Chapter 20: Elven Ruins

Watching Geralt's back as he took the two young men away, Wayne actually felt a rare sense of relaxation.

It had been almost two years since he came to this world, and there had always been people around him he needed to be wary of, and he had always needed to hide his abilities.

This was the first time he felt a sense of freedom.

He turned to look at Toruviel beside him and said in a somewhat familiar tone:

"It's not early anymore, Toruviel. Let's go to the place where you live and talk about the contract."

"I'm still a bit curious about how you live in the cavern."

The female elf frowned upon hearing this. Wayne's suddenly familiar attitude made her a bit suspicious, but since there was a contract to be handed over to this Witcher, she didn't dwell on it too much.

After giving a few instructions to the elven archers in the trees, ordering them to continue hiding and guarding the entrance, she signaled Wayne to follow her and led the way into the cavern.

This was a cavern similar to a stalactite cave, with countless cone-shaped stalactites on the ceiling. The entrance was not large, but the internal space was quite spacious.

Wayne followed behind Toruviel. The female elf held a torch she had taken from near the entrance, and following some light that shot in from who knows where, they walked through a complex route that felt like a maze.

Finally, following an underground river more than a meter wide, they passed through an exquisite, huge archway and arrived in a building that looked like elven underground ruins.

The space here was very large, with a structure similar to a banquet hall in a palace. Four huge stone pillars connected the floor and the ceiling, supporting a huge space.

"This is where we are temporarily living."

Toruviel pointed in a direction within the hall, where several burning campfires were located, and more than a dozen different tents of various sizes were erected beside the campfires.

Some elves and dwarves were sitting by the campfires resting, talking, and working. They were men and women, old and young, mostly wearing simple clothing with haggard expressions; they should be ordinary civilians.

Wayne even saw a few short halflings standing by an iron pot beside the campfire, stirring a huge spoon, cooking food.

"They are all poor people who have been persecuted by humans, lost their relatives, had their property seized, and cannot survive in the towns."

Toruviel had no expression on her face, just narrating calmly.

"We took them in, taught them how to fight, and taught them how to survive in the forest."

"However, the king's soldiers are still hunting us, trying to kill us all."

"Apart from resisting, we can do nothing."

Listening to the female elf's narration, Wayne felt a bit silent. In the Witcher's world, non-human races such as elves, dwarves, and halflings had always been the objects of persecution.

From thousands of years ago, when the Aen Seidhe elves kindly took in human refugees who had drifted to this world due to the Conjunction of the Spheres, what accompanied this race was one cleansing after another, and one massacre after another.

They were killed from being a huge race that had ruled the continent for thousands of years into the minority race they were now.

Wayne temporarily had no ability, nor the leisure, to intervene in the affairs of non-human races. He skipped this topic, observed the surrounding ruins, and asked:

"These ruins look very large, but you all live in this hall?"

"Is the contract you gave us to help you clear these ruins?"

Toruviel nodded, her palm resting on the iron sword at her waist, not hiding anything, but saying directly:

"That's right, Witcher."

"This is an elven ruin we found by chance. Although it is in a dark underground environment and not convenient for living, at least it is secluded enough, and there is a place to shelter from the wind and rain, allowing us to live."

"However, it has been abandoned for too long, and many monsters are already living inside the ruins."

"Several of my warriors have already been injured because of the monsters here."

"You are Witchers, experts in dealing with monsters, so I wanted to entrust you to help us clear the monsters here."

Wayne nodded, not agreeing immediately, but began to observe the situation of the ruins.

The history of these ruins was clearly quite long. Many places had already appeared damaged and destroyed due to the baptism of time, but from the exquisite murals and beautiful statues that could be seen everywhere, one could still see the prosperity of the elven civilization in the past.

Through dark vision, Wayne discovered that there were four gates in the hall where Toruviel and the others lived that connected to other places.

Apart from the huge archway they had entered through, one stone gate had already been sealed by stones and mud, and the other two were guarded by dwarves and elves holding weapons and torches, clearly on guard against monster attacks.

However, Wayne had already accepted Misha's missing person quest today. Even if he accepted the elves' ruin quest, he wouldn't get a reward.

Therefore, he just observed casually in the hall and said to Toruviel:

"I can help you clear these ruins, Toruviel."

"However, it is very late now. We Witchers must make sufficient preparations before fighting monsters."

"So, please help me find a quiet place so I can make pre-battle preparations."

"Tomorrow, after I meet up with my companion and we discuss the remuneration issue, we will start your contract."

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 21 =====