The Witcher: Lord of the Empire

The four members of the School of the Wolf were well known to The Witcher players in Lann's past life.

Among them, Geralt was someone he already knew. At the moment, he was sitting at the end of the table, close to Yennefer, who seemed to not want to be too close to the other witchers.

Noticing Lann's gaze, Geralt nodded slightly.

"It's good to see you again, Lann."

"Me too, Geralt."

Next was Vesemir, an old witcher with graying hair due to his advanced age. Few people could say for sure how old he was, not even he himself knew.

There was no need to reintroduce himself to Vesemir. Lann shifted his gaze to a man with a terrifying scar on his face.

His hair was parted in the middle and he wore a studded jacket with red stripes. He raised his glass after seeing Lann's gaze. "Pleased to meet you, Lann of Cintra. I am Eskel."

"Nice to meet you, Eskel." Lann clinked his glass with the witcher's and drank in one gulp.

The last member of the Wolf School didn't wait for Lann to greet him. He began to speak for himself: "Okay, okay, I'm the last person to be greeted, and I can't wait any longer. So I'm here to greet you without waiting for you to look over. Let's finish this process quickly and start dinner, okay?"

The man's words were rude, but Lann didn't care and smiled. "It's our first meeting. It's nice to meet you, Lambert."

His character was rather unpleasant, probably due to his rejection of the witcher life. However, he felt a deep affection for his fellow members of the Wolf School. Although his words were often hurtful, he was willing to die for any of them.

"Okay, okay, I'm also happy to meet you, because you are finally here, Lann of Cintra." Lambert muttered, clinked glasses with Lann, and drank.

Ciri, seeing Lambert's attitude, wrinkled her nose in disgust. Lambert let out a short laugh and, with interest, looked at the little girl, and they began a silent duel of glances.

Vesemir shook his head, not knowing how to evaluate the two children. Everyone was talking in a low voice while eating. Curious, Geralt and Eskel began to chat with the members of the Viper School.

Vesemir, for his part, raised his glass to Lann again. "I want to thank you, Lann, really."

"Hmm?" Lann showed a surprised expression. "For what?"

Vesemir took a sip of his drink and slowly said a name: "Mignole."

Immediately, the bustle at the table died down, voices became lower, and everyone began talking distractedly.

Ciri and Lambert, who were still in their staring duel, turned their attention to the main seat.

Vesemir sighed. In the face of everyone's discreet and direct gazes, he showed no shame. After all, the thick skin he had built up over nearly two hundred years was not so easy to break. Or perhaps he had already grown accustomed to everyone's mockery these days.

"I am very grateful to you for helping me find her, persuade her, and bring her back to me. Mignole is my regret, because of her, I feel that my boring life has a little more color."

Lambert, who was eavesdropping, smacked his lips in dissatisfaction and muttered: "Boring life..."

Vesemir slammed the table. "Do you think I'm talking to you? Stop acting like a child and keep eating!"

The old witcher frowned at him, clearly angry, but quickly changed his expression and, in a softer voice, continued: "So I must say I owe you one, Lann."

Lann smiled and shook his head. "You don't have to be so formal. After all, Ciri has been under your care for this long. In her letters she told me that she considers you her family, so we are all like family. There's no need to thank me for something so small."

Vesemir smiled gently. However, what he was about to say was something serious, so he quickly adjusted his expression. "But I think you also know that there were some accidents in the process-the climate of Kaer Morhen is too cruel for Mignole. So I have a request, I want you to do me a favor."

Vesemir said solemnly: "I want to join your plan for the Order of Witchers. I hope that Cintra will have a place for the Wolf School in the future. It is also my own selfish desire... I hope there will be a place that can accommodate Mignole and the Wolf School at the same time. I want to give Mignole a normal home."

Lann laughed inwardly.

When he was in Novigrad, he had tried to persuade Mignole to settle in Cintra, as part of his plan to lure Vesemir away. But now, before he could even implement it, Vesemir himself had gotten ahead of him!

Lann took a deep breath and let his smile show.

"No, no, Vesemir, this isn't about me doing you a favor. It's you who are helping us! Cintra needs all the help it can get right now. I'm a witcher too, and Ciri is part of the School of the Wolf. I assure you that in Cintra there will be no reservations towards witchers."

Vesemir sighed, half in bitterness and half in relief. After caring for Kaer Morhen for so many years, he had finally made the decision to leave, hoping that it would all be worth it in the end.

But he still had something else to say.

"However..." Vesemir continued. "My boys have some opinions. As you can see, we wolves are individuals, not a group of mercenaries. I am willing to go to Cintra and take our legacy with me, but I speak only for myself. I cannot make decisions for others."

"They want to talk to you personally."

Lann raised his eyebrows when he heard this. "Of course, I'm all ears."

Vesemir, the soul of the wolf pack, had agreed, which meant that the others were practically halfway to Cintra already. What they wanted to talk about was surely not something too far-fetched.

Geralt sighed, looked at Ciri, and then looked at Vesemir. "Don't look at me, Lann. I'm already too deeply involved, and I've even helped you fight against Nilfgaard. I will help you retake Cintra, I can't escape. But after that... I still hope to be less involved in politics, at least I won't participate in foreign wars of aggression."

Lann nodded. "Of course, Geralt. You are my companion, my comrade in arms, and also… Ciri is your surprise child. What I mean is that I will not give you orders as if you were a soldier. You have free will, that's what I guarantee you."

Ciri, with a serious face, said: "And that is also my guarantee, Geralt!"

Geralt gave a slight smile, while Yennefer looked at him with a mocking expression, as if to say, 'I told you so'. Geralt had obviously had his doubts about this matter before, but hearing Lann's words, he felt relieved.

Eskel was the next to speak. "My conditions are the same as Geralt's. We are witchers, not elite soldiers. If we are talking about reviving the Order of Witchers, we cannot forget our principles. We were born to save ordinary people from the clutches of monsters, not to wield swords in the service of rulers."

"Also, I heard you're researching witcher mutations, right?"

Lann nodded at Eskel's question and looked at Mousesack and Triss. "I explored some ruins and obtained a formula for a second mutation for witchers, which can further enhance their abilities. We are using that mutation as a reference, along with my own accidental mutation, to try and increase the success rate of the mutations and better control their direction."

Lann smiled and said: "The current results are encouraging. The success rate of mutation has been raised to 50%."

"Getting stronger isn't what matters. I think our power is already sufficient." Eskel placed his hands on the table. "My proposal is this: until the mutations are absolutely... forget it, at least, the success rate has to be eighty percent, we shouldn't proceed with them recklessly. I don't want to see apprentices lose their lives to something so unpredictable again."

Lann nodded decisively. "I promise you. Avoiding unnecessary sacrifices is also the goal of my research into mutations. In fact, the Griffin School currently has an apprentice in training, but as the success rate is still not sufficient, we have not proceeded with his mutation. And if the experiments are not guaranteed to succeed, we will not subject him to mutation. That is the unanimous stance of our school."

Lann's eyes are sincere, and this answer is also satisfactory enough.

"I trust you." Eskel nodded. "I have no further objections. I am willing to lend my strength to your Order of Witchers."

"Welcome." A wider smile appeared on Lann's lips.

Finally, Lann turned his gaze to Lambert, who had stopped eating and playing with Ciri a while ago.

There was a tense, repressed atmosphere around him, as if he was hoarding emotions.

"I don't care about the Order of Witchers, nor if I have to fight for a kingdom. I have no problem helping Vesemir or the Wolf School. You just have to consider it another job, in the end, what does it matter what job it is?"

"But if you want the whole group to move to Cintra, we must first resolve what we left pending here. Only then can I leave with peace of mind."

Lambert seemed to remember something unpleasant, and his gaze turned fierce. After a moment of silence, he blurted out a name: "Old Speartip."

Hearing that name, all the witchers of the Wolf School stopped their movements for a moment.

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