Cintra and Skellige became staunch allies due to the love between Calanthe and Ester. Ciri's mother Pavetta and father Duny often took Ciri to Skellige for vacation when Ciri was young, and also visited the islands as members of the royal family to exchange friendships.

It was Kratz who was responsible for the entire reception of Pavetta and her husband and Ciri.

However, when Ciri and her family were about to leave after their vacation, a storm appeared on the sea. The experienced Kratz tried to keep them for a while to wait for the weather to clear, but Ciri's father Duny insisted on going out to sea. Eventually, they encountered a raging storm at sea, and the entire ship disappeared in the sea. Only Ciri, who stayed on the Great Skellige Island, escaped.

Kratz firmly believed that it was his fault, and if he had stopped it more firmly, perhaps the disaster could have been avoided. He once confessed in front of Calanthe and wanted to commit suicide to apologize, but Calanthe forgave Kratz, so Kratz swore to the mountains and the sea that he was willing to sacrifice his life to protect Ciri.

The above is the bond between Kratz and Ciri, but Lann knows that there is a sinister conspiracy behind it.

First of all, Ciri’s father is fake - that’s not the case, we can only say that his name and identity are fake, and he is a fraud in marriage.

The man who used the alias "Prince Doni" was actually named "Emhyr var Emreis". He was a prince in distress who was exiled because of a coup. Now he is the Emperor of Nilfgaard who has unified the entire south and is about to sweep across the north.

…

Lann has always been wary of the Warlock Brotherhood in the North because he has the blood of the Ancients. In addition to the Wild Hunt who created the Ancient Blood, lost the Ancient Blood, and now wants to regain the Ancient Blood, many ambitious humans also hope to seize the power of the Ancient Blood.

Among them was Viggo Fortz, a current member of the Wizarding Council, a man who was ranked high enough to be in the top 3 among warlocks on the continent, and who could even be at the top of the warlocks in terms of comprehensive combat power.

In the current battle, Lann has fought with the opponent many times, either openly or secretly.

Because of Isilini's prophecy, everyone knows that the blood of the ancients is the power to save the world. But as everyone knows, prophecies and proverbs can be misinterpreted.

Therefore, in the interpretation of some people, the blood of the ancients changed from "the power to save the world" to "the strongest power in the world", and was finally understood as "the power to rule the world if obtained."

Viggoforts was a man of extraordinary talent, having reached the pinnacle of warlocks before he was a hundred years old, but he was ambitious and sought even greater power. After he had his own "understanding" of the power of the Ancient Blood, he searched through the books and confirmed that the Ancient Blood existed in the royal family of Cintra.

At that time, Calanthe had already made a name for himself, and Cintra was on its way to becoming a military power. This was not something Viggofortz could accomplish on his own, so he made a careful plan.

Vigfortz first found Prince Emhyr, who was exiled and cursed because of usurping the throne, and confirmed that this prince in distress was a "chess piece" that could be cultivated. So he secretly taught Emhyr how to remove the curse: go to the forest around Cintra, save the King of Cintra who was in danger at the time, and use the ancient "Law of Accident" to designate the King's daughter Pavetta, who he did not know he had, as a reward.

Fourteen years later, Emhyr returned to Cintra, and by fate, he began to have a tryst with Pavetta, and made her pregnant with his child, Ciri. At Pavetta's marriage selection banquet a year later, Emhyr confronted Calanthe under the alias "Prince Doni".

Looking back at the marriage selection banquet now, it can be said that it was a gathering of many heroes: in addition to Emhyr, there was Dandelion who was invited to perform, Geralt who was asked to be Dandelion's bodyguard, Easter who brought Kratz to propose marriage, and Mossak who followed Easter to join in the fun.

After a series of twists and turns, this marriage selection banquet entangled the fate of Geralt and Ciri, made Mossak decide to stay in Cintra to teach the newly awakened Ancient Blood, made Calanthe and Easter fall in love, and also allowed Emhyr, under the alias of "Prince Doni", to marry Pavetta.

So the time goes back to when Ciri is born, and Pavetta and Prince Doni's family are preparing to return to Cintra after their vacation in Skellige. At that time, Vilgefortz feels that the time is ripe, and he passes on the prophecy that he misinterpreted to Emhyr, so that the usurped prince believes that his wife Pavetta and daughter Ciri can help him regain the throne and unify the world.

Then came the storm at sea. Vigfortz promised Emhyr that the family would be teleported back to Nilfgaard in the storm, but Pavetta was keenly aware of something, and she secretly left young Ciri in Skellige, and Emhyr did not discover this until they set sail. In the end, Pavetta accidentally fell into the sea and died in the storm. Emhyr returned to Nilfgaard alone. Although he did not have the power of the ancient blood, he still relied on himself to regain the throne step by step and quickly expanded the empire.

…

"What!"

In order to explain the whole story to Kratz, Lann went to a secluded place and repeatedly asked Kratz to calm down. But Kratz still screamed, which made the busy sailors nearby look at him.

The truth was too shocking, but fortunately Kratz was already a mature clan leader and did not say anything that would reveal the secret. Even so, it took him more than a dozen breaths to calm his avalanche of emotions back to normal.

"I'm sorry, Lann, the news you said is really too shocking." Kratz paced on the spot anxiously, "Donnie is Emhyr? This is really..."

After a while, Kratz turned back suddenly and asked: "Does Ciri know about this?"

Lann shook his head: "How should I tell her? 'Ciri, your father is actually still alive, but his previous identity was fake, and he killed your mother, and now he has killed your grandmother and massacred your country. So even if he is your father, we are going to kill him, and we hope you can join me.' How do you want me to tell her such a thing?"

Not to mention a little girl, even Kratz was silenced by Lane's long string of words that were too full of information.

"But Ciri...she has to know eventually."

"I will tell her, but... I haven't figured out how to organize the words and what kind of opportunity to look for."

Lan said sincerely: "Kratz, I told you this today just because I hope you will no longer feel guilty about Princess Pavetta's death. It was not your fault, but a heinous conspiracy."

Kratz felt that today was the day he had been silent for the longest time. The last time was the day he learned that Pavetta had died at sea.

“No, Lann. You are wrong.” Kratz suddenly shook his head. “Donnie was disguised as Emhyr. He was a villain. I did not see through his evil disguise. I once treated him with all my heart and regarded him as my brother. I once cried for his death and felt so guilty that I wanted to commit suicide to comfort him.”

“I failed to see through his true colors. This is my fault. I handed Pavetta over to him, along with my ship and my crew. Pavetta’s death, the death of those brave sailors, and the torment of my conscience I have suffered all these years, all of this is due to Emhyr!”

Kratz patted Lann's shoulder and said, "Thank you for bringing me this news, Lann. But I will continue to atone for my sins and keep my oath to protect Ciri with my life. But at the same time, the Clet family of Skellige will fight to the death with Nilfgaard!"

Lan opened his mouth, but although Kratz's face was full of anger, it was also mixed with a sense of relief. It was the exhilaration of being able to swing the battle axe to his heart's content after throwing away the shackles.

So Lann didn't say anything more.

"You also mentioned a warlock named Vigfortz. He is actually the mastermind behind all this, right? He is plotting to obtain the Ancient Blood. Did he attack you?"

Lann nodded. "He has teamed up with the current Emhyr and sent assassins to kill me more than once, but I managed to stop them all. As for how to deal with him, I already have a plan in mind."

Kratz gritted his teeth and said, "Be sure to tell me when you kill him. I want the process to be slow and painful."

The sails were hoisted, and the sound of horns was heard in the distance. The servants of Cintra came to remind Lann that the gifts had been delivered to the heads of various tribes, and the luggage had been packed.

"Bon voyage, Lan." Kratz let go of Lan's shoulders and extended his right hand formally and solemnly, "See you later."

Lan nodded and reached out to shake Kratz's hand tightly.

…

An open space outside the military camp in the town of Brokilon, Sintra.

The ground was densely covered with vines, but upon closer inspection, one could find that they were connected to each other in a fairly regular pattern, outlining a huge magic circle. These vines would grow branches at regular intervals, holding up small pieces of gem fragments.

Mossak stood in front of the magic circle, which was a teleportation circle.

Advanced mages can master teleportation magic, but that doesn't mean they can travel anywhere. The size of the portal, the duration of maintenance, and the distance of teleportation all require the caster to constantly invest magic power to adjust and maintain.

Even within the North, senior warlocks had to go through several portals when traveling from their own countries to Thanedd Island to attend meetings.

Normally, Mossak would have to rely on the Oak Ring's special teleportation array to return to Skellige, not to mention that at this moment he was going to bring an entire army across the sea from Skellige back to Cintra.

Fortunately, spellcasters are good at using the power of heaven and earth to replace their own spellcasting, which is also the power of knowledge. By carving the magic circle, the consumption of spellcasting can be greatly reduced, and the various gem fragments that Lan En took from the Mirror Master are also excellent spellcasting materials.

"Counselor Mossak, it's almost time." The old butler Ens reminded him. He must be the first to greet Lann when he returns.

Mossak was also secretly estimating the time in his mind. Upon hearing this, he waved his hands and chanted a spell loudly.

A huge portal appeared in the air, and under the expectant eyes of the old butler, Lan walked out... supported by Ciri.

The lion of Cintra rubbed his temple with a headache. His [Teleportation] was similar to the magic of the warlocks, but he couldn't travel nearly a month to get back to Cintra on the mainland, so he had to use the portal.

"Welcome back, young master." The old butler knew Lan's habits very well, and smiled as he stepped forward to offer herbal juice to relieve dizziness. Although Lan felt that this was too delicate more than once, the old butler never got tired of it.

When Mossak saw Lann, a smile inevitably appeared on his serious face: "Welcome home, Lann. I have heard some of your achievements in Skellige. Vissekid knew that you and Ciri were coming back today, so he rushed back from the front line. You should be here soon."

Lan patted Ciri's head to indicate that he was fine, and said to Mossak, "Then let's go to my study. A lot of things have happened in Skellige, and I need to communicate with you. This will take a long time."

Mossak nodded as expected: "We also happened to report to you about the recent situation in Cintra."

…

Blochilon Town, Lord's Mansion, Study.

Lan, Mossak, and Vissekid sat in familiar seats. The old marshal was dusty and had obviously just dismounted. His whole body revealed fatigue. But his eyes were particularly bright, because during this period he truly felt the hope of Cintra's restoration. The vitality brought by this hope was incomparable to the time when he was stationed in Bruges.

Ens was the last to enter the house, because Lane had brought back a lot of new people, and the old butler in charge of internal affairs needed to properly accommodate them.

"Miss Yuna has chosen a residence near the lord's mansion. She is now going with the craftsmen of the Todaloch family to inspect our forging situation."

Yuna and her group did not come to Cintra by ship, but returned directly from the portal at Lan's invitation. Cintra is in urgent need of craftsmen, and the sooner they can be put into territory construction, the better. Lan can't wait for the transport ship to sail slowly on the sea for a month.

Yuna had no objection to this and even enjoyed it.

Lann has now confirmed Yuna's true identity, which is also an important role in the previous life game - a super armor blacksmith who can create master-level armor for players. In the absence of additional expansion packs and DLC, this is the highest-level armor that players can access.

Yuna's fate has been changed too much by Lann. Yuna is a member of the Todaloch family. In the original book, her family was destroyed by the ice giants. Because she no longer had the protection of her family and also to prove her forging skills, she began to travel around the continent.

However, the continent's contempt for women prevented Yuna from displaying her forging skills. She even had to find a dwarf with poor skills to push to the front of the stage for publicity, and she forged armor in the name of the other party's assistant. Only then did she get some business.

It wasn't until the player learned the truth and cleared Yuna's name that she burst into a brilliance that shocked everyone.

At this moment, Yuna is not yet the complete form that will stand at the top of the armor craftsmen in the future, but she is already much better than ordinary royal craftsmen, enough to preside over all the forging work in a kingdom by herself.

And her potential is more than that. This kind of talent is of great help to Sintra now.

"But from my observation, the Todaloch craftsmen brought by Miss Yuna are better at making armor, weapons, and ships. They are very unfamiliar with making siege equipment." The old butler said worriedly.

This makes sense. The pirates of Skellige have no need to attack the city, so they can only be considered to have "mastered" the skills of making corresponding equipment, but are far from being "proficient". However, this is also a bit greedy of Ens. Being able to obtain the help of an entire group of armor craftsmen can greatly alleviate Cintra's urgent needs.

"Mr. Gerd went to contact Mr. Reso and others, and Bill was arranged to be with House and me." Ens continued. As a new member of the lion group, he also took him very seriously and made proper arrangements for him.

"As for Nanomi... uh, miss." This is referring to the female night demon, "She doesn't seem to like towns. She wants to settle in the Brokilon Forest and even wants to meet the tree spirits."

When he said this, Ens's expression looked unnatural, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

Mossak unabashedly cast doubts, teasing, and even a little admiration at Lan, and even a sense of satisfaction that "the disciple is better than the master". He never thought that Lan would bring back a female night demon after visiting his hometown.

Lan En rubbed his temples and didn't want to explain any more: "Don't worry about her, the forest is the forest, let her be."

After the old butler sat down completely, Hardy, the familiar butler's grandson and Lane's personal butler, filled everyone's glasses.

Lann straightened his face and said, "What is the current situation in Cintra? I remember that before I left, Uncle Mossak was responsible for contacting the mercenary group in Kovir, and Ens was in charge of contacting the surrounding countries to purchase supplies. How is the situation now? And Marshal, is the war on the front line going well?"