The Witcher: Astartes Of The Bear School

Chapter 59: The Fallen Sorceress

Magic reaction?! That was Lan's first thought.

What the hell?! That was his second thought.

Lan was very certain that there were no magical items on the person in front of him. The person was slumped in the dark wooden cage.

Her two legs were stretched out limply, not because of laziness, but because the calves of both legs... had been cut off! Without the muscles, the legs could no longer perform movements. She was wearing only a common dress that a village woman would wear.

It seemed that this was a lady, a rather plain-looking lady.

Lan guessed that the dress was left on only because it didn't interfere with the removal of the leg muscles. Such a woman couldn't possibly hide any magical items without being noticed.

So, did she herself possess magic? That was even more absurd! Having magic meant being a sorceress. How could a sorceress end up in such a miserable state in the hands of a bunch of cannibals in Velen?

This was the first time he had seen a mage with his own eyes.

The woman in the wooden cage seemed to have mustered some strength upon seeing Lan. Her voice gained a bit of energy.

"Don't just stand there, witcher. Were you hired by the academy to find me?"

Find you? Academy? What was she talking about? Lan was momentarily confused, but he knew what was most important at the moment.

"Lady, you need to stay quiet."

Lan's voice was stern, but its volume was as small as the flutter of an insect's wings. The woman's night vision seemed to be exceptionally good. After looking around, she noticed that some prisoners in the dark were casting unfocused glances in their direction. So, she also quieted down.

Lan then asked, "Tell me your identity and why you were captured."

Lan wanted to say that she must have misunderstood. His current reputation was mostly about leading a squad of soldiers, finding a cannibal not far from here, and fighting drowners in a fishing village.

The woman's leg wounds were clearly infected and festering. Conservatively, she must have been captured for at least five or six days. Lan couldn't imagine how she had endured those five or six days. Both the wounds and the mental torture were too much to bear.

Seeing her current state of forced energy, Lan feared that if he explained, she might not be able to catch her breath and die right there in the cage.

The fact that a sorceress had been reduced to this state... and that in this camp there was something capable of doing that?

Lan was immediately drenched in cold sweat. If he were to act rashly again, he might unknowingly run into this something. He needed to ask clearly right now. But at that moment, the sorceress frowned and looked Lan up and down, noticing the blood all over his face and head.

"You weren't sent by the academy to rescue me, were you, witcher?"

Lan pursed his lips and didn't answer. Unexpectedly, the sorceress's psychological resilience exceeded Lan's expectations. Finding a lifeline in a desperate situation, only to have it break in an instant, didn't seem to break her spirit.

She coughed violently for a moment, then, after taking a deep breath, she lifted her head and met Lan's gaze again.

"To make such a mess while assassinating, I must be delirious. The academy wouldn't hire a novice like you. Well, it doesn't matter. I'll tell you what you want to know." The sorceress gave a faint, bitter smile.

"I am the rectoress of Aretuza Academy."

Did she have to start with such a bombshell! Lan's cat-like pupils couldn't help but contract. The idle chatter Lan had overheard in Gors Velen came flooding back to him. The rectoress of Aretuza, one of the most powerful sorceresses in the world.

"Margarita Laux-Antille?"

"Yes, that's me."

Lan was deeply shocked, but he maintained a composed expression on his face.

At that moment, his cat-like eyes began to move, searching the wooden cages intensely, hoping to find little White. If the person who could defeat one of the world's most powerful sorceresses appeared, he hoped at least to escape with White.

"How can you prove it? The rumors say you are a stunning beauty who would make a nymph feel ashamed."

"The rumors don't lie." The sorceress had unparalleled confidence in this regard. Her demeanor showed that she didn't care about Lan's doubts. "Magic cream can enhance charm, but if needed, it can also conceal beauty. Right now, in your eyes, and in the eyes of those damned cannibals, I'm not even as pretty as a village woman."

"I came out to find a missing student. I couldn't be too conspicuous, letting the murderer know that a beautiful woman was looking for him."

"You said 'murderer'?"

"Yes, a murderer." Margarita patted a pale thigh bone next to her.

"A naive girl from the academy, attracted by the wild men of Velen, ran away from the academy for love, to taste the forbidden fruit. Haha, she thought she would return after a night of passion. It wasn't a big deal, almost a daily occurrence at the academy. But who would have thought that the man not only wanted her body but also her heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys?"

The sorceress's blunt words left Lan, a virgin, unsure how to respond. But when the young man shifted his gaze from his search and looked at the sorceress's expression, he realized she wasn't mocking her student. Her gaze on the thigh bone was filled with sorrow and regret.

If she didn't truly care about her students, why would the rectoress leave her fortress?

In Aretuza, anyone who set foot there had to show respect to the academy, even if they were a king. But now, the rectoress was thrown into a cage by cannibals and traffickers, her calves almost boneless.

"Who could defeat you, Lady?" Lan asked softly, which was his most pressing concern. It was crucial for him to find and take White away safely. "You are one of the strongest sorceresses in the world. Who here could even hurt a hair on your head?"

Margarita, who had been mournfully touching her student's remains, looked up in surprise at the witcher, speechless for a moment.

"I say, witcher, do you have some misunderstanding about mages?"

Lan responded with a bewildered look, and so did Mentos in his mind.

"Haha, it seems your mentor didn't teach you how to deal with sorceresses." Margarita chuckled.

Lan nodded honestly.

"Yes, my mentor passed away early." He had 'sent' him off himself.

"That explains it. In your impression, do sorceresses just wave their hands and rain down fire from the sky? Facing a legion's volley of arrows, we can summon a hurricane with a breath and scatter them like dewdrops on our palms? To us, warriors are just stronger ants, and even if swords cut us, they can't break through our magical defenses?"

The witcher's cat-like eyes glowed faintly in the dark as he asked cautiously. "Isn't that so?"

"You're really cute, little witcher."

Margarita's flirtatious tone made Lan frown. "Please keep it brief, Lady. The matter we're discussing concerns the lives of many people here, possibly including yours!"

"Alright, the little witcher is anxious. But there's no need. The night is long. No one has noticed what you've been doing. This night is as calm as the previous ones I've experienced." The sorceress waved her hand and became serious.

But as she spoke, the roaring bear head necklace around Lan's neck suddenly vibrated more intensely for a moment before returning to the previous level of vibration when he had first approached Margarita. Lan looked down at his necklace and then back at the sorceress.

"Alright, what do you mean by doing that?" He thought it might be a small trick the sorceress used to teach him a lesson. But when he saw Margarita's equally bewildered expression, he immediately dismissed that thought.

"I, I can't cast spells right now!"

The amber cat-like eyes shrank to a slit almost instantly. At the same time, a blaring horn sounded from the camp.

***

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