In the House of Blood, Merlin sat relaxed in a chair filled with black velvet, and at his hand was an old-fashioned wine glass that resembled Elsa's brass cup.

It's full of mead.

It was a strange drink that Merlin hadn't drunk, sweet and sour, but it had a lot of stamina.

Next to the table, Elsa was talking on the phone with her mother who was far away in France, and the relationship between mother and daughter seemed to be bad, but judging from Elsa's expression, she still loved her mother very much.

Occasional quarrels do not mean that the relationship is bad.

"Oh, that's it! Mom, you're really annoying. ”

Elsa picked up her glass, winked at Merlin, and then said to the other end of the phone:

"I really didn't lie to you, it's where my dad worked back then. That's right, the Strategic Science Corps, they've now changed their name to Homeland Strategic Defensive Attack... Ah, that's a mouthy name. But it's certainly true, right! You can check it out through your own channels. ”

Elsa took a sip of wine and said to her mother:

"If you find out it's fake, I'll go back to Lyon at once!"

"Don't worry, I'm an adult, I can take care of myself... That trial, I remember. I'll go back when I'm ready. Well, I won't forget, I'll be the first to inform you of anything ... Okay, don't bother me anymore, Mom, go to the opera with your old girlfriends. ”

"Goodbye, Mom. If there is any news about Dad, I will let you know as soon as possible. ”

Elsa hung up the phone with relief.

She carefully placed Merlin's offer on the table, then took a picture with a camera, and ran back to the room on the second floor, where she returned to the table and made an OK gesture to Merlin.

"Okay, the photo has been passed and the matter is done!"

"You seem to have a good relationship with your mother."

Merlin took a sip of mead, and he leaned back in his chair and said to Elsa:

"It's enviable."

"Envy?"

Elsa glanced at Merlin, and she snorted:

"Do you think my mother is the kind of person who can only teach each other husband and children? She's also an orthodox witcher, certainly not as strong as my father, and after my father left, she was in charge of my training... Maybe I'll show you the scar on my shoulder, which my mom whipped out. ”

"Huh?"

Merlin's drinking stopped, and he asked curiously:

"Why?"

"Because when I was 12 years old, I secretly went hunting a daytime banshee who was doing evil in the suburbs of Lyon."

Elsa shrugged:

"If I hadn't brought enough healing potions and moonlight bombs, I would have almost died in that farmland, and after I fell unconscious, I was snatched by a passing group of deer-headed forest spirits. My mother and her old girlfriends tore down all the forests of Lyon to get me back. An aunt was injured in order to save me, and she could no longer be a witcher. ”

"After I recovered from my injuries, my mother cried and whipped me in front of my aunts... She didn't do anything wrong, I made a mistake. ”

Elsa said with a relieved face:

"The presence of that scar reminds me never to challenge an opponent I can't deal with... It will also remind me that there is only one life, and when it runs out, it will be gone. ”

"Ha, it seems that you weren't a good girl when you were a child."

Merlin commented with a smile, and he said:

"Actually, that's a fun experience, isn't it?"

"Of course."

Elsa touched her shoulder, and she said:

"It's the first time I've been able to defeat a dangerous enemy on my own... It's really good. At that time, I somewhat understood why my father was always so fearless to challenge those dangerous monsters, and maybe that kind of adventure was not just for the sake of justice. ”

"Tell me more."

Merlin stood up, refilled himself and Elsa with two glasses of mead, and at this almost dawn moment he said to the girl in front of him:

"About the witchers, about the vampire hunters."

"Aren't you a wizard?"

Elsa glanced at Merlin, and she asked curiously:

"Wizards should know all this, right? The wizards I met when I was a child were like omniscient polymaths, and the history and rules of the witcher's lineage were known better than even my father, a true witcher... In fact, without the help of wizards, the inheritance of the demon hunters would have disappeared long ago. ”

"I'm a wizard... It's a parallel import. ”

Merlin said unabashedly:

"I taught myself all my magic, and I didn't have time to learn more because of the time constraints. You're the first vampire hunter I've ever met, and before you, all I knew about witchers was found in a few words from a magic book. ”

"Oh? Parallel imports? ”

Elsa's eyes blinked, and she said:

"But it doesn't look like when you cast spells, the flow of that magic is very smooth, like a real academic wizard."

"Maybe I do have a talent."

Merlin spread out his hands, and he said:

"But actually, all the spells I have now combined may not be as many as a 4-year-old little wizard."

"Oh, I see."

Elsa nodded knowingly:

"Don't be greedy, specialize in some spells, and then practice repeatedly, practice makes perfect. It's the same as the muscle memory training I received... Train the assassination move, thousands of times a day, until the body naturally remembers the movement and can use it without thinking. ”

"Well, that's it."

Merlin took a sip of wine, and he said to Elsa:

"So, Advisor Elsa, can you reveal some of the secrets that the witchers have passed down by word of mouth to your superiors? What I want to know most is that you and your father call themselves vampire hunters, and this is also a branch of witchers? ”

"Yes."

Elsa's fingers moved, and a black metal beast head pendant appeared in her finger, and she said to Merlin:

"Vampire hunters are just layman's terms, our family is actually the griffin school, one of the ancient witcher factions. And this is the hallmark of the griffin school witcher. ”

"Oh?"

Merlin reached out and took the pendant, he put it in the palm of his hand and stroked it, he could feel that the material of this thing was not ordinary metal. It shouldn't be as simple as just being used for pendant decoration.

After a few seconds, Merlin returned the pendant to Elsa, and he asked:

"Except for the Griffin School?"

"There are many more. The Wolf School, the Bear School, the Snake School, the Snake School, the Cat School, which all ran away to be killers, and the rare Flying Lion, of course, many people confuse the latter with the Griffin School, because their coats of arms are so similar. ”

Elsa said to Merlin:

"In the Middle Ages, witchers were very prosperous, there were thousands of people in each faction, and all the witchers together were almost tens of thousands. But not now, the total number of official witchers in all of Europe is less than 300..."

When it comes to the decline of the witchers, Elsa does not show sadness, on the contrary, she says with a flat face:

"After all, human civilization has been on the rise for a long time, and there is no need for demon hunters to protect them anymore. This is actually a good thing, except for some old antiques who are still a little reluctant, everyone else accepts this fact. It's like my mother, a witcher who survived the trial of grass, and in the end she didn't willingly start the job of husband and child. ”

"Peace is always the most beautiful thing."

"Oh, I see."

Merlin took a pen and paper, quickly recorded these secrets, and asked without raising his head:

"I found a book in the library that was written by a legendary witcher named Geralt of Rivia."

"White wolf? No way? ”

Elsa gave Merlin a suspicious look, she put down her glass, and said to Merlin:

"Do you know what era the white wolf is a witcher?"

"I've heard it's medieval."

Merlin replied truthfully.

But Elsa shook her head:

"The Middle Ages lasted for 1,000 years, and you're still a wizard. Let me tell you, the white wolf is a demon hunter in the early Middle Ages, and the era when he was active was the most chaotic period in the demon world. ”

"But he disappeared as early as the end of the 12th century AD, almost 1,000 years ago, and even in the wizard's library, there would be no collection of witcher stories that were preserved for 1,000 years! You must be reading it wrong. ”

"No, I'm still confident in my memory."

Merlin shook his head, and he said:

"The cover of that book is dated 1808! The author is the white wolf Geralt himself, and he also complains in the book about the terrible nickname given to him by his peers, which is the 'sorceress fights'... Ahem, I mean, that not-so-good nickname. ”

"Really?"

Elsa frowned, and as she stripped her long hair, she said:

"Actually... On our side, there is really gossip that the white wolf has never died, and he has relied on some method to survive until now. But everybody hears it as a legend. But if it's true as you say... No, I'll have to go see that book for myself. ”

Elsa's expression became serious:

"If the White Wolf Master is really alive, then with his strength, it will be easy to deal with Dracula. If my father is really trapped... We must find him! ”

"It's hard."

Merlin shook his head:

"A man who has lived for more than a thousand years, he has witnessed the process of building human society from scratch almost the whole time, if he wants to hide, no one in this world wants to find him... Let's not talk about him for now, let's talk about some witcher stories. ”

Merlin urged:

"Like how do you become a real witcher?"

"It's hard."

Elsa replied to Merlin in the same sentence, she held out a finger, shook it a little lightly in front of Merlin's eyes, and said:

"First of all, you'll need to get the breakthrough potion, which is the Grass Trial. It was the most important secret passed down by the witchers, and only the master craftsmen of each generation were qualified to know the full potion recipe. ”

"Secondly, not everyone is qualified to drink the breakthrough potion, in the era of the White Wolf Master, only 3 out of 10 people survived, and if you were unlucky, there was no one. It will also make the witcher lose the ability to have children, although it has been continuously improved by alchemists who are familiar with the witcher, so that fertility is not affected, but so far, the survival rate of breakthrough potions is only 50%. ”

Elsa shook her head:

"That's a game of life, and that's the main reason for the fall of the witchers... Life is a very precious thing, and it is not used for play since it was born. ”

"What else?"

Merlin continued to ask as he recorded:

"Are there any other drawbacks to this potion?"

"Yes."

Elsa took a sip of wine, and she pointed to her eyes:

"A breakthrough potion is a body-reshaping potion that gives witchers a transcendent body to confront terrifying monsters. A master like my father, even a frontal shot of a bullet could not hurt him. But at the cost of mutating certain organs, my father's eyes were like those of a cat. ”

"What's more, after drinking the breakthrough potion, after going through an extremely painful transformation process, some of the witcher's emotions will be suppressed or even eliminated."

Elsa Says:

"This depends on luck, if you are lucky, you will be able to retain most of your emotions, and if you are unlucky, you will be like the white wolf master, and you will lose almost all your emotions. He will not be afraid, will not rejoice, will not hesitate, but it is precisely because he has lost his emotions that he can be called a man of legends. ”

"But you..."

Merlin asked suspiciously:

"You're also a witcher, why are you still emotional?"

"Because I haven't passed the test yet, genius!"

Elsa reached out dissatisfied, knocked Merlin on the head, and said:

"Didn't you hear what I just said? I'm not ready, I haven't taken the breakthrough potion yet..."

"In the era of the White Wolf Master, breakthrough potions could only be taken by children, but in this era, the ever-changing potions can already be taken by adults at any point before the age of 35. My mom only became a witcher when she was 27 years old, and my dad was more traditional, he took potions as a child. ”

"The price Dad paid was 'fear', and he got the courage that will not be exhausted, and Mom... Losing her 'anticipation', she began to become more comfortable with what came her way. So even if you succeed in taking the breakthrough potion, it's hard to say whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. ”

"Emotions."

Merlin sighed, and he looked out the window at the newborn sunrise, and said to Elsa:

"At this time, I'm always angry... It seems like when I make a mistake, it pops up. I didn't like it, but it was getting harder and harder for me to control. ”

"There is a dark force in you that is slowly devouring you. I have seen this situation in the Codex of my ancestors, where you have built a wall in your will to hold back the tide of darkness, but your wall is not strong enough to grow, but the power of darkness is accumulating and growing. ”

Elsa put down her glass, and she said to Merlin with a straight face:

"You're really going to have to figure it out..."

"I know, I'm looking for it too. But this kind of thing is not urgent. ”

Merlin put down his pen, he took his glass, raised it to Elsa, and at the moment when the two of them drank the last mead, Merlin closed his eyes and whispered:

"Well, be a human... It's really hard. ”

PS: I just counted it.,Even if it's calculated by the most conservative estimate.,The number of chapters added tomorrow should be 35+.,Well,Squeeze out all the saved manuscripts at once.。

Monthly passes support a wave, brothers.