Chapter 191: Echoes of a Fading Smile

Iris led Olgierd into the room she had converted into her studio. In the room was an easel with an incomplete portrait on it. Under Iris's direction, Olgierd posed, and Iris adjusted the details of the portrait.

Iris didn't notice that the spark of warmth that had appeared in her husband's eyes a moment ago was slowly disappearing.

"Smile, dear."

Olgierd did his best to soften his expression, stretching the corners of his lips.

"It's not a smile showing your teeth, it has to be a more subtle smile." Iris said in a playful tone, and suddenly, a radiant happiness appeared on her face. "I want it to be like… the smile you had when my father agreed to let me marry you. I want to see it one more time and paint it. Can you do it? Please!"

Olgierd looked at his wife, who desperately wanted her to smile, and closed his eyes, trying to remember that moment. However, this only caused him more anguish and sadness, transforming his expression from neutral to painful.

"You are worried." Sensitive Iris immediately noticed the change in her husband.

"I..." Olgierd opened his mouth. "I still have some work to do, I'm thinking about those things. Sorry."

"Work again? Olgierd… you never tell me anything. We promised we wouldn't keep secrets from each other." Iris spoke in a soft tone, even though her words were reproachful. The softness in her voice made Olgierd unable to bear it. "Sorry, I don't want to talk about it."

With his head down, Olgierd quickly left the studio, not giving Iris time to react.

"Olgierd..."

A slam resounded as Olgierd entered his office, closing the door behind him.

Iris couldn't bear it any longer. Even though she was in silk pajamas, with bare legs and shivering from the cold, she didn't move from outside Olgierd's office.

"Olgierd, come out. We must talk about this today!"

Olgierd, hearing his wife's trembling voice, closed his eyes in frustration.

"I want to be alone."

Iris shouted: "Not this time, come out!"

Olgierd's tone suddenly became fierce: "Don't bother me! I just want to work quietly!"

The outside immediately fell silent.

Olgierd slumped into a chair. Although he should be exhausted, he didn't feel tired at all. From the moment he got up that morning until now, he felt the same, even when he was having sleepless nights.

This was not right.

He looked over at his desk, where there were two books and a tray of blood. The titles were The Blood Pact: Creatures from Other Worlds and Between Different Worlds.

On the floor there was a pentagram with lit candles at each of its points.

This was a magic circle of the dark arts.

Olgierd never allowed his wife into his study, and Iris had always respected his private space, so she had no idea what went on inside.

"I don't feel joy, happiness, or even tiredness. There is only loneliness and pain…"

Hearing the light footsteps of his wife going away, Olgierd's sad expression deepened.

Although he had tried many times, he knelt inside the pentagram again, spreading his arms and clenching his fists, reciting the spells with rhythm and speed.

He then opened his eyes, hoping to see the figure he desired. After failing, he closed his eyes again and changed the spell.

Again and again, he tried every spell he knew, until he finally broke down.

"Damn it! What other spells do you want me to use? I've tried them all! I want to terminate our agreement, come out and face me - Gaunter O'Dimm!"

A cloud of black smoke mixed with red lights emanated from Olgierd, gathering in his arms due to his agitation. Finally, unable to bear the failure any longer, Olgierd let out his frustration, hitting the ground hard.

Suddenly, red and black smoke exploded all over the room, and the candles on the pentagram immediately went out. Olgierd was still on the floor, unaware of the changes in the room.

Until, with a bang, the fire in the fireplace suddenly burst into life, and the study was illuminated with a red light in an instant.

The chaotic energy from the spells Olgierd had used earlier did not dissipate into the air, but instead erupted at this moment. It was as if there were countless transparent shadows in the room celebrating, and the books, furniture, and ornaments were flying through the air. The ceiling, floor, and walls all caught fire at the same time.

Olgierd looked at everything around him blankly, and suddenly shouted: "No, Iris!"

...

Kiyan and the others gathered around Olgierd as he flipped through the book, curious about the contents. Letho even began to quietly recite the spell Olgierd had just read.

A huge fire broke out in the room. At first, no one was alarmed. They thought it was an illusion. But soon a thick smoke began to invade their mouths and noses, and they realized that the flames were real.

"Put out the fire!" Letho shouted. "Use the Signs!"

A large amount of telekinetic energy was discharged from the hands of the five witchers, raising a chaotic storm in the room. However, the flames, which seemed erratic, ignored the signs and continued to burn.

"What's going on?"

"I understand. This is Iris's dream. The flames are part of her dream, but we are not. So we can't interfere with these fires!"

"If the fire is a dream, why does it affect us?" Kolgrim asked, adjusting his mask to ease the difficulty in breathing. "Is this magic?"

Seeing that they couldn't put out the fire, Kiyan threw an Aard Sign at the door, trying to escape. But the door rippled as if it were made of water, and his sign only caused slight ripples, not affecting the door that had become an unreachable illusion.

Kiyan's eyes widened. "Now that's magic!"

"And there's something even more magical." Lann pointed to a painting on the wall.

The witchers looked at the painting, which showed another landscape of the von Everec estate.

"This painting... is it the same as the one we saw when we came in from outside?"

"Yes." Lann nodded. "So follow me."

Without waiting for others to react, Lann rushed forward. His left hand touched the canvas, and then there was a vortex-like suction force wrapped around his whole body, swallowing him into the painting in an instant.

A dizzy feeling far more intense than before invaded Lann's senses, and before he could recover, a penetrating cold enveloped him.

Looking up, he found himself in the middle of a snowstorm. The icy wind and snowflakes cut through his exposed skin like blades. Lann cast a Quen Sign to ease the pain.

"This setting looks like the Wild Hunt has arrived!"

Lann groaned, and when he turned around, he heard a series of falling sounds. The Viper School witchers and Kiyan also fell to the ground one after another.

"First the fire, then the snowstorm... what kind of nightmares is this woman having?"

The newly arrived witchers were soon struck by the weather, and quickly put on the Quen Sign. However, their signs were not as effective as Lann's, and before long their shields disintegrated in the snowstorm.

As a result, Kiyan managed to create a circular protective shield to cover his surrounding companions. However, the shield was so small that the four Viper School witchers were almost squeezed together to fit inside.

"What kind of sign is this?"

"This is the only gain from these decades of confusion. I don't know what principle makes it so." Kiyan then shouted: "Letho, can you please shrink back a bit? You're taking up the space of two people!"

"The environment of the dream changes with Iris's mood. Such a violent reaction means that we are close to her!" Lann shouted to the others, his voice lost in the snowstorm. He then pointed forward. "There is a house there, and it has become a physical entity. That's where the next memory exists. Go in and hide from the snow!"

The painting in Olgierd's office transported the group back to the estate's garden, leaving them exposed to the snowstorm. The path back to the main mansion had solidified, clearly indicating the next location of the memory.

Kiyan, who was holding the protective shield, couldn't move, so Letho carried him over his shoulder and ran towards the mansion.

Entering one of the rooms in the mansion, the door finally blocked out the snowstorm, and warmth and light greeted them.

Kiyan nimbly jumped off Letho's shoulder, giving him a disgruntled look, and joined the others in examining the memory scene in the room.

There were three people in the room. Besides Iris and Olgierd, Iris's father was also there. He was showing something to Olgierd, but his hands were empty.

Kolgrim looked thoughtfully. "What was the old man holding? We must find what he had in his hands."

Auckes smiled and said: "You call him 'old man', but you may be older than him."

Iris hid behind her father, while in front of them, Olgierd sat rudely at a dining table, his hands empty, as if holding a wine glass that wasn't there.

At this moment, Olgierd already looked very much like the image Lann, and the others had seen: his expression was fierce, his temperament was rough, and there were many hideous and ferocious scars on the side of his head.

Lann found a glass full of vodka and placed it in Olgierd's hand. Letho, meanwhile, found a marriage contract which was what Iris's father wanted to show.

Once both objects found their respective owners, the memory projections moved again and showed the scene of that moment.

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