Chapter 168: Those Northern Yokels Just Look Down on You
Lynn emerged from Letho's inn room, satisfied. Letho had agreed. He would follow Lynn north when Lynn left.
However, this didn't mean he would follow Lynn forever. If Lynn failed to pay him as promised, or if what they actually saw didn't match the grand vision Lynn had painted, they would be very disappointed in Lynn and would leave permanently.
Lynn completely understood this. Even if his grand plan was to revive the witchers, he still had to consider their short-term interests. If short-term benefits couldn't be achieved, how could long-term ones be realized?
The fact that Letho and his companions were willing to follow him was already an excellent outcome.
As for the rest... he wasn't lying. They would know the truth once they arrived.
Next, Lynn immediately headed to his next destination—Thanesel's armor shop. During Thanesel's absence, the shop had accumulated many orders. So, upon returning to the armor shop, Thanesel merely took a bath and, without even resting, immediately got to work, the sounds of hammering filling the air.
At this moment, having learned of Lynn's arrival from a shop assistant, Thanesel quickly put down his work and came out. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Lynn directly stated the purpose of his visit to the elven master blacksmith.
"Master Thanesel, what do you think of the North?"
"Ignorant, backward. The history of the North is full of just two words—man-eating."
The elven master blacksmith's face was filled with disdain. However, his reaction was within the witcher's expectations. In this era, information about distant lands relied primarily on traveling merchant caravans and the exaggerated, imaginative tales of self-proclaimed travelers and adventurers in taverns who claimed to have visited the North. If one or two tenths of such information were true, that was already good.
Take war, for example. While wars often erupted between the Northern Kingdoms, the intensity was generally not that great due to the intermarriage among their ruling families. In such situations, the common folk in the North had developed their own survival methods. They would flee with their valuables when armies approached, hiding what they couldn't carry, and then return after the powers had divided the spoils.
But this was war among the Northern Kingdoms. The South was different. The Nilfgaardian Empire's ability to rapidly conquer other Southern nations within decades relied on destruction. Utter destruction. There were no rules. To reward the nobles, officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers who contributed to the war, the Empire needed to ask the original lords of the conquered territories to leave. Of course, considering that their lives might become problematic after losing their lands, the Empire would thoughtfully send them to the gallows so they wouldn't have to worry about living anymore.
The newly appointed lords, who received these grants, naturally couldn't work the land themselves. Therefore, the Emperor issued another decree: any Nilfgaardian who settled in a conquered territory would receive five hundred acres of land allocated by the Empire and be exempt from taxes for ten years.
This was why the Nilfgaardian army destroyed everything in its path. How could they accommodate Nilfgaardian immigrants without slaughtering the original inhabitants, burning villages, and looting everything?
Of course.
The Nilfgaardians didn't consider this conquest. In their words, it was about injecting civilization and advanced genes into savage and backward regions.
Although Thanesel was not a Nilfgaardian, or even human, but an elf, he had lived in the South for a long time. He had been influenced by the Nilfgaardian Empire's prolonged propaganda and education. Naturally, he also came to believe that all Northerners were barbaric and uncivilized, and that the North was a wild wasteland.
"Then how do you feel about Toussaint?"
"Not bad. Although non-humans still face some subtle discrimination, at least one doesn't have to worry about their life here."
This was true. Large-scale massacres targeting non-humans were rare in Toussaint. Of course, that was before. Lynn, with the script in hand, knew that Toussaint would soon experience a bloody and brutal massacre. And this elven master blacksmith before him would tragically perish in that massacre.
"Then, Master Thanesel, what if I told you to abandon everything in Beauclair and start a new life in the North, from scratch? Would you be willing?"
Thanesel immediately shook his head, stating in an obvious tone, "Of course not! I'm doing perfectly fine here. Why would I go to the North?"
What kind of joke was this?! He had already made a name for himself and established himself in Beauclair. Now, to make him go to a strange place and start over again? Was he a fool?
The elven master blacksmith's answer was within the witcher's expectations. But since Lynn had come to Thanesel, he naturally had full confidence. So he smiled faintly, with a confident expression.
"Master Thanesel, do you know that Duchess Anna Henrietta has fully recovered her health, thanks to the Lady of the Lake's blessing?"
"My shop assistant just told me that a witcher supposedly brought back a Holy Grail blessed by the goddess," Thanesel said, his eyes widening. "Wait, that witcher wouldn't happen to be you, Master?"
Lynn had originally intended to explain to Thanesel. After all, when he brought the Holy Grail back, Thanesel was still trapped in the sewers. But since he had already heard, that was even better.
"Precisely, it was I. But I'm not bringing this up to boast. What I mean to say is that the assassin who wounded the Duchess and nearly cost her life was an elf."
Lynn fell silent, watching the other's expression change from surprise, to shock, and then to terror. The color drained from his face instantly.
"What did you say?"
The elven master blacksmith's reaction greatly satisfied the witcher. "Master Thanesel, you must know what this means. The Duchess is the supreme authority in Toussaint, and now she nearly died due to an elf assassin's attack."
"If I've already explained this much, and you still don't know... or rather, aren't willing to believe what's coming next, then allow me to shatter your illusions."
"Although the persecution of non-humans in Toussaint isn't as severe as in Kaedwen, the human supremacist racists in Toussaint are still secretly stirring."
"Once they learn that an elf assassin attacked the Duchess, they will surely act."
"Mind you, by 'act,' I don't mean they are genuinely loyal to the Duchess."
"Rather, they will use the guise of avenging the Duchess and upholding justice to satisfy their own selfish desires."
"Those other human armorers, who also wield hammers but whose skills are inferior to yours, will smash your head with their hammers. Your armor shop will be looted, your establishment re-assigned, and you might not even rest in peace after you die."
"Perhaps after the riots subside, your reputation will be posthumously recognized by the Beauclair court, and the people of Toussaint might ceremoniously mourn you, perhaps even turn the day of your demise into a holiday."
"But are you certain that's what you want?"
.....
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