Four days later, at the urging of Borch and Geralt, Wayne and his party, carrying only a small amount of supplies, traveled day and night and soon set out from Temeria, crossed the Kingdom of Redania, and arrived at the Bra River near the city of Holobor.

However, when they wanted to go to the city of Holobar via the only bridge over the Bula River, they were blocked by a group of soldiers.

These soldiers wore buttoned leather coats and chain mail, and carried metal halberds. They guarded both ends of the river crossing and built a wooden toll hut at the bridgehead.

From afar, the scarlet pennant with a silver griffin pattern was planted on the hut, fluttering in the wind. Several fully armed soldiers stood in a row, looking quite imposing.

When Wayne and his companions approached on horseback, they found that they were not the only ones blocked from the bridge.

In addition to a few villagers and travelers who wanted to go to Holobor City for business, there were also some people who were dressed like mercenaries and looked very difficult to deal with. They were also gathered near the ferry toll gate, watching people arguing.

"Why don't you let us pass? This is a free city-state, not under the jurisdiction of the Principality of Kangongen. You have no right to stop us here."

The one who led the argument was a well-dressed middle-aged man, who should be a wealthy businessman. Following him were not only several young assistants, several carriages, but also several fully armed hired guards.

However, the soldier in charge of guarding the bridge was obviously a dullard. No matter what the businessman said, he only responded with one sentence.

"I don't understand what you said. I just set up a checkpoint here according to the king's order."

"Anyway, no one can cross this bridge without a pass. This is an order from the Lord of Kangorn, King Niedamir."

Faced with such rude obstruction, the middle-aged businessman was obviously very angry. He shouted loudly: "These are tributes and fruits sent to the Cliff Temple in the city. I have been stopped here by you for a day. If I wait any longer, these fruits will rot."

Unfortunately, the soldier didn't even look at him. He held the halberd in his hand and repeated, "I am only responsible for checking the pass. If you have any questions, go talk to the commander yourself."

The tallest of the three mercenaries standing on the other side suddenly said loudly: "Humph! King Niedamir blocked this place to deal with the injured dragon. The dragon was poisoned and was dying."

"They must be afraid that the treasure in the dragon's nest will be taken by others, so they deliberately blocked this passage and prevented capable people from passing through."

The soldier who shouted heard this, glanced at the mercenary, and did not refute. He just repeated: "I am only responsible for checking the pass, and I am not responsible for anything else."

Seeing this, Borch looked at Wayne and Geralt. Before the three of them set out, they had already agreed that he would obey the orders of the two witchers in this matter.

However, Geralt was obviously a little absent-minded. He had been traveling for four consecutive days and finally arrived here. His mind was already on Yennefer who had not yet appeared.

Seeing this, Wayne stretched out his hand to signal Borch not to worry, and whispered: "We just got here and don't know anything about the situation. We shouldn't act rashly."

"Let me go get some information first."

After saying that, he dismounted, walked to the middle of the crowd, glanced around, and finally set his sights on a younger-looking soldier at the edge of the guard.

He approached the soldier, and under the soldier's vigilant gaze, he took out a gold coin and handed it to him, then asked in a low voice: "Mr. Soldier, can I ask you a few questions?"

Seeing this, the young soldier quickly glanced at his companions who were still arguing with the passerby, quickly stuffed the gold coin into his pocket, then coughed lightly and whispered:

"You can ask, but I won't tell you anything confidential."

Wayne smiled and asked softly, "Sir, regarding the pass you mentioned, can you tell me how many people have passed the bridge so far and when did they leave?"

The questions Wayne asked were quite common and not confidential, and many people in the city saw it.

The young soldier breathed a sigh of relief and replied, "This is no secret. Three days ago, King Ledamir issued passes to all those who were capable of hunting dragons in the vicinity, hiring them to kill the dragon."

"Ike of Denesle is the most famous one. He is a knight and he passed this bridge the day before yesterday."

"This morning, three fierce-looking hunters with tattoos all over their bodies also crossed the bridge. They are also very famous. I think they are called the Clinfield Raiders."

"Currently, apart from the king's army, only these three groups of people have passed through here."

After getting the information he wanted, Wayne returned to Geralt and Borch and told them what he had asked.

Among these three groups, he only had some impression of Ike and Yarpen Sigrin, but he was not very clear. He only knew that Ike seemed to be some kind of monster killer, a knight, and quite powerful, while Yarpen was an officer in the future dwarf army.

As for the Klingfeld Plunderer, he had never even heard of it.

However, unlike the fledgling Wayne, Geralt had been in the North for many years and had some understanding of these famous figures, so he explained:

"Ike of Dressler, this guy is a son of a bitch knight. Of course, many people call him the pious and upright Ike, the brave and fearless knight."

"This guy is very powerful and is very good at dealing with monsters. I heard that he has defeated several dragons and killed manticores and griffins. As for monsters like water ghosts, I don't know how many he has killed."

Borch was very surprised when he heard this and asked, "So, this Knight Ike is just an expert in slaying dragons. How can an ordinary knight be so powerful?"

Geralt seemed to have a lot of opinions about Ike. Hearing Borch's praise, he snorted disdainfully and said, "These are all rumors. No one knows if they are true. However, since there are so many rumors, he must not be a lucky person. He must be someone with real skills."

"But this guy is a bastard. He doesn't charge any money every time he kills a monster. Not a penny. He simply breaks the rules of the industry."

"Many times, those unruly people used this as an excuse to ask me to kill monsters for them for free."

"Some mean idiot only paid me half of what I was paid."

After hearing what Geralt said, Wayne thought of something else.

This Knight Ike is indeed a kind-hearted person in the eyes of outsiders. He often helps villagers deal with monsters that endanger them free of charge. He seems to have a special hatred for monsters and does not charge any compensation.

But precisely because of this, Knight Ike often stayed away from home, and in order to repair weapons and armor and travel around, he squandered all his family property, leaving his wife and children to live in poverty.

In the end, he didn't even have money to treat his seriously ill wife. His son asked him to make money to treat his mother, but this guy directly broke off relations with his son. He is really a weirdo.

In the game, his son Siegfried grew up to be an upright knight, and even became the leader of the Knights of the Flaming Rose. However, he still has many complaints about his father and refuses to forgive him.

After explaining Ike, Geralt took out the hip flask from his waist bag, took a sip of beer, and said, "Klingfeld Plunderer."

"These three people are also very famous hunters. They hunted down all the dragon lizards and giant centipedes in the entire Kingdom of Redania. I even heard that they killed three red dragons and one black dragon."

“They are a group of hunters who will do anything to achieve their goals and are very good at using traps and poisons.”

"As for Yarpen Zigrin and his bearded dwarf subordinates."

"I only heard that they once killed a very famous dragon in the Mahakam Mountains, named Okvist, the Dragon of Quartz Mountain."

"Finally they obtained the dragon's treasure, a large number of gems."

As the group was chatting about intelligence, Wayne suddenly noticed that on the road behind them, a woman with excellent temperament and very beautiful appearance was riding a tall and handsome black horse, walking towards them from a distance.

(End of this chapter)