"So—Hughes and the others all belong to the School of the Wolf, members of the Witcher Corps. They're different from ordinary school witchers."
Sol did not hide anything. He frankly explained the background behind the founding of the Witcher Corps—the slackening of Kaer Morhen's defenses; the "Glutton" Henselt sending people again to pinpoint the school's location; Allen foreseeing that Kaer Morhen would soon suffer a catastrophic blow because of this; and thus the School of the Wolf establishing a witcher legion with more centralized authority.
"None of this has been easy…"
Erland of Larvik, grandmaster of the School of the Griffin, listened as Sol recounted the hair-raising schemes and conspiracies of a year ago.
Thinking of the "Glutton" Henselt and the Ban Ard mages with ulterior motives, and then of the greedy sorcerers and nobles who had recently tried to undermine the School of the Griffin, he could not help but sigh.
He glanced at Lucien and Daniel beside him. "The defenses of the School of the Griffin—forget it…"
Erland waved his hand dispiritedly, stopping the two Griffin School witcher masters from speaking.
Kaer Seren's defenses would not be much better than those of the Old Sea Fortress a year ago. Otherwise, what Allen had foreseen would not have been the School of the Griffin being wiped out by an avalanche.
An avalanche might seem more sudden than the School of the Wolf being destroyed by a night assault from mobs and sorcerers, but in reality, an avalanche—especially one triggered by sorcery—powerful enough to annihilate all of Kaer Seren could not possibly have come without warning.
And what were school medallions for, if not that?
Moreover, every witcher school stronghold was a military fortress, inherently equipped with mechanisms to warn against magical attacks. It was just that years of peace and comfort had locked them deep within the castle—perhaps already rusted over.
Most likely, in the future Allen had foreseen, the Griffin School witchers guarding Kaer Seren had all attended a midwinter banquet without a care.
Or more likely still, Kaer Seren had simply not posted any guards at all.
Drunken witchers—no matter how sharp their senses, no matter how adept at detecting elemental fluctuations—what use would it have been then?
Of course—
That was not something one could really blame the Griffin School witchers for.
In the end, a loose system like that of the witcher schools simply had very little defensive capability to begin with.
"So—" Erland rubbed the grain of the wooden tabletop with his index finger, pondering the School of the Wolf's Witcher Corps system. "To the School of the Wolf, the Witcher Corps is akin to a religious knightly order to a faith?"
Lapses in school defenses were his responsibility as grandmaster. Having identified the problem, he naturally had to consider how to correct and improve it.
Sol looked toward Allen.
Allen thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Not quite the same. Knights of a religious order only need to guard temples—they're armed groups organized by the temple itself."
"But the core of a temple is still its priests. They can't be replaced."
"The Witcher Corps is different."
"At present, aside from Master Aristo, who serves as the legion's deputy commander, all other members are young witchers who have just passed the Trial of the Mountains. Well—though it wasn't compulsory, all newly advanced witchers who passed the Trial this year joined the Witcher Corps."
Allen glanced at Sol, paused, and said softly, "My idea is that the Witcher Corps will eventually replace the School of the Wolf—or rather, become a new School of the Wolf."
Allen's voice was light, but to the Griffin School witcher masters, it was like a thunderclap.
His meaning could not have been clearer.
The Witcher Corps replacing the School of the Wolf meant that Allen would replace Sol as grandmaster of the School of the Wolf.
How dare he?!!
Erland of Larvik, Keldar, Lucien, Daniel—even Jerome Moreau—stared in shock at Sol and the other Wolf School witchers.
No matter how loose a witcher school's structure was, how could it tolerate such provocation?
Yet aside from the young Witcher Corps witchers and Letho, who were clearly startled—
The Wolf School witcher masters showed no agitation at all. At most, a flicker of surprise crossed their faces before they returned to calm.
Sol, the Wolf School's grandmaster, did not even show that flicker. His expression remained flat.
Alright—he really does dare. The Griffin School witcher masters suddenly remembered Allen's identity.
After all, the blood of the Wolf School's grandmaster flowed in his veins.
In fact, they even felt that this was rather reasonable.
If those words had come from an ordinary fourteen-year-old witcher—even if he were Sol's child—they believed they would not have accepted it, and might even have intervened angrily.
But the speaker was Allen—the Allen who, just one year after completing the Trial of the Grasses and the Trial of the Mountains, had already made a tremendous name for himself across the Northern Continent.
Even if he were not the offspring of the Wolf School's grandmaster, such bold words would not make them think he was delusional or indulging in empty fantasies.
Erland, the Griffin School's grandmaster, read something from Sol's calm expression and the reactions of the other witcher masters.
He did not comment on it. Instead, after lowering his head in thought for a moment, he looked up and asked, "Could you explain in more detail?"
"Of course." Allen nodded. This was exactly what he had been waiting for.
After a brief pause to organize his thoughts, he said, "The School of the Wolf being targeted by the 'Glutton' Henselt and Ban Ard mages, the School of the Griffin being coveted by greedy sorcerers and nobles—"
"I believe it's not only the School of the Wolf and the School of the Griffin. In recent years, other witcher schools, including the School of the Bear and the School of the Viper, have been facing the same kind of crisis."
"Not to mention that all witchers are being hunted in a targeted manner by hostile forces like the Rogrides family."
"This very clearly points to one thing—"
"The witcher school system is no longer suited to witchers. It's not merely unsuitable; it has already begun to affect the very survival of witchers on this continent."
Allen swept his gaze around the room, finally letting it rest on Erland.
Erland sat upright, listening intently, showing not the slightest hint of dismissiveness simply because the speaker was a fourteen-year-old child.
Nor did the other Griffin School witcher masters.
Perhaps even they themselves had not realized that after hearing Allen's legendary stories from Jerome Moreau, after seeing Jerome's prophecy confirmed, and after arriving at the expedition outpost to meet this impossibly young yet impossibly mature witcher—
They could no longer view Allen as a child, nor merely as a Wolf School witcher master.
If they had to choose a fitting identity—
A seer.
A witcher seer—that suited this fourteen-year-old witcher far better.
So much so that even if Allen were to say that witchers would soon face extinction, they would believe him.
"Go on," Erland said seriously.
Allen nodded, took a deep breath, and continued. "I believe the members of the School of the Griffin can also feel it—the concentration of magic on the Northern Continent is rapidly increasing, and monsters are becoming more active and more powerful by the day."
"The ebbing of the magical tide, which once constrained development of witchers directly leading to fewer contracts and internal conflict that caused the collapse of the Witcher Order—will no longer hinder witchers' growth."
"But the relationship between witchers and sorcerers, nobles, and priests cannot return to the honeymoon period of the Witcher Order's founding—"
"Why?" Keldar, a Griffin School witcher master, could not help interrupting. "With the magical tide surging, witchers will surely be needed by humanity even more—"
"But witchers today are no longer the same as at the beginning," Allen replied. "Back then, witchers were few in number—probably fewer than a hundred in total."
Though he had never asked directly, the number of witchers during the Witcher Order era was not difficult to estimate.
Erland had left Morgraig Castle with just over thirty witchers to found the School of the Griffin. Arnaghad, having lost the struggle, could not have had more—perhaps ten at most. Add another fifteen to twenty young witchers who would later form the origin of the School of the Cat after leaving the Order in disappointment.
Counting the Wolf School that remained at Morgraig Castle, after the internal conflict the Witcher Order likely had only around fifty people.
Though the conflict was bloody, casualties could not have exceeded half, so the total number of witchers should have been around a hundred.
Allen looked at Sol.
But it was Erland who answered.
He nodded lightly. "That's right. Before Arnaghad's revolt, the Witcher Order had sixty-seven witchers, eight hundred and seventy-one apprentices, and ten order-affiliated sorcerers."
Fewer than I imagined, Allen thought.
Of course, though that number sounded small, nearly a hundred witchers gathered at Morgraig Castle in the Kestrel Mountains—on the border of Redania and Kaedwen—would descend every early spring and accept contracts throughout the surrounding kingdoms.
Once the magical tide receded and monsters became scarce, conflict was inevitable.
That was likely why the later witcher schools were established so far apart—the School of the Wolf in the Blue Mountains of the northeastern Northern Continent, the School of the Griffin on the Povis coast in the northwest.
"And now," Allen continued, "the School of the Wolf alone has nearly forty witchers. The School of the Griffin should not be far behind. Together, our two schools already exceed the original Witcher Order."
"Add in the Schools of the Wolf, Griffin, Bear, and Viper, and there are probably around a hundred and fifty witchers—more than twice the peak size of the Witcher Order!"
"And more importantly, while most witcher schools maintain neutrality, the influence of the local schools—the Wolf School in Kaedwen, the Griffin School in Kovir and Poviss—extends from peasants and townsfolk to merchants and nobles alike."
"And what about the original Witcher Order?"
"A newly founded armed organization might have influence within a limited area, but it was nowhere near as influential as today's witcher schools."
"The repeated targeting of the Wolf and Griffin Schools ultimately comes down to this kind of 'neutral yet uncontrollable' influence, which has made nobles and sorcerers wary."
"To put it even more bluntly—"
"We are weakening the nobles' control over local regions, and we are competing with sorcerers for work."
"But didn't the Witcher Order do the same thing back then?" Keldar still did not understand.
"It's different, Keldar," Erland of Larvik sighed at that moment, answering in Allen's stead. "The witcher schools have been developing over the years. Nobles keep having children. And the number of Brotherhood of Sorcerers mages has multiplied severalfold with the establishment of Ban Ard and Aretuza—"
"Yes," Allen nodded. "Resources are limited. There's no longer enough to go around."
"The surge of the magical tide will improve the witchers' situation, but the political environment of the Northern Continent will never return to the harmony of the Witcher Order's early days."
Erland said, "So you hope to improve the situation of the witcher schools through the Witcher Corps?"
"Yes," Allen nodded. "The environment is worsening. A mass of water can be scattered by fragile branches, but when that same water freezes into an ice spike, it can pierce steel."
"Witchers need greater cohesion. The Witcher Corps is my way of strengthening the School of the Wolf."
And to become more cohesive—
The Witcher Order, once fragmented into separate schools, would have to be united once again.
Of course, this thought only flickered through Allen's mind for a moment—he did not voice it aloud.
A good start was already in place. Now, it was time to proceed steadily.
After hearing Allen's words, the Griffin School Witcher Masters fell silent, sinking into deep contemplation.
Allen could tell—they were tempted.
However, to overturn a system that had continued for nearly a hundred years and replace it outright with Allen's Witcher Corps system was not something that could be fully thought through in such a short time.
Erland of Larvik pondered for a moment, then finally recalled how the topic of the Witcher Corps had been brought up in the first place.
He glanced at the young witchers, who were listening in a daze and had already begun to lose focus. "Thank you, Allen. As for the matter of the Witcher Corps, we need some time to consider it carefully. When the time comes, we may have to trouble you to give us some guidance—"
"It wouldn't be guidance," Allen said modestly. "They're just some rough ideas. The Witcher Corps is still only a prototype right now, and it also needs the participation of forces like the Griffin School to help perfect it."
After exchanging a few more polite words of humility and praise with Allen, Erland of Larvik turned to the main point. "About the rescue commission we mentioned earlier—could we ask you to lend us some people?"
"Grandmaster Erland doesn't need to worry about those Griffin School witchers who were harmed," Allen shook his head. "Lady Vera has a list. While rescuing the Wolf School witchers according to that list, it would be impossible for us to stand by and ignore witchers from other schools—"
Erland was just about to say something more.
"And there's no need to worry about Hughes and the others either," Allen said, fully aware that this was the real concern. "Their strength is far beyond what you imagine—far, far beyond."
Several Griffin School Witcher Masters exchanged looks, clearly unconvinced.
But with their intentions exposed, it was ultimately impossible to force the Wolf School to withdraw these young witchers.
"Then I'll look forward to it—"
Erland gave a slight nod and let the topic pass.
After that, the Griffin School Witcher Masters discussed alliance matters for the upcoming expedition with the Wolf School witchers for a while longer, then rose to take their leave.
The sky was already growing dark.
The Griffin School did not have so many young witchers. They still needed to return to their encampment and go to the Sorcerers' Brotherhood to collect supplies for the expedition.
Naturally, Allen and the other Witcher Masters saw them off.
"Allen, come with me for a moment."
As they walked out of the Wolf School encampment, Erland suddenly seemed to recall something. He patted Allen and motioned for him to follow.
Allen was momentarily taken aback, but of course he had no reason to refuse.
So he followed the Griffin School witchers back to the Griffin School encampment.
Just as he thought Erland wanted to ask more about the details of the Witcher Corps, Erland walked up to a white horse, removed a bulging saddlebag, and handed it to Allen.
Allen froze for a moment and instinctively looked into the open saddlebag.
Monster Hunting Notes.
A thick parchment-bound book lay inside what appeared to be a specially made saddlebag.
"Grandmaster Erland," Allen asked, "what is this?"
......