The Divine Hunter Chapter 21: Mural
The empty hall has torches hanging between the stone pillars.
The firelight swayed, revealing a golden mural on the dark wall.
From bottom to top, the object in the painting resembles a thriving tree, and its lush branches are composed of rows of golden numbers and addresses written in ancient languages.
At least hundreds of entries.
Roy stared at it with deep eyes.
Murals of unknown meaning
?
……
"1150, Dol, 20000..."
A deep male voice read out the bottom line of text.
The six demon hunters present only recognized the meaning of the letter in the center at first glance: Dole Bretanna.
The meaning of the remaining two numbers cannot yet be determined.
……
"1170, Vizima, 12000"
"1186, Tretogor, 5000"
"1198, Oxenfurt, 1000"
"1220, Kingdom of Kovir and Poviss, 5000"
……
Everyone browsed more than a dozen lines and finally got an idea.
"The first number gradually increases. There is no doubt that it records the year," Lambert said proudly. "The second number is the address where the incident occurred, so the third number should refer to how much they earned. Money."
"Using the first line as an example, the person who carved the murals, Dole Bretanner, earned 20,000 ducats in 1150?"
"That's nonsense! Are you obsessed with money?" Leisuo denied unceremoniously, "Spend half a day of effort to record an account book on the wall? Wouldn't it be more convenient to record it on parchment?"
"And there is no monetary unit... Dukat, why didn't you say krona, oren, or farthing?"
"There is no doubt that the third number definitely does not refer to how much money was earned." Aiden was equally confident, "Do you dare to imagine that a demon hunter who loves doing business is hiding in Hainkawih Castle? Are you jealous of writing down such a bunch of numbers for your compatriots to guess?"
"What does that mean?"
"Unknown yet."
"Have you noticed that the addresses involved are not just in the north..." Geralt's finger touched one of the lines - 1230, Nilfgaard, 3000.
"The golden towered city of Nilfgaard."
"It means that this businessman has a wide network of contacts and business all over the world?" Lambert joked.
"Come on, don't talk about businessmen and business!" Roy shook his head, "To understand the meaning of this mural, we first have to find the person who left it."
"Is it the bear witcher who used to live here, the one who sacked the castle, or the Grand Master of Elam and the mysterious manipulator behind him?"
"It doesn't look like these ink marks have existed for decades or hundreds of years..." Jielong wiped away the dust on the mural with his fingers and pondered for a moment, "Don't you feel it? The ink marks are still a little moist...at most they exist. for two or three years."
"I didn't expect you to have this kind of vision?" Cohen praised.
"When I was still in Caer Siren, I often asked old Kelda for advice on ink and quill pens. He is an expert in this field."
Keen couldn't help but look sad.
"So, the mural is most likely left by Elan." Roy wrapped his left hand around his right fist and walked around the empty hall. "Does he want to remind us latecomers of the mysterious manipulator?" information."
"No, no..." Reso retorted with his strict logic, "Recording this mural is no small feat. Elan has such a long time to be awake, why not contact the outside world directly...and it is so conspicuous, unless it is mysterious People are blind, otherwise they would never let Elan do what he did."
"Then we can think that the recorder of this mural is actually the mysterious man." Geralt said, "This row of years, places, and numbers has some special meaning for him. ”
"Like a diary?"
"Implicit in his goal of manipulating the Elam masters and staying in Hainkawih."
……
"Come on, everyone." Lambert looked at the mural with a troubled face, "Speculating on the private diary of a powerful being out of thin air? We are not prophets."
"Prophet?" In an instant, everyone realized something, and five pairs of beast-like vertical pupils locked onto Roy.
"The chief prophet of the Witcher Brotherhood..." Geralt stretched out the syllables, as if to retaliate for his previous threat, he said nervously and teasingly, "Activate your ability to explore people's privacy at will, Dafa Tell us compassionately, what is the meaning of this?"
"Gulu." Roy swallowed, his eyes slowly glanced at his expectant companions, especially Keen and Jaylon, and his breathing became rapid.
Ghosts are prophets!
He shrugged, "Sorry, I can't. My predictions are as fickle as the weather in June."
He closed his eyes and touched the mural lightly, shaking his head, "It's blank."
"It failed at the critical moment! It broke my heart!" Lambert blinked, "I will punish you when you go back and help me make an appointment with Ms. Colin."
"The problem is that we have thoroughly explored the castle, and the clues we have so far are all obscure..." Geralt interrupted Lambert's delusion, "Instead of studying the metal plate and the brass bottle cap, , I would rather use my brain more and think about this mural."
……
This is the most helpless option, but it is also the best way at present.
The six demon hunters sat cross-legged on the ground as if meditating, their eyes staring at the mural.
But the opportunity came sooner than expected.
While others were still analyzing word for word, Roy's eyes turned directly to the top line of records and suddenly froze——
1263, Marnadal, 17000
tra，4000
SoddenHil, 48000
He fell into a long trance.
"What a ghost..." Lambert followed his gaze and couldn't help but screamed, "If I remember correctly, today is January 1, 1263."
"Could it be that in one day, no, half a day, that guy had already earned seventeen thousand crowns in Manada, four thousand crowns in Sintra, and forty-eight thousand crowns in Sodenmont? How could he be so grateful? Did you run back to the castle without knowing it and leave this record?"
"Shut up, pig head! Manada is a valley so poor that no one can shit. You can earn three times as much as the city of Sintra! And Mount Soudan is even more inaccessible, except for a few military towers. The fortress is empty!" Aiden reached out and knocked him on the back of the head. Lambert instantly rolled his eyes and stopped. Then he was surprised, "That's right. According to common sense, at the beginning of the new year, nothing can happen in time, nor can anything happen. A record should exist."
Geralt's face was solemn, "Unless the mysterious man has foresight... Or is this some kind of plan he has for the future?"
"Manada, the city of Sintra, Mount Soudan...1263...unknown?"
Roy murmured to himself, "Guys, don't you think this year and place sound familiar?"
"Sound familiar?"
"In Cintra, Geralt and I predicted this when we met Queen Calanthe and East." Roy leaned close to the wall in disbelief, "The main force of Cintra will be in Malan." Nada fought fiercely with the Nilfgaardian Empire army, and almost the entire army was wiped out."
"Three days later, Nilfgaard invaded the city of Cintra, burning, killing and looting...Cintra was completely occupied."
"After that, the northern kingdoms realized that Nilfgaard was a terrible threat and sent allied forces to fight to the death on Soden Mountain."
Geralt’s dark cat eyes flashed with surprise,
"You mean, this line of text records the three upcoming wars?"
"So I have a guess about the final number. War, war often means death."
"So the last number represents..." Jielong's face was horrified.
In an instant, there seemed to be a bone-chilling cold wind passing through the hall and penetrating into the backs of everyone's necks. All six of them felt terrified.
"Death count?" Roy looked bitter. "All the Sintra troops died in the Manada Valley, so the numbers in Manada are even more horrifying. The most brutal Civil War broke out in Soden Mountain, with more than 100,000 participants. The battlefield was like a meat grinder, so many sacrifices were made. Only those with more than 40,000 talents can do so.”
"Year, location, number of deaths, if we follow this pattern."
Everyone’s eyes eagerly turned to the earliest record in the first line for verification——
"1150, Dole Bretanner, 20,000...What happened more than a hundred years ago, 20,000 people died?"
"This place is also called the Valley of Flowers...a valley located at the east end of Aden, at the foot of the Blue Mountains, bordering Leiria and Livia." The bald man recalled in a low tone, "Before I joined the Snake Sect, My hometown is nearby Guleta."
"I have heard since I was a child that the Baihua Valley once belonged to the elves, but after a tragic war, humans completely drove the elves into the Blue Mountains and occupied their home."
"And that war took place in 1150. Aedian sent an army to conquer the Valley of Flowers and killed countless elves."
The cold air pouring in from the back of the neck further enveloped everyone.
"No, is this a coincidence?"
A pair of eyes then moved upward,
"1170, Vizima, fifteen thousand..."
"I probably know this..." Cohen licked his dry lips, "Teacher Kelda once talked to me about the Black Death plague that broke out in Vizima that year..."
"Fifteen thousand dead souls?"
……
The total age of the six people is over 500 years old, and they include both Leisuo from the Southern Snake School and the Northern Gryphon School. Cohen, who studied under the old scholar Kelda, almost covers both the North and the South in his mind. All the historical knowledge in the world...90% of the records on the murals can be found to correspond to the terrible historical events.
"In 1220, there was a coup between Coville and Powis, known in history as the 'Powis Schism', and they lost control of the eastern region. O'Doun took the opportunity to declare the independence of Henforth, and with the Arc Coast region Together they established a small independent kingdom. 5,000 people died in civil strife."
"In 1226, King Wilforil of Aedirn defeated the army of the King of Temeria at the Haji Fortress and gained control of the strategically important Pontar Valley, losing 8,000 people in the battle."
"In 1230, a coup took place in the Nilfgaardian Empire. A noble overthrew Fergus Emres and usurped the throne. 3,000 people died in the coup."
"In 1233, after Queen Calanthe succeeded to the throne, she led the first important battle in her life, the Battle of Hauchebuz, in which more than 6,000 soldiers from both sides lost their lives. Now, only the singing queen is here Songs and songs about the glorious deeds of military service still remain in the world."
"In 1239, Nilfgaard annexed small countries such as Ebin, Matina, Mechit, and Nasser one by one, officially kicking off the Northern War. The death toll was 20,000."
"In 1257, Emhyr Emres returned to the Nilfgaardian Empire, executed the usurper and ascended to the throne of God, re-enacting the Great Purge, with more than 6,000 deaths."
"In 1263, Manada, Sintra, and Mount Soudan..."
……
The dim hall became silent, as if there was an invisible clutch holding everyone's throats, making them unable to speak for a long time.
The entire mural can be regarded as the history of wars and disasters in the human world in the past hundred years.
In other words, all the people recorded here are dead.
The swaying torch light illuminated six stiff figures.
"What is the purpose of the mysterious man recording these historical events?" Geralt asked, his voice hoarse as if he was ill.
"Just as a record? No, according to our previous analysis, these historical events have special significance to him." Lei Suo breathed heavily from his nose and put forward an extremely bold hypothesis, "He even participated in Among them."
Everyone could not help but tremble after imagining it.
What does this guy want?
"And this guy is most likely a master of divination, or has some incredible prophetic ability like Roy." Cohen turned his eyes to the last line, the events of 1263 that have not yet happened, "You can predict the specific death of the war. Number of people? Accurate to within a thousand?"
Roy shook his head without changing his expression. Only he knew clearly that he was not a prophet at all
"What is going on in this world? Prophets appear so frequently that they are almost becoming a common commodity." Lambert asked in surprise, "Is it possible that the end is coming soon?"
"No, this is not necessarily the prophecy of the mysterious man. Have you forgotten the magic bottle you discovered before?"
Roy stretched out his hand and a bottle cap with a cross and a nine-pointed star came out of his palm, "Do you think Di Jing can predict the future?"
……
Everyone was startled at first, and then the clues in their minds suddenly connected, "The mysterious man released the Di Jing and used it to make three wishes and gain insight into the future war in advance?"
"If this is true..." Lambert took a deep breath, excitement and anxiety intertwined in his amber pupils, "We seem to have discovered some great secret——"
"For more than a hundred years, there has been a mysterious being who has been secretly observing wars and disasters, and he also manipulates the great masters of the Griffin School to work for him."
"All these inferences are based on speculation..." Geralt emphasized.
"Whether true or false, recording three wars that have not yet occurred in 1263... is not just for observation."
Roy's eyes were clear and he said loudly, "Think about where we are, the mysterious and hidden castle in the Gongol Mountains. Not far to the south, there are Nilfgaards gathered on the Mago Tuga Highlands. The army crosses the mountain pass and Ihrenwald to the north, which is the Manada Valley."
"In the dream created by Ms. Kelin, Master Elan happened to appear in this place. My first feeling...he was for——"
"Investigation!" Jie Long continued in a deep voice, "Look at this line of records - it is normal to write down the two basic elements of time and location, but that guy deliberately wrote down the number of deaths instead of the number of participants, so what? What does it mean? Does this number have special meaning to him?"
"Master Elan and the mysterious person behind him want to intervene in this war?" Cohen shocked himself as soon as he spoke.
But when everyone heard this, they couldn't help but nodded at the same time.
"We missed the battle at Hainkawih." Korn shouted, "but we know where Grand Master Aylan will go next."
His fingers pointed tremblingly at the word on the wall - "Marnadal".
"No matter where he is, he will definitely appear near Manada when the war breaks out!"
"Find him, find the person behind him...confirm whether Grandmaster Aijia and Grandmaster Evil Eye are with them!"
……
There were several heavy breathing sounds in the hall.
"Hey, guys, calm down, calm down!" Lambert asked, "This is war, not hunting monsters or a small sword fight."
"Let alone a demon hunter, even a steel-reinforced golem will be overwhelmed and crushed by war horses and spears!"
"You go to the battlefield to find people. Let's not talk about whether this inference is tenable or not. You want to die!"
As if a bucket of ice water was poured on them at noon in midsummer, Roy and Leisu regained their composure instantly.
And Jielong suddenly smiled, relief and determination showing on his thin cheeks. He was going to chase the answer, even if he was shattered to pieces!
"Brothers, at this point in the investigation, you have done enough for me." He bowed solemnly to everyone, "When I return to Nuo City, I will join the Brotherhood. During this period, Whatever you ask me, I will do my best."
"But I only have one request, I must go to Manada," his indigo pupils looked around at everyone, his tone was unspeakably firm, "And I can only go alone."
"No, the Griffin Faction has no precedent of abandoning its comrades." Cohen shook his head.
"Brother, do you want the inheritance of the school to be completely cut off?" Jielong stared straight at his companion, with pleading eyes, "Or do you have the heart to leave Igesena alone to die alone?"
Keen's face turned pale and he was confused.
"Why do I feel that you are determined to die?" Roy couldn't help but shake his head and said uncertainly, "Don't be so pessimistic, there is still... some time before the battle of Manada."
But he made no promises.
Whether to enter a war must be decided collectively by the Demon Hunter Brotherhood.
It is not his own decision.
"The kid is right..." Reso emphasized ~IndoMTL.com~ Since the two are already considered members of the Brotherhood, they must abide by the rules and regulations of the Brotherhood...obey the collective and return to Gawain's House to discuss it again. Of course we will take your strong wishes into extra consideration. ”
……
"I..." Jielong moved his lips.
"Brother...leave it to us." Lambert hooked his shoulder familiarly, "Trust us, we will satisfy you and make the most appropriate arrangement to get the best of both worlds."
……
In the following time, everyone stayed in the castle for another two weeks, searching it inside and out several times. Unfortunately, except for the experimental equipment, everything else was swept away. Demon Hunt The Xiongpai grass decoction that people are looking for has not been found.
They also failed to wait for Elam.
Before returning to Gawain's House from Hainkawih, Roy used the transformation crystal on Golfin, and fate transformed Golfin into a beautiful thrush with olive feathers.
She flew alone over Gongor Mountain, passing over the heads of groups of black-armored cavalry wearing flying wing helmets patrolling along the ridges. No one paid attention to such an inconspicuous little guy.
She flew to the south side of Mount Alme.
Transmitted the image in his eyes to the demon hunter.
The setting sun is about to set over the snow-capped mountains, and the snow-covered pine forests become dim.
The wind picked up, and the silver sun disk flapped like a school of fish jumping out of the water and upstream.
A huge black shadow crawled on the Magtuga Highlands, so big that it occupied the entire highland.
Countless military tents form its trunk, twelve thousand black-armored infantry trained in neat square formations form its limbs, and the mage battalion is its sharp eyes.
circling the army, its flying hair is made up of black knights.
Nilfgaard just stood there quietly, it was an evil beast waiting to choose someone to devour.