Chapter 389 - 389: Darkness in the Land of a Thousand Fables

"Leave."

Their shared goal was enough for the two of them to call a truce.

"So... what exactly is happening in Beauclair right now?"

"The vampires are carrying out massacres on a massive scale. The streets are running with blood, or at least they were when I came here, so we need to move quickly."

"Calm down. Time in the Land of a Thousand Fables doesn't pass the same way it does in the real world. Even if we stayed here for an entire week, only a few minutes would pass outside."

...

They spent a short while exchanging information, which also helped ease some of the unfamiliarity between them.

...

Warm afternoon sunlight filtered through gaps in the canopy, while a refreshing breeze rustled the leaves and branches.

Walking through a forest beyond hill and dale, Victor and Syanna followed the yellow brick road side by side. Beautiful scenery and fresh air always had a way of relaxing both body and mind.

They were searching for Joss, the shepherd boy from The Boy Who Cried Wolf, so they could ask him where the magical beans from Jack and the Beanstalk had been hidden.

There were only two exits from the Land of a Thousand Fables. After Anarietta threw her sister inside, she sealed one of them.

The other exit was in the sky, above the clouds.

That meant Victor and Syanna now had to find Jack's magical beans, plant them, climb the resulting beanstalk to the giant's castle among the clouds, and only then could they escape the fairy-tale world.

"You know, the word 'knight' actually has rather negative connotations for me..." Syanna said, taking the witcher's hand and using his support to climb onto a rock.

Victor released the princess's hand and smiled.

"I'm not surprised. Speaking of which... what exactly did those knights Dettlaff killed do to you? Vladimir Crespi, Ramon du Lac, Louis de la Croix, and Milton de Peyrac-Peyran?"

They brushed the dust from their knees and continued onward.

"I don't like remembering that part of my past, but since you asked, I suppose there's no harm in telling you. Just as you guessed when you spoke to Anarietta, they treated me horribly.

"When my parents cast me out, they appointed those four knights to escort me beyond the borders of the duchy. Not one of them said a single word in my defense."

"From what you're saying, they were simply following orders..."

"Perhaps. But when I tried to escape for the first time, my parents certainly didn't order Crespi to whip me until I lost consciousness. Nor was Ramon du Lac ordered to starve and abuse me.

"That experience taught me something. When no one is watching, knights aren't nearly as chivalrous as they pretend to be. Those so-called Five Virtues are nothing but one enormous lie!

"Take you, for example, last year's champion knight. For Lebioda's sake, or Melitele's, tell me honestly, do you think you possess the Five Virtues?"

Victor was walking ahead and clearing a path, cutting through the overgrown brush with the King's Guardian.

He chuckled.

"Honor, wisdom, generosity, valor, compassion, none of those have anything to do with me. I'm just a witcher.

"Don't expect generosity from me. If you hire me, you pay me. If the target is especially troublesome, you pay me more!

"But even though that's the kind of man I am, my opinion happens to be the exact opposite of yours. The Five Virtues aren't a lie at all. They're the embodiment of humanity's aspiration toward goodness.

"People who truly embody those virtues must exist somewhere in this world. They're simply difficult to encounter, or perhaps we meet them without ever realizing what they are."

"Really? Milton de Peyrac-Peyran's conduct was praised throughout the court, but do you know what happened back then...?

"When he should have shown courage by protecting an innocent person and stopping an atrocity, he chose to remain silent.

"That proved he was the greatest coward among all the knights of Beauclair!" Syanna retorted.

"...Human nature is complicated and many-sided. We have no way of knowing what Milton was thinking back then, and now we'll never have an answer.

"But there's something you might want to know. Before I entered the Land of a Thousand Fables, he died defending civilians at Gran'place."

Syanna froze slightly.

The sudden news of his death plunged her into silence.

Victor could understand her reaction.

It was the emptiness that came when hatred finally lost its purpose.

Every target of the Five Virtues Murders was now gone.

...

The black-clad princess followed him in silence until they reached another clearing in the forest.

Suddenly, smoke billowed around the witcher, and countless pitch-black magical creatures appeared from within it.

"Careful! Pixies!" Syanna shouted in warning.

These elementa were black as ink from head to toe, yet wore white caps and little shorts, giving them a gentle, harmless appearance.

But as the old saying went, appearances could be deceiving.

In reality, they were an extremely aggressive and warlike species.

Brandishing sharp little cleavers, the Pixies had been created to defend this magical realm, defeat Gargamel, scratch that, repel intruders, and ensure that the Duke's daughters, Sylvia Anna and Anna Henrietta, never came to the slightest harm.

Originally, they had possessed a simple mechanism allowing them to distinguish between intruders and visitors.

But as the spells gradually deteriorated, the Pixies became like white blood cells gone berserk, indiscriminately attacking every living creature except Syanna and Anarietta.

Such as the witcher standing before them.

The appearance of the Pixies successfully dragged the princess out of her melancholy and back into the present.

Victor was completely surrounded.

Syanna had just started reaching for her sword to help when she saw him draw his silver blade and spontaneously launch into the Pirouette Sword Dance.

Whirling sword light howled around him as he mowed down the frenzied Pixies like grass.

Just as they had appeared, the elementa dissolved into smoke and vanished.

"Thank you for the warning, my lady. It looks like we've reached the edge of the forest."

Victor sheathed his sword and pointed ahead.

Beyond a corridor lined with enormous mushrooms, a sun-drenched grassy hillside could already be seen nearby.

Syanna nodded and started walking again, smiling as she teased him.

"Vivienne was telling the truth. You're even better in a fight than I imagined."

The two emerged from the forest and, by good fortune, discovered two unicorns grazing on the hillside.

Riding them would undoubtedly spare their aching feet.

Victor used the Axii Sign to tame the white one, while Syanna mounted the pink one.

They lightly squeezed their mounts' flanks and set off to the rhythmic clopping of hooves, startling white rabbits and reindeer into running as they rode side by side down the hill.

...

Biology, The Relationship Between Unicorns and Pure Maidens

The behavior of unicorns is something of a mystery.

Although they are exceptionally timid creatures and generally fear humans, the moment they encounter a pure maiden who has never had sexual relations with a man, they immediately approach her without the slightest fear, kneel before her, and rest their heads upon her lap.

It is said that, in the distant and benighted past, many young women personally put this phenomenon to the test.

They remained unmarried and abstinent for years, allowing hunters to hire them to lure unicorns into traps.

However, the trick was soon exposed and ceased to work.

From that point onward, unicorns approached only little girls, completely ignoring older maidens.

This change proved that unicorns possessed intelligence and were capable of communicating with one another.

It is worth mentioning that once it became clear that using maidens to lure unicorns was no longer effective, those women who had remained unmarried and abstinent for years immediately abandoned their former means of earning a living without the slightest hesitation.

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