Wizard: This witcher is neglecting his duties.

Chapter 313 The Exorbitant Bounty

Noon the next day.

Although Queen Calanther's expression was not pleasant, she still formally invited the members of the Witcher Order to a grand thanksgiving banquet in the main hall of the Sintra Palace.

Fine wine and delicious food, resplendent in gold and jade.

The number of people attending this banquet was not large; they were all people Queen Calanthe trusted most.

This includes the King of Ister, the Grand Druid Mossak, the Royal Court Guard Chief, and the two Ministers of the Interior of the Sintra Royal Court.

After a hearty meal, Queen Calanthe presented her reward: a full eight thousand orens, almost twice the amount given to King Foltest.

Furthermore, this queen was indeed a generous person; in her speech, she implied that as long as Wayne was willing to serve him, she would offer him a baronial title and a small town as his territory, making him a nobleman of Sintra.

Of course, such a method might be an enormous reward for ordinary people, enabling them to do anything.

However, neither the bounty of less than ten thousand gold coins nor the small title of baron held any appeal for our Lord Wayne. He politely declined the Queen's offer, and after scanning the faces of everyone at the banquet, he asked:

"Your Majesty, although it may be a bit presumptuous of me to say this, I still have to remind you."

"Vigorfortz, the evil sorcerer who kidnapped Princess Pawita."

"Although my spell severely injured him, he did not die, but escaped from the Kingdom of Viden."

"This is an extremely dangerous enemy, and even among the many sorcerers in the north, he is definitely considered a powerful being."

"He will never give up his thirst for the power within Princess Paveta, and the safety of the Sintra royal family is not guaranteed."

The mission is over, the person has been rescued, and he even managed to complete a master-level mission, gaining several hundred experience points and a treasure chest.

At this point, Wayne was free to say whatever he wanted, since he wasn't afraid of offending anyone.

"Therefore, Your Majesty Calanther and Your Majesty King Ister, you had better put in more effort and do everything you can to weaken Vigforts' power."

"Let him become a wanted criminal throughout the North, spend a fortune to hire assassins to kill him, or put pressure on the Brotherhood of Sorcerers to hand over the criminal themselves."

"However, to be honest, I don't have high hopes for you. With the strength of an ordinary person, it would be difficult to harm a powerhouse of Vigforts' level."

"Therefore, Queen Calanther, I think the most reliable advice is that until Vigforts is confirmed to have been dealt with, you should hide Princess Pavita in an extremely safe place."

"Otherwise, we might not be so lucky next time and be able to rescue the princess."

Wayne's words were quite direct, unlike the roundabout language of nobles who paid attention to etiquette. He even seemed to look down on the power of the Sintra royal family, which infuriated Queen Calanther, who was about to lose her temper in public.

However, the queen was indeed a very magnanimous ruler. After all, Wayne and the others were benefactors of the Sintra royal family and had experienced the marriage selection banquet together a few years ago, so they were the people who knew the inside story best.

She wouldn't hold a grudge against anyone for a minor verbal offense.

Queen Calanther suppressed her anger, glared at Wayne, then glanced disapprovingly at Geralt, who had taken her granddaughter Ciri as his chosen one, and loudly proclaimed:

"Thank you for the suggestion, Master Witcher, but this matter is of great importance. Please give us a few more days to consider it carefully."

Wayne shrugged indifferently. He didn't really expect Sintra to solve the problem of Vigfortz, just as he had said before, when a Source Mage who wasn't afraid of Magemetal really wanted to do something.

Most mortals have no way to fight against it.

Even if one becomes a wanted criminal throughout the entire north, it only hinders the other party's actions and prevents them from appearing openly in front of ordinary people.

However, the various magical abilities possessed by sorcerers only caused them a little trouble.

The most important factor is the attitude of the Warlock Brotherhood. As long as the Sintra royal family's attitude is firm enough and their means of resistance are strong enough, it will be effective.

Whether it's successfully putting the Warlock Brotherhood on the opposite side of Vigolfodz, or keeping the two sides from helping each other, leaving Vigolfodz isolated and unable to openly appear among other spellcasters and cooperate with them, that would be the greatest weakening of this man.

After the dinner ended in a somewhat oppressive atmosphere, Wayne returned to the luxury hotel he had bought, and the first thing he did was give Sienna an order.

"Syanna, I want to put up a bounty on someone's head. The reward is one million gold coins."

One million gold coins are offered as a reward for Wigford's head.

This is an extremely exaggerated figure. To put it bluntly, apart from the strongest few countries in the north, many small countries like Viden could not come up with this much money even if they emptied their treasuries.

This sum of money might only be half a month's interest for Lord Wayne, but for many kingdoms, it's a huge fortune enough to raise an army, enough to drive any noble or mercenary crazy with their bounty.

Even Sian was somewhat stunned. As the manager of the Wayne Merchant Guild, although she usually spent money lavishly, using her abundant wealth to crush many competitors and conquer one local noble after another, she rarely spent so much money at once to handle a matter, let alone just offer a bounty for someone's head.

Upon hearing this, Cianna hesitated for a second, her beautiful eyes looking at her mistress, and asked cautiously:

"Master, isn't this too conspicuous?"

"One million gold coins, if they were crowns, would be enough to sustain an army of ten thousand for many years, and could even launch a large-scale war."

"With such a large bounty, not to mention whether the mercenaries will believe it, even all the kings in the north will probably take notice of our merchant guild because of this, and it will arouse their greed."

Wayne glanced at his little slave girl upon hearing this, and was quite pleased to see that she was still able to express her thoughts frankly and had not become his yes-man.

However, he had already considered this matter and made up his mind, so he said nonchalantly:

"If Queen Calanther and King East knew that someone was willing to offer such a large reward for this matter, they would certainly be willing to support it."

"With the credibility of Sintra and Skellige backing this matter, no one should doubt its genuine trustworthiness."

"And I've heard that every Skellige is brave and considers it their life's glory to defeat a powerful enemy."

"If their former king were willing to offer such a large bounty for the life of a villain, it would definitely attract a large number of warriors to do this."

"Once this matter becomes common knowledge in the North, with enough people involved and the situation escalating rapidly enough, even if the Warlock Brotherhood wants to handle it discreetly, they will be unable to do so."

"This is a fortune that ordinary people can hardly imagine, enough to make anyone betray him. Wigford will have no place to stand in the north. Even if he escapes to the southern kingdom, he should be careful of backstabbing from some people around him."

"This is an open scheme. The power of money is enough to make everyone flock to it, and for me, as long as I can achieve my goal, this little bit of money is nothing."

Upon hearing this, Sianna pondered for a moment, then looked at her master with some admiration and obediently snuggled up to him.

Indeed, as her master said, even someone like her who had seen the mountains and seas of gold in Kaer Morhen would be shocked by such an astronomical bounty. It would be difficult for anyone to resist such a tempting offer.

(End of this chapter)