System of the Beast Slayer [litrpg Adventure]
Copyright© 2025 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 25
“Witchers do not meddle in politics.”
Letho’s single sentence settled it for Roy. He tore the flyer in half with a crisp motion.
Roy had no intention of joining any march. The so-called revolutionaries’ raid outside the city had made him sick. Besides, whatever the rebels and the garrison clashed over, civilians always suffered most; Roy could already picture townsfolk dragged screaming into prison tomorrow. No thanks.
The next morning they returned to Severin’s manor. The Dwarf host, who had been pacing in the drawing room, waved away guards and servants when Letho and Roy entered. He looked smaller and more desperate than before, hands clenched together, walking and then stopping, nervous as a struck animal. At last he sighed.
“Can you promise me, swear to me, that you will not tell a soul—no one, not even the elder races or any creature—about what I’m about to say?” Severin’s eyes pleaded.
Letho and Roy exchanged a look. Promise with nothing but words? A Dwarf that proud would not trust empty assurances. Severin read their thoughts.
“I cannot bear it any longer,” he blurted. “That thing, the Hym—if it keeps up, I will die.”
His eyes were bloodshot; he had not slept well since the Witchers first came. “And even if I swore you fifty crowns, I think anyone could be bought—but I only ask for your word so I might sleep easier.”
Letho’s brow rose like a blade. As one of the last Viper School Witchers, he did not bargain with oaths lightly.
“Money buys many things, but not a Witcher’s oath. Before accepting a contract you did not ask us to swear. A vow is not a trifle; it wraps fate around you like the law of chance, and fate is not something one breaks on a whim. So a Witcher will not give his oath freely.”
He extended a single finger.
“You’ll need to pay more,” Severin said, his face twitching between shame and relief. The gravity of Letho’s tone made the Dwarf believe him all the more.
Roy put up five fingers. “Fifty Crowns. Half of what Letho’s due; in return you get a Viper School apprentice’s oath.”
They shook on it. The fee rose from the original two hundred to three hundred and fifty Crowns, a sum Severin could afford. He looked relieved.
“I, Letho of Gulete, in the name of the Viper School, swear I shall not reveal a single word of Severin Hogg’s secret to any being, mortal or otherwise. If I break this oath, the gods may strike me down and I will never see my school rise again,” Letho intoned.
“I, Roy, swear—uh—by the goddess Melitele, I will not reveal a single word of what I hear from Severin Hogg today, or—” Roy fumbled the last flourish. He did not believe in the prophet Lebioda or in Melitele, yet his oath was sincere. He would not break his promise.
Half an hour later they followed Severin up to the master chamber on the third floor. Letho cast an Igni sign and the hearth flared to life. He lit four tall torches and set them in the room’s corners. The chamber glowed, every shadow driven away.
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