Downwarren

Vincent was now staying for five days in an Inn inside Oxenfurt and hasn't heard anything about the King and Queen disappearing but he could see the soldiers in the city being quite nervous as there were more than usually running around like headless chickens.

'It seems Vlad was successful with his task. He will need some time to return to me,' thinks Vincent as he was eating breakfast as he needed to wait until evening for the auction to start.

After eating he left the Inn and walked a bit through Oxenfurt as he bought some schematics on some armors and weapons. He didn't need an armor or weapon but by studying the schematics he could come up with some interesting improvements for the Legions Armors.

He waited until it was time and he followed the map towards a house seeing some people enter after handing over a letter making it obvious that it was there where the auction will be held.

He walked towards the house when he got stopped by the bouncer who asks, "Invitation?"

"Give me a full sentence or are you too lazy for that?" asks Vincent as he looked at the bouncer who seemed offended by Vincent.

The bouncer was about to do something when Vincent's ax was on the bouncer's neck when Vincent asks dangerously, "Do we have a problem?"

"No," says the bouncer as he looked at Vincent's eyes and could see that Vincent wasn't joking around, Vincent would have killed him right there without batting an eye.

"Good then ask me the full question," says Vincent as he didn't remove the ax from the bouncer's throat while showing him a frightening smile.

"Do you have an invitation, sir?" asks the bouncer as Vincent removed the ax from the bouncer's throat.

"Was it that difficult to begin with," says Vincent as he took his invitation out and handed it over to the bouncer before saying, "Just remember to show respect to the people you attend to or one day your head might be rolling on the ground."

Vincent then entered the auction house. He finds a small number of people inside which he could count with both hands easily when a man entered the waiting room it seems.

"Welcome to our auction, dearest guests. The auction will begin soon so we would like for our guests to take their seats," says the man when everyone followed the man into the next room when Vincent looked at the map and found it leading the opposite direction.

'I could just snatch it and bail by turning invisible,' thinks Vincent as he sighs and puts the map away before following the others.

Once he sat down the action began as they were auctioning some glasses at first. Vincent wasn't really interested in them even if they came from someone famous in this world.

The second item they auctioned off was a painting this made Vincent sigh out of boredom since he didn't know the value of the said painting. The others began to feel annoyed by how he expressed himself.

They thought Vincent was a barbarian because of his armor and the manners he was showing them when Vincent stood up and wanted to leave as the third object was brought forward.

It was a statue of an eagle. Vincent just walked away confusing the brothers as one of them followed Vincent.

Vincent was waiting against the wall knowing that one of the brothers would follow him to know why he left earlier. It would be the best time to give his offer to one of the brothers.

"I am over here," says Vincent getting the attention of the brother that followed him.

"Sir, we brothers could see that you were quite bored with the auction. Was it because it didn't contain something you wanted?" asks the brother that followed him.

"Indeed, I came to buy a house that you have in your possession," says Vincent hinting at what he wanted but the brother turned a bit pale.

"That house is not on-sell," says the brother when Vincent smiles at him.

"Everything has a price. Just name it and you will be rich after you sold it to me," says Vincent as he took out a bar of gold.

"I have more from where this one came from. How many Krones will you be able to make just with one of these gold bars," says Vincent juggling suddenly three of them.

"Now let me ask you. For how much would you be willing to let go of said house?" asks Vincent as he looked at the man.

"Those bars are made of pure gold?" asks the man as Vincent smiles.

"Of course, how about this. I give you fifty of those and you give me the house I want. Isn't that a fair deal?" says Vincent as the man went back into the auction room to inform his brother about it.

The room was in a little uproar as both brothers left the room calling for a pause because they needed to discuss something. They arrived beside Vincent who was spinning a gold bar on his index finger.

"Is what my brother said true. You want to buy the house for fifty of those bars?" asks the other brother as John nods.

"We are now richer than before if we accept it and leave Oxenfurt quietly. We could open an auction house in Nilfgaard and start anew," says the first brother that already had everything planned out.

"Yes, we should change our point of perspective. Radovid won't be able to tame Nilfgaard. He could tame the vanguard but now that he is weakened after taking Kaedwen and Aedirn has become an ally of Nilfgaard. Nilfgaard will focus every man to take Redania," says the other brother.

"And the document inside the house won't be of use to us since it was a Redanian King that gave us this deal," says the first brother.

"Then bring the house up here," says the other brother as the first brother disappeared to get the house Vincent wanted.

Vincent thought that it would only be a document and a key that he would receive from them but was surprised to see a miniature house in front of him when he asks, "That is Maxi-"

"Yes, everything is as it should," says the first brother as Vincent stored it away while pulling fifty gold bars out.

'At least I am not dooming my own economy like this,' thinks Vincent as he leaves after finishing this transaction.

He leaves the auction house when he receives a message from Serana which makes Vincent smiles as it seemed that Briin has intercepted Vlad halfway towards his destination.

"Now then Vlad will need five to six days to return to me. But I should go to Crookback Bog and meet with Olgierd. He should be there already," says Vincent as he takes his map out and looks at where the last indicator was when he finds a second indicator which was blue.

"This one is new," says Vincent as it seemed near Oxenfurt.

"That's where you have to take Olgierd after giving him the house and fulfilled with it all his wishes. Once he is there everything is over and I will fulfill my part of the deal," says O'Dimm who appears beside Vincent.

"It seems you can only teleport when a crossroad is nearby," says Vincent as he was right now in one.

"That's right but anyway. I will await you there with Olgierd," says O'Dimm before disappearing again.

"Let's get moving then," says Vincent as he looked at the map again seeing that he needed to cross diagonally through it to reach the Orphanage.

He left Oxenfurt through the west exit passing over a bridge hoping to never return to this city until it is under Nilfgaardian control.

Vincent didn't follow the path as he normally would but he wanted to get this over himself as fast as possible. He skipped most of the town and slept in his tent after killing the nearby monsters when he arrived at a village.

It seemed to be cursed by something when he approached a man that seemed to be the village elder he heard another man say, "The Dragon has cursed us for our misdeeds."

"Don't be stupid the Dragon hasn't been seen since he left some months ago. Travelers even say that he made his lair in Aedirn to protect it from Nilfgaard," says the village elder trying to calm the people down.

The assembly dissolved and the people returned to what they were doing when Vincent asks, "Did something happen here?"

The village elder was surprised by Vincent before he looked at him and asks, "Are you a mercenary?"

"You could say so," says Vincent as he looked at the elder.

"Can you help us then? In the swamps, there is a monster that is terrorizing our village. It is destroying our harvest if it keeps going we won't survive this winter," says the elder as he begged almost for Vincent to take this contract.

"I guess, I could look into it but you said it wasn't the Dragon," says Vincent as the elder nods.

"There are older things inside the swamps even older than the Crones themselves were. One of those monsters seems to have cursed our land," says the elder as Vincent smiles at him.

"I will leave then," says Vincent as he leaves the village and reads a sign saying 'Downwarren Village'.

He entered the swamps and released his aura making its inhabitants understand that he would kill them if they come to close. Some sentient beings stayed as far away as possible from Vincent while the beings with animalistic instincts saw their territory being attacked.

Vincent killed them easily when O'Dimm appears out of a reflection in the water while saying, "So you are going to visit the mother of the three."

"Mother?" asks Vincent as O'Dimm nods.

"The Crones' mother. They sealed her away to steal her influence over Velen," says O'Dimm as Vincent only sighs.

"What a nice family," says Vincent sarcastically as he cleaned his ax.