Four days later, at the urging of Borch and Geralt, Wayne and his party traveled day and night with only a small amount of supplies, and soon set out from Temeria, crossed the kingdom of Redania, and arrived at the Bula River near the city of Holobol.

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

Dressed in buttoned leather jackets and chain mail, and armed with metal halberds, the soldiers stood guard at both ends of the river, and built a wooden toll hut at the head of the bridge.

From a distance, crimson pennants with silver griffin motifs fluttered in the wind, and several heavily armed soldiers stood in a row, but it looked quite imposing.

When Wayne and the others approached on horseback, they found that it was not just their group that was blocked from the bridge.

In addition to a few villagers and travelers who wanted to go to Holobol City on errands, there were also some people who looked like mercenaries and looked like they were not to be messed with, and they also gathered around the toll gate to cross the river, watching the people's arguments.

"Why don't you let us pass? This is a free city-state, not under the administration of the Duchy of Camponne at all, and you have no right to stop us here. ”

Leading the argument was a well-dressed middle-aged man, presumably a well-connected businessman, followed by a few young men, a few wagons, and even a few heavily armed hired guards.

However, the soldier in charge of guarding the bridge was obviously a rigid fool, and no matter what the merchant said, he replied with only one sentence.

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

"No one can cross this bridge without a pass anyway, this is an order from Lord Khangon, King Nedamir."

The middle-aged merchant was visibly furious at such an outrageous obstruction, and he cried out:

"This is the tribute and fruit sent to the Cliff Temple in the city, I have been stopped here by you for a day, and if I wait any longer, these fruits will rot."

Unfortunately, the soldier did not even look at him, holding the halberd in his hand, and repeated:

"I'm only in charge of checking the passes, and if you have any questions, you can talk to the commander yourself."

On the other side, the tallest of the three mercenaries suddenly said in a loud voice:

"Humph! King Nedamir cordoned off this place to deal with the wounded dragon, which was poisoned and dying. ”

"They must be afraid that the treasure in the dragon's lair will be obtained by others, so they deliberately blocked this passage and prevented those who have the ability from passing through."

When the soldier who shouted heard this, he glanced at the mercenary, and did not refute, but repeated:

"I'm only in charge of checking the passes, nothing else."

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

However, Geralt was obviously a little absent-minded, and he drove for four days in a row, and finally arrived here, and his mind had all fallen on Yennefer, who had not yet appeared.

Seeing this, Wayne stretched out his hand to signal Borch not to be in a hurry, and whispered:

"We've just arrived here, we don't know anything about the situation, so we shouldn't act rashly."

"Let me go ask for information first."

With that, he rolled over and dismounted, walked to the middle of the crowd, glanced around, and finally set his eyes on the most marginal part of the guard, a relatively young-looking soldier.

He approached the soldier, and under the soldier's wary gaze, he reached out and took out a gold coin, handed it over, and then asked in a low voice:

"Mr. Soldier, may I ask you a few questions?"

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

"You ask, but it's a confidential thing, I won't tell you."

With a smile on his face, Wayne asked softly:

"Sir, can you tell me how many people have crossed the bridge so far, and when they left?"

The question asked by Wayne was quite common, not classified, and even seen by many people in the city.

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

"It's not a secret, three days ago, in order to kill that dragon, King Ledamir issued a pass to all those who were able to hunt dragons in the vicinity, and hired them to hunt this dragon."

"Ike of Denensler is the most famous, he is a knight, and he has crossed the bridge the day before yesterday."

"Then there were six dwarves, whom I did not know, but I heard from my companions that the leader was called Yarpan. Zigrin, who once killed the dragon of Quartz Mountain, Okvista, is a group of dwarves with strong fighting power. ”

"This morning, three fierce-looking, tattooed hunters crossed the bridge, and they were also very famous, as if they were called the Clinfield Marauders."

"At the moment, apart from the king's army, only these three groups have passed through here."

After getting the information he wanted, Wayne returned to Geralt and Borch and told him what he had asked.

Of the three men, he was the only one who dealt with Ike and Arpan. Zigrin was a little impressed, but not very clear, only that Ike seemed to be some kind of monster killer, a knight, quite powerful, and Yarpan was an officer in the future dwarven army.

As for the Clingfield Marauder, he had never heard of it.

However, unlike the fledgling Wayne, Geralt has been in the North for so many years and still knows a little about these well-known figures, so he explained:

"Ike of Dresler, this guy is a son of a bitch, of course, many people call him Ike the pious and upright, the brave and fearless knight."

"This guy is very strong, very good at dealing with monsters, I heard that he has defeated several dragons, and also killed manticore lions and griffons, as for monsters such as water ghosts, this guy doesn't know how many he killed."

Borchi was very surprised when he heard this, and asked:

"So, isn't this Ike Knight just a dragon slaying expert, an ordinary knight, is he so powerful?"

Geralt seemed to have a big opinion of Ike, and when he heard Borch's praise, he snorted disdainfully and said:

"It's all rumors, no one knows if it's true, but since there are so many rumors, it's definitely not a lucky one, it should be someone with real skills."

"But this guy is a bastard, he doesn't charge money every time he kills a monster, he doesn't charge a penny, he simply breaks the rules of the industry."

"Several times, those Diao people used this as an excuse to ask me to kill monsters for them for free."

"Some despicable fools who are willing to pay me half of the money in the end."

Hearing Geralt say this, Wayne thought of something else.

This Ike Knight is indeed the kind of well-wisher in the eyes of outsiders, often helping villagers deal with monsters that harm one side for free, and seems to have a special hatred for monsters, and does not charge any compensation.

But it is precisely because of this that Ike Knight does not stay at home all the year round, in order to repair weapons and armor and travel around the world, he squandered his family's property, leaving only his wife and children to live a poor life.

In the end, he didn't even have money for medical treatment when his wife was seriously ill, and his son asked him to make money to save his mother, and this guy directly cut off the relationship with his son, which is simply a miracle.

In the game, his son Siegfried also grew up to be an upright knight, and even eventually became the leader of the Knights of the Flame Rose, but there are still many complaints about this father and he refuses to forgive him.

After explaining Ike, Geralt took out the flask in his pocket, took a sip of beer, and said:

"Clingfield Marauders."

"These three men are also very famous hunters, they have hunted all the dragon lizards and giant centipedes in the entire kingdom of Redania, and I have even heard that they have killed three red dragons and one black dragon."

"A group of hunters who will do whatever it takes to achieve their goals, and are very good at using traps and poisons."

"As for Yarpan. Zigrin and his bearded dwarven men. ”

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

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

The group was chatting about information, and Wayne suddenly noticed that on the road behind them, a woman with a very good temperament and a very beautiful appearance, riding a tall and handsome black horse, came from a distance.

(End of chapter)