Chapter 18: This Is the Best of Times, This Is the Worst of Times
Lambert took a few steps back.
From head to toe, he sized Lynn up in front of him carefully.
A satisfied expression seldom appearing on his face.
"Good, very spirited."
By this time, Lynn had also put on the same standard Wolf School medium armor as the others.
He had two swords on his back.
One was a steel sword, and the other was a steel sword too.
Just kidding, the other was actually a silver sword.
The steel and silver swords used by Witchers are hand-and-a-half swords, not one-handed swords.
Hand-and-a-half swords have the advantage of length and chopping and slashing of two-handed swords over one-handed swords, and are lighter than two-handed swords.
Most characters in fantasy, therefore, use hand-and-a-half swords.
Vesemir's eyes were slightly red.
In fact, this set of equipment had been prepared since Lynn was picked up by him and brought back to Kaer Morhen many years ago.
However, he did not expect that the day to use it would come so early.
Among the Wolf School folks, Lambert, who always argued with Vesemir, did not have any more words after seeing Vesemir's red eyes.
Geralt coughed, disrupting the silence.
"Lynn, I know you've reached the strength of a full-grown Witcher now, but you can't be proud and lazy because of it."
"Even though we had to come down the mountain alone after completing the Mountain Trials, I think rules must change with the times. So, you will come after me first, and we will go together."
Eskel, who was beside him, also said something.
"Numerous Witchers completed all the trials finally, but died a couple of years later after coming down the mountain."
"Apart from that, they were not killed by monsters, but were murdered by humans. These are caused by a lack of experience. When you are with Geralt, you must observe and learn well."
The last one to see Lynn off was Vesemir.
Vesemir now seemed like a typical old man.
He had boundless words and boundless counsel as ever.
Lynn showed no impatience.
Instead, he listened patiently.
Finally, Vesemir let out a deep sigh.
"It used to be so simple, monsters were bad, humans were good. Now, everything is complicated."
Geralt, who was beside him, didn't see eye to eye. "It was just as complicated in the past, you're just old and forgetful."
"Don't mention my age, aren't you in your fifties as well?"
Finally, Vesemir spoke with a serious warning.
"Kid, don't ever remember that Witchers are to remain neutral and not be swept up in the vortex of political intrigue."
Then he looked at Geralt.
Geralt was a little confused by his look.
"What are you looking at me for?"
Lynn rode behind Geralt, letting Geralt's mare, Roach, take him slowly away from the Blue Mountains.
Vesemir and Kaer Morhen gradually disappeared behind them into the Blue Mountains.
Vesemir was always the last to leave Kaer Morhen.
However, he was also the first to return to Kaer Morhen.
He readied the castle that stood empty for a year to welcome the others of the Wolf School, whom he regarded as his children.
It was because of Vesemir's insistence that they had to return to Kaer Morhen every winter that the Wolf School Witchers were so tight-knit.
"Lynn, listen to Geralt, for sure. I don't want you, the last Witcher of the Wolf School, to miss this year's winter reunion."
Lambert horseback rode to Geralt's left.
No sooner had he said this than Eskel couldn't help but interrupt him.
"Lynn will not be the last Witcher. Even without relying on the Law of Surprise, we can obtain new blood from impoverished parents who are not able to have more children."
But Lambert replied quickly.
"I believe such parents would rather send their children to the artisans in the city to learn a trade that can provide for themselves, than become a Witcher who is despised wherever he goes."
He shrugged and continued, "If they are lucky enough to survive the Trial of the Grasses, that is."
Lambert was not like Geralt and Eskel.
He had a hot-headed father who would beat him and his mother black and blue when drunk.
Then his father was saved by a Witcher.
And the payment was Lambert.
It was precisely because Lambert did not want what had been done to him to be done to other children that he was so disgusted by the Trial of the Grasses and begrudged training new Witchers.
Eskel looked at him strangely.
"Lambert, what's wrong with you today?"
Lambert avoided Eskel's gaze. "Nothing, I just think, since monsters are becoming fewer and fewer, why do we need more Witchers?"
It was then that Lynn, who was sitting behind Geralt, suddenly said.
"Because if all the Witchers are gone, who'll deal with the monsters when the next Conjunction of the Spheres occurs?"
"We all know that the earliest races on this planet were only gnomes and the now-extinct lizardmen."
"Although humans now widely use the term Elder Races to collectively refer to gnomes, dwarves, and elves, dwarves and elves are, in fact, latecomers."
"Then it was the turn of humans to set foot on this land."
"After that, there were several subsequent Conjunctions of the Spheres, and monsters came flooding in by the hordes, threatening people's lives."
"Although through the centuries, thanks to the tireless work of Witchers, monsters have indeed decreased and decreased in number."
"Nowadays, it is true that it is no longer like in the past, where every village posted notices and commissions for Witchers."
"However, it does not in any way mean that the Conjunction of the Spheres won't happen again sometime in the future."
"Just as tides, just as sunrise and sunset, so the Conjunction of the Spheres is a natural process too, which can't be stopped or changed."
"One day, perhaps, the monsters in this world will indeed be eradicated, but at the time of the next Conjunction of the Spheres, monsters from other worlds will invade this one, and this world will need Witchers again."
"Then it is a big mistake to think that Witchers are no longer necessary because monsters have decreased."
It was very evident from Lynn that this era was a profound change unprecedented in a century.
In the subsequent wave of the times, from kings and nobles to commoners, no one could stay out of it.
Even the oldest magic sorcerer group, the Brotherhood of Sorcerers, would suffer the fate of their rising inflated ambitions and fall in the near future.
Sorcerers are the creators of Witchers and the advisors and guests of the Northern kings.
They are also the backstage operators who made the name and reputation of Witcher so awful.
Witchers might once have been an honorable and respectable profession such as rangers.
They have fallen into the current state of sewer rats, thanks to the sorcerers.
As long as the giant of the Brotherhood of Sorcerers exists for a day, Witchers will not cease to decline.
But who would have thought that in the near future, the invincible Brotherhood of Sorcerers would dissolve into nothingness like smoke in the past.
Along with the sorcerers who were once advisers and guests of the king, their fortunes in the North also took a dramatic turn for the worse, as they became like rats running across the street, being hanged or burned at the stake.
This is the worst of times, and the best of times.
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