[Chapter Size: 2700 Words.]
Third Person POV
White Orchard.
...
...
"Hey... I thought we were going to Nilfgaard, dear," she said as they appeared in the middle of a vast pasture.
There was a vast countryside, a village in the distance, a few scattered farms, and several forests surrounding the area, with a river flowing near the village. In her opinion, the place was quite peaceful. Even so, she was still confused about why Madara had brought her there.
"Don't you remember this place? Years ago, at the beginning of The Witcher 3, when I showed it to you..." Madara asked.
Cirilla widened her eyes, trying to search her memory. "What was the name of this place again?" she asked thoughtfully.
"White Orchard," Madara replied.
Cirilla gave a faint smile, though she still looked confused. "But why here? Weren't we finally going to deal with my father once and for all?" she asked.
"We will. But why should we do it now? I want the news that the Nilfgaardian army was destroyed to reach him first. He already knows we were in Toussaint, and he probably also knows about Aren's existence since we revealed him publicly." Madara paused briefly before continuing.
"However, I want him to taste the bitterness of seeing the entire army he spent the last few years building vanish once again. All the manpower, soldiers, and money invested in the war simply disappeared. He's going to be desperate. He won't be able to do absolutely anything when he finds out. I'm going to take away everything he's envisioned for so many years, and I want him to feel the consequences of that before we actually deal with him," he replied.
Cirilla remained silent for a few moments before nodding. "Nilfgaard will never accept the damage we've caused..." she murmured.
"Exactly why we're only going to wait one day. The North will also learn what we've done. I want the entire Continent to pay attention to our movements. Because when we go to Nilfgaard, we're going to end everything once and for all."
There was no longer any reason to delay. They had already appeared, killed kings, destroyed an entire army, and demonstrated their power to the Continent.
So why wait to kill the emperor who had been after them for so many years? It was time to put an end to it.
Emhyr had to die.
"Wait for me here." Madara simply disappeared.
Although she was eager to finally deal with her biological father once and for all, Cirilla never stopped trusting her husband's plans. Perhaps it was also a good opportunity to enjoy that place for a while. If only Aren were there with them. Her son would probably like that region very much.
She didn't even ask what Madara had gone to do. She trusted him. Whatever the plan was, she only hoped he would bring Aren. And, as if he had answered her wish, Madara reappeared a few moments later, bringing Aren and Eira before them.
"We're going to spend a day here. Get some rest. After that, we'll deal with the war. We've already destroyed an entire army. Geralt is with Nenneke at the temple."
Cirilla immediately smiled and picked her son up in her arms. The boy was still looking around the area in confusion.
"Where are we?" he asked curiously.
"We're in White Orchard. It's still in Temeria. Wait... There was a war near here, wasn't there?" Cirilla asked.
Madara nodded. "Not very far away. It seems this place is very similar to what happened in that game, although Nilfgaard didn't win."
She simply nodded, ignoring the confused looks from both Eira and Aren, who obviously had no idea what they were talking about.
"I wonder if we'll find the wild griffin," she whispered, remembering those memories from the game.
"Possibly. But we can't show ourselves as we are now."
Madara was still wearing his red battle armor. After all, he had only put on that armor to fight the twenty-five thousand men in southern Temeria. Afterward, he had used Shikaku Tensei and then gone to the other army by sending the stone into the enemy army in Verden.
"We need to change our appearance too," Cirilla murmured.
Madara nodded. "You can do that, can't you?" he asked. Although Cirilla was now capable of doing it as well, Madara turned his attention to Eira.
"You're going to become an ordinary horse. Strong enough to carry us and wearing a regular saddle. Meanwhile, transform all of us into ordinary people," he instructed.
The unicorn simply did as requested, its horn glowing. Soon after, Madara replaced his armor with simple clothes, looking like nothing more than an ordinary hunter. He still carried a sword, a bow, and a quiver of arrows, since they matched his new appearance perfectly.
His hair became dirty blond, and his eyes took on a bluish shade. It wasn't a particularly handsome appearance, just an ordinary one.
Cirilla gained brown hair and matching eyes. She wore simple clothes befitting a country woman, garments that concealed her figure and made her look like someone who took care of the house while her husband worked in the fields.
Aren immediately started laughing, pointing at his parents. "You look so funny!" he said, amused by the strange appearances the two of them had taken on.
But he didn't even realize he was changing as well. Cirilla summoned a mirror in front of him. The moment he looked at his own reflection, his eyes widened.
His hair had turned brown like his mother's, while his eyes had become blue like his father's. Then he started laughing at himself.
"That's so cool! I changed too!" he said, completely excited. "Eira changed too!" he pointed out.
Eira also quickly transformed into an ordinary horse. A small pack was fastened to the saddle, carrying the tents and supplies.
Madara mounted first, placing Cirilla in front of him and Aren in front of her. Together, they headed toward the small village of White Orchard.
Madara was merely a hunter from southern Temeria who had escaped the war, accompanied by his wife and son as they traveled north in search of a new life.
They didn't seem like deserters. After all, the war was already over.
They entered White Orchard, and the first thing they did was head straight for the tavern at the entrance of the village. They left the horse at the stable.
There they found a few men playing Gwent at the first tables. Another was arguing about a book he intended to write about the war, describing only heroic deeds while completely ignoring the rapes, the deaths, the looting, and all the other atrocities committed during the conflict. Madara remembered that Geralt had argued with that man about it.
But Madara simply ignored the scholar. He then looked at another table near the entrance.
Cirilla noticed it as well. "This is where Geralt would have met the Master Mirror, right?" Cirilla asked.
Madara nodded. "Yes. But Gaunter is no longer among the living," he replied calmly, his voice carrying a cold tone.
The demon was now nothing more than one of his pawns. It was rather ironic to say that. But it was also true.
Madara walked over to a corner with Cirilla and Aren sitting in his mother's lap while they listened to some grumbling coming from the tavern's rough patrons. Some of them were even beginning to threaten one another.
Of course, some things had changed.
The place wasn't crawling with Nilfgaardians as it had been in the game, nor were there soldiers controlling the village and threatening its citizens. Everything they had seen in White Orchard during the game, in a way, could no longer be found there.
There were no desperate people fleeing the war. The bitter losers didn't even know what had happened in the south yet; it had all taken place only earlier that morning, so it wasn't a topic of conversation yet, though it would be once the rumors reached the village.
It was still possible to see a few Temerian soldiers walking around the village. The fort that originally should have been occupied by Nilfgaard remained in the hands of Temeria's men.
The local dwarven blacksmith was not seen as an enemy of the village either.
Even so, many other things remained the same. The Noonwraith still existed. The cemetery was still there. There was also the griffin problem and all the other quests in the region. The Places of Power, the bandit camps, and the monster nests continued to appear because battles had still taken place between Nilfgaard and Temeria's soldiers, leaving many corpses behind and attracting ghouls.
The only difference was that this time, the Nilfgaardians had not been the victors. In any case, they remained there until a woman from behind the counter approached their table.
"What would you like to eat?" she asked.
"The special of the day. Enough for the three of us." His firm, indifferent voice made the woman raise her eyes in surprise.
That man looked like nothing more than a simple hunter. His voice, however, didn't match that appearance at all.
Even so, she simply nodded and went to prepare the order. Meanwhile, the boy remained in his mother's lap.
"Did you fight the bad men?" Aren asked.
Cirilla immediately placed a hand over his mouth. "Don't say those things here, son. There's no reason for us to talk about that in this place."
The boy simply nodded.
"We can't say anything about our powers or who we are. We're just enjoying a peaceful day... if we can even call this a break," Madara said to his son.
The boy turned his attention to the window, talking about everything he saw outside. A few children were playing in the street. Cirilla followed his gaze and noticed a faint trace of envy in her son's eyes.
She then turned her attention to Madara. He understood immediately. Aren practically never got to play with other children.
Not even at the temple. He had to stay hidden, and there was no way for him to interact with the other children, so he often ended up feeling very lonely for someone his age.
"Do you want to stay here with him for a while? I'll take care of the problem at the well and deal with the griffin too. After that, we can explore the region during the afternoon," Madara explained.
Cirilla nodded as she looked at her son once more. At first, she had intended to take him along. But after watching Aren looking at those children, she decided it might be better to let him play for a while.
The food arrived shortly afterward. The three of them ate in silence, listening only to a few drunkards arguing at the other tables.
Madara finished the meal with his family and stood up. As he walked away, he noticed several people gathered near the counter.
Then his eyes found something interesting among the items the woman was selling.
It was a Northern Realms Gwent card. He asked for the card and bought it.
"A Northern Realms card?" Cirilla murmured as she looked at what her husband had brought back to their table. "Let me see... Catapults... Doesn't your Northern deck already have plenty of those?" she said.
Madara simply replied, "Of course. Here." He immediately tossed the card to her.
Cirilla smiled happily. It was rather strange to see someone capable of destroying entire armies become so happy over receiving a simple Gwent card.
In any case, Aren also seemed quite excited.
"Do Mommy and Daddy have their own decks?" he asked.
"Yes." Cirilla took out the decks she had assembled before traveling to other worlds, since they both played and collected the cards. She owned the Monsters Deck as well as the Northern Realms Deck.
"I heard they're putting together a Skellige deck in Toussaint..." Madara commented.
Cirilla immediately lit up. "Really? I'd like to see it."
The curious thing was that Gwent had cards featuring the names of characters who were still alive. Geralt, Ciri, Tissaia... practically every powerful figure on the Continent appeared in the game.
The highest power value was normally fifteen points. With the exception of a single card.
There was a Madara Uchiha card. It had twenty power. But he still hadn't found it; apparently, there were only three copies of it in the entire Continent.
"I've got these too..." Madara pulled out two cards and placed them on the table in front of Cirilla.
Ciri's eyes widened. One was a card of herself with fifteen power, while the other was Geralt's, also with fifteen.
She immediately picked up the cards and began showing them to Aren, who flipped through them one by one, completely fascinated by his mother's excitement.
"Where did you get these?" she asked. She couldn't stop looking at the image of her younger self holding her sword with both hands.
"In King Kovir's treasury." They stayed there for a while longer, enjoying a refreshing drink before finally leaving the inn.
The cards were put away without anyone noticing their magic.
"I'm leaving a clone in his shadow while I check the notice board," Madara said.
With a subtle movement, he made a shadow slip into Aren's own to protect him while he walked through the village toward the contract board.
Outside, a few children were playing in the street. A woman approached Cirilla with Aren, who remained beside Eira, still transformed into an ordinary horse.
The woman greeted her and came over to talk since she wasn't familiar with her. Cirilla explained that she was just a traveler. She said that her husband had stopped in White Orchard to hunt and take on a few jobs before they continued their journey north.
The woman was quite friendly, even though people would normally be suspicious of strangers. As they talked about the village and its daily life, she called over her own son and introduced him to Aren.
The boy looked at him with some suspicion. Aren, meanwhile, remained quite shy.
Cirilla smiled and encouraged her son to talk to the other children. Even though he was only three years old and had experienced so much over the past few days, the boy was still very timid.
The six-year-old boy didn't like that very much and even made a face at the younger child. His mother lightly scolded him, making him invite Aren to play with them.
Aren looked at his mother, still uncertain. Cirilla simply smiled and nodded.
A few moments later, he naturally ran off to play with the other children. Madara approached his wife and the woman with a few papers in his hands while watching Aren run after the children.
"Oh, so you're a hunter and Caroline's husband..." the woman began. Ciri had said her name was Caroline, since they needed a false name.
"Hello, I see you've already met my wife," Madara said, making the woman look at him in surprise.
"Yes, she didn't tell me you had such a beautiful voice," she said with a sincere compliment, causing Ciri to grimace at the woman's implication toward her husband.
Madara and Ciri didn't have attractive appearances at the moment, since that would certainly have caused problems. Eira had done an excellent job transforming them into ordinary people, but their voices remained the same.
"Thank you... I think..." Madara simply nodded, ignoring Ciri's look.
"Anyway," the woman continued, oblivious to Ciri as well. "Be careful of the griffin. It's been causing a lot of trouble around here. Not even the army has been able to deal with it. There are also a few monster nests. I heard that during the night, the cries of those creatures echo throughout the surrounding forest. Be careful."
"Thank you. I'll be going, then." Madara turned his attention to Cirilla.
"You'll be alright here?" he asked, just as any ordinary man would ask his wife before leaving for work.
"Yes, 'dear.' I'll be fine. Aren and I will be waiting for you," she replied, emphasizing her words.
Madara merely sighed and nodded. He mounted Eira and, carrying his bow, arrows, and a sword, rode out of the village.
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
🦝 Raccoon here: 🦝
I deeply appreciate your support since the beginning of this exciting journey!
🌟 RaccoonLeague | Patreon🌟
Visit our Patreon for more: https://www.patreon.com/RaccoonLeague
Extra Content Already Available:
🏴☠️ One Piece - I Am a Different Luffy!: 30 extra chapters!
👑 Game of Thrones: The Legend of Jon Arctic!: 30 extra chapters!
👑 Game of Thrones: DragonBorn! 30 extra chapters! [100%]
👑 HOTD: Jon Arctic! 30 extra chapters!
🌀 Naruto - Minato Namikaze SI!: 30 extra chapters!
🗡️ The Witcher - As Uchiha Madara! 30 extra chapters!
⚡HP - Jon Arctic as Severus Snape! 30 extra chapters!
⚡ Harry Potter - Shadow Monarch! Finished! [100%]
⚡Danmachi – The Alchemist! [Coming Soon.]
Visit our Patreon for more!!
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆