Chapter 21: Killing in Defense of Life, Slaying Karma Is Not Killing People
"So, Witcher, is the job we assigned you completed?"
As Lynn and Geralt returned to the empty roadside, the captain inquired impatiently.
Geralt didn't respond, merely gazed at Lynn.
Clearly, he had hoped to find out how Lynn would react.
Lynn hesitated for a moment and said.
The captain's face suddenly became a little nervous with the words: "Interesting thing? What is it?"
Lynn looked at the changing face of the captain: "There was a man who didn't die, and you know what, he wasn't a merchant in disguise as an Aedirnian soldier, but a real Ebbing merchant from the South."
The captain blushed immediately and protested.
"That man, you released him? You fools, he is a spy sent by Nilfgaard!"
Lynn spread his arms.
"You were hired to burn corpses, not burn alive individuals. And you very clearly said they were impersonating Aedirnians, why are they Nilfgaardian spies now?"
The captain spat on the ground: "I don't waste time arguing with you, leave! Get out of my sight! Dirty mutants!"
"Come now, have you forgotten something? We have done your job, now do yours."
The captain, with a look of fury, drew out the long sword at his waist with a swoosh.
"You bums didn't do it properly and still have the cheek to ask me for money? You're not leaving, are you? If you don't leave, you'll be hung for spying!"
With the captain's order, the soldiers who were standing around them also closed in on them with ill will, trapping them in the middle.
Lynn had the steel sword hilt under his back in his right hand, but did not draw it yet.
Geralt stood guard behind him.
Back in his previous life, every time Lynn read how depravedly Witchers were treated in "stories," he always thought that surely it was some kind of exaggeration by "story" creators.
He had never been able to manage to believe that there really were such fools with not enough headroom and too much courage in the world.
Biology is really diverse.
"I just don't get why people always want to fight combat-ready Witchers, or rather two of them. Isn't this a call to death? Is it because we're not scary enough?"
"Listen, we are not Toussaint rangers, and we don't want to deliver justice. We just want to take our own reward."
"You had to loot a great deal of valuable items from that Nilfgaardian caravan, I suppose? Why go out of your way and find two enemies in Witchers for the sake of one hundred ducats?"
"If you pay us the reward, we will be gone."
Faced with this utterly normal request, the captain's attitude was one of contempt.
"Ha, there are five of us, and only two of you. The odds are on my side! Shut up with your garbage, freak! You should be afraid, not us!"
Since a fight was sure to ensue, Lynn was not polite.
"You are really stubborn."
He shook his head and sighed deeply.
His left hand quickly did the Igni sign gesture and pushed forward.
The flame deluge erupted from his palm, consuming the still bellowing captain and a second guard.
In an instant of time, both their faces were on fire, dancing and wailing.
The numeric advantage in the captain's mouth was halved in an instant.
This was not yet the end.
Lynn unsheathed his steel sword with a swish and slashed at a guard in front of him.
The guard was shocked at the woeful sight of his friend being burned by the fire. His mind went blank and he did not react at all.
In a flash, he was decapitated.
Another guard roared and jabbed his halberd at Lynn.
But it was parried away by Lynn's steel sword.
Next, the steel sword grated against the halberd, leaving a trail of sparks, and cut off the guard's fingers.
As the latter let out a shrill cry, the steel sword cut his throat.
A warm flow flowed into his body along the sword.
"Attribute points: 0 (35%) → 0 (55%)"
Geralt, however, dispatched the last guard in neat fashion.
The whole battle was a flash in the pan. In the blink of an eye, all the soldiers still whining about mutant freaks just now became warm corpses.
Although the Witcher philosophy is to kill monsters and protect humans, even the founders who made the philosophy weren't so naively white-left to compel Witchers not to protect themselves when their lives are on the line.
In addition, the Witchers themselves are also "people" under the "protect people" of the principle.
Therefore, the two Witchers did not have any moral blame or psychological burden to search through the dead guards.
Then they collected the bodies in a heap and burned them up using the Igni sign.
This alone would destroy all the clues.
Even if there was a person who would find this burnt heap of bodies, they could not have the least idea who did it.
After leaving Kaedwen's border, the two continued south through and into Aedirn.
After leaving Kaedwen, the Aedirnians they encountered were very different from Kaedwenians.
It wasn't that Aedirnians were afraid of Witchers so much, but most Aedirnians showed fear in their eyes when they saw fully armored Witchers.
Even some who seemed to be hooligans did not come near to make any trouble.
This saved them much trouble.
A few days later, they noticed a notice for Witchers on a bulletin board near a town.
"I am a Witcher, mayor. I am not a merchant, I don't sell, and I am not a herbalist, I don't cure diseases."
"I am not a king's courtier either, I won't collect taxes or bring farmers for him."
In the noisy tavern, the mayor, who was sitting opposite Lynn, the client as well, took hold of the available beer and took a sip.
"Then what can you do?"
Lynn paused for a second and replied.
"I can kill monsters, and if someone is cursed, I can lift it;"
"If ghouls make it into your holy cemetery, I can send them all packing and make sure they don't bother the rest of your ancestors."
"So, mayor, understand?"
The mayor seemed to understand, but seemed not to understand, anyway, he nodded stiffly: "I seem to understand."
Lynn rapped on the splattered table.
"Okay, I'll ask once more, is there anything I can do here?"
The mayor cried out, with an accent of pretension: "Really is, there are a lot of many monsters here, countless."
Lynn raised an eyebrow.
He glanced at the crowded tavern.
He did not think whether what was spoken by the mayor were true.
Generally speaking, only peaceful areas by monsters and wars would show such a scene.
He did not refute the mayor but nodded: "Okay, tell me the details."
Therefore the mayor began to narrate in details.
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