Chapter 20: The Three of Us Are Going to Kill Everything
Lynn was as swift as a shadow, nimbly dodging between the ghouls, avoiding their attacks effortlessly under heavy slowing effects.
And left wounds on them.
Soon, these ghouls were all easily killed by Lynn.
And he himself wasn't even touched by the ghouls' clothes.
A warm current flowed into his body, granting Lynn a lot of experience points.
On Geralt's side, the battle was also quickly over.
Several ghouls devoid of any breath were scattered around him.
Upon seeing that all the carrion-eating creatures were killed by the two Witchers, the Southerner nimbly came down from the roof of the truck.
He first examined the corpses of the caravan men on the ground, mourned for a while, and then walked over to the two of them, hands on hips, with a self-satisfied smile on his face.
"The three of us are quite good, killing everything."
"The three of us? It seems you just made noises, we were the ones that killed everything, weren't we?"
The smile of the Southerner never dropped, and shame was nowhere to be found on his face.
"Do not take life so seriously, life is a play, you lose if you are serious, my friend."
Feeling that the other person was so shameless, Lynn was not being polite to him: "Then your acting in this play is very awkward, my friend."
"Alright, alright, I confess, you saved my life, is that alright, Witcher masters?" The Southerner offered Lynn a French military salute.
He went on with sarcasm: "People always say that Witchers feel nothing, it seems that the rumors are untrue."
Lynn responded sarcastically as well: "People also said that when you are saved by others, you are ought to respond with earnestness and sincerity, not try to play with sarcasm."
"Alright, gentlemen, excuse me but I have to interrupt your nice and cozy discussion." Geralt interfered at the right moment, "But this is not the place for talk."
He nodded his head slightly in the Southerner's direction: "If you don't mind, sir, we need to burn these corpses so that more carrion-eating monsters with the scent of blood won't be attracted."
"Of course, Witcher masters, do as you wish."
The Southerner quickly moved away, watching Lynn and Geralt pile the ghouls' corpses together and incinerate them.
"Excuse my presumption, how did it happen that the two Witcher masters just happened to be traveling by here?"
Geralt replied: "This is a question we should be asking, what are you doing here?"
"Alas," the Southerner sighed, "Damn it, my friend warned me Northerners cannot be trusted, I used to think he was too extreme."
"Damn it, now it seems he was correct. I would rather starve to death, die outside, jump off a building, and never come to the North again."
Lynn and Geralt looked at each other.
They both instinctively sensed something was not quite right.
"So, you are not Aedirnian soldiers pretending to be a merchant caravan?"
The Southerner jumped up like a scalded cat: "What Aedirnian soldiers? I'm from Ebbing! Do you know where Ebbing is?"
Both Witchers nodded.
Ebbing was one of the four biggest vassal states in the southern Nilfgaardian Empire and enjoyed some autonomy.
It was a separate kingdom prior to its annexation by Nilfgaard in 1239.
Nevertheless, the North-South strife in those days was much less biting and slashing than it would become later, so it was not unusual for a Southern merchant to appear in the North.
But the problem was that the Kaedwen army captain who hired them said that those they killed were "Aedirnian soldiers disguised as a merchant caravan."
For the first time in their working life, they experienced pure malice.
It seemed that the society of any world loved to douse freshies in the workplace with cold water.
Lynn asked curiously, "Okay, then what are you doing here?"
The Southerner sighed again.
"Toussaint's famous wine, East-East, is very popular in the South. It is a very high-end and expensive wine, but no one imports East-East to the North."
"I wanted to be the first to try, so I came to Kaedwen."
"Some months ago, when I first came to Kaedwen and was inspected while crossing the border, one of the guard captains said he had a channel where he could help me sell these things directly, so I would not need to spend any more energy peddling them around."
"But his condition was that we split the money earned 50-50."
"Though I had to give up 50% of the profit, it saved me much time and trouble, so I agreed."
"But what I hadn't counted on was after a few transactions, he wished to increase his profit to 70% and only willing to give 30% to me."
"So you did not agree?"
Said the Southerner flatly.
"Of course not, I ran back and forth between Toussaint and Kaedwen so hard, not only to keep bandits on the road from my neck, but to watch out for monsters in the wilderness."
"When I was on the road, I could not even eat, often, and I had to include the price of the wine and the money paid to the guys."
"30%? How am I supposed to live on 30%!"
"So I insisted that the division must be the same as before, or this would be the last time that we did business, and we would go our separate ways from that day forward."
Lynn shrugged his hands.
"So I did not expect them to use knives. Not only did they murder you and your men, threw them into the pile of corpses, but also left it to the carrion-eating beasts to dispose of the task of destroying the dead bodies."
"They were still nervous, and hired two Witchers to burn the dead bodies so that nothing would be left behind."
The Southerner's eyes widened.
Clearly, he strongly figured out something by Lynn's words.
The eyes looking at the two Witchers were also alert.
Geralt on the side calmly said.
"Don't worry, we are monster killers. And besides, no one commissioned us to burn live humans. But I'm curious how you escaped? "
After listening to Geralt's words, and seeing that Lynn and Geralt really didn't plan to draw swords, the Southerner breathed a sigh of relief.
"Finally, one rumor is true, though mutants, you have principles still! Thanks, Witcher masters!"
"The scene was in disarray at that time. My horse was struck by an arrow and threw me off. The horse's blood splashed all over me, so I took the opportunity to pretend to be a corpse. Fortunately, they didn't give a finishing blow."
The Southerner muttered as he rummaged through all his pockets, but unfortunately, he was not able to produce any coin.
"Those bastards took everything. I. I have nothing to repay you."
To the Southerner's surprise, Lynn waved his hand in a magnanimous gesture.
"It doesn't matter. We rescued you, so we cannot simply throw you back to the carrion-eating beasts because you cannot pay. Go home, Ebbing man."
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