Serious People, Who is Learning Magic at Marvel?

Geralt returned to the apartment in a daze in the evening, his body stinks, and the landlord on the first floor looked at him with disgust. Geralt heard her mutter behind his back, to the effect of how a gentleman so handsome could be mixed up with a mutant freak.

Originally, he was almost immune to such words. But this time, he somehow got angry from his heart. Standing in silence on the stairs leading to the third floor, the silver sword trembled slightly in the scabbard behind him, a sense of anger that made him want to turn back and question the landlord who didn't know anything.

- but he didn't do that.

The witcher continued upstairs and opened the door. The mage remained on his sofa reading a book.

"how?"

"I failed," Geralt said blankly. "Precisely, I gave up - I'm not doing this commission."

"What are you talking about?" He Shenyan frowned, he asked. "What happened in the sewer?"

"Good question, Ho."

He tore off the silver sword and armed belt, and threw them on the table in the front hall. Geralt pulled over a chair and sat down, head down, nothing else in his voice: "Can you do me a favor? Conjure up a ball of cold water or something...I want to make Wake yourself up."

He Shenyan frowned. The local sorcerer could read minds, and he could do it even better, seeing every detail of Geralt's memory perfectly, but he would never do that to a friend.

So he just snapped his fingers, and a cloud of cold water emerged from above Geralt's head, pouring down, drenching him, and the dripping water disappeared before it had time to touch the ground and chair.

The witcher raised his head, his white hair was touching his forehead, and He Shenyan was familiar with the emotion in the cat's eyes.

That is pain.

"call......"

Geralt let out a long breath. He leaned back on the back of the chair, pursed his lips and asked, "That's it, Ho. Suppose you have a patient in front of you—she's dying, and she knows that. But she doesn't want treatment at all, and even plans to give up. Your own life. What would you do?"

"I personally think everyone has the right to choose."

He Shenyan thought for a while, and he replied: "So if she wants to die, let her die. Of course, if this person is someone I am close or familiar with, I will definitely not just give up on her just looking at her. life. It might seem hypocritical to say it, but I think most people do.”

"Yeah, but what if you don't know that person at all? The kind that doesn't meet at all."

This time, He Shenyan did not answer him.

"Tell me." He just looked at Geralt calmly. "What the hell happened in the sewer?"

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"Who's there?!"

The woman's voice changed from gentle to harsh screams in an instant, and the corpses screamed with her, almost shattering the witcher's eardrums. The silver sword was held in his hand, and the Quinn seal was silently activated, and a shield was placed over his leather armor.

Geralt stepped out of the darkness, and a small flame emerged between the two fingers of his left hand, illuminating his face and causing the corpses to howl again. The woman looked at him vigilantly, looking sane and showing no signs of going crazy.

"A witcher?" She stuck out her tongue in disgust. "Oh, I see, you're here to kill my kids and take them back for a bounty, aren't you?"

"It was just so."

Geralt happily admitted: "As for now, I'm more curious about you."

The woman smiled meanly and tilted her head back so much that the hair on her forehead was scattered. Her filthy face was completely exposed to Geralt's eyes, and he noticed that even with her thin cheeks sunken and her cheekbones protruding, she still looked beautiful.

"Curious what? Wondering why a mad woman would feed a corpse in the ground?" she said with a sneer.

"Don't meddle in your business, witcher. I urge you to go back now, to a normal and civilized society."

"I won't go back until you tell me why you did it."

"Oh? Is this a threat?"

"No, just a statement," Geralt told her quietly. "You know what corpses are, but you call them your children—"

"—they are my children!"

The woman suddenly screamed, and her face turned hideous in an instant. The corpses screamed sharply at the witchers over her, and several had their long tongues out.

She said to Geralt almost filially, "Don't call them that, they! Do you understand? Damn it, my kids aren't monsters!"

The more the woman said, the more excited she became, but in the end she didn't break out like he thought, but started to cry in a low voice, and sat on the ground sobbing. The corpses touched the woman with their foreheads, soothing her.

After a while, the woman calmed down.

She looked up, her dirty tousled hair swaying before her eyes, and she told Geralt stubbornly, "They are my children."

"..."

After a moment of silence, Geralt decided not to use any words that might trigger her emotional outbursts. He turned to another question: "Why do you feed them with blood?"

"Because they're going to eat!" The woman looked at Geralt in disbelief, as if he'd asked a question about why someone should drink water. "what are you talking about?"

"Do you know how much damage it can do to your body?"

Geralt decided to tell the truth.

"The corpse babies don't just suck your blood, they also suck your life force. I don't know how long you have been doing this, but you must stop or you will die."

"I am alive and dead."

The woman was holding a corpse baby in her arms, and it looked at this unrelated mother with its unopened eyes, quietly, not noisy or noisy. The woman smiled abruptly, and she was no longer so hostile to the witcher as before. It seemed that these 'children' could soothe all her pain.

"Leave, witcher. Don't come looking for me again, just leave me alone," she said imploringly. "At least I can still be with my kids..."

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"That's it, Ho." Geralt took a bottle of beer and drank it.

"I left, but I couldn't convince myself to turn a blind eye to what happened to that woman - what made her like this? She knew she was going to die, so am I going to watch her die?"

"You know what, Geralt. Maybe I don't like your ex-girlfriend Yennefer, but I have to agree with one of her comments about you."

He Shenyan smiled helplessly.

"You're always good at getting yourself into trouble."

He stood up and straightened the collar of the black robe: "Come on, let's find out about this."

"Check it out? How to check?"

"Of course, using some magician's means."

He said sternly, stretched out his right hand, and a cloud of blue magic was gradually converging and forming on it, and it turned into a key little by little. When it was fully formed, the mage threw the key to Geralt.

"what is this?"

"The key of memory. A little trick that allows you to 'extract' a certain picture from your memory, just like opening the door of a vault with a key and taking out the contents."

He Shenyan made a twirling gesture, motioning Geralt to hold the key against his temple: "Think about the woman's face, and then 'take out' the picture, don't worry, it's very simple."

"Why don't you come by yourself? This kind of thing should be easy for you." Geralt looked at the key in his hand, but didn't do it the first time.

"I know you hate reading minds, let alone flipping through memories."

The witcher laughed and pressed the key to his temple.

The blue key dissipated into mist in the air, and it was like an ice-blue firefly. The fog did not disappear, but gradually condensed into a ball as if it had self-awareness, and stopped in front of Geralt's eyes, causing the color of his iris to change.

"Take it easy, Geralt, don't resist."

He Shenyan guided him patiently, and the fog began to stare little by little, until even the shape changed. Geralt stared at the scene before him in amazement. The mist had turned into a mirror, and inside it was his perspective, and the woman's face was clearly visible in it.

"Your magic is really amazing. I have never seen other mages use this trick."

"It's not really magic, Geralt, it's just a little trick—well, now that we know what this lady looks like, the next thing to do is simple."

He Shenyan raised a finger: "However, I'll put my words first, Geralt. I know that you probably want to completely save this lady who just met you a few hours ago, but you are not a god, but Neither am I. If one really wants to die..."

"Then we'd better let her fulfill her wishes. Of course, her words obviously contain a lot of hidden meanings, so let's start with this aspect first."

Fifteen minutes later, He Shenyan and Geralt, who had changed clothes, appeared on the street of the trade area. The mage is telling the witcher his speculation in an orderly manner: "If you say she walks gracefully, then we can basically rule out the possibility that she is from the bottom, and there is no need to go to the temple area to find it."

"Beautiful even with that thinness, it's a good sign - at least her mother must have been a beauty. Ugly parents don't have beautiful children, well, the local Vizima idiom is used here. very suitable."

Geralt listened quietly to his speculation as they walked down the cobblestone path, passing a noble couple who had come out for a walk. The noble lady didn't blink, completely forgetting her male companion, staring at the mage non-stop, making the male companion's face pale.

"The corpse only sucks the blood of pregnant women, which means that the lady is also pregnant now. She calls the corpse her own child, and she may have had a miscarriage before. Then, she should not be young. We can temporarily Let the label be looser, how about starting at the age of twenty-five?"

"I don't mind." Geralt's expression was tense, he just nodded like a fool. "Well, I don't mind."

"You have to at least give some advice, don't you?"

"What advice can I give you?" The witcher spread his hands. "What you're talking about is completely beyond my knowledge. I know how to hunt monsters, kill people, bargain, and please women. But I'm sure I can't do what you just did."

He Shenyan sighed: "Okay, she said 'my child is not a monster', maybe we can make a bold guess."

"She gave birth to a deformed child."

"You know, most of the local people are very superstitious. It's natural for deformed children to be called monsters. This kind of thing happens in a noble family. You should know what will happen next, right?"

"That kid will be thrown down the drain."

"That's right - that would explain why she wandered down the sewers filthy. To find her own child. But the question is, under what circumstances does a person give birth to a deformed child? This question There are roughly three explanations. Geralt."

"First, the genetic factor - since the lady is so beautiful, this can be ruled out."

"Second, the growth environment of the fetus during pregnancy. According to her situation, this can also be ruled out."

"Third, the trauma of childbirth. As above, this can also be ruled out."

The wizard and the witcher walked down a path, and the wind of the Temerian River blew through it, bringing the breath of nature.

The evening is no longer hot, the cool and fresh air, the laughter and laughter of the people walking around... All these, but did not make Geralt feel relaxed, on the contrary, with the mage's narration, he The mood became heavier.

He Shenyan said calmly: "Then there is only one explanation left, and it is also the one I don't want to mention... You have seen those guys who look different from ordinary people when you are wandering in the countryside. , Geralt?"

"I have seen."

"Aren't they talking awkwardly and not looking very smart?"

"Yes."

"The danger of consanguineous marriage. Nobles are keen to marry their older sisters, younger sisters and even mothers to maintain the purity of their bloodlines. But this will only give their offspring a 70% chance of being ugly and demented. The mentally handicapped were brought into this world and looked at with strange eyes."

"what do you mean......?"

"Yes, as you think."

He Shenyan nodded.

"Now that the inference has been made clear, it's time to make a conclusion. The lady was about twenty-five years old, born into a noble or wealthy merchant or artistic family, and had a miscarriage - at least that's what it claims to be. It has been at least two months since he disappeared. There is a brother, or a younger brother. Then... we may need to go to the city hall."

"To the city hall?"

"Post a notice," He Shenyan said to Geralt. "Respectful gentlemen... I recently took in a lady who was wandering on the street for a long time. Although she was insane, she was still well-mannered and beautiful. If it is suspected of being a famous family, please ask someone in the family who is missing. come to find me."

"That's it, then we'll just wait."