"Damn it, you witch and sorcerer hiding behind your back! Do you know how long I have been waiting for you like a damn fool, Wei..."

The man on the other side of the voice box stopped the Tawny Owl from calling out his name.

"That's enough, sir."

"Damn it!" Stephen was not as angry as he showed, but he needed to show his anger. "You are like an old, fat spider, hiding in the dark, waiting for the moment when the spider web trembles. Now not only do you not show your face, you are even too lazy to make a sound on time?"

"That's a sad metaphor, Tawny Owl." The voice on the other end of the voice box turned cold.

"Enough of the small talk, Warlock." Tawny Owl's tone was still harsh. "As we agreed, we need to meet!"

"Of course, as we agreed..."

As the words came out of the voice box, a fiery red portal suddenly exploded in front of the group of Tawny Owls, and a strong wind swept in all directions with it as the center.

The Grey Owl was impatient and rushed in first, followed by Nilfgaardian officers, spies, and soldiers.

Until finally only two people were left: bounty hunter Leo Bonnard and psychic Kenna.

"Ladies first." Bonnard laughed sinisterly, seeming to be afraid of this teleportation magic that could take one to an unknown place.

"That's not what's in your mind, hunter." The beautiful psionicist looked at the bounty hunter with disgust and disappeared into the portal.

Bonnard did not respond to the psionicist's provocation. He wiped the necklace in his hand, looked at the portal and muttered to himself:

"Geralt the White Wolf, Lannister the Lion, and many other witchers..."

The bounty hunter showed a smile that was even greedier than the bounty he had seen, and then he shook the necklace he had been wiping in his hand.

In front of the portal, the three necklaces were vibrating violently, and the animal heads used as decorations on them were shining brightly. Without looking closely, one could tell that they were wolves, cats, and griffins.

…

The eyes were shrouded in darkness for a moment, and then suddenly brightened. When the vision became clear, the gray forest owl found himself in an ancient castle. Through the window, he could see the gloomy sky outside and the waves hitting the coast.

They came out of one portal, but there was another one in front of them.

"Enter the portal in front of you again, and you will be able to see me." A voice came from the voice box, "Only you, the others stay."

"What do you mean, warlock?"

"My current identity is not suitable for too many people to know, Tawny Owl. Your emperor will agree with this."

The soldiers of the Empire were still hesitating, but the bounty hunter Bonnard had already laughed. He strode to the long table on the side, which was already filled with a variety of barbecue, fruits, and fine wine.

"I've begun to like that warlock, Tawny Owl." He sat down with a pair of dead fish eyes showing surprise, "It's a pity there is no vodka."

The Grey Owl glanced at the bounty hunter, stared at the three witcher badges on his chest for a while, and then waved to the soldiers he brought with him.

"Rest here and wait for me to come back."

After saying that, without waiting for others to react, he stepped into the second portal.

With a "boom", when the vision in front of him became clear again, the Turtle Owl discovered that the portal behind him had disappeared. It was obvious that the person who cast it was determined not to let others follow.

Looking up, the Tawny Owl finally saw the purpose of this journey, one of the most powerful warlocks in the north and a member of the Wizarding Council - Viggo Fortz.

But these titles representing magical achievements were meaningless to someone with a title, not to mention that Grey Owl was serving in the Empire.

He was too lazy to show any good face to Viggofortz, especially when he saw that he was still flirting with his female assistant, his mood became even worse.

"I didn't come all the way here to see you guys fall in love, sorcerers!" cried the Tawny Owl. "Or are you performing some kind of sorcerer trick? Mind-reading, or teleportation?"

Vigfortz and his female assistant Lydia frowned together.

"Be careful what you say, Tawny Owl," Vilgefortz said slowly, "You are the one who is asking me for a favor."

"Helping me is also helping yourself. His Majesty promised you a governorship that would allow you to ascend to the top in one step, but if you cannot give him what he wants, then all your efforts over the past few decades will be in vain and you will get nothing."

The Tawny Owl looked at the warlock and his female assistant, and was not willing to give up the flirting they had shown before. "What are you talking about? Is this why you wasted my time and made me wait so long?"

"Do you know how valuable my time is and how urgent the situation is?"

Viggofortz frowned, and the atmosphere in the room suddenly became heavy. A silent aura enveloped the gray forest owl.

The imperial coroner suddenly felt as if his heart was being gripped by an invisible hand, and his head felt like it was being stabbed by needles, causing maddening pain.

"My assistant and I were talking about an apprentice. Lannister discovered his magical talent, and by some strange coincidence he ended up learning magic under my command. It was said that Lannister had specifically ordered him to do so."

Looking at the Tawny Owl gasping for breath in front of him, Vigfortz smiled and began to explain: "I thought he might be able to play a role in our operation, so I discussed it with my assistant."

"Ha, ha. Then bring him here." Gray Forest Owl panted heavily. He did not allow himself to show weakness in front of the warlock. "A magic apprentice who is so valued by Lannister, can he at least play a role?"

Viggofortz seemed to agree with Tawny Owl's idea. He and Lydia looked at each other for a while. This time Tawny Owl knew that they must be chatting using magic.

After a long while, the warlock shook his head, looking convinced: "Okay, okay..."

Then Vigfortz turned to Tawny Owl and explained: "He will be useful, but not now."

This also meant the end of the conversation between the female assistant Lydia and Vigfortz, and she quickly disappeared into the room, leaving Vigfortz space to talk to the guest.

…

There were only two people left in the room, and the atmosphere was silent for a while.

"You betrayed your emperor, Tawny Owl." Vilgefortz said shockingly, opening the conversation. "You betrayed him without hesitation as soon as you saw the opportunity."

This time the warlock did not use his chaos energy to exert any pressure, but the Tawny Owl's heart beat many times faster than before.

The strong qualities of the spy allowed Tawny Owl to remain calm. "This accusation is really powerful coming from your mouth, Warlock. It's a pity that you only told a worthless and ridiculous joke..."

"I am not accusing you, Tawny Owl. I am laughing at you." The warlock said lightly, "I am laughing at your naivety and incompetence."

“The sick pride of Dukes Adar ep Darcy and Joachim de Witte was offended. They had planned to marry their daughters to the emperor, hoping that a new dynasty would be born from their bloodline. But Emhyr dismissed their hopes and wanted to marry Princess Cirilla of Cintra instead, shattering their ambitions to change the course of history.”

"They are not ready to launch an armed rebellion, but they can kill the girl in the midst of chaos. Unfortunately, their pride and self-esteem make them not want to dirty their noble hands, so Werther in Cintra is passive and lazy."

Vigfortz smiled as if everything was under control: "So - hire the overly ambitious Stephen Skellington as the executioner."

"Isn't that right, Lord Skellen? You did not intend to follow the emperor's order to capture the lion cub. On the contrary, you gathered a group of desperate criminals and wanted to kill the lion cub directly."

As he spoke, the warlock waved his hand, and a blurry curtain suddenly appeared in front of his eyes.

Above are the members of the Northbound Team enjoying delicious food and wine in the hall.

"Let me see: a rank elven scout, two sadistic sergeants, a female rogue from the intelligence department, and several murderers and murderers who defected from the North and even Skellige. I must say you have a well-rounded team."

"I must praise them. They are all very similar." The warlock continued to smile and speak gently. "Once the thugs kill more than five people, there will be no difference. They have the same movements, the same gestures, the same speech, manners, clothing and temperament. And the same eyes, silent and cold, lacking vitality, and as calm as a snake. Even if they commit heinous atrocities, their expressions will not change at all."

"Do you know what surprised me the most? You also hired a psionicist. Do you want her to suppress me? You people always lack understanding of true power." Vigfortz shook his head.

"But you found a bounty hunter who has killed three witchers - that's a surprise, people with such skills are rarer than warlocks. Ha, you see, he seems to really like vodka!"

Every word of Viggoforts seemed to pile up a stone in the chest of the Tawny Owl, and now it has become a small mountain pressing on his heart.

Tawny Owl felt his hands begin to tremble.

This sorcerer knew so much, even more than he, a spy in the intelligence department.

He didn't know how the other party knew all this, but he knew what he should do next.

The Gray Owl reached behind him, where there was a magic-blocking gold dagger.

…

Viggofortz chuckled, perhaps sensing something, but he knew the conversation should move on to the next stage.

So he changed the subject: "Relax, Tawny Owl. I'm not saying this to accuse you. You're a smart person. As smart as you are, you must be able to guess that those duke-level bigwigs just use you as a knife and never think about fulfilling their promises. When you kill Cirilla, they will definitely find a way to kill you again."

"Of course," the Tawny Owl took a deep breath. "I'm too smart not to have noticed. So, Vilgefortz, do you think I should betray those dukes and join you? Is this your goal? I'm not a weather vane on the top of the tower!"

"Of course I know that you have a noble power, an ideal far more noble than that of a coroner and an intelligence agent. You are a revolutionary."

Vigfortz gave his own bargaining chip: "You want to end the dictatorship and tyranny, and then establish an ideal country called...constitutional monarchy, so you are willing to let yourself become a knife for the nobles, right?"

"I can't bring you the new regime you want, but I can promise to give you financial assistance, logistical support and access to intelligence, so that you can change from a tool used by conspirators to a true partner. I can help you take the position of head of imperial intelligence and help you realize your ambitions and lifelong wishes. Can you foresee all this?"

The Tawny Owl took a deep breath and said, "You really know everything."

His hand loosened from the dagger. "You want Cirilla too? Do you want to capture her or kill her?"

Viggofortz smiled with satisfaction as he noticed the changes in the Tawny Owl's movements beyond his sight.

"I want Cirilla, yes. But only temporarily." Viggofortz smiled, "I only need her placenta. After taking that thing out, the rest of her will still belong to you. If you're lucky, you can report to the emperor. In such a chaotic time, it's normal for the princess to have some accidents, isn't it?"

"This way you can still complete the emperor's political mission, and you can also gain a staunch ally, turning from a tool of a great noble into a real manipulator. Why not do it?"

placenta……

Gray Owl took another deep breath and admitted that he had underestimated the warlock in front of him.

"I won't ask you why you did this. It must be some weird magic experiment."

Vigfortz smiled with satisfaction: "Let's keep a little mystery between each other."

"According to you, I just need to continue to perform my duties and nothing needs to change. After the task is completed, I will receive a huge reward. It sounds like winning the lottery, right?"

"That's right, you just need to continue to perform your duties." Viggofortz nodded, "It's just that there is a harmless little step in the middle."

"Then we should continue with the topic we started with, which is the purpose of my visit."

The gray forest owl shook its head, as if nothing had just happened.

But he also knew that many things had changed.

"I came to you to seek your help and plan how to capture Princess Cirilla in Brokilon Town." Gray Forest Owl took out an envelope from his waist. "This is a letter prepared for you by the emperor."

The warlock took it and began to read it quickly. There were many things he knew, such as the battle results of the Lion of Cintra in Rivia; there were also many things he didn't know, such as the current military arrangements of the emperor.

"Ha... very clever and decisive. Does the Emperor want to lure away Lannister and his large army in this way? Many people will die."

"These are all the drawbacks of dictatorship, so I want to..."

"Okay, okay." Viggofortz interrupted the Tawny Owl, "Very good. If there were a large army surrounding them, even I wouldn't be able to break in and capture Cirilla."

"What are you going to do?"

"I have a group of mercenaries, more than a hundred of them. I can open a portal and send you and them to the vicinity of Brokilon Town. This is a very powerful commando team."

"So many people from here to the north of Cintra? You can do such a thing? Even a warlock can..."

"I am not just any warlock." Vigfortz shook his head. "Like I said, I would be a very powerful ally."

The Tawny Owl suppressed his excitement and said, "But this is still risky and still not enough."

"Of course." Vigfortz actually agreed with the Tawny Owl's greed. "Such a sophisticated plan needs to be foolproof."

"I am that guarantee, Tawny Owl. Have you heard of the [Alzu Double Cross Summoning Technique]?"

With a "bang", it was as if a hammer had struck a huge bell in its mind, and the gray forest owl immediately felt dizzy.

He didn't know much about warlocks, but the name "Alzu" was well-known.