, yes, no, no, tell me!"
…
"have."
The affirmative answer came, but it was not from the village chief, but from Lan, who was standing behind the butler Guslav.
His lion eyes lit up slightly, and everything in the village turned into a distorted gray in his eyes.
However, in this dim world, there are wisps of red pheromones floating around. These are the pheromones recorded by the demon hunters in Fulhala Village.
This shows that someone did return to the village after being attacked by the giant bear.
In addition to Lann, the other demon hunters also captured this information accurately. They passed the village chief and villagers and headed in the direction indicated by the red fog.
But Lan En and his companions did not expect that the direction the red fog would eventually lead to was not the interior of the village. They passed through Aigro Village and arrived at a small wooden house about 100 meters away from the village.
This wooden house seemed to be excluded by the whole village, standing alone here. Next to the wooden house was a small dock with a shabby boat tied to it with ropes.
Lan knocked twice on the door, but after waiting for more than ten breaths, there was still no response.
Losing his patience, he broke into the room.
…
What appeared before my eyes was a typical fisherman's hut. There was no furniture, only a tattered bed and a fishing net, a homemade fishing rod, simple tableware, and a few shells that had been pried open and cleaned.
There was no one there, and there were messy clothes on the floor. It seemed that the owner of the house was not very good at cleaning up.
Lane also noticed that the house, although run-down, appeared to have been briefly renovated not long ago.
Geralt looked around with glowing eyes. "The smell ends here. He's obviously cleaned himself up inside the house, getting rid of the blood and other smells."
"There's no wine, no blood, no spices or anything else with a strong smell. The only strong smell is seafood, but this village is full of seafood. We can't track him with our senses alone."
"No, that's enough. Just confirm that someone has indeed come back. Then someone else will give us an answer." Lann said.
He turned his head and looked at the village chief who was forcibly brought here, and Guslav who had a grim expression on his face behind the village chief.
"The one following Lord Lannister is a witcher master. They know everything! Do you think it will be helpful if you keep silent?" Guslav scolded the village chief loudly, "Who lives here? Why did you hide him from Lord Lannister?"
"Hurry up and tell me!"
The village chief's face turned pale and blue several times before he finally sighed and spoke.
…
The owner of the house is called Bill.
Like most villages near the sea on the island, Aigro Village relies on fishing for a living. However, unlike those villages, Aigro Village is located in a remote area and is often invaded by monsters.
There are water ghosts and drowned ghosts, but these small monsters are not so bad. The villagers can go out to sea in groups of three or five and barely deal with them with harpoons.
But what really troubled the fishermen was another kind of monster - the Siren, also known as [Hekna].
This monster is considered to be a close relative of the harpy. In addition to the ability to soar in the air, it can also swim underwater, posing a deadly threat to any ship.
For this reason, the fishermen in Aigro Village live an extremely poor life.
Or, they had to risk their lives fishing near the village, and they had to return home at the slightest sign of trouble, with little catch at the end of the day;
Otherwise, they would have to travel through mountains and rivers to a more populated area where there were fewer monsters - but not only would this take a lot of time on the road, there would also be many fishermen in populated areas, and who would want people from other villages to come and steal their catch?
Every generation of village chief has a headache about the lives of the villagers and the development of the village. If it were not for objective reasons, the village chief would even have thought of relocating the village.
Until a person appeared.
This person is the owner of the house where Lane and the others are staying - Bill.
…
"Every time Bill goes out to sea, he can get many times more than others. Sometimes he alone is worth an entire village." The old village chief said hesitantly.
"Later, some fishermen came to him to ask for advice, but he refused to tell them and only invited others to go out to sea with him." The old village chief was clearly talking about something happy, but he still sighed after each sentence, "So, everyone who went out to sea with Bill was able to return with a full load."
Lan En looked at the village chief's expression and said, "The poor villagers have had their lives improved, and there are capable young people in the village. Shouldn't this be something to be happy about? But why don't you sound happy about the improvement of the village?"
Cohen looked at the dilapidated house and asked, "Why would a young man who improved the village with his own efforts live in a place like this? Not only is it far away from people, but the house is also so dilapidated. It doesn't look like he has much wealth."
Kolgrim looked at the tattered clothes he had taken off on the ground. "And why did he climb to the top of the mountain with others? After saving his life and running back to the village, why did you hide his existence from us?"
The village chief was silent again.
Guslav was furious when he saw this. He felt that the people of Great Skellige had lost too much face in front of Lan today and it was not honorable at all.
"Didn't you hear the questions from Lord Lannister and the witcher masters? Speak now!"
The village chief moved his lips a few times, and finally held his head in his hands as if in resignation, and lamented.
"Although Bill has been going out to sea with his companions, he has never told us his secret of avoiding monsters. We are very curious, but we don't want to force him too much, so we arranged for people to take turns to monitor him..."
The demon hunters except Lann chuckled in unison, as if they were not surprised at all by this situation.
And Guslav's face looked even worse.
The village chief glanced at Lan and the others and continued, "Until we waited until one night and saw Bill sneak out and slaughter the fish he caught during the day by the moonlight on the beach."
"He was bleeding and throwing food into the sea without paying attention to anyone else, and he was also singing something like a ballad with a weird melody."
The faces of Lane and his group suddenly became serious. Thinking about the information they had collected before and combining it with Bill's behavior, an idea emerged in their minds.
"Is this Bill using the fish caught at sea for a blood sacrifice? Is he a follower of Svalblod?" Ged exclaimed.
The village chief fell to his knees before Guslav. He knew all too well what it meant to worship Svablo in Skellige.
"No, no, even if the whole village is in ruins, we can't do such things as worshiping evil gods!" The village chief hurriedly explained to the housekeeper of the Clet family, worried that the other party would misunderstand.
Guslav was about to pull out the axe, but he forced himself to hold it back, but his hand was still on the axe handle.
"Then tell me, why did your capable Bill throw the fish he had caught with great difficulty into the sea at night?"
The village chief got up from the ground tremblingly. After learning that Bill had a secret operation that night, he also followed him to the beach.
Even now, when he recalls that scene, he still finds it indescribable... weird.
"I saw something swimming out of the sea after Bill sang that strange song."
"That's a mermaid."
The village chief covered his head and said, "I originally thought that Bill had mastered some method of taming monsters. But then I saw them cuddling, hugging, kissing, and even more intimate actions. This was far from the kind of relationship we imagined..."
"hiss--"
Lan En suddenly heard a sound of gasps behind him.
Looking back, I saw that Kolgrim and Cohen both had expressions of disbelief, and even a little envy.
Even the knowledgeable Geralt and Gerd had expressions of amazement at this moment.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
