From Witcher to Lord of the Empire.

Chapter 378 Three years later
Redania has gone through a lot of turmoil in the past three years.

Vizmir II was assassinated, and the death of this wise king who could go down in history caused the wise people in the country to mourn for him spontaneously.

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

At one time, bad nicknames were circulated about him.

Fortunately, Mr. Shapet, the consul of the Eternal Fire, took up the position of the little king's teacher at the queen's request. He advised the little king many times and helped the little king handle state affairs, and everything got better.

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

One is the consul of the state religion and the king's tutor, and the other is a famous role model lion in the north. The people of Redania are 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 later, this place is still the most prosperous and freest place in the entire North.

A huge transport ship slowly docked ashore driven by the sea breeze.The sails were furled, and three caravan leaders stepped down from above.

Surprisingly none of them are human.

At the front is a dwarf, and the caravan's flag is a roaring lion; followed by an elf and a tree spirit, the elf caravan's flag is a green dragon head under a yellow sky, and the tree spirit caravan's logo is green. Three oak trees on the ground.

Even in Novigrad, which has the most open atmosphere, it is rare for caravans of three non-human races to come together.However, the merchants and sailors coming and going from the dock were not surprised by this. Instead, they all cast longing eyes.

"Mr. Zoltan, is there any way for you to make a fortune this time?" A sailor boldly shouted, "Are you still recruiting people for your caravan?"

The elves and dryads frowned at such sailors, but Zoltan, who had a bold personality, laughed.

"I am now a member of the Royal Cintra Caravan, and I will not recruit outsiders!"

Zoltan was a celebrity when he was a merchant in Novigrad. His reputation has become even greater since he led the royal caravan in Sintra. Conversations like this have long been common at the docks.

The sailor didn't complain when he was rejected and was obviously just joking.

The men who had finished their work sat leisurely on the sacks on the beach, and watched the three leaders go away with their companions, their expressions full of envy.

"I don't know what Duke Lannister thinks. He gave all his money to non-human races..."

"More than that, you have to know that the only non-human country in the north three years ago was the dwarf Mahakam." Another sailor shook his head, "But as soon as the [Cintra Conference] ended, suddenly there was more [Blochlon] Independent Kingdom] and [Sass Independent Kingdom]... Hey! Suddenly there are two more queens in the north, and one is a tree elf and the other is a quarter elf!"

News from Novigrad circulates the fastest in the North, and the sailors are barely well-informed, and their daily chat topics are comparable to college politics students.

As soon as the sailor's words came out, someone immediately burst into laughter.

The sailor who made the noise at the beginning laughed and then pointed in the direction where the three team leaders left: "But I see, soon these two [independent kingdoms] will become the [Province of Brochlon] and the [Province of Brochlon] in Sintra." [Saas Province], the two queens are probably going to Sintra as well.”

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 witness history."

His words immediately attracted the attention of others: "You came from Temeria, right... King Foltest has made a decision? Has Princess Yada been made the crown prince?"

Seeing the sailor nodding reservedly, the other sailors gasped.

"What does King Foltest think? Forget about being an independent kingdom, a big country like Temeria actually allows a princess to inherit..."

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

"You mean... an illegitimate child?" someone exclaimed, "That's even more impossible! How can such a princess inherit the throne? Is King Foltest unable to give birth to a child?"

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

As soon as these words came out, the sailors gathered around the port gasped again.

This time, no one paid tribute to King Foltest's decision, but some people said in a sour tone: "For Duke Lannister... Princess Yada 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.

"Isn't he already the [King of the North]?" Another sailor laughed even louder.
-
"What do you think of your new nickname, Lane?"

Geralt on the other side of the round table asked Lan with a smile, causing a burst of laughter from the surrounding witchers.

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

The demon hunters laughed even louder when they heard this, but there was not much fun in it.

At the Cintra Conference three years ago, the kings of the North finally unified their opinions and established the "Northern Military Unification Alliance" to deal with Nilfgaard, who was eager to invade at any time.

At that time, the Duke of Lannister, who was the leader in the military field in the North, was elected as the chief of the alliance under the leadership of several kings of the major powers. He presided over all affairs against Nilfgaard and was awarded the title of "General Marshal of the Northern Army".

A year later, Nilfgaard's second invasion came as promised, and everything was as described in the intelligence Lann sent to the kings in the north.

All the countries in the north, large and small, who had been well prepared, completed an unprecedented gathering, and under the leadership of Lannister, they built the Great Wall of Steel at the gateway to 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 war group, bringing with him the high-level combat units contracted by him like giants. The dragons, giants, etc. were busy, and directly faced the Black Sun Army that had just entered the northern border with a general attack.

The Nilfgaardians were immediately stunned.

That battle almost blocked the Yaruga River, and for a whole week after the war, the lower reaches of the river were filled with blood.

The North also achieved an unprecedented victory.

However, Nilfgaard has a profound foundation after all, and even after a major defeat, it still managed to enter the stage of strategic confrontation, and the two sides began to deploy hard power.

The number of casualties began to increase one after another, and the kings of some small countries in the north gradually discovered that they could hardly maintain their own country's army.

They were all countries that did not move closer to Sintra in time at the Sintra Conference.

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

The remaining kings did not dare to withdraw. The battle had reached this stage, and the deserters would be attacked in groups. But on the other hand, they did benefit from the war.They were the first kingdoms to agree with Sintra in the original Congress of Sintra.

So as the war progressed, Lann, who was like a god of war on the front line, had a sharp increase in prestige among the people of the entire northern border; and the kings who still had the right to speak in the northern border found that the war was getting richer and richer, so they also became more and more respectful of Lann. Lai Yue obeys his advice.

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

……

The laughter of the demon hunters gradually stopped, and they were also dreaming about the current situation.

Originally, I thought that having a powerful country like Cintra as a backing would be enough. Who would have thought that now there will be an entire northern territory to support the religious order?

Lann never concealed his thoughts on integrating the Northern Territory in front of these people.

"Okay, okay, the future King of the North." Vesemir shook his head. He punched Lambert first, and then brought the topic back, "But now as the leader of the Demon Hunter Order, Tutor, please preside over today’s meeting first.”

Lan nodded.Looking around, he saw that there were many demon hunters sitting around the round table just like the first meeting to establish the Order.

Griffons, wolves, snakes, cats, bears, plus their own representative lions, the main components of the cult are still these schools.

There is still no news from the Manticore School in Zerikan. During this period, no demon hunters from other schools have come to serve. There are still a dozen or so people around the round table.

But their strength has not improved slightly compared to before.At this moment, everyone has passed the second trial and obtained specially crafted demon hunter armor.

After discussion, these demon hunters who were present at the early stage of the establishment of the Order will become members of the Order's [Demon Hunter Council] in the future. Even if new demon hunters are constantly being trained in the future, they must accept the guidance of the Demon Hunter Council. lead.

The topic that the demon hunters will discuss today is related to the "new demon hunters" that will appear.

The demon hunters were sitting upright. Even though they had been informed of the topic before attending the meeting, they still carefully read the proposal in front of them.

"Lan, is it too fast?" The first one to express his opinion was Vizmir.

The old wolf is always able to quickly weigh the pros and cons and give professional and accurate opinions: "The children have only been trained for three years. Leo was able to experience the [Trial of Green Grass] so quickly because of Kelda and Jeron Careful training regardless of cost, and the training of this batch of apprentices is not as good as Leo's... I'm worried that they won't survive."

Leisuo also rarely agreed: "Even if they survive the grass and dreams, their training is not enough to allow them to face monsters alone - the damage rate will be very high."

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

The issue this time is that Lann wants to let these apprentices who have only been trained for more than three years go through the grass trial in advance and go out to hunt demons!

"Lan, has the war on the frontline been tense recently? Do you want these children to go to the battlefield?" Jielong looked worried, "If that's the case, we can help you first, leaving one or two people to take charge of the children. Just train.”

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

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

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

"First of all, there is no problem with the war on the front line. The place where the apprentices are going is not the battlefield." Lann pointed out the window, "but the 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 convergence of the celestial spheres. Monsters were active and even new monsters appeared."

"In recent years, the ravages of monsters have become more and more severe, and you often have to clean up these commissions." Lann looked at the demon hunters, "So, now it is the North that needs us to save, and the civilians need us to protect, the Order It’s time for us to do our duty – we’ve been waiting for this day, haven’t we?”

All the demon hunters have been training apprentices continuously in the past three years, working hard to pass on the school; but in the meantime, they also went out to participate in demon hunting under Lan's notification, and they knew something about the intersection of the celestial sphere.

At this moment, they all nodded slightly in agreement and looked serious.

"So at the Sintra Conference three years ago, I had already proposed to the kings of various countries to establish a 'zonal office' of the Witcher Order to facilitate the activities of the Witchers, just as I did in Sintra. It’s the same as the ‘Witcher Station’ system, everything is waiting for today.”

"I know what you are worried about, Vesemir. In the past, it took decades for demon hunters to be able to stand out on their own. Now, after only three years of training, 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, maybe they can survive the subsequent [Grass Trial] and [Dream Trial] Refining], but this is nothing more than having a demon hunter-level body."

The old wolf said solemnly: "They haven't had time to learn knowledge such as the Monster Manual, the preparation of potions, etc., and this cannot be accelerated with sufficient resources. They are far from being demon hunters, and they are not even apprentices. grid."

The other witchers nodded.

Lann expressed his understanding: "I will answer your questions one by one. Regarding the survival rate, I plan to abolish the traditional lone witcher mode first and operate in the form of a [Witcher Team]."

Lan En's first sentence was astonishing: "During this period, everyone has also selected apprentices and taught them the martial arts of dagger, crossbow, stabbing sword, and half-hand sword according to their personal characteristics, right?"

"I plan to arrange the apprentices according to the combination of wolf, cat, snake, griffon, and bear, so that they can become a team that cooperates with each other to deal with various situations."

"At the same time, arrange a warlock apprentice as a knowledge consultant in each [Witcher Team], so that the new witchers can learn knowledge during the commission - they are all in Arethusa or Ben Ade. Apprentices who have studied for more than ten years or even decades have enough knowledge to cope with most situations."

"Everyone here should also lead a team as a team leader, and in the process help them execute the commission in a foreign country..."

All the witchers were impressed as they listened.

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

Lan nodded: "Yes, under the supervision of mature demon hunters, the completion of commissions by 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 it is not safe enough, then when the apprentices undergo the [Green Grass Trial], I will inject the power of ancient blood into each apprentice. I will ensure that they pass the trial 100% and can improve to the greatest extent. Their strength.”

After saying that, Lann looked at Jaylon: "At the same time, we can also screen out a group of apprentices with the potential of griffins."

Jie Long nodded slightly.The Griffin School is different from other schools. For example, the Cat School and the Snake School can select thin and agile apprentices in advance, while Ged of the Bear School specifically favors strong young men.

However, the apprentices cannot use the seal before passing the [Green Grass Trial], and they have no idea who has the potential to join the Griffins.It is much more convenient to filter through Ancient Blood (system panel) with Lann.

Lann's purpose is even simpler. He wants to contract all these apprentices as [followers], and then send them to every corner of the North to earn experience and upgrade for himself!
In the past, you would absorb skill points and activate skills to increase your strength.Now Lan En has to save panels through upgrading, steadily improving his physical fitness and magic power reserves level by level.

After upgrading, and with the passive skills and talent bonuses 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.

(End of this chapter)