The corpses of the bandits disappeared behind Sebastian as the road stretched farther through Redania's wildlands, and he didn't look back once.
There was nothing worth looking at.
Just more dead men on another forgotten road.
Redania had not impressed him so far. If anything, the deeper he rode into the kingdom, the uglier it seemed to become.
The roads were crowded with a sense of gloom.
It lingered everywhere.
In abandoned camps, in the suspicious stares from travelers passing the opposite direction.
In the silence of villages that closed their doors before sunset.
Even the forests felt different here.
Sebastian adjusted the cloak resting over his shoulders while his horse moved through another muddy stretch of road.
"…One month on the Path," he muttered to himself quietly. "And I already understand why Eskel and Lambert drink so much."
His golden eyes drifted toward movement far off the road.
More men, watching him from the treeline.
Bandits again.
They noticed the twin swords on his back almost immediately.
One nudged another.
A few curses followed from the bushes.
But none approached, these ones were smart enough this time.
Sebastian kept riding.
"Good choice," he said under his breath.
The farther south he went, the more the Pontar's cold air began to creep across the land. Forests thickened. Villages became rarer.
And eventually, near dusk, he saw smoke.
Old smoke and what remains of it.
Sebastian slowed his horse immediately.
Ahead of him, hidden behind dying trees and crooked fencing, stood what remained of a small village.
Or what used to be one, most of it was dead silent.
No livestock, no voices, only broken rooftops and blackened timber beneath the pale evening sky.
Sebastian's expression hardened slightly.
"…Seems like it was attacked."
He guided his horse closer before finally dismounting near what used to be a well.
The moment his boots touched the muddy ground, the smell hit him.
Blood and rot, burned flesh.
Few days old at most.
Sebastian exhaled slowly through his nose.
"It would be lovely," he murmured while loosely resting a hand on the pommel of his sword, "if I found a place where nothing fucked up was happening."
Wind creaked through the remains of abandoned homes.
One hut had collapsed inward completely, its roof half-burned and caved into ash-black rubble.
Another still smoldered faintly.
Sebastian stepped carefully through the village path, boots crunching softly over charred wood.
Then he found the first corpse.
Burned beyond recognition, pinned against a fence post.
The smell alone made him cover his nose, Sebastian crouched beside it silently for a moment.
"…Not a monster kill."
He glanced at the body's wrists.
Rope marks, this was an execution.
Another corpse lay near the center of the road.
This one hadn't burned fully.
A woman, middle-aged.
Her throat slit cleanly.
Sebastian's eyes narrowed.
"Professional cut."
He looked around slowly.
"No signs of feeding either."
His gaze drifted toward one of the nearby homes where the door had been hacked apart with axes.
Inside, furniture was overturned.
Blood painted parts of the wall.
But there were no bodies, which somehow made it worse.
Sebastian stepped back outside again.
The wind shifted.
And with it came another smell beneath the blood and ash.
Oil.
Pitch.
Fire deliberately spread.
He slowly turned his head across the ruined village.
"This wasn't raiders…"
Sebastian continued deeper into the village, eyes sharp now, A child's toy rested near the mud beside a burned doorway.
Wooden horse, half melted.
He stared at it quietly.
"…Wonderful."
Further ahead he found more bodies.
Three together this time.
A man and two younger boys.
One of them couldn't have been older than ten.
All kneeling when they died.
Sebastian could tell from the angles alone.
They were executed as well, with signs of struggle
His jaw tightened faintly.
"No beast did this, but they were killed by monsters still.." he repeated quietly.
Then his eyes drifted toward the symbol burned into one remaining wall nearby.
Sebastian stared at it for several long seconds.
"…Oh."
Understanding settled across his face slowly, and even disappointment.
"Scoia'tael," he said quietly.
Sebastian stood near the corpse of the kneeling child for a long moment without speaking.
His golden eyes lingered on it before slowly lifting toward the symbol burned into the side of a ruined home.
"I didn't realize they could stoop this low," he muttered quietly.
His voice carried no anger at first.
"To kill innocents… children…"
He exhaled slowly through his nose.
"This doesn't help their cause at all."
For a moment he almost turned back toward his horse.
Almost left, this wasn't his business.
This wasn't a contract.
No coin or obligation.
Just another piece of humanity tearing itself apart while pretending monsters were the real evil in the world. Yet his eyes drifted back toward the small body near the road.
And another image surfaced in his mind.
A five-year-old skeleton chained beneath an estate in Ard Carraigh.
Sebastian closed his eyes briefly.
"…No."
He adjusted the gloves around his hands before stepping deeper into the village.
"I'm not some great bringer of justice," he said quietly to himself while examining muddy tracks near one of the burned homes, "but I think I've seen enough dead children for one month."
He crouched near the ground, studying the tracks carefully.
Boot prints.
Many, some light and some armored.
Wagons too, Sebastian's eyes narrowed.
"Pretty organized."
He moved toward the storage huts next.
Most had been broken open rather than burned immediately.
He checked barrels.
Crates, storage pits they were empty, All of it.
"Livestock's gone," he muttered while rising back to his feet. "No grain left either."
He glanced around the ruined village again.
"No supplies burned because there's nothing left to burn."
His gaze sharpened slightly.
"Either this village was desperately poor…"
He stepped over shattered pottery near a doorway.
"…or the Scoia'tael took everything before torching the rest."
The word tasted bitter in his mouth.
Not because he hated elves or non humans, Kaer Morhen had taught him better than blind hatred.
But this was senseless slaughter.
No matter who committed it.
Suddenly, crunch.
A boot against gravel.
Then another, heavy and armored.
Sebastian straightened immediately, one hand drifting near the hilt of his steel sword while his senses sharpened.
More footsteps followed, several, approaching from the northern road.
Not trying to hide themselves.
A moment later armored figures emerged between the burned huts.
Redanian soldiers.
Seven of them.
Mail armor beneath red tabards dirtied by travel and mud. Spears and swords already drawn the moment they spotted the lone armed man standing in the middle of the village.
"You!" one barked immediately. "Halt where you stand!"
Crossbows shifted toward him.
Sebastian slowly raised both hands slightly away from his sides.
Easy and calm.
The soldiers approached cautiously until one finally noticed the twin swords strapped across Sebastian's back.
"… a Witcher."
Another soldier spat into the mud.
"Godsdamned mutant."
The apparent captain, a broad man with a scar splitting across his jaw, narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"Was it you?"
Sebastian blinked once.
"The village," the soldier growled. "Did you do this?"
Sebastian slowly looked around at the destruction.
Then back at the soldiers.
"…Do I look like I spent the afternoon burning peasants?"
One younger soldier shifted uneasily.
The leader didn't lower his weapon.
"You're standing here alone among corpses. Doesn't look good."
Sebastian sighed softly.
"Calm your horses."
He gestured lazily toward the ruined homes.
"I just got here. Can't you smell it? The fires have been dead for hours."
The soldiers exchanged brief looks.
One crouched near a body before nodding reluctantly toward the others.
"He's right, captain. Bodies are too cold."
The captain finally lowered his sword slightly, though suspicion remained all over his face.
"…Fair enough."
His eyes moved across Sebastian carefully.
"Then why stop here at all?"
Sebastian lowered his hands.
"Investigating."
"Investigating what?"
"Thought it might've been a monster attack."
The captain barked a bitter laugh at that.
"A monster?"
He gestured angrily toward the corpses.
"This is human work."
Sebastian said nothing.
The captain studied him for another few seconds before speaking again.
"Well since you were 'investigating' you know who did this?"
Sebastian paused.
Just briefly.
Then shook his head lightly.
"Not quite yet." A lie.
The captain cursed under his breath.
"We received word from a merchant this morning. Said he saw smoke from the road." He glanced around the ruined village grimly. "We came as quickly as we could."
Another soldier muttered bitterly nearby.
"Quickly wasn't quick enough."
The captain looked back toward Sebastian.
"If you truly are investigating…"
He hesitated slightly, clearly hating the idea of relying on a witcher.
"…Help us find whoever did this."
Sebastian's gaze drifted once more toward the dead child lying near the road.
Ash blew softly across the corpse.
His jaw tightened faintly.
"We'll reward you," the captain added quickly. "Redanian crown coin."
Sebastian let out a tired sigh.
Coin hardly mattered to him right now.
But he nodded once anyway.
"I'll try."
/-\
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