[Chapter Size: 2500 Words.]
Third Person POV
Toussaint.
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The exploration of the region continued after Madara and Ciri had left the lake and kept traveling through the duchy, first exploring its outskirts with fewer patrols from the duchy's knights and soldiers.
The School of the Viper was their first stop. The place still kept a good part of its old structure, which had functioned until about 15 years ago, but without maintenance, it had deteriorated after the last witchers left for all corners of the continent, knowing there was no way to keep the school running. It was no wonder Toussaint had filled with monsters again.
It wasn't surprising to find the place now serving as a bandit camp. They were celebrating with drinks and food after plundering a convoy from one of the biggest vineyards in the region, a few kilometers away, near the borders of Toussaint.
The duchy's knights had sent out a group of more than twenty men to hunt down the criminals, but they couldn't find their camp. Madara couldn't help but raise a brow, observing everything from the top of the structure as he wondered why they hadn't searched the abandoned ruins — which was quite obvious, and people couldn't possibly be that stupid, right?
"These ruins are quite obvious for setting up a bandit camp." He couldn't help murmuring.
The young Uchiha observing everything was only a shadow clone, gathering information while watching the bandits celebrating around the campfires, with wagons parked in the middle of the place, still stained with blood, and a few hostages tied up. He heard enough and disappeared in a puff of smoke somewhere, returning with the gathered information directly to the original Madara at a distance.
Clones had always been useful for gathering information on enemies, which was the jutsu's purpose when Tobirama created it. In a world like that, it was a perfect technique — even Geralt, Vesemir, and the other witchers would look with envy at someone who could obtain information without putting their real body at risk. And with the infiltration techniques a shinobi normally possessed, that was on another level.
Madara explained everything to Ciri and said there was no need for them to fight personally. He simply sent a wood clone that would make sure to eliminate most of the bandits and free the hostages, in addition to collecting what remained of the School of the Viper before the men of Toussaint arrived at the site.
After that, they continued their walk, avoiding the School of the Viper. Ciri even wanted to see it, but since the place was occupied, they would leave it for later, able to teleport back here afterward.
They traveled through more forests, found new ruins, and a few bandit forts. Madara kept sending clones to clear the region, a bit disappointed with Toussaint's patrol. Even if the bandits were placed in strategic locations — in the game — to guarantee experience and loot for the player, he expected the real world to be different, but he was wrong. The bandits were occupying empty fortresses and forts around the region, even in the places farthest from the city. It was still an obvious spot for them to take over, but the men of Toussaint seemed to have trouble seeing that, acting only when the criminals committed crimes.
In any case, after exploring the area a bit, the sun was already past the middle of the sky, and Madara and Ciri decided to head to the city, after hiding from the same patrol that was searching for the bandits Madara had already dealt with, behind the trees, while the group of more than 20 men passed by them.
"Ciri, the duchy must be on alert about us. Since that knight passed information to the superiors in the city, we've been avoiding every patrol so far, but we won't be able to do that inside the city. Can you cast a concealment spell on us? The one I got from Yennefer and passed on to you?" Madara asked in a serious tone, looking toward the distant towers of the castle above the city.
Yennefer had an excellent spell for that kind of situation… She could even enter an army in the middle of a war without being noticed for some time. Entering a city should be easy if she could do that in the middle of a battlefield. Not to mention that Elder Blood strengthened the spells Ciri cast, always making them more powerful than anything sorceresses could produce.
"All right, but we'll have to hide our faces, since we can't stand out too much. The problem is Eira…" Ciri said after hearing her husband, while concern appeared on her face. However, Madara opened a smile upon hearing that.
"Don't worry about that. I taught him a few tricks," he said.
"What do you mean by that?" Ciri asked, confused, hearing that for the first time.
"Why don't you show her, Eira?" Madara asked the colt beneath the horses, in a playful tone, while the unicorn stomped its hooves on the ground and neighed. The next moment, it burst into smoke, and as it dissipated, Ciri widened her eyes at the sight of a white dog in its place.
"Is this for real?! How is he…?" She couldn't even finish. The dog then neighed like a horse, making Ciri interrupt her own question and burst into laughter immediately upon seeing a dog making the sound of a foal.
Madara laughed as well. "I taught him the concept of transformation jutsus… I don't transform into people, but Eira can do it by combining some of his natural abilities. I passed everything through my Sharingan, and our unicorn colt used his own kind of special magic to complete it." He explained.
Ciri kept laughing while the dog — still neighing from time to time — seemed to complain, staring at her indignantly. She laughed even harder because of the completely incoherent sound compared to his new appearance.
Madara took out two cloaks and handed one to Ciri, placing it over her shoulders and covering her head with the hood, which would be vital for her spell.
Ciri took a deep breath, calming herself, and began to emit a soft glow as she spoke a few Elven words, weaving the concealment spell, wrapping both herself and Madara.
"Done. We're concealed." She declared.
Both headed toward the city, approaching the main gate, already aware they would find guards watching closely for anyone coming in. Obviously, the order must have come from Anna Henrietta or the commander of the duchy's military forces himself.
One of the guards looked at them with a suspicious tone. The spell couldn't be so effective as to make them invisible; if they were looking for something, they could still see them as suspicious.
Madara simply looked at the guard as his Sharingan gleamed, something he was already used to doing at the gates of many cities during his travels, sending a command into the man's mind, who soon returned to his position and told his men that those two were nothing and could pass.
"Wow…" Ciri exclaimed as she began to see the entire city before her, full of life. The place was crowded with people going about their tasks, buying and selling, laughing and enjoying themselves. "What a lively place, not even Cintra's capital was like this…" she said, observing the city before they began to move forward.
"Hello, visitors!" someone shouted from within the crowd upon noticing them. But thanks to the spell, the man only saw two ordinary figures, not suspicious at all because they wore hoods. Madara discreetly activated the Sharingan once more, reading some information from the man about the city and making him give up the idea of acting as a tour guide to earn a coin, allowing them to continue without interruptions.
"Sorry, but horses can't pass from here. There's a stable beside the street," one of the guards approached after seeing them, raising a hand to stop them, noticing nothing unusual about their hoods. The white dog — Eira — caught his attention for a moment, but nothing more. Ciri and Madara nodded and went to the indicated stable.
After that, they continued exploring the city. The guards seemed alert, but didn't care much about the two hooded figures accompanied by a white dog.
The city had weapon shops, restaurants, inns, mansions of very wealthy people, and an entire center for the local nobility. Ciri seemed increasingly excited as they walked through the streets. They entered a weapon shop to look at armors and swords, with the shopkeeper casting suspicious glances in their direction.
Even with their hoods on, he didn't ask anything — he merely measured them with his eyes like someone assessing travelers with no money. Ciri immediately became enchanted by a specific sword, pointing at it, its blade displayed on the wall behind the counter.
The man finally noticed the dog entering the shop with them and was about to yell at these idiots for bringing a mangy mutt into his grand store, which usually served famous knights and wealthy nobles. But Ciri interrupted him with her excited voice.
"Madara, look at this blade! It's so beautiful…" the girl shouted, completely in love with the object. Ciri treated swords the same way a noble teenager would treat jewelry and dresses.
"Do you want it for training?" Madara asked. Ciri already had Zireael, which she always summoned from the future through time and space — at least until she finally obtained the real sword in that timeline.
If she liked the sword, there was no reason not to gift it to her. Besides, much of the gold he had actually belonged to her, earned from her work in the Northern Kingdoms, hunting dozens of monsters and completing contracts on her own when Madara asked her to test her abilities. And the gold she stored after emptying Calanthe's castle vaults also belonged to Ciri — it was her inheritance.
The shopkeeper, who had been surprised and ready to throw the dog out, immediately changed his mind after the girl's shout, but displayed a mocking smile. To him, that couple looked like nothing but peasants or servant-born — nothing about them suggested wealth. The simple hoods and low-quality fabric indicated exactly that, but that was precisely why Madara had chosen them: they helped with concealment and didn't draw attention.
"That sword was made by an unusual master craftsman. Girls don't usually like it… it's mostly knights, and not even they can afford that weapon… It's been in my shop for two years. And I doubt you two have two thousand gold coins," the man said with a mocking tone.
Madara raised an eyebrow and stepped closer to him. "Tell me, do you accept crowns from the Northern Kingdoms?" Madara asked, since the currency here was a bit different, and he hadn't robbed any Nilfgaardian treasury — he only had Northern gold.
The man frowned for a moment. "Well… gold is gold," he eventually said, though he clearly didn't believe Madara had such an amount.
Madara then pulled a pouch of coins from behind his back — without the vendor even noticing where it came from — and placed it on the counter.
"There are at least ten thousand gold coins here. I want that sword, along with those four armors and all those weapons on that side."
Madara immediately checked the prices and calculated everything, making the man completely shocked.
That was an amount of gold not even famous knights possessed. Usually, only very wealthy nobles had such fortune to spend. This made the seller suspect that the two before him were, in fact, nobles in disguise — perhaps a young couple in the city wearing old clothes just to enjoy the day. The boy, at the very least, must be a count trying to impress the girl.
His surprised expression quickly turned into a presumptuous one. "Ralf! Ralf, get over here!" the merchant shouted. A man in his thirties, quite overweight, entered the shop through one of the doors behind the counter.
"I need you to help me count the gold and prepare the armors for our noble couple of clients!" the merchant said, now much more courteous.
Ciri wanted to laugh, and Madara simply shrugged. Even the dog — Eira — stood beside them, and the merchant didn't hesitate to offer him a piece of meat to please him as well.
"I'll keep walking around the city. I want all the items separated for me. I'll pick them up later," Madara informed. The man believed he would return with wagons, since armors and swords were items impossible to carry without transport. He only smiled after confirming the money was real.
"It will be done, my noble customer!" he said, showing an excited smile for having sold practically the most expensive items in the shop.
"Why did you buy the armors?" Ciri asked as they left the store, curious. She knew that money meant nothing to Madara.
"The armors are well-made. I intend to store them in scrolls. I'm sure I can gift them to someone in the future. And it's good to contribute to the local commerce if we're going to have a house here," Madara replied, shrugging. It was good to have a stock — and this time, armors that didn't come from looted corpses.
As they walked again through the city center, with the huge board full of monster and bandit contracts, they couldn't help noticing the commotion upon seeing a group of soldiers coming from the castle. The crowd parted to let them through.
"Soldiers from the empire…" Ciri frowned immediately, and Madara looked at the formation of Nilfgaardian soldiers with black armor marching in formation. Obviously, they shouldn't have been there. There were also two mages at the front of the group.
"Looks like our duchess had to send a message to the capital," Madara said calmly, while no one noticed them among the crowd — not even the mages.
"She reported us!" Ciri muttered, immediately becoming furious. Madara placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't get angry. She's actually doing it to protect herself. It would be practically treason if she didn't tell the empire we were here. So let's understand her side," Madara said in a diplomatic tone. He could also understand that this was perfectly normal — Nilfgaard would be quite shaken by their presence here.
Ciri nodded, though still a bit stubborn. If Madara said that was the case, she would trust his words as she always had.
"But that doesn't stop me from trying to have a conversation with her. How about we head to the castle?" Madara suggested, looking at the large structure above the city — a white, well-built castle. "We can have a chat with Anna Henrietta. She could be an ally. And if she isn't… well, she'll regret one day trying to betray us."
Madara only wanted a peaceful life in Toussaint, without any political games. And if they wanted to buy a vineyard here, they would have to talk to her.
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