Wizard: This witcher is neglecting his duties.

Chapter 83 Crossing the Bridge (Thanks to Du Zhe233 for the donation)

Four days later, urged on by Borch and Geralt, Wayne and his party, carrying only a small amount of supplies, traveled day and night and soon set off from Temuria, crossed the Kingdom of Redania, and arrived at the Bla River near the city of Holober.

However, when they tried to cross the only bridge over the Bula River to reach the city of Holober, they were blocked by a group of soldiers.

These soldiers, dressed in buttoned leather jackets and chainmail, carrying metal halberds, stood guard at both ends of the river crossing and had even built a wooden toll booth at the bridgehead.

From a distance, the crimson pennant with the silver griffin pattern was planted on the small house, fluttering in the wind, and several fully armed soldiers stood in a row, which looked quite imposing.

When Wayne and his group approached on horseback, they discovered that they were not the only ones blocked outside the bridge.

Besides a few villagers and travelers who wanted to go to Holobor City on business, there were also some people dressed like mercenaries who looked like they were not to be trifled with, who were watching the argument around the toll gate.

"Why won't you let us through? This is a free city-state, not under the jurisdiction of the Duchy of Kangon. You have no right to stop us here."

The man leading the argument was a well-dressed middle-aged man, who was probably a businessman with considerable wealth. Behind him were not only several young assistants and carriages, but also several fully armed hired guards.

However, the soldier guarding the bridge was clearly a rigid, simple-minded fellow; no matter what the merchant said, he only replied with one sentence.

"I don't understand what you're talking about. I'm just here to set up a checkpoint on the king's orders."

"In any case, no one can cross this bridge without a pass. This is an order from Lord Kangon, King Niedamir."

Faced with such blatant obstruction, the middle-aged businessman was clearly furious, and he shouted loudly:

"These are offerings and fruits destined for the Temple of Cliff in the city. I've been kept here by you for a whole day. If we wait any longer, these fruits will rot."

Unfortunately, the soldier didn't even glance at him, holding his halberd, and repeated:

"I'm only responsible for checking the passes. If you have any problems, you should talk to the commander yourself."

Standing on the other side, the tallest of the three mercenaries suddenly shouted:

"Hmph! King Niedamir sealed off this place to deal with that wounded dragon. The dragon is poisoned and on its last legs."

"They must be afraid that the treasure in the dragon's nest will be taken by others, so they deliberately blocked this passage to prevent capable people from going through."

The soldier who had shouted the order glanced at the mercenary but didn't argue. He simply repeated:

"I'm only responsible for checking passes; I don't care about anything else."

Seeing this, Borch looked at Wayne and Geralt. The three of them had agreed before setting off that he would follow the orders of the two witchers in this matter.

However, Geralt was clearly distracted. After traveling for four days straight, he had finally arrived here, and his mind was entirely on Yennefer, who had not yet appeared.

Seeing this, Wayne gestured to Borch not to rush and whispered:

"We've just arrived and don't know anything about the situation. We shouldn't act rashly."

"Let me go and ask for information first."

After saying that, he dismounted, walked to the middle of the crowd, scanned the area, and finally focused his gaze on a relatively young-looking soldier at the very edge of the guard post.

He approached the soldier, and under the soldier's wary gaze, reached into his hand, pulled out a gold coin, and handed it to him, then asked in a low voice:

"Sir soldier, may I ask you a few questions?"

Seeing this, the young soldier quickly glanced at his companions who were still arguing with the pedestrian, swiftly stuffed the gold coin into his pocket, then coughed lightly and whispered:

"Ask away, but I won't tell you anything confidential."

Wayne smiled and asked softly:

"Sir, regarding that pass you mentioned, could you tell me how many people have crossed the bridge so far, and when they left?"

Wayne's question was quite ordinary, nothing secret, and many people in the city had seen it.

The young soldier secretly breathed a sigh of relief and replied:

"It's no secret. Three days ago, King Ledamir issued permits to everyone in the area who was capable of hunting dragons, hiring them to hunt the dragon in order to kill it."

"Ike of Denesle is the most famous one. He is a knight and crossed the bridge the day before yesterday."

"After that, there were six more dwarves. I didn't recognize them, but my companions told me that the leader was called Yarpan Ziglin. They had killed the Quartz Mountain Dragon Octavista and were a group of very powerful dwarves."

"This morning, three other hunters who looked fierce and were covered in tattoos also crossed the bridge. They were quite famous and were known as the Klinfeld Raiders."

"Currently, besides the king's army, only these three groups of people have passed through here."

Having obtained the information he wanted, Wayne returned to Geralt and Borch and told them what he had asked.

Of the three groups, he only had a vague impression of Ike and Yarpan Ziglin, but he didn't know them very well. He only knew that Ike was some kind of monster slayer, a knight, and quite powerful, while Yarpan was an officer in the future dwarf army.

As for that Klinfeld Raider, he had never even heard of him.

However, unlike the inexperienced Wayne, Geralt had been in the North for many years and knew a bit about these famous figures, so he explained:

"Iek of Dresner, that guy is a son of a bitch knight, though many call him the devout and upright Iek, the brave and fearless knight."

"This guy is very strong and very good at dealing with monsters. I heard that he has defeated several dragons and killed manticores and griffins. As for monsters like water ghosts, I don't know how many he has killed."

Borch was very surprised to hear this and asked:

"So, this Knight Ek is just a dragon-slaying expert, an ordinary knight. Is he really that powerful?"

Geralt seemed to have a lot of opinions about Ike. Hearing Borch's praise, he snorted disdainfully and said:

"These are all rumors, and no one knows if they are true. However, since there are so many rumors, he must not be a lucky person, but someone with real skills."

"But this guy is a bastard. He never charges a penny for killing monsters. He's completely breaking the rules of the industry."

"Several times, those troublemakers used this as an excuse to demand that I kill monsters for them free of charge."

"Some despicable fools only paid me half the fee in the end."

Upon hearing Geralt's words, Wayne thought of something else.

This Knight Ek was indeed the kind of kind-hearted person in the eyes of outsiders. He often helped the villagers fight against monsters that were threatening the area without expecting anything in return. He seemed to have a special hatred for monsters and did not accept any payment.

But it was precisely because of this that Knight Ek rarely stayed at home. In order to repair weapons and armor and travel to various places, he squandered all of his family's property, leaving his wife and children to live a life of poverty.

In the end, he couldn't even afford to treat his wife's serious illness. When his son asked him to earn money to save his mother, this guy cut off all ties with his son. He's a complete oddball.

In the game, his son Siegfried grows into an upright knight and eventually becomes the captain of the Flame Rose Knights, but he still harbors many grievances against his father and refuses to forgive him.

After explaining to Ike, Geralt took out a flask from his pouch, took a sip of beer, and then said:

"Klingfield Raiders".

"These three are also very famous hunters. They hunted down all the dragon lizards and giant centipedes in the entire Kingdom of Redania. It is even said that they killed three red dragons and one black dragon."

"They are a group of hunters who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals and are very skilled at using traps and poisons."

"As for Yarpan Ziglin and his bearded dwarf underlings..."

"I've only heard that they once killed a very famous evil dragon in the Mahakan Mountains, named Oakvist, the Quartz Mountain Dragon."

"In the end, they obtained the dragon's treasure, a large number of gems."

As the group was discussing intelligence, Wayne suddenly noticed a woman with exceptional poise and striking beauty riding a tall, handsome black horse from afar on the road behind them.

(End of this chapter)