Chapter 416: The Enhanced Trial of the Grasses
Ultimately, in the battle that would later be known as the Battle of the Blar River, the League army suffered over two thousand soldiers killed, several hundred missing, and over a thousand soldiers taken prisoner. The Kovir army, on the other hand, suffered negligible casualties.
Besides severely crippling the Hengfors League, making it impossible for them to organize another army to resist the Kovir advance, the battle had one more crucial result: most of the nobles, including King Nedamir, died in the fighting.
This was not because they were exceptionally brave and fought to the last man. In fact, when the Kovir infantry began to surround them from all sides and the League soldiers fled like stray dogs, many Hengfors League nobles did not flee. This was because, in the wars between the Northern Kingdoms, nobles were generally treated with courtesy. Except in battles where both sides were fighting fiercely, killing each other in a blood frenzy, enemies usually wouldn't deliberately kill nobles.
Just as it was now. These Hengfors League nobles believed the Kovir army had won. As the vanquished, they had thrown down their weapons and raised their hands, so the victorious Kovir army should, like gentlemen, accept their surrender.
Unfortunately, these Hengfors League nobles were unaware of Lynn's actions in Maribor and Kreïden. Had they known, they certainly wouldn't have foolishly stayed put and discarded their weapons.
As the Kovir soldiers drew closer, some of the Hengfors nobles finally realized that something was seriously wrong.
"Wait! Wait a moment!"
"We surrender! We surrender!"
Watching the Kovir soldiers charge directly at them without slowing down, the nobles grew increasingly terrified. A few nobles, finally sensing the danger, picked up their weapons, but it was too late.
Screams of agony arose. The Kovir soldiers began a brutal slaughter of the Hengfors nobles, disregarding their noble status. Even the few who took up arms in a desperate attempt to resist were no more than splashes in a raging torrent, quickly vanishing.
The massacre ended quickly. Killing a group of nobles who had voluntarily laid down their arms was little harder than slaughtering chickens.
Lynn did not, in fact, have a habit of torturing prisoners. If the Hengfors soldiers had surrendered, he would have accepted their surrender. But nobles were different. Lynn had no intention of taking any of them alive. After all, he was planning to distribute their land to his own soldiers. It wouldn't do to have any disputes over ownership with the original masters.
And so, the gentlemen had to be politely dispatched.
With the martyrdom of King Nedamir and the numerous Hengfors nobles, the remaining city-states of the Hengfors League had no possibility of resisting the Kovir army's occupation. Thus, the city-states that had broken away during the Poviss Schism once again returned to the embrace of Kovir.
However, these lands became the personal domain of Duke Lynn Augustus.
Lynn immediately re-divided these territories, ensuring that over half of the soldiers in his army received land allotments. Naturally, a larger portion of the land remained under his personal control.
Lynn's nominal fiefdom, the Free Duchy of Ispaden, lay to the east of the Hengfors League. However, Lynn was in no hurry to travel to his own fief. Instead, he remained in Kaedwen (now conquered), beginning the governance of the former Hengfors League lands.
Soon after, more good news arrived from Kaer Morhen. Under the collaborative research of Tissaia de Vries, Mousesack, and Eglaïs, they finally found a way to improve the survival rate of the Trial of the Grasses.
The solution was to add an additional mutation before the Trial of the Grasses, which would prime the apprentice's body for the full witcher transformation. They named this the Mild Mutation. After repeated tests, they scheduled the Mild Mutation one year before the actual Trial of the Grasses.
The results were gratifying. In Tissaia's magical simulations, the introduction of the Mild Mutation was found to increase the survival rate of the Trial of the Grasses by an additional two-tenths (20%). Furthermore, having a sorceress cast a stabilization spell could add another one-tenth (10%) probability, and the inclusion of the Water of Brokilon could add another one-tenth (10%).
With all these improvements, the survival rate of the Trial of the Grasses could reach eighty-five percent (85%).
Although this was not the predicted one hundred percent success rate, all three researchers stated that this was the absolute limit. Without an explosive breakthrough and innovation in future magical research, further improvement was highly unlikely.
Considering that the "future" was less than a decade away, Lynn decided to proceed with the improved Trial of the Grasses.
However, since the survival rate was not one hundred percent, he would give the orphans he rescued two opportunities to choose.
First, they could choose whether to voluntarily become a witcher apprentice.
Second, after completing all the physical training of the apprenticeship, they would be informed of the dangers of the Trial of the Grasses. At this point, they would still have one last chance to choose whether they were willing to undergo the Trial with an eighty-five percent survival rate.
If they were unwilling, it was fine. Even the training during the apprenticeship was enough to turn a common person into a capable soldier. Lynn could integrate them into his standing army, and if they achieved merit on the battlefield, they would still have a channel for promotion.
As for those brave souls who were willing to undergo the Trial of the Grasses, if they survived, they would automatically be granted the title of Knight. Although they would still need to achieve military merit to receive land, their salary would be the highest among the troops until then. Those who did not survive would be recorded and eternally memorialized.
After reporting the success of the improved Trial of the Grasses, Mousesack informed Lynn of another matter: A raven had brought a message; the Circle of Druids had informed him that Queen Calanthe had requested that he serve as the Royal Advisor of Cintra.
Cintra and the Skellige Isles had always been friendly. Although the deaths of Duny and Pavetta had strained relations somewhat, the two kingdoms maintained their alliance in the face of their common enemy, Nilfgaard. Moreover, Cintra's current consort, Eist Tuirseach, was from the Skellige Isles. The request for Mousesack to serve as the Royal Advisor was not solely at Calanthe's invitation but also at Eist's urging. As a Skelliger, Eist trusted a druid more than a sorcerer.
Mousesack had previously delayed his departure because his work was unfinished. Now that his task was complete, he had no reason to stay and could finally leave with peace of mind. That is why he chose to come to Kaedwen City to personally deliver the news of the successful Trial of the Grasses improvement to Lynn.
Lynn did not try to keep Mousesack. He knew that the Druid's willingness to say goodbye in person was a sign of great respect. Forcing him to stay would be impolite.
Thus, Lynn paid Mousesack a large sum of gold. He knew Druids did not value money and material comfort, but gold best represented sincerity.
Next, Lynn presented Mousesack with a grand gift: the shocking secret that Queen Calanthe's son-in-law, Duny, was actually the current Emperor of Nilfgaard.
"Years ago, Emhyr var Emreis's father was overthrown by a highly influential domestic noble. This noble killed Emhyr's father and turned Emhyr into a hedgehog-like monster."
"Emhyr was exiled, eventually coming to the forests of Cintra, where he saved the then-Cintra consort, Rögnar, and demanded the Law of Surprise as payment."
"Afterward, Emhyr lived in the North and even met a sorcerer named Vilgefortz."
"The latter is a man of extreme ambition. The only thing he desires is something that only the Emperor of Nilfgaard can grant, so Vilgefortz has secretly been helping Emhyr."
"Fifteen years passed, and when Queen Calanthe held the marriage feast for Princess Pavetta, Emhyr also went to Cintra because the payment he had demanded from Rögnar under the Law of Surprise was Princess Pavetta."
"I don't need to elaborate on what happened next, do I?"
Mousesack was astonished. He had been present at that marriage feast years ago. Not only did he attend, but he and Geralt had also prevented Calanthe from harming Emhyr. At the time, the old Druid believed that the tradition of the Law of Surprise and the destiny that followed could not be defied. Now, it seemed that despite the eventual backlash of fate, he should have stood with Calanthe back then.
Immediately, Mousesack recalled the shipwreck that had claimed the lives of Duny and Pavetta just a few years ago. "If Duny is Emhyr, and Emhyr is Duny, then that shipwreck…"
Lynn spread his hands. "Naturally, it was deliberately manufactured by Vilgefortz to get Emhyr out of Calanthe's sight and back to Nilfgaard in secret."
"As for Princess Pavetta, Emhyr himself called it an accident, but surely you know the name Vilgefortz. As the foremost human sorcerer after Tissaia, couldn't Vilgefortz manage to rescue just one more person? I, for one, do not believe it."
When revealing this truth to Philippa, Lynn had omitted Vilgefortz's name. It wasn't that Lynn thought Philippa would run to Vilgefortz to inform him. Philippa and Vilgefortz were not allies; Lynn was worried about her sanity. At least before the Thanedd Coup, Vilgefortz had not openly opposed the Northern Kingdoms. He had even called upon sorcerers to fight for the North during the First Northern War. If Lynn told Philippa now, and she went to confront Vilgefortz, it would cause trouble.
The amount of information Lynn presented was enormous, and even Mousesack was struggling to process it all at once.
Before Mousesack departed, Lynn also offered him one last piece of free advice: In recent decades, Nilfgaard had completed the conquest and unification of the entire South. Except for the distant, idealized Duchy of Toussaint, the Southern Kingdoms had all fallen under the iron heel of the City of the Golden Towers. But the Nilfgaardians would never stop their conquest. Sooner or later, they would cross the Amell Mountains and set foot on Northern soil.
"Did you see something?"
Having spent so much time at Kaer Morhen, Mousesack had gradually heard rumors about Lynn—that he was not just a witcher but a prophet. In this world, because of the existence of magic and gods, prophets and prophecies were real, and Mousesack had to believe it.
To Mousesack's question, Lynn nodded immediately. Clearing his throat, he gazed into the distance and spoke slowly.
"I saw cities engulfed in a sea of fire beneath the black night sky, smoke billowing from the streets, flames swallowing houses, screams and the dull thud of blades entering flesh everywhere. Corpses piled higher than mountains, and blood flowing deeper than moats."
"The Blue Lion of Cintra (Cintra's crest) was burning beneath the Golden Sun, turning to ash."
Mousesack frowned. "Nilfgaard and Cintra are separated by the towering Amell Mountains. The only passable place is the Marnadal Valley."
"Cintra was not originally one of the Northern powers, but since Calanthe ascended the throne in 1232, she has gradually made Cintra wealthy and strong."
"Furthermore, when Calanthe was only fifteen, she defeated the army of Nazair at the Battle of Hochebuz."
"Will Cintra… truly fall to Nilfgaard?"
Mousesack had met Queen Calanthe several times. Although a woman, she surpassed most other Northern kings in both internal affairs and military matters. Thus, Mousesack found it very difficult to imagine the scene Lynn had prophesied coming true.
Seeing Mousesack's expression, Lynn knew he was skeptical. Normal. Mousesack was an original inhabitant of this world, limited by the constraints of his era. Covered by a cloud of ignorance, he could only see the false prosperity before him and not the disaster lurking beneath. In fact, let alone Mousesack, wasn't Queen Calanthe herself equally blind to the situation?
Speaking of which, Lynn had never met Calanthe since arriving in this world. But if the real-life Calanthe was anything like her novel counterpart, the words Lynn had just spoken to Mousesack would likely be considered treasonous by her.
Lynn was not afraid of the Lioness of Cintra judging him. If she had the ability, she could leave Cintra and cross half the North to attack him.
Lynn did not want to see the events of the original story repeat themselves. Therefore, he reminded Mousesack with a serious expression that once he arrived in Cintra, he absolutely must advise Calanthe to strengthen the defenses of the Marnadal Valley border. If possible, it would be best to build a fortress in the valley.
The Amell Mountains, which spanned Cintra and Nilfgaard, had a few goat trails connecting North and South besides the Marnadal Valley. However, for a large army to pass, especially for supply wagons, the Marnadal Valley was the only option. Therefore, if Queen Calanthe followed his advice and built a fortress in the Marnadal Valley, leaving only a few hundred garrison troops would be enough to hold the Nilfgaardians firmly outside the border.