Chapter 316: The Sky-High Bounty

Noon the next day.

Although Queen Calanthe's face was not good, she still formally invited the members of the Witcher Order to hold a quite grand thanksgiving banquet in the hall of the Cintra Palace.

Good wine and good food, magnificent.

The number of people attending this banquet was not large, all of whom were the people Queen Calanthe trusted the most.

Including King Eist, Archdruid Mousesack, the palace guard captain, and two interior ministers in the Cintra court.

After eating and drinking, Queen Calanthe took out her reward, a full 8,000 Orens, almost twice that of King Foltest.

Moreover, this Queen was indeed willing to spend a lot of money. She hinted in her speech that as long as Geralt was willing to work for her, she would take out a Baron title and a small town as a fief, making him a noble of Cintra.

Of course, such means might be a great reward for ordinary people, capable of making them do anything.

However, whether it was the bounty of less than 10,000 gold coins or the small Baron title, our Geralt didn't take it to heart. He politely refused the Queen's kindness, swept his gaze over everyone at the banquet, and asked: "Queen, although it's a bit overstepping to say so, I still have to remind you."

"Vilgefortz, the evil sorcerer who kidnapped Princess Pavetta."

"Although my magic seriously injured him, he didn't die, but fled the Kingdom of Verden."

"This is an extremely dangerous enemy. Even among the many sorcerers in the North, he definitely counts as a powerful existence."

"He will absolutely not give up his thirst for the power in Princess Pavetta's body, and the safety of the Cintra royal family has not been guaranteed."

The mission was over, and the person was rescued. He also mixed in a Master-level task and got hundreds of experience points and treasure chests.

By this time, Geralt of course wanted to say whatever he wanted. Anyway, he wasn't afraid of offending anyone.

"So, Queen Calanthe, and King Eist, you'd better spend more effort and try every means to weaken Vilgefortz's power."

"It's fine to make him a wanted criminal in the entire North, or spend a lot of money to find assassins to assassinate him, or exert pressure to let the Sorcerers Brotherhood hand over this criminal themselves."

"However, to tell you the truth, I don't look favorably on you. With the power of ordinary people, it's difficult to hurt a strong person of Vilgefortz's level."

"So, Queen Calanthe, I think the most reliable suggestion is that before confirming that Vilgefortz is solved, you'd better hide Princess Pavetta and hide her in an extremely safe place."

"Otherwise, next time we might not be so lucky to rescue the princess."

Geralt's words were quite straightforward, not like those noble languages that were beating around the bush, paying attention to etiquette, and even felt a bit of looking down on the power of the Cintra royal family, directly listening to Queen Calanthe until she was furious, and even wanted to lose her temper on the spot.

However, this Queen was indeed a quite magnanimous ruler. Geralt and others were the benefactors of the Cintra royal family after all, and they had experienced that selection banquet a few years ago together, and were the people who knew the inside story best.

She wouldn't blame anyone for a little verbal offense.

So, Queen Calanthe suppressed the anger in her heart, glared at Geralt quite unhappily, and looked quite unpleasantly at Geralt, who regarded her granddaughter Ciri as a child of destiny, and announced loudly:

"Thank you for the witcher master's suggestion, but this matter is of great importance. Please give us a few more days to consider it carefully."

Geralt shrugged indifferently. Anyway, he wouldn't really expect Cintra to solve the trouble of Vilgefortz. Just as he said before, when a source who is not afraid of Dimeritium really wants to do something.

Most mortals have no way to deal with it. Even if he becomes a wanted criminal in the entire North, it just hinders the other party's actions and cannot appear in front of ordinary people openly.

But for the various magical abilities possessed by sorcerers, it only caused a little trouble.

The most important thing is the attitude of the Sorcerers Brotherhood. As long as the attitude of the Cintra royal family is firm enough and the resistance means are strong enough.

Whether it is successfully making the Sorcerers Brotherhood stand on the opposite side of Vilgefortz, or making the two sides not help each other, making Vilgefortz a loner, unable to appear in front of other spellcasters openly and reach cooperation with them, this is the greatest weakening of this man.

After the banquet ended in a somewhat oppressive atmosphere, the first thing Geralt did after returning to the luxury hotel he bought was to give Syanna an instruction.

"Syanna, I want to issue a bounty, a bounty for someone's head. The bounty is one million gold coins."

One million gold coins, a bounty for Vilgefortz's head.

This was an extremely exaggerated number. It is no exaggeration to say that among the Northern Kingdoms, except for those few strongest countries, many small countries like Verden couldn't take out so much money even if they emptied the national treasury.

This sum of money might be just half a month's interest for Geralt, but for many kingdoms, it was a huge wealth that could train an army, a bounty amount enough to make any noble and mercenary crazy.

Even Syanna was stunned. As the manager of the Geralt Chamber of Commerce, although she spent money lavishly on weekdays, used strong financial power to crush many competitors, and conquered one local noble after another, she rarely took out so much money at once to handle one thing, let alone just a bounty for one person's head.

Syanna hesitated for a second when she heard this, looked at her master with beautiful eyes, and asked carefully: "Master, wouldn't this be too ostentatious."

"One million gold coins, if it were Crowns, would be enough to support the loss of a ten-thousand-man army for many years, and even enough to launch a large-scale war."

"Such a huge bounty, not to mention whether those mercenaries can believe this, I am afraid that all the kings in the North will notice our chamber of commerce because of this, causing their greed."

Geralt looked at his little slave girl when he heard this, and seeing that she could still speak her mind bluntly and didn't become his echo, he felt quite gratified.

However, he had already considered this matter and had already set his mind, so he said indifferently: "If Queen Calanthe and King Eist know that someone is willing to take out such a huge bounty to handle this matter, they will definitely be willing to support it."

"With the credit of Cintra and Skellige, these two countries, to stand

"Besides, I have heard that the people of Skellige are all fierce, and they regard defeating powerful enemies as the glory of their lives."

"If their former king were willing to offer such a huge bounty for the life of some villain, it would definitely attract a large group of warriors to get the job done."

"Once this matter becomes known to everyone in the North, and enough people participate and the situation ferments rapidly enough, even if the Sorcerers Brotherhood wants to handle this matter low-key, they will be coerced into being unable to do so."

"This is a fortune unimaginable to ordinary people, enough to make anyone betray him. Vilgefortz will have no foothold in the North, and even if he flees to the Southern Kingdoms, he will have to be careful of backstabbing from those around him."

"This is an open conspiracy; the power of money is enough to make everyone flock to it, and for me, as long as I can achieve my goal, this little bit of money is nothing."

Upon hearing this, Syanna thought for a short while, then looked at her master with some admiration and leaned against him submissively.

It was indeed as her master said; even she, who had already seen the mountains of gold and seas of wealth at Kaer Morhen, would be shocked by such an astronomical bounty. It was likely that few people could resist such a temptation of money.

(End of chapter)