As expected of the rude Northerners, their very first words were vulgar and made one want to kill.
However, out of professional ethics, Guilliman suppressed his anger and did not immediately draw his sword to kill the three men in front of him.
He looked at the three hunter brothers with an expressionless face and said in a resolute voice:
"It's you, after all. The detection magic already told me the result."
"It was you who buried the rotting animal carcasses in Lady Judith's orchard."
"Hunters who often hunt in the forest naturally know what kind of behavior attracts ghouls."
"As for your motive, it was nothing more than coveting the lady's beauty and the orchard she managed."
"For such a crime, I'm sure the White Orchard bailiff would be very happy to extort a sum from you and then lock you up to torture you thoroughly."
Being exposed so firmly face-to-face, the expressions of the three hunter brothers changed slightly. They exchanged glances, and killing intent appeared in all their eyes.
If these words had been spoken by someone else, they could have easily argued, as mere words held no proof, and there was no substantial evidence. Even if they argued irrationally, others would have no way to deal with them.
But the opponent was a Witcher, possessing mysterious and powerful magic.
The unknown is what truly frightens people. No one knew what unexpected things magic could conjure. Both repulsion and reverence—this was the attitude of most commoners towards magic.
After a few seconds of low-voiced conversation, the eldest of the three hunter brothers, the scar-faced man with a sinister expression, turned his head and looked at Guilliman with the gaze of a predator, saying grimly:
"Shut up, you bastard. No one will believe a mutant's words."
"It's you evil fellows who brought the Black Plague, causing heavy losses to the Temerians."
"Now, you must have also used disgusting black magic to charm that bitch Judith and get into her bed."
"We'll kill you, then dig out your mutated heart and brain. You won't get a chance to see the bailiff."
After saying this, the scar-faced man gave a look to his brothers behind him and roared in a low voice:
"Don't just stand there, let's kill him together."
Being roared at by his elder brother, the youngest hunter brother, holding a bow and arrow, grumbled:
"I told you long ago, we should have killed this mutant sooner."
"If we had ambushed him with arrows just now, there wouldn't be so much trouble."
After saying this, he took out an arrow and was about to shoot, while the other two hunters also picked up their weapons, intending to surround the Witcher from different directions.
Seeing this, further words were useless, and the murderers were basically confirmed.
Killing these rude commoners was what he most wanted to do now.
Guilliman's gaze flickered slightly, and he quickly formulated a battle plan.
He held his hands in front of his chest, facing the three men's encirclement without dodging or evading.
Just as the enemies were somewhat confused, a massive wooden shield, large enough to cover half his body, appeared out of thin air in Guilliman's left hand, protecting his body.
This method of conjuring objects out of thin air startled all three hunter brothers, and their attacking movements hesitated for a moment, as if they feared it was some evil sorcery.
However, Guilliman would not hesitate. He slightly moved the wooden shield aside, and a loaded crossbow emerged from behind the shield.
In a flash, with a click, the crossbow bolt shot out, accurately passing over the two hunter brothers wielding melee weapons, instantly hitting the neck of the youngest hunter brother who was holding the bow and arrow.
Splat! The sound of an arrow piercing flesh.
The bow hunter's eyes widened. He had no time to react before clutching his bleeding neck and falling to the ground, whimpering and twitching uncontrollably.
The eldest and second eldest of the three hunter brothers were also stunned.
They had dared to attack Guilliman openly precisely because they saw him unarmed and not even wearing armor. They hadn't expected the situation to change so quickly, losing a brother in the blink of an eye.
However, getting distracted during a fight is a suicidal act.
In that moment of hesitation, the shield and crossbow in Guilliman's hand had disappeared, replaced by a gleaming steel sword.
Temerian military swordsmanship, though seemingly unremarkable with broad, sweeping movements, making it difficult to deal with true sword masters, was quite suitable for dealing with commoners.
Guilliman gripped the steel sword in his hand, stepped forward, and delivered an upward slash. The sharp blade cut open the eldest hunter's belly from bottom to top, spilling his intestines onto the ground.
Then, with another step, a spinning horizontal slash, the immense force, in the terrified gaze of the last hunter, directly struck his neck, sending his head rolling to the ground.
Compared to veterans with battlefield experience and bandits who frequently commit murder and robbery, ordinary commoners were like docile sheep, waiting to be slaughtered.
The disparity in combat experience often made them a step slower at critical moments, leading to fatal mistakes.
And it was precisely this hesitation, this delay, that their lives would be harvested as easily as straw.
After effortlessly slaying the three commoners, Guilliman expressionlessly took a rag from his storage space, wiped the blood-stained sword clean, and then put it away.
The previous battle was simply too easy. A Witcher with the ability to retrieve items at any time was like a dimensionality reduction strike against a small number of ordinary people.
He had three pre-loaded crossbows stored in his storage space, ready for use at any time.
Even experienced Witchers rarely manage to evade a powerful crossbow bolt in a close-range ambush.
And once he learned more alchemy skills, his storage space would contain not just crossbows, but countless alchemical bombs ready to explode at any moment.
Ten minutes later, Guilliman returned to the house, got back into bed, without even a trace of sweat on him.
He closed his eyes, caressing the warm, soft body, a faint smile on his face.
The traces of the battle in the yard had been cleaned up, and the three hunter bodies had all been put into his storage space, undiscovered.
It was still just after sunrise. Unless those three hunters had notified others before committing their misdeeds, if even their bodies couldn't be found, no one would know the reason for the disappearance of the three hunter brothers, and their deaths wouldn't be noticed for several days.
After all, even in modern society, where investigative techniques and technology are highly developed, it's difficult to solve a case and secure a conviction without a body, let alone in the ignorant Middle Ages.
However, Guilliman was a very professional person. He planned to stay at Judith's house for a few days to investigate if there were any other potential murderers, and to carry out his next plan.
This place was not far from White Orchard, and he could also go to the hunter brothers' homes to scavenge, pick up some scraps, and gather information about the Temeria Kingdom.
Coming to White Orchard this time was a decision he made after careful thought.
Before the arrival of Geralt in the future, this area held many good things waiting for him to uncover.
Life was difficult now, and he had to be very frugal.