Redania has gone through a lot of turmoil in the past three years.

Vizimir II was assassinated. The death of this wise ruler who could be recorded in history made the knowledgeable people in the country mourn for him spontaneously.

However, misfortunes never come singly. The young King Radovid V, who witnessed his father's assassination, seemed to be stimulated by it and his personality changed drastically. It is said that he often criticized the maids and guards in the palace, beat and scolded them at will, and even ordered the execution of nobles who offended him many times.

At one point, some bad nicknames were circulated about him.

Fortunately, Mr. Chapet, the consul of the Eternal Fire, took on the position of the little king's teacher at the queen's request. He gave him many advices and helped the little king deal with state affairs, which made everything better.

Coupled with the large amount of trade orders and political help from Duke Lannister of Cintra, the turbulent Redania finally became stable again.

One was the Archon of the State Religion and the King's Teacher, and the other was a famous model lion in the North. The people of Redania were deeply grateful to both of them.

…

Novigrad, known as the "Capital of the North", is the largest port and trading city in the North.

Three years have passed, and this place is still the most prosperous and freest place in the entire North.

A huge transport ship slowly approached the shore under the blowing of the sea breeze. The sails were furled and the leaders of three caravans walked down from it.

Surprisingly, none of them are human.

In the front was a dwarf, whose caravan flag was a roaring lion with its head held high; following him were an elf and a dryad. The elf's caravan flag was a green dragon head under a yellow sky, and the dryad's caravan's symbol was a three-branched oak tree on a green land.

Even in Novigrad, a place with the most open-minded atmosphere, it was rare to see three non-human caravans coming together. However, the merchants and sailors coming and going at the dock were not surprised by this, but instead cast longing eyes.

"Mr. Zoltan, do you have any way to make money this time?" a sailor shouted bravely, "Is your caravan still hiring?"

The elves and dryads frowned at such a sailor, but Zoltan, who was generous by nature, laughed out loud.

"I am now a member of the Cintra Royal Caravan, and I won't hire outsiders!"

Zoltan was already a celebrity when he was a merchant in Novigrad. He became even more famous after leading the royal caravan of Cintra. Conversations like this were not uncommon at the docks.

The sailor did not complain when he was rejected, and it was obvious that he was just joking.

After finishing their work, the men sat leisurely on the sacks on the beach and watched the three leaders go away with their companions, their faces full of envy.

"I don't know what Lord Lannister was thinking, giving all the money to non-human races..."

"Not only that, you have to know that three years ago, the only non-human country in the North was the dwarf Mahakam." Another sailor shook his head, "As a result, after the [Cintra Conference] ended, the [Independent Kingdom of Brokilon] and [Independent Kingdom of Sass] suddenly appeared... Hey! The North suddenly had two more queens, and one is a dryad, and the other is a quarter-elf!"

News from Novigrad circulates the fastest in the North, and the sailors there can be considered well-informed, with the topics of their daily conversations comparable to those of students majoring in political science at the academy.

As soon as the sailor said this, everyone burst into laughter.

The sailor who spoke at the beginning laughed and pointed in the direction where the three leaders left: "But I think that soon these two [independent kingdoms] will become [Blokilon Province] and [Sas Province] of Cintra, and the two queens will probably go to Cintra too."

A sailor smacked his lips and said, "I wonder if Temeria can hurry up and gather three queens in the North as soon as possible. Then we can be considered witnesses of history."

His words immediately attracted the attention of others: "You came from Temeria, right... King Foltestai has made up his mind? Has he made Princess Adda the crown prince?"

Seeing the sailor nod reservedly, the other sailors gasped.

"What is King Fortestai thinking? It's fine if it's an independent kingdom, but a big country like Temeria actually lets the princess inherit..."

"Not only that." The sailor said mysteriously, "The rumor about Princess Adda is probably true."

"You mean... an illegitimate child?" someone exclaimed, "That's even more impossible! How could a princess like this inherit the throne? King Foltestai can't have children anymore?"

"What if the illegitimate child is a blond baby?" the sailor said lightly, his tone full of inexplicable superiority.

As soon as these words were spoken, the sailors gathered in the harbor gasped again.

This time, no one saluted King Foltestai's decision. Someone just smacked his lips and said sourly, "For the Duke of Lannister? Princess Adda is the most calculating woman in the North!"

"Don't call him Duke anymore, he will be the King of Lannister soon!" the sailor corrected with a smile.

"Hasn't he already been the King in the North?" another sailor laughed even louder.

…

"What do you think of your new nickname, Lane?"

Geralt, who was on the other side of the round table, asked Lann with a smile, causing the surrounding witchers to burst into laughter.

Lann waved his hand: "Although it is just a nickname circulating among the people, it will become a real title sooner or later. It's better to let everyone get familiar with it now."

The witchers laughed even louder upon hearing this, but there was not much playfulness in their laughter.

At the Cintra Conference three years ago, the kings of the North finally reached a consensus and established the [Northern Military Unification Alliance] to deal with Nilfgaard, which was eyeing them and ready to invade at any time.

At that time, the Duke of Lannister, who was the best in the North in the military field, was elected as the leader of the alliance under the leadership of several kings of major countries. He was in charge of all affairs against Nilfgaard and was granted the title of [Chief Marshal of the Northern Army].

A year later, Nilfgaard's second invasion came as expected, and everything happened just as described in the intelligence that Lann passed on to the kings of the northern countries.

All the countries in the North, big and small, which had been prepared for a long time, completed an unprecedented assembly, and under the leadership of Lannister, they built a great wall of steel at the gate of the North.

The Nilfgaardians never thought that the second war would be so different from the first, and Lann even called on the entire Warlock Brotherhood to join the battle, and he led his contracted high-level combat units such as dragons and giants to rush around, and directly met the Black Sun Legion that had just entered the North with the scale of a general offensive.

The Nilfgaardians were completely stunned.

That battle almost blocked the Yaruga River, and the water in the lower reaches was bloody for a whole week after the battle.

The North also achieved an unprecedented victory.

However, Nilfgaard had a strong foundation after all, and even after a major defeat, it still managed to enter the stage of strategic confrontation, and both sides began to deploy their hard power.

The number of casualties began to increase, and the kings of some small countries in the North gradually found that they could hardly maintain their own armies.

They were all countries that did not move towards Cintra in a timely manner at the Sintra Conference.

As a result, some independent kingdoms in the north were gradually weakened and became vassal states or even provinces of major powers.

The remaining kings did not dare to withdraw. The battle had reached this stage and deserters would be attacked by all. On the other hand, they did benefit from the war.

They were the first kingdoms to agree with Cintra at the Cintra Conference.

As the war progressed, Lann, who was like a god of war on the front line, gained a rapidly increasing prestige among the people of the entire North. And the kings who still had a say in the North became more and more obedient to Lann because they found that the more they fought the war, the richer they became.

After the title of [Marshal of the North] spread, the voice of [King of the North] gradually began to appear.

…

The laughter of the demon hunters gradually stopped, and they felt like they were in a dream about the current situation.

Originally, I thought that having a strong country like Cintra as a backing would be enough, but who could have imagined that now the entire North would be needed to support the Order?

Lann never concealed his idea of ​​integrating the North in front of his own people.

"Okay, okay, future King of the North." Vesemir shook his head. He punched Lambert first, then changed the subject. "But now, as the Grand Master of the Demon Hunter Order, please preside over today's meeting first."

Lan nodded and looked around. Just like the first meeting of the cult, the demon hunters were sitting around the round table.

Griffins, wolves, snakes, cats, bears, and the lion it represents, the main components of the cult are still these schools.

There was still no news from the Manticore School from Zerekan, and no demon hunters from other schools came to join during this period. There were still only a dozen people around the round table.

But their strength has improved a lot compared to before. At this moment, everyone has gone through the second trial and obtained the specially made demon hunter armor.

After discussion, these demon hunters who have been there since the founding of the cult will become members of the cult's [Demon Hunter Council] in the future. Even if new demon hunters are continuously trained in the future, they must accept the leadership of the Demon Hunter Council.

The topic that the demon hunters are going to discuss today is related to the "new demon hunters" who are about to appear.

The demon hunters sat upright. Even though they had been informed of the agenda before the meeting, they still read the proposals in front of them carefully.

"Lan, isn't it too fast?" Vizmir was the first to express his opinion.

Old Wolf was always able to quickly weigh the pros and cons and give professional and accurate advice: "The children have only been training for three years. Leo was able to go through the [Trial of Green Grass] so quickly because of Kelda and Geron's meticulous training, but this batch of apprentices' training is not as thorough as Leo's... I'm worried that they won't make it."

Reso also agreed, which was rare: "Even if they survived the green grass and the dream, their training is not enough for them to face monsters alone - the loss rate will be very high."

All the demon hunters who were usually responsible for the training of apprentices, such as Eskar, Lambert, and even Coen, nodded in agreement at this moment, and more or less advised Lann.

The topic this time was that Lann wanted to let these apprentices, who had only been training for more than three years, take the Green Grass Trial in advance and go out hunting demons!

"Lan En, is it because the fighting on the front line has been intense recently? Do you want these children to go to the battlefield?" Jie Long looked worried. "If that's the case, we can go and help you first. Just leave one or two people to take charge of the children's training."

Lan shook his head and signaled the teacher to stay calm.

"Everyone, I know what you are worried about and what you are confused about. I will answer them one by one."

He stood up, and the few witchers who were trying to speak suddenly fell silent.

"First of all, there is no problem with the war on the front line, and the apprentices are not going to the battlefield." Lann pointed out the window, "but to various areas in the North."

"As early as three years ago, the senior warlocks of the Warlock Brotherhood had already observed the prelude to the celestial conjunction. The monsters were active and even new monsters appeared."

"In recent years, the rampage of monsters has become more and more serious, and you often have to clean up these commissions." Lann looked at the monster hunters, "So, now is the time when the North needs us to save it, the civilians need us to protect them, and the cult needs us to perform our duties - we have been waiting for this day, right?"

All the demon hunters have been training apprentices non-stop in the past three years, trying their best to pass on the school's knowledge; but in the meantime, some of them have gone out to participate in demon hunting under Lan's notification, and have learned something about the situation of the intersection of the celestial spheres.

At this moment, they all nodded slightly in agreement, their faces serious.

"So at the Cintra Conference three years ago, I had already proposed to the kings of various countries to establish a 'sub-district office' of the Demon Hunter Order to facilitate the activities of the Demon Hunters, just like the 'Demon Hunter Station' system I implemented in Cintra. Everything was waiting for today."

"I know what you're worried about, Vesemir. In the past, it took demon hunters decades to become independent, but now they've only been trained for three years. Are you worried that they can't even defeat a water ghost?"

“That’s right.” Vesemir nodded. “Although we now have more abundant resources and potions that can greatly shorten the [Decision] training process, and perhaps they can survive the subsequent [Trial of Grass] and [Trial of Dreams], this is just a body that can barely be compared to a demon hunter.”

The old wolf said seriously, "They haven't had enough time to learn things like the Monster Atlas and potion mixing, and this can't be accelerated by having enough resources. They are far from being demon hunters, and they are not even qualified to be apprentices."

The other demon hunters also nodded.

Lann said he understood: "I will answer your questions one by one. Regarding the survival rate, I plan to abolish the traditional lone demon hunter model and operate in the form of a [demon hunter team]."

Lan En's first words were shocking: "During this period, everyone has selected apprentices and taught them the martial arts of daggers, crossbows, rapiers, and half-hand swords according to their personal characteristics, right?"

"I plan to arrange the apprentices into groups such as wolf, cat, snake, griffin, and bear, so that they can form a team that cooperates with each other to deal with various situations."

"At the same time, we will assign a warlock apprentice to each Demon Hunter Team as a knowledge consultant, so that new Demon Hunters can learn knowledge from commissions. They are all apprentices who have studied diligently in Aretuza or Ban Ader for more than ten years or even decades, and their knowledge reserves are sufficient to deal with most situations."

"Everyone here will also lead a team as a leader, and help them carry out commissions in a foreign country..."

The witchers began to feel something was wrong as they listened.

Kelda sighed: "You want to turn this process into a large-scale [Mountain Trial]?"

Lann nodded: "That's right. Under the supervision of the mature demon hunters, the completion of the commissions of each demon hunter apprentice in various countries will become the content of the assessment, which will determine whether they will eventually obtain their own demon hunter badge!"

"If you still feel that this is not safe enough, then when the apprentices are undergoing the [Green Grass Trial], I will infuse each of them with the power of the Ancient Blood. This will ensure that they pass the trial with 100% accuracy and also improve their strength to the greatest extent."

Lann looked at Geron and said, "At the same time, we can also select a group of apprentices with the potential to become griffins."

Geron nodded slightly. The Griffin School was different from the other schools. For example, the Cat School and the Snake School could select thin and agile apprentices in advance, while Gerd of the Bear School specifically favored strong young men.

But the apprentices couldn't use the sigils before they had gone through the [Trial of Green Grass], and they had no idea who had the potential to join the Griffins. It was much easier to have Lann screen them through the Ancient Blood (system panel).

Lann's purpose was even simpler. He wanted to contract all these apprentices as [Followers], and then place them in various corners of the North to earn experience and level up for himself!

In the past, he absorbed skill points and opened skills to increase his strength. But now Lann has to accumulate panels through upgrading, steadily improving his physical fitness and magic reserves level by level.

After upgrading, with the bonus of passive skills and talents that increase attributes by various percentages, he will begin to enter a period of real explosive growth in strength!

After three years, he felt it was time.