The Witcher: Make Witcher Great Again

Chapter 419 Taking Down the Kestrel Gap

A month later, the confidant sent by the nobleman returned to the Kastor Pass, bringing with him a message from the Grand Duke:

Tomorrow night, the guild leader will personally come to his room to have a detailed discussion with him.

"What? That's really what that person said?"

"Yes."

The nobleman, however, felt no joy whatsoever.

He simply couldn't fathom how the enemy had managed to infiltrate this heavily guarded pass.

At the same time, a feeling of frustration and anxiety welled up inside me.

If the other party is discovered when they infiltrate the pass, then the person who intends to defect to them will also suffer the consequences.

At this point, the nobleman couldn't help but begin to doubt whether he had made a mistake in planning to seek refuge with the other party.

His original plan was for both sides to exchange letters secretly first, and then wait until the communication was nearly complete, especially when the next nobleman would come to take over...

The other party would then disguise themselves as a merchant or traveler, pass through the Kestrel Gap, and then go to their own territory to meet them.

That's the only way to be absolutely sure.

After all, the Kestrel breach wasn't something he could decide alone; there were four other nobles present.

The nobleman paced anxiously back and forth in the room.

He asked his confidant again if he had mentioned how he planned to enter the pass.

However, the answer received was that the other party did not say.

The nobles had no choice but to guess that the Grand Duke would most likely cross Mount Kaiser via the mountain path taken by his confidants.

Moreover, since the other party said they would meet me tomorrow night, they might already be on Mount Kestrel.

Therefore, the nobles had no choice but to send some of their soldiers to patrol the area near the foot of the mountain, hoping to intercept the enemy.

If they encountered other nobles' subordinates, they would use the excuse of preventing enemy spies from coming through the mountain paths.

The nobleman also knew that the excuse was lame, because the hunter's trail was actually very difficult to traverse; let alone a large army, even a small group of people could easily slip and fall if they were not careful.

In other words, all his confidants were mountain people, with agile steps, which allowed them to move freely on the mountain paths.

……

Time quickly passed to the night of the second day.

The nobleman was restless in his room.

At that moment, a trusted confidant pushed open the door and walked in.

The nobleman immediately rushed forward, his face filled with anxiety.

"How's it going? Is there any result?"

The confidant shook his head.

The nobleman walked to the window and looked outside.

Inside the pass under the cover of night, except for the city walls and a few other places, most of the area was pitch black.

"Could it be that the Grand Duke wasn't planning to take the mountain path, but rather intended to climb the city wall of the pass while he was at it?"

"No, no, no, how could that be? Even at night, there are still quite a few patrolmen. How could they enter the pass without alerting anyone?"

"He's already in." The nobleman was startled when he heard a strange voice behind him. He turned around and found that the trusted confidant who had come to report to him earlier had somehow become a strange young man.

The nobleman heard the young man say this.

“I am Lynn Augustus, and it is an honor to be a guest at the Kestrel Pass.”

"you you you you you……"

The nobleman was so shocked he almost fell to the ground.

"Is this magic? Or what?"

"It's just a little trick, nothing to brag about."

Lynn naturally had no need to tell the other party that he had actually used a deception amulet to transform himself into one of his trusted subordinates, and then came with his other unsuspecting confidants.

"Now, let's talk about it."

The witcher formed the Axii sign, and the nobleman's surprised expression instantly turned into a blank stare.

Taking advantage of the other party's confusion caused by the Master-level Axii Sign, Lynn quickly asked a few questions.

1 minute later.

"I see, okay, I understand."

Snapped!
Lynn snapped her fingers.

The nobleman awoke with a start.

But I don't remember being hypnotized.

I only remember feeling a moment of mental confusion.

"The night is still long, let's talk."

……

Before the dawn broke, Lynn emerged from the nobleman's room.

Under the cover of night, they easily evaded the patrols and entered the Kestrel Mountains.

The purpose of his solo trip has been achieved: the nobleman is willing to swear allegiance to Lynn and become Lynn's inside man, informing him of the situation at Kestrir Pass and even the whole of Isparden.

Lynn also assured him that as long as he, his family, and their descendants remained loyal to Lynn, they would never betray him.

Lynn will also protect his title, territory, and interests from being infringed upon by others.

None of these are effects of magic.

When Lynn cast the Axii sign on him, it wasn't actually to give him any kind of hint—it wasn't that he didn't want to, but rather that even a warlock's charm magic is easily broken, and once broken, it would cause unnecessary trouble.

He personally came to the Kestrel Fork and released the Axii sign, simply to test whether the other party was sincere.

Over the next two years, Lynn repeated the same method.

They successfully won over a small group of nobles in secret.

At this point, it can be confirmed that nearly a quarter of the nobles in the entire Isparden Dominion are willing to pledge allegiance to Lynn.

what is interesting is.

These quarter of the nobles were all from the territories that the Kowell caravan would pass through.

What's even more interesting is that they were willing to give 30% of the toll fees they collected to Lynn.

These noble Lynn were all tested with the Axii sign and had sincerely turned away from darkness to light.

If Lynn ever leads his troops to attack the Isparden Dominion, they will surely respond from within.

Besides winning over the nobles of Isparden, Lynn did many other things:
In Novigrad, since taking over Hawthorne I's territory, Lynn's power, both openly and covertly, has surpassed that of the Cleavers and the Razor Gang. With control of the city hall, Novigrad can practically be considered Lynn's private property.

After that, Lynn went to the Cleavers and the Razor Gang to show them that he was the true master of Novigrad and gave each of them an offer they couldn't refuse.

Then, the Cleavers and the Razor Gang joined Lynn's forces as allies.

Of course, being called an ally is essentially the same as being a vassal.

However, the sect leader Lynn was kind and benevolent.

Not only will they not be used as cannon fodder, but their territory will also be guaranteed to remain intact.

He only asked them to hand over 10% of their income to him.

The reason they only wanted this 10% of the income, and not more, was that Lynn had no intention of taking food from their bowls.

This 10% income is merely symbolic, representing that he is their overlord, serving as a class distinction, nothing more.

However, Lynn's not asking them to give too much does not mean he has no other requirements.

Firstly, they can engage in the financial activities (collecting protection money) and smuggling that they previously did in their territory, but Lynn does not allow them to buy or sell narcotic powder, not even on their territory, not even a single gram.

Secondly, if any suspicious persons or situations appear in their territory, they must immediately report to Lynn's forces.

Finally, and most importantly, if any external forces invade or infiltrate Novigrad, Lynn demands that they stand with him and expel the foreign forces.

Lynn appeared to have made a major compromise, but that was not the case.

The situation with the machete gang and the razor gang is a bit special.

The Razor Gang's territory was full of peddlers and laborers.

The machete gang, on the other hand, consists entirely of non-human races, who are naturally wary of humans.

If we forcibly take over their territory, it will only cause more trouble if strikes, frictions, or conflicts occur later.

It would be better to let them continue to manage things.

Besides, the largest territory in Novigrad right now is its own; the combined territories of the Razorfen Downs and the Cleavers are still smaller than its own.

Novigrad still prioritizes its own power.

Once our power grows and we become stronger, why should we be afraid that the Razor Gang and the Cleaver Gang will not know when to stop?

Some things will happen sooner or later, so there's no need to try to become successful overnight. Just take it one step at a time.

In addition to Novigrad, Lynn also sent Syndicate, under the name of the Novigrad Merchant Guild, back to the former Kingdom of Nasser, now the Province of Nasser.

Lynn tasked them with secretly conducting espionage activities in the area, building and developing an underground force.

The Syndicate was once Nasser's national intelligence organization, so returning to Nasser is like returning home.

Although the last major uprising in Nasser, in which the Syndicate was involved, caused great suffering to the local civilians and led to many massacres in Nasser by Nilfgaard.

But after that, Nasser's life was not easy either.

Nasser, like other conquered regions, was nominally part of the empire, a province of Nilfgaard.

In reality, it was merely a colony of the Golden Pagoda City.

If Lynn were a native of this era, he would probably be just as puzzled as everyone else, wondering why the Nilfgaards would do this.

But he came from another world, had completed higher education, and had been through the harsh realities of society, so the Nilfgaardians' actions were not unexpected.

It's not actually that complicated.

As a country with rampant militarism and a history of external expansion, it is absolutely impossible for a conquered region to achieve self-sufficiency.

One reason was that the empire needed to acquire soldiers from these conquered territories.

If there were better options besides joining the army, who would choose to join?

On the other hand, the empire also needed these conquered regions to remain poor.

In this way, these places will supply cheap labor and raw materials to the Golden Pagoda City.

Even though Nilfgaard legalized slavery, the vast empire still needed people to work everywhere, especially in Nilfgaard's various workshops.

In the original storyline, after the First Northern War, Nilfgaard flooded the markets of the northern kingdoms with cheap handicrafts, intending to destroy their handicraft industry.

Of course, Temeria and Redania responded by raising tariffs to stem the influx of goods from the Nilfgaardian Empire (this is also mentioned in Chapter 5 of Book 3 of the original novel).

The conquered territories were treated like colonies, with the city of Golden Tower receiving a massive influx of resources. Naturally, the local people couldn't help but feel resentful.

In the past, they would have had no choice but to serve as soldiers in Nilfgaard, earn merits in battle, and then return to their homeland with a retirement pay, or, if they were successful, perhaps go to the Golden Tower City to develop their careers.

Regardless, their hometown will only gradually decline.

But now, Lynn is giving them a choice.

An opportunity to fight to drive out the invaders from Nilfgaard and restore the glory of Nasser.

Of course, it cannot be ruled out that among the Nasser, there are a few traitors with weak knees who would rather be dogs of the Nilfgaardians.

But as a former national intelligence organization that has now been reorganized and developed in Novigrad, Lynn believes that Drake still has the ability to recognize and utilize talent.

Finally, there's the matter concerning Lynn personally.

The relocation of Aretusa College to the Duchy of Humphries went even more smoothly than expected.

Because of magic, almost everything in the academy can be packed up and taken away.

Apart from the tallest building on the island, Thor Laura, also known as the Seagull Tower.

This is one of the buildings left on the island of Xenide from a time when humans had not yet landed there and the elven kingdoms were still strong and prosperous.

Hidden within this tower is a portal through which the elves came to this world (of course, it's only one of them).

However, this portal was soon abandoned and remains so to this day.

The original work mentions that even Vigfortz might not be able to activate the portal to the Seagull Tower.

However, this remains a potential problem.

Therefore, after all the students had boarded the ship provided by Lynn, Tissaia, the last to evacuate from Xenide Island, used magic to destroy the Seagull Tower, turning it into a pile of perfectly symmetrical ruins when viewed from above.

After the entire Eritusa Academy moved to the Duchy of Humphries, Lynn would go to Eritusa to attend classes whenever he had free time.

Of course, he didn't attend classes with the female students; instead, Margarita taught him individually, and he learned orthodox magical theory.

After learning the Griffin Meditation technique from the Griffin School, the most powerful spellcasting school among the Witchers, his spell power never improved further.

He was naturally not satisfied with that.

Children make choices, but he chose both magic and physical power.

Therefore, a long, long time ago, Lynn had an idea:
If he were to seriously study magic, even if he didn't ultimately learn magic, would systematically learning the theoretical knowledge help improve the power of his signs?
For example, the Igni sign belongs to the fire element. So, if you learn fire magic from the Evocation element, is it possible that it will help you cast the Igni sign?

For example, Quen is a protective spell. If you learn protective spells, you might be able to increase the strength and range of Quen shields.

In short, although the system that was attached to him was labeled as a Witcher's exclusive panel rather than a Warlock's panel, how would he know if he could exploit bugs if he didn't try it?

Since it's free, I might as well give it a try.

(End of this chapter)