Demon Hunter: School of the Wolf.

Chapter 665 I will stop him, I promise!

“Yes, Erin is a witcher, and he always will be a witcher…”

Vera's sigh drifted away on the howling sea breeze.

Tissaya de Veres wanted to say something to comfort her mentor’s last disciple, her ally whom she relied on, her dearest friend, or at least the one she once thought was her dearest friend.

But when she racked her brains, she couldn't find any words or phrases that could be used.

Yes!

She was never a skilled orator or politician, yet she has become the Tissaya de Veris, the highest-ranking sorceress in the Northern Continent.

In the past, they relied on their mentor's position in the Brotherhood of Sorcerers; now they rely on Aretusa's power in the transcendental world.

It was always others who carefully chose their words and tried to please her, not the other way around.

Eloquence and empathy are both skills, and skills, like spells, require practice to improve. She had never practiced them, so she was naturally weak in words.

Fortunately, Vera didn't need her comforting words and continued talking on her own.

Tissaya de Vera felt that Vera probably never even dared to hope for it.

When she realized this, her heart skipped a beat for no reason, and she continued listening.

Vera said, “No one can easily persuade a mother to give up her child with just a few words, not even Ymir Isaac, the bishop of Cliff, the great prophet and seer.”

"Soy is also hesitant."

"He still retains the habits he had as the eldest son of a duke, and like all the orthodox nobles of the Northern Continent, he respects Ymir Isaac. But Erin is, after all, his offspring, the most precious treasure that he could not have otherwise possessed."

"Moreover, the Wolf School only takes in twenty or thirty children back to Kaer Morhen a year. It's not easy for a child to become a Witcher, except for fools like Zoe who volunteer."

"The law of surprise?" Tessaia de Veres asked.

Vera nodded: "Witchers accept apprentices based on the choice of fate. Arryn is our child. His birth was a miracle, but it had nothing to do with fate. At least, we naively thought it had nothing to do with fate back then."

"So you rebelled?" Upon hearing this, Tissaya de Veres frowned, as if she had thought of something.

“It’s not resistance,” Vera shook her head. “We’re just doing nothing, changing nothing.”

“I went into seclusion at the Temple of Meritari to continue nurturing Arryn, while Soy took on quests around Temeria, returning to Kaer Morhen at the end of the year and then coming back. Two years passed like this without any incidents.”

“That was a wonderful time,” Vera said, looking up at the cloud-covered sky as if it were a sky full of stars. “I remember it very clearly, spring, the most beautiful season of the year at the Temple of Meriteli.”

"The weather is neither too cold nor too hot."

"Erin is also very well-behaved. As long as you tie a few amulets to the crossbeam of the cradle, she can play happily all day long."

"The morning dew was too heavy, so I gently rocked the cradle and stared blankly at the fine, soft baby hair slowly growing on his round little head, teaching him to call me 'Mama' all morning."

"Then, after lunch, the three of us, sometimes with Zoe, would stroll in the temple gardens, enjoying the refreshing fragrance of the flowers."

“I would pretend to be a noblewoman from Toussaint who had married into Temuria, chatting with other noblewomen who were also out for a walk, talking about their children, and idly passing the whole afternoon. No one would recognize me as that terrible blood fox.”

“Often, before it got dark, Soi would come back. He would first take off his armor in the outer room, and then I would use magic to remove all the smell of blood from his body before he went into the inner room to hug the child…”

"But children are always very perceptive; they'll furrow their tiny, ungrown eyebrows and purse their little lips..."

Sometimes I cry, sometimes I don't.

“Soy is always troubled by this, but he won’t listen when asked not to go out and take on jobs…”

“We are just an ordinary couple in the mortal world, lacking nothing except for a marriage blessed by our parents.”

"But even if it were a marriage, if the Duke of Henrietta and the Earl of Trience were still alive, they would surely bless us and rejoice at the birth of Erin."

"At the time, we all thought Ymir Isaac's prophecy was just a very bad joke."

"but……"

Vera took a deep breath, tilted her head back, and closed her eyes: "An accident has happened."

Thor Laura's Tower remained quiet for a long time.

Tissaya de Vera did not urge her. She looked at Vera's trembling, thin lips and felt as if she were having a nightmare that had lasted for decades and she had not yet woken up.

"First, on Erin's second birthday, even though we were at the Temple of Meriteli, surrounded by the most professional herbalists and doctors, Erin suddenly caught a very common cold the next day."

“At that time, we didn’t pay attention. We just thought it was normal for children to be sick, and we didn’t realize that it was just the beginning.”

"But then, for some reason, a ghoul sneaked into the sacred Temple of Meritelli."

"The ghoul crossed numerous obstacles from the back mountains of Mahakam, conveniently bypassing all the temple guards, and showing no interest whatsoever in the blood-soaked birthing room, before arriving in front of Erin, who was playing in the sand..."

"I was taking a nap nearby at the time, and I didn't feel anything at all..."

"A mere ghoul, Tissa, can you even imagine?"

Vera looked at Tissaya de Veres with fear in her eyes, her voice hoarse.

"A ghoul managed to deceive me, and the senses of all the priests in the temple..."

"If it weren't for Zoe returning from a mission, Erin, Erin..."

Vera didn't continue, took another deep breath to calm herself down: "But that can't defeat us. Soy did start to hesitate, but Ianna and I convinced him."

"Ianna strengthened the temple's defenses. At that time, the Falgar Rebellion had not been over for long, and Temeria was full of roaming bandits. Under Ianna's complete control of the Meriteli Temple, the matter was quickly covered up, and no one knew..."

"Then it was indeed safe for quite a long time, although wild boars, ghouls, bears and wolves would inexplicably appear from some corner."

"until……"

"The Black Death plague appeared in Vizima?" Tisaya de Veris sighed and continued. After hearing that "but" that had left Vera silent for so long, she had guessed, or rather, estimated, it.

Even in the course of her long life, the Black Death was far too bloody and cruel.

Throughout the entire city, white cloths were hung at the door of every household, and thick smoke from burning corpses filled the sky above every city in Temuria. Even in the Aretusa Academy on the island of Shanides, shrill screams echoed.

Working non-stop throughout the night.

Such a profound memory is unforgettable for anyone, and Tissaya de Veres, being human, was no exception.

Vera paused for a few seconds, then nodded with a somber expression: "Yes, until the Black Death plague appeared in Vizima and quickly spread to Elland."

“But Elland has the best doctors,” Tissaya de Veris said. “In the end, the Black Death was eradicated under the control of the physicians and herbalists of the Temple of Meritelli, and it did not affect the temple except for the priests and doctors who went out to treat patients.”

“No, it did spread,” Vera shook her head. “The Black Death left Vizima, and the first major city it infected was Elland, the Temple of Meriteli…”

“How could that be?” Tissaya de Veres frowned. “I remember…”

“It was the Temple of Meritelli,” Vera interrupted, raising her hand, “because I saw the Black Death with my own eyes, right there in the Temple of Meritelli, right in front of me, only seven or eight steps away from Erin’s swaddling clothes…”

Upon hearing this description, Tissaya de Veres was stunned.

Vera didn't keep them in suspense. She took a deep breath and said, "On the third day after the Temple of Meriteli sent its second contingent of priests to Vizima, at noon, I was planning to take Erin for a walk in the temple gardens."

"With a 'creak,' the wooden cabin door had just opened halfway when my arm stiffened and I stopped opening it..."

"I will never forget that scene."

"A plague banshee floated silently in front of the cabin, in the shadow of the yew tree, facing the cabin without moving."

"He swayed his eerie green skirt, his long, jet-black hair stood on end pointing to the sky, his body covered in red rashes and blisters. A gentle breeze blew, and his rotting flesh fell like leaves, 'plop plop' splattering on the ground, where it was devoured by rats that appeared out of nowhere..."

"The creaking sound of the door stopping abruptly ceased, the mountain wind blowing from Mahakan stopped abruptly, and the rats that were feeding on the carrion also stopped what they were doing and turned to look at me."

"The air was filled with an indescribable stench of blood and decay; looking back, that was perhaps the smell of death."

"You know what's the scariest thing?"

Vera suddenly looked away from the dark abyss beneath her feet and turned to gaze into Tissaya de Veres' brown eyes.

"What is it?" Tissaya de Veres couldn't help but hold her breath, pressing for an answer. "The plague banshee and that huge swarm of plague rats are charging over?"

“No, quite the opposite, they are completely still,” Vera shook her head, then took a deep breath, “waiting motionless for the wooden door’s groans to cease, then staring at me motionless, as if fate were watching me through the rotting eyes of the plague banshee…”

"No, that's fate warning us, warning us..."

"Humans can never defy their predetermined fate..."

Tissaya de Vera shuddered as she listened to Vera's soft, almost nightmarish voice, as if fate itself were staring at her through Vera's dark, lifeless eyes.

"And then?" Tissaya de Veres instinctively broke the eerie atmosphere.

"Then I held Erin tightly, trembling as I held my treasure, my flesh and blood, my pride, and dared not utter a single word," Wei stretched out her arms and crossed them over her chest. "Zoy sensed something was wrong in the inner room, rushed out, and drew his sword to meet the Plague Banshee..."

"With just one sword strike, the plague banshee vanished beneath the yew tree, leaving behind only a large pile of plague rat corpses..."

"A sword?!" Tissaya de Veres couldn't help but interrupt.

The Plague Banshee is a powerful monster of the Ghost Spirit race. No matter how powerful Zoe is, it is impossible for him to kill a Plague Banshee with a single sword strike without any resistance.

“Yes, only one sword,” Vera nodded, continuing her nightmarish ramblings, “Almost the instant the plague banshee vanished, both Soi and I sensed something…”

"It was merely a messenger, delivering a final warning to a merciless fate."

"Then, Zoe and I stayed up all night, and the next day we said goodbye to Ianna. Zoe took Arlin back to Kaer Morhen, and I went to the Temple of Cliff to personally verify Ymir Isaac's prophecy..."

"Then I didn't go back to the Wolf School. I hid in a manor in Toussaint for two years like a coward before I went to Kaer Morhen."

"At that time, Erin was already undergoing training and transformation as a Witcher."

“I had a huge fight with Soy, calling him cold-blooded and cruel, but I knew in my heart that the real coward was not Soy Henrietta, but me, Vera Trines.”

"The eldest daughter of the Terence family, whose emblem is a valiant lion."

"And I didn't even dare to witness Erin's first step into the abyss, yet I'm still making a fuss over nothing."

"So, Tissa..."

Vera stretched out her hand and grasped Tissaya de Veris's hand, her eyes pleading: "Erin is my everything. He has just miraculously returned from the abyss of death. Don't let him step into another abyss, at least not now."

Tissaya de Veres felt the coldness in her palms and mocked herself for what kind of image she had in other people's minds.

"Vera, since you've put it that way, what else can I do?"

Vera was stunned; she hadn't expected that Tissaya de Veres would actually agree so readily.

“But you must know, Vera,” Tissaya de Veris said, “Dodulak is dangerous, but not a dead end, nor is it like Ben Ade, who sneaked in without telling anyone.”

"With me, you, Zoe, and a whole host of Witcher Masters from the Wolf School and the Griffin School, there is no place in the Northern Continent safer than Dordurak at that time."

Vera remained unmoved.

For Erin, is the real danger to Doraduk and his group monsters?

“Furthermore,” Tessaia de Veriston paused, “are you sure our Child of Miracles won’t appear in Doradodok then?”

Upon hearing this, Vera thought of Erin, who had been present in almost every major event earlier this year. After a moment of stunned silence, she gritted her teeth and said:

"I'll stop him, I promise!"

(End of this chapter)