It was raining cats and dogs.
In a dark room, a stern-looking man with white hair on his temples stared at the map in front of him in silence.
He was Ciri's biological father, the emperor of Nilfgaardian, the great empire that was about to unify the whole continent, Emhyr Emreth.
For Emhyr, the situation in front of him was very delicate. With the destruction of the capital of Redania, the resistance of the entire Northern Alliance should have been wiped out. Then, as long as Nilfgaardian marched its army north, they would be able to unify the whole continent.
But things were far from that simple.
First of all, the army of Redania, which had lost its king, did not fall into disarray. On the contrary, they knelt under the banner of the Church of Eternal Fire and declared that they would fight for the great God of Fire forever. The ignorant and superstitious behavior of these barbarians really gave Emhyr a headache. But that was not a big deal. After all, the fighting strength of the army of Redania was only average. It was only a matter of time before they were wiped out.
But there were two other problems that Emhyr had to pay attention to.
The first was the appearance of the Lord of Fire in the Church of Eternal Fire, who called himself Ragnaros. At first, Emhyr thought it was just a rumor, but soon his spies reported the same information to him from different sources. In other words, there was indeed a terrifying existence condensed from flames, up to 100 meters tall, that had descended on Novigrad. As for what it was … no one could explain it.
Considering that the other party had destroyed the capital of Redania with a meteor, Emhyr had to pause his march. If he provoked the other party, he would not be able to do anything if a meteor smashed directly into the capital of Nilfgaardian.
The second point was very depressing. According to the spies' report, his biological daughter, Ciri, had actually become the Oracle of the Church of Eternal Fire?!
This made things awkward for them.
Emhyr only had one daughter in his life, Ciri. He had always hoped that his daughter would return to him and become the heir of this empire. Nilfgaardian's attitude towards religion was to prohibit and deny it. They believed that so-called religion was nothing more than the product of superstition and ignorance of the people, and basically needed to be eliminated.
But now, while his father was busy sweeping away the remnants of feudal superstition, his daughter had actually run off to become the Oracle of the church.
This was simply slapping his own face.
Because of this, the situation in the north had reached a subtle stalemate. Nilfgaardian did not act rashly, and Novigrad was busy with internal reforms. The two sides had reached a temporary truce.
However, no one knew what would happen next.
Just as the man was deep in thought, the door opened and his attendant walked in.
"His Majesty the Great Emperor, the white flame that dances upon the grave of his enemy, Emperor Emhyr Enreis!"
As he spoke, the attendant bowed respectfully to him, and the white-haired man beside him also imitated him and bowed respectfully.
"Everyone, get out. Demon hunters, stay."
Emhyr waved his hand. Soon, the others left, except for the white-haired man. Emhyr stood up and looked at the white-haired man in front of him after the door closed again.
"I thought you wouldn't bow to anyone, Geralt."
That's right, the white-haired man in front of Emhyr was none other than Ciri's adoptive father, a famous demon hunter on the continent — Geralt of Livia.
Hearing Emhyr's words, Geralt raised an eyebrow. His weather-beaten, scarred face was expressionless.
"You didn't summon me here to reminisce about the past, did you? So …"
"Shut up."
Before Geralt could finish his sentence, Emhyr interrupted him angrily. For Emhyr, it was not something worth reminiscing about.
That was when Emhyr was still young. When he was 13, there was a coup in Nilfgaardian. Emhyr's father was overthrown, and the usurper placed a curse on Emhyr, turning him into a monster. After that, it was Geralt who helped him dispel the curse, restoring the man who was neither human nor ghost. In return, Emhyr accepted Geralt's request for the "Law of Surprise" and gave his child to him. This was also the reason why Geralt became Ciri's adoptive father.
For Emhyr, who now ruled the entire Nilfgaardian Empire and was about to unify the continent, that dark history was not something he wanted to recall.
"Have you heard about what happened in Redania recently?"
"What happened?"
"My daughter … Ciri is back."
"Really?"
Hearing this, Geralt showed a surprised expression. He had been looking for traces of Ciri, but to no avail. Now, there was finally a clue?
"Yes, she's in Novigrad now. I want you to go to Novigrad, find her, and bring her back."
"Why me?"
Hearing this, Geralt asked doubtfully.
"Because she trusts you. More importantly, there's something wrong with the current situation … Do you know what happened to Novigrad?"
"Novigrad?"
"Looks like the news hasn't reached your ears yet."
Emhyr sneered at the demon hunter in front of him.
"Not long ago, a terrifying existence condensed from flames appeared in Novigrad. It claimed to be the King of Flames. Because the Church of Eternal Fire distorted its doctrine and used its power to intimidate others, the King of Flames burned the entire Episcopal Church, including the Archbishop, to ashes. It also sent an Oracle to control the entire Church. That Oracle was Ciri."
"… Ciri? An Oracle? "
Geralt was also dumbfounded when he heard this.
"That's right. I don't know the details. The Empire is currently investigating, but we can't act rashly. You may not know, but after that, the Church of Eternal Fire accused the King of Redania of instigating the 'Witch Hunt' and wanted to punish him. The other party was furious.... and then a meteor fell from the sky and flattened the entire King City. "
"… Are you kidding me?"
"I hope it's a joke. I've asked my advisors, all the warlocks, but they all told me that no matter how powerful a warlock is, it's impossible to create a flame giant hundreds of meters tall and summon a meteor that's enough to destroy the city. So I don't know what's going on over there, and I can't explain it. No one can explain it, so I want you to investigate, figure out what happened, and bring Ciri back. "
Emhyr stared at Geralt.
"Any other questions? If you have any, ask Yennefer. "
"That's all."
Geralt nodded and turned around, intending to leave. However, he soon stopped and turned around.
"Want to play a game of Gwent?"
"Of course."
Emhyr's eyes lit up when he heard Geralt's invitation.
"I'm good at cards!"
While the two men were engrossed in playing cards and forgot about their daughter, Fangzheng left Novigrad with Riz, Miao Jie, and Ciri. They were exploring and patrolling the wilderness.
At present, Novigrad could be said to be relatively peaceful. The reason why the Church of Eternal Fire was able to occupy a dominant position in this Free City and even become the true ruler of this city was that the residents here were backward, ignorant, and superstitious. Since the priests of the church could deceive those people with their glib tongues, when a real god appeared, these people naturally became even more loyal to the Church of Eternal Fire.
Ciri had no interest in dealing with government affairs, so she found a few bishops and temple guards who had a good reputation and asked them to handle it on her behalf. At present, the Church of Eternal Fire's main task was to eliminate the four major mafias in the city. The one who tried to assassinate Ciri had been caught by Fangzheng and was then put in prison and executed in public by Ciri. This was also a way to vent the anger she felt when she was chased by the other party.
In addition, the Church of Eternal Fire also had to face the Redanian army that came from all directions to surrender. After Fangzheng blew up the city with a meteor, Novigrad, where the Church of Eternal Fire was located, became the core of the north. They also had to send all the priests to proclaim the new doctrine of the Church of Eternal Fire everywhere … But there were naturally people who would do that, so Ciri left Novigrad with the three of them to carry out the work of "demon hunters".
They had to admit that this world was very beautiful. As they galloped across the grassland, they looked at the blue sky and white clouds in the distance. As the wind blew across the grassland, the green grass danced with it, giving off a sense of beauty that was full of vitality.
But behind this beautiful scenery, there was no lack of darkness.
For example, when crossing a hill, the originally beautiful grassland turned into a pitch-black battlefield. There were unburied corpses everywhere, and ghouls wantonly gnawing on the corpses. Or, when they left the forest, they would see several corpses hanging on wooden stakes and swaying in the wind.
It could be said that the word "war" showed its most primitive, brutal and bloody side here.
Ciri was already used to it, but for Rize and Miao Jie, this situation was still a little hard for them to bear.
As for Fangzheng, he could only turn a blind eye to it.
In fact, he had seen this kind of thing many times during the Warring States Period. In Fangzheng's view, the war between Nilfgaardian and the northern countries in this world was similar to the war between the Qin Dynasty and the other six countries. Of course, from Fangzheng's point of view, he supported a unified civilisation. Because only a unified country, a unified civilisation and a unified system could bring about peace and order.
But on the other hand, you could not force the other party to do things. It was normal for deserters and bandits to be hanged. Killing and brutality in war were unavoidable. When the Qin soldiers invaded the other six countries, they were not necessarily more civilized than the soldiers of the Nilfgaardian Empire. So it could only be said that … to the later generations, both Qin and Nilfgaardian were praiseworthy, but to the people of that era, these two countries were no different from demons.
Speaking of which, both Qin and Nilfgaardian were represented by black … Was this some kind of coincidence?
"I've seen it a few times, but I'm still not used to it …"
Looking at the corpses hanging on wooden stakes, Miao Jie's expression was a little stiff.
"It's great that Princess Elfin isn't here."
"Me too … I don't feel well."
"That's war."
Ciri was not as sad as the two girls. She shook her head and looked ahead.
"That's the crow's nest. Let's go."
(End of Chapter)
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