Chapter 10

I just foiled a goddamned Scooby-Doo plot!

In order to explain that statement in more detail I need to go over what I had discovered from questioning my prisoners while I sent a very upset Ivar back to Pont Vanis to inform Stig of events so he can arrest this bunch. I made sure to keep the mage, name of Anitor from what the bandits said, thoroughly knocked out so he couldn't pull any shit and kept his leg wound wrapped tight till he could be seen by a proper medic.

I of course asked the logical question of why this gang of bandits were playing dress up as ghosts and how the mage become a part of their crew. Seems like Anitor was a drop out from one of the magical schools on the continent, didn't say where, and had taken to a life of crime here in the northernmost kingdom known for its great wealth. He gathered some lowlifes under his banner due to being a mage in the first place and spent using a mix of their muscle and his illusionary magic to hit rich merchants.

"Boss always made knocking over the fat targets easy, making it so they didn't see us till we were right on top of them and then making sure no guards nor soldiers could find us later. He's real smart he is, even if he can't tussle at all." a tall fellow with a face that looked like he lost too many fights with a wall happily told me.

"Why are you answering this mutant's questions, Colten?!" one of his friends asked in equal parts anger and alarm.

"Because you all want to." I said with a smirk as I waved my hand in front of the tied up lot, going through the motions with the Axii Sign. I was basically using the Jedi Mind Trick and I was loving it!

"Cause… Cause we all want to. Anyhow, the lawmen figured out somehow we that the Boss was a sorcerer using magic so we had to law low. We came across this old house and set up shop. Figured we'd stay under till heat died down a bit and moved on. But the Boss got an even better idea! No one investigates hauntings unless they want to get themselves dead, so he used magic to make it seem so. We got ourselves a nice secret base to relax in and we could hit the local road any time we wanted, and the dumb locals would blame it on the spirits!" the bandit laughed quite easily at the fact he was apart of killing numerous people, something that did not amuse me.

Seems like they still had lots of stolen goods stashed in the manor itself from their countless raids over the years, only going out on occasion to sell stuff on the black market and getting supplies.

"And whenever nosy whoresons came by we'd make them pissed themselves in fear and watch as they ran off into the night! As for the braver ones… well we took care of them right quick. Even that sorceress, remember her lads? How cock sure she was when she saw through trick, till the Boss got up behind her and took her out with a club! We had real fun that night before we strung her up! HAHAH-" one bandit's laughing was cut off as someone kicked him hard in the face with their armored boot.

"Oops," was my unapologetic reply. I wasn't one who liked using violence to solve problems, but I will admit I was a hypocrite when it came to people who had no remorse for their actions at all.

As the bandit was busy swallowing his own teeth I got the rest of the story.

Apparently while in the city to sell off some stolen goods one of them overheard how the bounty on clearing manor has been picking up real quick recently. So Anitor decided they had played the game long enough and he was going to claim the bounty on their behalf as the mage who finally "exorcised" the ghosts away while all others had failed. He would be hailed as a hero who allowed the manor to be livable again and made the nearby road safe once more for travelers. Then they would use the reward to live like kings and move up in the local criminal underworld since Anitor apparently had bigger aspirations than just being a bandit leader.

And it would have worked too, if it weren't for that meddling Witcher and his little scholar friend too!

… My continued lack of access to the internet is causing me to make a bunch of pop culture references that no one in this universe will ever get. Might I be descending into madness?

Something to deal with later or at least lock away in mind, like a lot of my emotional issues.

After my questioning was over I was reduced to guarding the group. I made sure they were all tightly tied together by their wrists and ankles while using intimidation and liberal uses of Axii to keep them in line when not knocked out.

Man… not even a month in this world and I was getting too used to being a scary Witcher guy. Granted it was out of wanting to survive in a hostile world - but still!

Hours later I could hear and smell the horses riding up to manor before I saw them. About three dozen riders in total. I could recognize Ivar, Stig, and some of the city guard. But then there were the dozen riders in heavy armor that just screamed knights in my mind and made me wonder what the heck was going on.

I got up from my meditative kneeling position and walked over as most of the riders dismounted and made their way into the front yard.

Ivar met me first, marching towards me with purpose.

"I brought the authorities liked you asked Markus! And I made it very clear on the way here how these miscreants should be also charged for fraud on top of their other crimes for misrepresenting a spector! The nerve!" Ivar said with a loud scoff.

"Of course, wouldn't want to let it get out there that it is okay to pretend to be monsters and ruin their image by performing bad acts." I said sarcastically

"Exactly!" Ivar pointed to me with a serious nod.

"I worry about you sometimes, Ivar. I feel as though if I left you alone you would become a demon lord or something and lead the monsters to take over the earth."

"Bah! Ruling the world is overrated! I want to study the world! I want to rip off it's undergarments off and see all the dirty details so it will be exposed to all!" Ivar ranted while swinging his arms into the heavens.

It was only then that I realized what I was smelling alcohol vapors coming from his mouth.

"Don't mind him, he hit the bottle pretty hard when he came back and on the way here. Never seen a man so upset about not encountering a monster or other such thing." Stig stepped up to explain while Ivar had started angrily muttering to himself.

I'd only seen happy drunk Ivar, this angry one worried me.

"Thanks for looking after him, and for coming by to help but… who are the tin soldiers with you." I pointed to the approaching knights.

"Markus! Show some respect! You are in the presence of-!"

"At ease, captain. I can introduce myself, and it is natural for the Witcher to be suspicious of newcomers." the lead knight interrupted as he stepped forward before reaching up to remove his helmet.

Underneath the bucket-like helmet was a man in his mid to late 20s, dark eyes, black mane of hair and beard, and with chiseled features that would appear handsome to most women. I also suspected under all that armor the man was quite fit as well considering how easily he moved in a way that only came with lots of practice and physical exercise.

As he handed his helmet off to a knight to his side I was starting to think this was a very important man, more so than even his escort implied.

"My name is Prince Tankred Thyssen, son of king Esterad Thyssen and queen Zuleyka of Talgar, heir to the throne of Kovir and Poviss, many other titles there is no point going over and a man who is very thankful for the work you have done this day after a year of no progress. Tell me, how did you work out it was no wraiths but still living men who were behind all this? Even I was convinced that was the case or else I would have cleared them all out on day one myself." the fucking prince of the country I was in asked me.

What the fuck?! How did I get involved with fucking royalty so damn quickly! That was the last thing I wanted since Witchers are encouraged to remain neutral entities and Geralt dealt with so much shit when dragged into politics.

"Forgive my earlier rudeness, my prince, I wasn't made aware you were involved in this task at all and was surprised to see." I said as respectfully and calmly on the outside while I was internally screaming and figuring out escape plans.

I did not want to end up as some noble's pet Witcher, no matter how good a person they might be.

"Really? I could have sworn you should have been made aware that I was the one who posted the notice." Tankred turned to Stig with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that your majesty, Markus, after the first dozen blowhards came up to me asking if taking job could be used as an excuse to meet you I removed your name from it to keep casual idiots with no real desire to do work from coming around. I honestly forgot to share the details with you Markus, just got used to being vague I guess." Stig said with shoulder shrug.

I could only mentally face palm at that.

"No problem Stig… everyone has lapses of sense at times." I groaned out.

"Ha! That's what the wife says whenever I'm home!" was the cheerful response.

"Returning to your question, your majesty, it's like this…"

What followed was a detailed summary of the series of events following us accepting the job. From Ivar's and I research of manor, my discovery and defeat of the scammers, and finally my questioning the bandits. The prince remained surprisingly quiet throughout, only interrupting to ask clarifying questions. All the while Stig, his guards, and the prince's knights went about clamping the bandits in irons, or in the mage's case dimeritium (much to his obvious discomfort) and getting them prepared to march back to Pont Vanis to be placed in the dungeons, questioned thoroughly, and stand trial for their actions - assuming they weren't executed outright, anyway.

"On behalf of Pont Vanis, along with all of Kovir and Poviss, you have my thanks for not only completing this job but also bringing this band of brigands to justice. From the sounds of it they have terrorized and killed more than a few honest and hard working folk. I assure you their punishment will be equal to their crimes. You also have my personal thanks for solving this issue so swiftly after being hired; as you are aware, everyone else who tried either was run off or killed." the prince nodded at me with respect.

"I was just doing what Witchers are made to do, even if the monsters in this case were human rather than ghosts… if you don't mind me asking your highness, why is this old manor so important you posted such a large reward for it to be cleared out?"

"It isn't really, not in the grand scheme of things. To make a long story short, this manor already belonged to the Crown and was given to me as a test to see how well I can run a household and accompanying lands. I had a rather… let us say misguided youth and I have been working hard to regain my reputation as heir of the kingdom and among my family. My mother actually granted this test to me and I have no doubt she was entirely aware of the issues behind it, if not the full details, and wanted to see how I could handle it. Since it took so long to do so and in that time several peasants and those I hired died I think it is a fair opinion that I have failed quite badly thus far." he ended on a self-deprecating note.

"We all make mistakes, your majesty, and all things considered I feel you made reasonable ones. You had no idea how to handle a haunting so you tried to hire a Witcher to handle it, but sadly we are few in numbers these days and it took a while for one to show up. The others you hired weren't prepared for wraiths or those pretending to be them, and you couldn't send yourself or those sworn to you to die when you had no idea how to combat them. Was it the result ideal? No. But I think you did the best you could given what you knew." I said completely honestly.

The fact he was taking it so hard was a good sign that he was one of those few nobles who took their duties as stewards and leaders of people seriously, and I wanted to encourage that without being harsh.

"Your words are kind, Master Witcher, but sadly they don't change reality."

"... How about doing what you can to at least repair the damage then? I found more than a few piles of stolen goods in manor from merchants and travelers hit, make sure they are returned to groups and families they belonged to along with a note detailing what really happened. Give them comfort that the killers have been brought to justice and at least financially they have some kind of means to recover. Make sure you get a priest to tend to the dead since I am sure these lot didn't care much about that besides making sure they didn't attract ghouls. Make the trial a public and drawn out affair, make it clear what these men have done and how they will make up for it one way or another. Heck, the mage might be a right bastard but you could make him serve out his sentence by working for Crown, under tight supervision of course, and helping the people he worked so hard to hurt since magic users can be useful. From this event maybe crack down on bandit gangs and other that are harming common folk wherever you can, if you can get the support of masses it will go a long way to raising yourself and kingdom up… but I'm just a Witcher so take my advice with a grain of salt." I stopped myself when I realized how much I'd been talking.

Yup, there were eye-popping stares from the prince, Stig, Ivar, and more than a few of the guards and knights. From the way they were looking at me you could have sworn I had grown an extra head or something.

"Well then… that is certainly an insightful and moral way to go about things. You have given me a great deal to consider, Master Witcher. But enough of my own issues, I am sure you wish to be paid." the prince stated while he turned to a knight and held his hand out.

The knight proceeded to reach into a small bag at his side and pull out a piece of paper, which he then handed to his prince.

"In my authority as prince of the realm, master of my own finances, and poster of the notice I give to you this promissory note for six and a half thousand bizants to be redeemed at any bank in Kovir and Poviss at any time. You have certainly earned it." And with that he handed the paper to me.

I took it and looked it over. It wasn't overly long but it was full of flowery language that basically boiled down to 'give the Witcher Markus money, signed your prince.'

I will take it as a compliment that he had already signed my name and his own before he even got here, apparently having seen my completion of the job as a certainty.

"When I heard you had taken the job, Master Witcher, I must admit I read over intelligence reports of your work, nothing malicious I assure you, just seeing what kinda man had taken my request. While your actions against the royal griffing terrorizing Pont Vanis is well known, it is your less recognized work that interested me the most." the prince spoke up as I folded up the note and put it in my 'important papers' packet.