Chapter 117

"I contacted Geralt, and he said that with the help of a sorceress he knew who provided him with portals, he had already reached Caer Morhen and Vesemir was there. They had already started preparing for the siege, and had also sent mail birds to the other witches of the Wolf School... But they lacked the hands to prepare the fortress."

I looked at Ian, who reported back to me, and nodded thoughtfully at those words.

"When can you open the portal?"

"At any moment..."

"Okay..."

I shifted my gaze to Saul.

"Saul?"

"Yes, I'm willing to take most of the clan with me so we can prepare the fortress for a siege. I think a month should give us enough time to get it in shape to withstand the Wild Hunt's onslaught for a couple years."

"Okay... Just to remind you, it's better to use the materials we have on site, except for our tools. As far as I know, the fortress itself is in the mountains, so it's not a problem to cut blocks to rebuild the walls with laser cutters."

"But I thought..."

"I also thought about equipping the fortress with the latest technology, but as long as it's not our fortress, I don't see the point. Just build the walls, restore all the rooms, if necessary, you can reinforce the walls with rebar, with our capabilities to make steel bars and in the finished wall to make holes in which it will be placed, no problem, as well as a pump that cavities under pressure will pump the solution of cement."

Saul nodded his head.

"But to use a gun and automatic witches should be taught, as well as make them familiar to them swords and crossbows, but using materials from our world."

"Okay..."

"Ciri will stay with us for now, as will Triss, but Ian will go with you in case you need to contact us or open a portal from the other side."

"Got it."

Ian nodded and looked at Scorpius contentedly, but Ciri looked at Sol with sadness and concern.

"Princess, don't worry, Saul is a reliable guy and he won't go behind your back."

Becca patted her friend on the shoulder.

"I'm not worried."

Ciri shrugged, but it was clear from her tone that Becky's words had done their job and she had calmed down a little. Yeah... She's getting to my husband pretty fast...

"Okay... now for the much more important question..."

I covered my eyes for a dramatic pause, and when I opened my eyes I saw that everyone had become much more collected and somber.

"And what's the question?"

Ciri couldn't stand this silence and decided to intervene.

"It's a good thing it was you who asked me this question, because this question affects you directly..."

Again, a brief pause.

"When's the wedding?"

"What's up?"

Ciri blinked in surprise.

"Kha-kha-kha-kha?!

Saul, on the other hand, reacted much more strongly to my words and coughed.

"No, why? You two are obviously really into each other, so my question is becoming quite relevant. By the way, Saul, I'll let you go from the clan, but you have to prepare your replacement in advance."

"I... uh..."

He exhaled sharply and shook his head to meet my gaze.

"Okay, I'm glad you're ready to let me go, but what makes you think I want to leave?"

"You?"

I looked at him and shook my head.

"You don't want to, but you're too responsible."

"And how does that fit with you letting me out of the clan?"

"Yeah."

I shrugged.

"Ciri, as you probably know, is the heir to the throne of the Nilfgaard Empire. But she's in no hurry to take the throne. I don't know what you know about what's going on in her world, but I can tell you that things aren't going well there in terms of lacking a good manager. And when you've been there, when you've talked to the witches. You'll find out what our princess is running from."

I shifted my gaze from Saul to Ciri.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you?"

"Yeah..."

Ciri nodded at my words.

"So you..."

I looked at Saul again.

"...you can't stay away and decide to help Ciri take power into her delicate hands. And once in her grasp."

I shrugged.

"...in your position, it would be wrong to be in the charge of someone else."

"I see..."

Saul sighed.

"...receiver will be ready... I don't know if you're right."

"Absolutely..."

Ciri said that and sighed sadly.

"...we're in real trouble, so a manager like you might be a good fit. But what about you? What do you plan to do?"

I shrugged.

"A mercenary order of my own. so to speak, an inter-world order that fulfills orders.

"Hmm. You want to base yourself in Caer Morhan?"

"Yeah, if we can get it from the Wolves."

"Bad..."

Ciri frowned.

"Uncle Vesemir is like a grandfather to me, Geralt is like a father, and I wouldn't want them to be without a home, and this old fortress is their home. Maybe you'll choose another place?"

I shrugged.

"It's not like I'm kicking them out. but for, uh. Eight? Ten? There's always room in the castle for witches. Or do you think that once we've repaired this castle, we can't claim part of it as our base?"

"Possible... Vesemir won't mind, but the others. they don't like strangers."

"Whatever..."

I grinned.

"...they'll reconsider when the Reaper digs into their genome and tweaks it a little so they can have children. Not always, of course, but let's say synthesize a pill that will temporarily--

"Is this real?!"

Ian hovered over me and I looked at her in surprise.

"What? Make a pill for witches? Well... theoretically should be real, even if not a pill, then on the contrary to return them the ability to have children and make a pill that will completely remove this property for some time is definitely realistic."

"I need a ripper now!"

Yen snapped out of her seat and ran toward the clan riper.

"What's wrong with her?"

I looked at Triss in surprise.

"Ian... she wasn't always so beautiful, when she was still in school she didn't want to wait and decided to do a dangerous ritual that completely fixed her appearance. But now..."

Triss chewed her lips, but then sighed and continued.

"...she can't have children after that. So the possibility of regaining lost body function is like human blood to a drowning man..."

I nodded understandingly and looked thoughtfully in the direction of Yen, who had run away. The small clearing was silent for a while.

"Don't you have any problems?"

"Hmm?"

"Well, I've just been thinking. We haven't been interested in your problems at all... it seems to me that because of some certainty that magic is something magical and all-powerful, and as such you can't have any problems. At least not with your health.

"Well, uh. I have a burn in my solar plexus area."

Triss looked away.

"I never found a way to remove it..."

"Well, you can remove that skin and either graft skin from other parts of your body or try to put on a synthetic counterpart, picking the pigment so that the color is completely indistinguishable from your natural..."

"And this..."

"Triss, wait a bit, I think Ian will have some questions with our ripper, give them thirty minutes and you can go and see what's what, or we can run to Vic, but I doubt it will be faster."

"Thank you..."

"By the way, why didn't I see that burn? I thought you liked cleavage..."

"Illusion."

She removed the illusion, and I could only shake my head. I didn't think the scar would be so big, but with the medicine of this world, removing it shouldn't really be a problem, but Ian... I can't even imagine what she might really have...

"Well, that's something our medicine can handle..."

"Don't make promises like that..."

Triss grinned sadly and sat up next to me, lowering her head onto my shoulder.

"Honestly, it's enough that you didn't look away when you saw the burn. Usually men reacted more strongly to it. Even Geralt, though he's not as bright as the others..."

I put my arm around Triss' waist.

"Ahem. girls, I think we have some competition."

"Becca, I've already made all the arrangements with you--

Triss cast a glance at her.

"I know we don't mind. it's just so brazen."

"Well. I don't see what the big deal is."

"Okay... let's while Ian is away and Ciri and Saul take a moment and make up..."

"Hey! We're just hugging. And you and Triss aren't far behind."

"I don't mind, I just needed a little distraction...by the way you can take care of your scar too..."

"I know. Saul already told me that, but it's, uh."

Ciri touched her scar under her eye.

"...a reminder. A reminder not to get overconfident. If I take it away, I might forget about it and get screwed again."

"Well, that's up to you. but back to our sheep, or rather the fortress of Caer Morhen, it must be prepared as soon as possible, and most importantly, the cellars must be prepared. We have the money, we can buy precious metals, which we can exchange for local money in the other world, and stock up on provisions. And we'll need a lot of it."

Saul nodded.

"Will do. By the way, you can put a couple dozen siege crossbows, upgrading them to multi-shot crossbows.

"It's all on you, you just make it look good."

"Okay... Ciri, don't go near David..."

Saul jokingly threatened the girl with a finger, but she only pouted.

"That's a shame!"

"Come on, you see how many hotties he's got around him. I'm surprised you picked me over him and Ian over Scorpio."

"Well, it's not like I'm going to take every girl I meet into my harem... Some I just stay on friendly terms with, like Ciri, Ian, Bestia, Regina... Some I'd rather not see again, like Hanako and Mystique..."

"What did the last one do to you?"

"I don't know... it's just... something inside me whispers that dating her isn't a good idea."

"Sixth Sense..."

Ciri nodded her head respectfully.

"...listening to him is the right thing to do."

"Yeah, now a question for my partners, how are we gonna storm Ebunike? You got the intel?"

"Did we go then?"

Saul looked at me.

"Uh-huh. Ian can open a portal for you when he's done, but I think you and Ciri will want to spend at least one more night together, so you can leave tomorrow night, or the night after that.

"Tomorrow, uh. in the afternoon."

"Well, it's up to you, just prepare everything and gather the right tools..."

And having lost interest in Saul and Ciri, who hurried away, I turned my gaze to Kiwi, Judy, and Lucy.

"Did you collect the data?"

"Uh-huh. there's Malström guarding the waste, and then there's Smasher's partner on the ship, one Jeremy Grayson...

"We'll pass quietly, I think we won't touch the Malstroms this time..."

Becca scratched her cheek thoughtfully, looking at the map our rauners had dropped off for us.

"...too many of them, they'll definitely raise the alarm. And then Smasher might wake up sooner, and I don't really want to fight him..."

"You're thinking of sneaking in and hitting the most vulnerable point and taking out Smasher with the first blow?"

"Uh-huh...

"Well... Accepted."

I nodded to the little one, at which our conversation came to a close...