The Witcher: Make Witcher Great Again

Chapter 142: A lost nail, a wounded knight, a lost war, and a destroyed country

The next day, it was drizzling.

The entire Rivendell Valley was shrouded in a fog as thick as oatmeal porridge.

This is when Regis played a huge role.

Every time when Maximus led the group, they lost their way or got stuck in the quagmire deep in the swamp.

Regis stepped forward in time and volunteered to explore the way, and it didn't take long for him to guide them back to the right direction.

For this, Maximus was deeply grateful, but also full of doubts.

How could an unarmed barber know so much about the Rivendell Valley on the south bank of the Yaruga River?

Just like a local.

It was just his chivalry that made him keep all these doubts deep in his heart.

In fact, Lynn knew.

Not that Regis knew the terrain here.

But they have abilities that ordinary humans don't have.

Regis is a high-level vampire who can transform into a cloud of mist.

Finding the way through fog is naturally much more efficient and easier.

Although there was almost no dry ground in the humid wilderness, the group did not encounter a single monster.

Of course, at night one could hear the roars of ghouls and the wails of banshees, and pale will-o'-the-wisps could be seen in the swamps, but nothing major happened.

They traveled through Rivendell for five days, and when they finally emerged from the damp wilderness, the rain stopped.

The wind blew away the mist and dampness, and the sun pierced through the clouds, making the snow-capped mountaintops sparkle.

The tall, jagged snow-capped mountains reflected the sunlight in the south, blocking their way.

That is the Amer Mountains.
Among the unforgiving mountains, the most striking is the majestic and precipitous "Devil's Peak" Mount Gorgon.

It rises above the jagged contours of the Amer Mountains like a sharp-edged obelisk.

The Amer Mountains ruthlessly divide the continent into two.

If people from the north wanted to go south, they had to start from Sintra and then cross the Manada Valley.

Or like Lynn and his group.

Cross the majestic Amer Mountains.

"No wonder the Nilfgaardian army chose to fight a decisive battle with Cintra in the Manada Valley during the First Northern War rather than taking a detour through Toussaint, crossing the Amel Mountains, passing through the Rivendell Valley, and then directly attacking the weaker Lyria and Sodden."

“Although the Amel Mountains are not as difficult to walk as the Yinping Trail, they are still much more difficult than the Manada Valley.”

Although Cintra was quickly defeated in the First Northern War, it was actually not weak.

The Battle of Manada, which determined the fate of the kingdom, ended in a disastrous defeat and led to the rapid collapse of the entire country. This was mainly due to the serious mistakes made by the upper echelons of Cintra in their intelligence and judgment of Nilfgaard.

Calanthe, the "Lioness of Cintra," thought the Battle of Manada would be just a border conflict, like the Battle of Hauchebzi in 1233.

She had never expected that the Nilfgaardians came to annex all of Cintra.

That's what war is like.

One mistake could determine the fate of a country.

……

A strong wind blew from the direction of the Amer Mountains, carrying with it ghostly screams, shouts and wails.

The clouds passing across the sky took on strange shapes.

The moonlight turned a blood-red.

Before dawn they were awakened by the frantic cries and flapping of wings by numerous nightjars.

They set out before sunrise because, after a while, the sunlight reflecting off the snow on the mountaintops would be too bright to look directly at.

By the time the sun rose above the mountain, they had already traveled a long way.

By the way, the sky was filled with clouds long before the sun rose. As they rode through the forest, the changing types of trees showed that the terrain was getting higher.

The oaks and hornbeams were gone, replaced by dark beech trees.

The ground smelled of mold and was covered with thick fallen leaves, spider webs, and fungi, among which mushrooms were particularly abundant.

Nature has unleashed a veritable fungal deluge, with beech trees in some places practically covered in the caps of toadstools and fly agarics.

The beech forest was silent, as if most of the birds had migrated away, and only the hoarse cries of crows echoed from the edge of the jungle.

They listened to the silence, and then suddenly the spruce trees appeared and the smell of resin filled the air.

More and more frequently they climbed the barren hills and ridges, and every time they did so the wind blew against their faces.

The Nevi River was heaving and foaming, but despite the rain, the water was crystal clear.

Mount Gorgon loomed on the horizon, drawing closer and closer to them.

On the jagged edges of the mountains they could see glaciers and drifts of snow, as if the peaks were wrapped in white scarves.

The top of Devil's Peak is always surrounded by clouds, like a mysterious bride covering her head and neck.

Sometimes, Gaogong Mountain is as graceful as a dancer in a white dress.

It was a beautiful yet deadly sight: avalanches of snow slid down steep slopes, sweeping away everything in their path.

The snow slides down to the foot of the mountain, through the Nevi River and the Sansretto Valley, over the Theodula Pass, and finally into the mountain lake.

The sun finally broke through the clouds, but it didn't shine for long. It soon disappeared behind the mountains in the west, leaving the sky illuminated by purple and golden flames.

Finally, after riding through the canyon carved by the swift and wide Sansretto River, they arrived at Theodula Pass on the northwest border of Toussaint.

……

"Sir Maximus, welcome back."

"Me too, Captain Damien."

The man with a crew cut gave Maximus a tight hug. After they separated, he looked over.

"So... well, these three are the demon hunters you traveled thousands of miles north and went through so much trouble to find?"

Maximus hurriedly introduced.

"Yes, these two are Master Geralt and Master Lynn of the School of the Wolf;"

"This is Monsieur Regis, the barber whom we met at Brugge;"

"Masters, and Lord Regis, this is Damien de la Tour, captain of the guard stationed at Theodula Pass."

Lynn and Geralt nodded to each other.

Regis, as always, displayed his elegant demeanor: "Hello, Captain."

Lynn looked at Damien.

Damien still had hair at this time and looked younger than he remembered.

One more thing by the way.

Lynn had never paid much attention to Damien's full name before.

Now, after hearing Maximus' introduction, he noticed that Damien actually came from a noble family in Toussaint.

In Toussaint, only nobles from prominent families were allowed to add the noble particle "德" before their surnames to distinguish themselves from others.

Literally translated, it means "Damien from the famous Tour family."

But it’s different for someone like Maximus, whose full name is Maximus Norris Maclino.

His name is Maximus.

The family name was Maclino, and Norris was his father's name.

Just by hearing the name, you can tell that he has no fiefdom and is not from a prominent family.

Therefore, you cannot add "德" in front of your surname.

(End of this chapter)