Chapter 125: Game of Thrones: Dun-dun

Chapter 125: Game of Thrones: Dun-dun

Lynn hesitated and said, "I thought you would mention the witcher's neutrality code."

"Neutrality code? Ha!" Vesemir looked at his clearly different student and said.

"Witchers indeed shouldn't get involved in the political games of kings and sorcerers, but that's for others."

Vesemir looked at Lynn as if he saw his younger self.

Back then, perhaps his swordsmanship wasn't skilled enough, and his Signs weren't used expertly enough.

But he had a burning passion that couldn't be extinguished.

As time passed, that passion slowly cooled down.

Now, even with all his strength, he could only try his best to keep this family together.

And just that alone was already making him feel somewhat overwhelmed.

As for reviving the witchers or anything like that, he had long given up on it.

But now, a young student he had taught was telling him that he wanted to revive the witchers...

And this student wasn't just talking big; he was taking practical actions.

Vesemir was just old, not stupid.

How could he be so stubborn as to stick to a rigid, dead-end principle?

The reason he had repeatedly emphasized maintaining neutrality back then was because people like Geralt, Eskel, and Lambert were only good at haggling with farmers over the heads of drowners.

Expecting them to get involved in the game of thrones would be asking for too much. They wouldn't have enough lives.

They would probably be eaten without even a bone left.

That's why Vesemir had demanded that they must adhere to neutrality.

But Lynn was different from them.

Lynn, as soon as he earned money down the mountain, knew to hire a group of dwarves to come back and repair the castle...

This alone was unlike the other witchers, who, even if they were lucky enough to make a fortune, would only spend the money on alcohol and women.

From this, one could see the difference between Lynn and the others.

Therefore,

since Lynn had the ambition to restore the glory of the witchers, Vesemir naturally wouldn't dissuade Lynn like he did with Geralt and the others, but...

"Lynn, do you know how many witchers there were in this castle before the Kaer Morhen massacre?"

"A hundred people?"

Vesemir shook his head.

Then he said a number that made Lynn feel unbelievable.

"There used to be twenty-three witchers and forty apprentices living in this castle."

"So few?"

The survival rate of the witcher's Trial of the Grasses was three out of ten, and the Wolf School's was slightly higher, four out of ten.

Apprentices referred to those who had not undergone the Trial of the Grasses, so let's not mention them for now.

Let's just talk about the official witchers.

Even if a hundred people underwent the Trial of the Grasses, there should have been at least forty official witchers in the castle.

How could there only be twenty-something?

"The cruelty of the Trial of the Grasses is one aspect, but another aspect is that kings and sorcerers always tried their best to hinder the witchers, attempting to obtain soldiers through means other than the Law of Surprise."

"And the Law of Surprise, in turn, would further deepen the public's misunderstanding of witchers, becoming a handle for kings and sorcerers to incite public discontent."

Vesemir had lived through that era.

Actually, no matter what era, it was easy for witchers to increase their numbers.

Kings and nobles were often called blue bloods.

This was of course due to silver poisoning caused by their heavy use of silverware.

But there was actually another reason, which was that kings and nobles never based their thinking on the common people who had red blood flowing in their veins.

Even without the threat from the south, the northern kingdoms would fight each other. Although their intentions for starting wars were ridiculous, the damage they caused to ordinary people was real.

Witchers could completely take in orphans who had lost everything due to war, or buy the extra mouths they couldn't feed from dirt-poor parents.

That's how other kings, nobles' secret agents, spies, and assassins were trained.

Others could do this.

But only witchers couldn't.

Kings and sorcerers had set strict rules that witchers could only obtain recruits through the Law of Surprise.

Apart from this illusory Law of Surprise, another reason was that witchers never (or rather, had no money to) groom their appearance...

It was said that clothes make the man, and gold adorns the Buddha.

If a witcher passed through a village with a child,

even if the villagers didn't say anything, they would think in their hearts that this witcher had abducted the child.

But if it was a well-dressed, generous gentleman, then the villagers' impression would be completely different.

No one would consider whether the child had been abducted.

They would only be madly jealous, thinking why they weren't the ones following that gentleman.

That's how people are.

Of course, some might think this is the inherent evil of humanity.

But whether it was inherent evil or not, humans did judge others by their appearance.

At least most humans did.

It was precisely because of all the above reasons that the ignorant common people's impression of witchers became increasingly bad.

Lynn suddenly thought of a question.

"Master, why isn't there a single book in the castle's library about that siege?"

The castle's library had mentions of how other schools had perished.

But only the siege of Kaer Morhen was not recorded.

Vesemir's chopping motion suddenly stopped.

"Because almost no one survived. They didn't even spare the youngest children. Only I survived by hiding in a pile of corpses."

"But the reason I brought this up isn't to make you sad or angry."

"Those mobs... or rather, Kaedweni soldiers disguised as mobs, even if they were numerous, Kaer Morhen's defenses back then weren't like they are now..."

"Back then, Kaer Morhen's walls were still intact. The enemy could only enter through the main gate."

"There were ballistae and trebuchets on the walls, and we also had sorcerers on our side at the time, although not many."

Lynn hesitated for a moment and said.

"But the castle was still breached... was that the work of sorcerers?"

"Your intuition is sharp, Lynn." Vesemir cast an approving glance.

He had never mentioned the Kaer Morhen incident to Lynn, and he rarely discussed it with Geralt and the others.

But Lynn being able to realize this showed that he not only knew how to use a sword but also understood much more.

"That's right. Without the strong support from Ban Ard, the Kaedweni army alone could not have breached this castle."

"Dozens of soldiers were enough to defend a fortress against an enemy ten times their number in a long siege, let alone dozens of witchers."

Lynn knew that what Vesemir said was true.

In his home world's European Middle Ages, specifically in 1403, Carnarvon Castle, guarded by only about 30 garrison soldiers, withstood two fierce attacks by Welsh forces supported by French troops during a long siege.

Witchers had better physical qualities than ordinary garrison soldiers.

Without the assistance of sorcerers, Kaer Morhen would only have repeated the record of Carnarvon Castle.

(End of this chapter)