From Witcher to Lord of the Empire.

Chapter 224 The Temple of Freya has only priestesses and goddesses
Hearing Gerd's words, Lan also choked, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed.

Fortunately, Ged is a heroic person who looks the same on the outside. He didn't care about Lan's excessive modesty that might make others feel uncomfortable. Instead, he took the initiative to talk down the topic.

"But apart from you, I haven't seen any other demon hunters who are stronger than me—even in the Bear Pie, I'm still confident in that."

"Before I fled here, not to mention in the archipelago, even the entire northern border plus the south occupied by Nilfgaard, I never met anyone stronger than me..."

Lane, however, accurately grasped the key words in Gerd's words: "Gerd, you said you 'escaped' to Skellige? Are you in trouble? If you don't mind, maybe you can talk to Let me tell you, maybe there is something I can help with.”

If it was an ordinary person, maybe they would give themselves some respect, cover up their "escape", and call it a "strategic shift" or something.

But Ged didn't care when he heard Lann's words, and he talked about his past truthfully like in small talk:
"Ashamed to say, I once served a king. But then there was a coup in the country, and the king's daughter declared that her father was the usurper and she was the rightful heir - I know it sounds ridiculous, but she really That's what it said."

"The coup was successful in the end, and I was also wanted because I firmly supported the former king, so I fled to Skellige. I just didn't expect them to find this place a few days ago, and almost let a tavern It was turned into scorched earth, but fortunately the security here was extremely strict during that time, which prevented the tragedy from happening."

Gerd lowered his head, showing his loss for the first time in the conversation with Lane, and he was silently mourning for the king he once played for.

"I know that he is not a good person. He has committed crimes and has blood on his hands, but how many normal nobles in the northern border are there? Moreover, he respects me from the bottom of his heart and treats me very well. ——Nowadays, it is rare to see someone who can do this to a witcher."

Obviously Gerd told a sad story, but Lan's eyes lit up when he heard it.

He found a suitable entry point from Gerd's self-report.

The words that were almost engraved in the muscle memory of his tongue popped out naturally:
"Ged, if that's the case, you can come to Cintra—I'm confident enough to grant you political asylum. And I assure you, everyone in Cintra has a heartfelt love for the witcher." respect."

"To be honest, I plan to revive the Demon Hunter Order in Sintra, and now we have gathered griffins, wolves, snakes, and cats. If the bear faction can also join in, then we have almost lost the original order. The embryonic form has..."

……

This is the first time Lann has spoken so confidently about solicitation. According to his previous style, he always told the griffin that he had the support of wolves, snakes, and cats, and told the wolf that griffins, snakes, and cats had joined. ——This reciprocating operation.

But this time he really gathered the above four schools of thought, so he was extra confident in recruiting Ged.

However, it is counterproductive.

This time, Lan En's most confident solicitation so far was rejected, and it was flatly rejected, not the ambiguous "consideration" before the wolf faction.

"I'm sorry, Lane. But I've found someone I can play for now, and that's Thorgil Tursek."

Gerd said sincerely: "When I fled to Skellige, he was the one who took me in, respected me, and gave me bread, meat, and wine."

"Although we have a mutually beneficial relationship, he regards me as a friend, and I also refer to him as a confidant. We hit it off very well, and I am very happy living here."

"You may have heard some rumors about the Bear School, and I can tell you that most of them are true—at least for the Demon Hunter Order, I really don't have any sense of belonging, and I don't have anything to revive the school idea."

The bear demon hunter shook his head slightly, looked at Lan En who was full of astonishment, and laughed.

"Rather than these great missions, I would rather be by my brother's side. Whether following them or leading them, it makes me happy."

"However, in Skellige, I can still help you, which is why I am here waiting for you."

"Torgil is the elder of King Bran, so he gave me a new commission - let me help you and help Easter ascend the throne."
-
after a while.

Sitting on the dragon boat heading to Indalsfair Island, Lann looked melancholy.

At this moment, he is only surrounded by the lord of the Haimei family, Dona Ann Sinda, the demon hunter Ged from the Bear School who joined the team temporarily, and ten Sintra soldiers led by Mirva.

As for the three demon hunters, Geralt, Kolgrim, and Kern, they each led their teams to clean up the missions on Great Skellige and Little Skellige.

It is still in the preparation stage of collecting intelligence, and the war has not yet officially started, so there is no need to run around with all the troops.It's better to let them use local resources to improve Lan's own strength, and bring along their own guards by the way, so that they are more familiar with handling such matters.

So did the witchers, especially Kern.

[Mission - Cabin in the Woods - Completed]

[Mission - Unmarried - Completed]

[Mission - The Mermaid at the Bottom of the Well - Completed]

[Character level increase +1]

Using the terminology in the game - Skellige has too many "question marks" and "exclamation marks", and there are many commissions that can be accepted, and Lann has been rushed up a level in a short period of time.

Now Lann's level has reached level 32, and he has finally accumulated 4 skill points in his hand.

There is nothing to say. According to the original plan, 1 skill point is reserved for possible follower encounters, and the remaining 3 skill points are put into the skills that Lane has already prepared to activate.

[Secondary Mutation] Page Skills - [Fat Seal] Classification - [Bone Biting] Add points!
[Bone-piercing]: Alder's seal can freeze the enemy.

Very short skill introduction, the effect is also very direct.Directly endow [Ard's Sign] a brand new effect, making it change from a simple thought force attack to an ice elemental attack.

From now on, Lane will also be a scene person with ice special effects in his left hand and fire special effects in his right hand.

[Bone-piercing] Lann once saw Geron use this skill once in Toussaint's underground laboratory.At that time, Lan was not a demon hunter, and Geron had just been awakened from his deep sleep. At that time, the blizzard generated by [Bone Biting] directly turned the monsters in the underground laboratory into ice sculptures, and then they were torn into ice sculptures by strong winds. ice cubes.

I don't know how much difference is there between my current seal and Mr. Jielong?

……

While Lan En was thinking, Gerd gave Lan En a strange look.

His witcher's keen senses felt that the lion-eyed young man beside him had suddenly become a little different, but he couldn't tell what was different.

However, because Gerd and Lann were still not familiar enough after all, after thinking about it for a while, they still couldn't ask the doubts in their hearts.

At the same time, Donna's voice also sounded: "We have arrived..."

"Welcome to Indalsfair!"

The island was surrounded by a thin mist, but those on board knew that hidden in the mist were lush forests and blue coral reefs.

Indalsfair is the smallest island in the Skellige Islands, but its status is the most special - it is the birthplace of islander culture.

At this moment, Lan and Gerd both came with missions, and although Dona was also the old lord of Zhili, he was eager to avenge his dead family guards.

So after seeing that Lann and Ged didn't care, Dona stopped wasting time on ostentation and entertaining, and directly led a group of people towards the goal of this time - the Temple of Freya.

……

Apart from the Eternal Flame, this was the second time Lann had seen the stronghold of a large religion.

If it is said that the Temple Island of the Eternal Flame gave Lan En the impression of luxury and solemnity.

Then the only feeling Freya gave Lan was "natural".

In front of Lan En is a forest-like boundary. It is almost as if a corner of the forest is enclosed by a wall. There are stretches of trees and flowers and plants in it. The vibrant appearance almost reminds Lan En of Bu Rocky Long.

It is also far from the "church" image Lane imagined and recognized.

Dona led a group of people to the center of the forest garden, while introducing to these outsiders the goddess with the highest status and the most respected by believers in Skellige:
"Freya is the goddess of hearth, love, and fertility. She is also the protector of oracles, prophets, and telepaths. Soldiers will pray to her before going to sea to plunder, and wives who are left on the island will pray for the safe return of their husbands. .”

As Lan En and his party went deeper, women like village women in coarse linen clothes began to appear on the side of the road.

They are dressed like village women, and all of them are considered slim. Although their skin is not very delicate, it is not rough either.

Most of them are braided, carrying flower baskets or fruit baskets, full of youth and vitality.This kind of temperament and appearance reminded Lann of those female students he had seen in Niubao for a while.

According to Dona's introduction, they are all priests of the temple.

When a group of people passed by, they greeted Donna one after another, and the lord returned his compliments to them.

And after greeting Dona, you can see that they slowed down obviously, as if they were not in a hurry to do what they were going to do——

— A bunch of eyes scanned Lann.

Dona smiled and looked at the young priestesses who were looking at them curiously, among them were a few girls who were only thirteen or fourteen years old.

Even if there are flower baskets in front of them, it is not difficult to see the blush on their faces due to shyness.

"Usually, they would leave in a hurry after greeting me. I didn't expect that they would stop today—this is the treatment that I, a lord for decades, have not had, Lan."

Lan En's face was calm, and he was used to such small scenes.

Gerd felt something new about these looks.Even though he has gained a lot of recognition in Skellige now, most of them are praised by big men or lords who are similar to him, and the eyes of these little girls are rare...

But if I remember correctly, shouldn't the little girls of the archipelago like brave sea warriors or warriors fighting against rocks?The kind of big bearded, handsome knight like Lann should not be popular in theory, right?
Thinking of this, Gerd also cast his eyes on Lan.Of course, the emotion in his eyes must be different from that of the priestesses.

"Why are there such small children here?" Lan En looked at the thirteen or fourteen-year-old girls with deer-like eyes, "Are they also priests?"

The image of these priests is also far from the stereotype of the "church" that Lane perceives and imagines.

In the Freya sect, men can worship the god Freya, but only women can carry out his will, so there are only female priests in the sect.

"If they are officially called, they are indeed 'priests'." Dona nodded in affirmation of Lane's question, "but they are still in the stage of 'apprentices'. The sect will adopt orphans who lost their families in the battle, and will They are brought up and taught to read, write, and pray. Those who are gifted will be trained as priests."

"The church also regularly recruits students from the families of the archipelago residents, but the criteria for this recruitment are even stricter."

Lan En nodded clearly: "Is it similar to the church school system? Maybe Cintra can learn from it..."

"Of course you can learn." Dona admitted, "The premise is that you need to have a church."

……

Many of the houses here are built from logs.

When a large and amazing marble building finally appeared in front of him, Lan knew that this was the destination.

At the top of the long stone steps was a building covered with moss, ivy, and shrubs that looked like a giant hedgehog.On its roof Lane saw bushes and even a few young trees and mistletoe.

Two young priestesses waited silently in front of the temple.Dona greeted them politely, expressing a desire to speak to their leader—whom he called "High Priestess Sigdrifa."

They entered the entrance, and the sunlight from the high windows illuminated the interior of the temple.One of the rays of sunlight fell right on the altar.

The two priestesses signaled to the crowd to be calm, because at this moment they could faintly hear the voice of prayer coming from inside.

……

"—Goddess Freya! Give me strength to love, to bear children, to raise warriors, to kill enemies!"

……

The corners of Lan's mouth twitched, this prayer was nothing like what should appear in the temple.

On the plain marble altar, high above the statues of cats and eagles, above the stone shells in which votive offerings were offered, stood the statue of Freya the Great Mother.This is a statue full of motherhood, wearing a robe fluttering in the wind, pregnant, and the sculptor even deliberately exaggerated her swollen belly.

The image of Freya is a trinity of goddesses, including the virgin, the mother and the old lady.And "mother" is the most common image of him.

The statue in front of me has its head bowed, its facial features covered by a cloth.The goddess folds her hands on her chest, and a diamond hangs in the middle of a golden necklace above it.This diamond is slightly aqua blue.Big, very big.

The visual estimate is 150 carats.

The believers who just prayed have already left here, leaving only a tall priest in front of the altar.

She was really tall, almost at Lane's eye level when she turned around.She had very pale hair and eyes, and a long, thin cheek that wasn't pretty or feminine.

"Welcome, Lord Earl, welcome to the Temple of Our Lady." The tall priest greeted Dona.

"You are also welcome, Lane from Sintra, and the demon hunter Ged from the south."

Dona, a highly respected old man in Skelligord, bowed slightly to the priest and bowed to his faith: "I salute you, noble high priest Sigdrifa."

Lan and Gerd just bowed their heads in greeting.

"Your Excellency High Priest Sigdrifa?" Lan was a little curious, "You seem to know that we will come?"

High Priest Sigdrifa nodded: "Lion of Cintra, your name has spread to Skellige long ago. But now you have only been here for a week, but you have already prevented a crisis that might lead to Skellige's collapse." conspiracy."

Then the high priest turned to Ged: "Bear-sent demon hunters from the south, I heard that you are extremely brave. The first prey you hunt when you come to Skellige is the green dragon entrenched in the elven ruins. The islanders want to kill you!" Thanks to you, a poem about you is already being written."

Ged touched the back of his head: "That green dragon is not much bigger than a horse, it's nothing."

Lane was curious about the High Priest's reaction.

"You seem to know us well, and you know we're coming?"

The high priest chuckled: "I know what you're thinking, but the information about you and the demon hunter Ged was brought over by the believers during prayer. As for the information that you are coming to me, you have to inform me in advance. "

Lane nodded in understanding.Just seeing the high priest's reaction to the two of them well, he thought that the other party used some kind of prophecy magic.

Lane is still very curious about the power of religion, because so-called "gods" really exist in this world.

Although those gods who really appeared rarely showed direct destructive power, and their style was not very high, the sects and temples that worshiped them were often looted and slaughtered in the background stories.

One of the largest sects in the north is still a large armed organization without a god like the Eternal Flame.

But the so-called "God" really exists in this world.

……

The high priest must have seen Lan En's reaction too much, and took the initiative to explain: "You seem to be very disappointed that I didn't know about your arrival through magic. Please keep in mind-it is not people who believe in God who can have power, but God. Send power down through believers when necessary."

Lann showed a polite and serious expression very cooperatively, indicating that he had been taught.The expectation in my heart for the magic has already dropped.

And Dona took a step forward at this time, indicating the purpose of his and others' coming: "Sigdrifa, I am here to ask you for help, we need the help of the Virgin Freya."

The high priest smiled lightly, made a gesture of listening, and signaled Dona to speak bluntly.

"The bloodshed at the king's banquet has the latest progress." Dona looked into the pale eyes of the high priest. "It's a berserker, a believer of an evil god who can turn into a bear, and it's the return of the Svalblo sect."

The high priest who had been maintaining a calm expression finally changed his appearance.Her face was full of disbelief, and a kind of pious anger.

"A follower of the evil god?"

Dona nodded: "So I came to ask for help. I don't know if I can get information about those thugs through the power of the Holy Mother."

The high priest's chest heaved vigorously, and she turned her head to look at the statue of Freya's mother in the Holy Trinity, forcing her tone to calm down:

"There are actually remnants of the Svalblo sect... But the Holy Mother has never issued an oracle, which shows that Svalblo is not a threat."

"They were already a threat, and they almost threw Skellige into chaos like never before," Dorner retorted.

Dona continued: "Maybe the Virgin did not send down the oracle, but as believers, shouldn't we take the initiative to share the worries of the Virgin? The cultists of the past have reappeared. Shouldn't we eliminate the heresy and protect the believers of the Virgin?"

……

The high priest lowered his head, thinking seriously about Dona's words.

She was quickly persuaded.

"I can try to help find the people behind those thugs."

Gerd showed a happy expression when he heard the words, and asked curiously: "What are you going to do?"

"It's not me, it's us." The high priest showed a natural expression, "We pray and pray for the power of God."

Lan folded his arms. There was finally something religious in the sect.

……

Lan looked at Dona and the high priest in front of him. They were kneeling there with their heads bowed, motionless.

Lan didn't get involved. Ever since he suffered a big loss in the Ring of Elements, he refused to meditate and pray in such a place where there might be any risk.

And seeing Lann's reaction like this, Gerd naturally wouldn't make fun of himself.What the witcher has is faith rather than belief, let alone this is a bear.

The high priest didn't get angry because they were disrespectful, but just greeted Donna in his own way.

So there was the scene in front of me: no hymns, no mantras, and no mystical consciousness, just two devout believers sitting on their knees, silently praying for the power of God.

A quarter of an hour passed and Gerd was on the verge of yawning, getting impatient.

Lan En was still patient, he kept a wait-and-see attitude towards the high priest being able to pray for the power of God.

But he believed in King Bran, and he believed in Donar.

One of the most respected old lords in the archipelago will definitely not be a person who has been dazzled by faith. It is related to Skellige's succession to the throne, and he will definitely not treat it with nonsense.

In this patient waiting, another quarter of an hour passed.

Suddenly, Lan felt that he was being looked at by a bunch of eyes.

This feeling is similar to the feeling of being scrutinized by those curious priestesses on the road just now. Lan, who has long been accustomed to other people's eyes, is particularly sensitive to this.

But compared to the shy eyes of those little girls, this gaze is... extraordinarily direct.

If the gazes of those girls were sneaking out their heads from behind the tree trunks, chirping and prying curiously; then the sight that fell on Lan En at this time was a person holding a torch and approaching him in the middle of the night, regardless of the possibility. The possibility of setting my own hair on fire is sizing myself up.

If this unscrupulous feeling was magnified several times, Lan would almost misunderstand that Master Mirror had returned from the astral world.

However, that line of sight only stayed on Lan En's body for a moment, as if he had discovered something, and soon disappeared.

At the same time, the body of the high priest who was praying twitched violently, gasping for breath like a newborn baby's first breath.

Dona was awakened from the prayer by the movement of the high priest, showing envy.

"I have received God's revelation." The high priest was relieved at first, and then showed an unspeakable expression.

She said: "The secret of the Svalblo Sect lies in Mokwag!"

Lane was very familiar with that expression, it was forcibly suppressed anger.

Ged wondered, "Who is Mokvarg?"

"He used to be a pirate, a blasphemer." The high priest took another deep breath, "but now, he is a werewolf, an evil monster that can never eat enough!"

(End of this chapter)