Chapter #47

The next morning caravans after caravans arrived, bringing hundreds of children to the keep.

Zeno walked out of the stable he was staying at with Geralt following him groggily while rubbing his eyes.

Zeno looked at the children leaving the caravan and wondered how the witchers were going to tend to them, even if they bothered to.

Even if they were thrown into the stables someone needs to do that, last night it was Vesemir who took care of them but he wouldn't do the same with hundreds of children.

It was then Zeno felt someone approaching them, judging by their steps Zeno knew they didn't have any training.

"Young masters, master Deglan wants every trainee in the main hall." An old and hoarse voice called out to them.

Geralt, who didn't notice the old man coming got a scare while Zeno looked over the man, he raised an eyebrow not seeing any witcher traits.

"Hehe, I refused the witcher training when I got to Kaer Morhen but didn't have anywhere to return to. So I stayed as a servant." Old man explained with a wry smile after noticing Zeno's gaze.

"We can refuse!" Geralt exclaimed.

He had been under the impression he would be forced to go through the mutations, Zeno never quite explained the trials since he didn't know the details either.

At least that's what Geralt thought...

"Aye but I don't recommend... I regret my choice to this day... Sigh, go on then don't let master Deglan wait for long." Old man sighed and gestured to them to be quick.

Zeno felt there must be a story behind the old man, even a side quest if he befriended him before the sacking.

'Something for later I guess.' Zeno mentally took a note and started following the trail of children to the inside of the main hall.

Entering, Zeno noticed the hall was much different compared to last night when they had dinner, back then the hall was filled with wooden tables and chairs accommodating several witchers.

Now however, furniture was completely cleared off, allowing all the children to fit inside in uniform lines.

Seeing people hesitating to be at the front Zeno pushed through the snotty brats who were either trembling in fear or having dreams of being a master Witcher and got in front of everyone.

By the time he was at the front he had a frown on his face. Luckily his tolerance for children had grown considerably in the past years.

Meanwhile Geralt who had followed him had the nastiest glare a child could have, sending some nasty smiles towards some particularly loud children.

'I guess he is taking the abandonment pretty well.' Zeno thought wryly.

{No shit! I could give him a hug if I could. To all of them...} Ouryuu sniffed, gazing at the children.

[I think you should just take a nap during the trials...] System suggested.

{No... I must watch it. I can't just turn a blind eye towards such cruelty.} Ouryuu commented.

'...' Zeno was flabbergasted, his secondary personalities are getting more developed than he ever got.

_______

Soon Deglan came in the hall, following after him were the magicians of the school who actually handled the mutagenic alchemy

"Quiet down brats! I am pretty sure all of you were informed what will be happening." Deglan spoke looking over the children.

Seeing them nodding meekly he continued to speak. "As some of you may know, the first trial is called The Choice. We won't be forcing anyone to go through with the Witcher training. It is your own choice, if you accept you will start by changing your diet to these special mushrooms and herbs and get started on the training..."

"... If you decline, we will give you back to wherever we got you from when the spring arrives. Or you can just stay here and become a servant like Old Harkon. Now those who want to go through with the training raise your hands." Deglan finished his speech and looked at the children.

Children looked at each other, already seeing the majority raising their hands. They too followed suit and raised theirs, soon there wasn't a child who hadn't raised their hand.

Deglan nodded and gestured to the witchers waiting with baskets full of mushrooms and herbs and some weird blue juice that was being filled to cups.

"If you really want this, go ahead. Your training starts immediately after you eat your breakfast." Deglan declared and left the hall.

Though the magicians didn't leave, they were inspecting the children with a scientific gaze making them all tremble.

Zeno ignored the gazes that remained on him a bit longer than the rest and got his rations of mushrooms and herbs.

He wasn't worried about the magicians, they would all die in the sacking anyway, Zeno wouldn't stop the sacking since most of the people here knew about the golden serpent that brought him.

Zeno had his own conclusions about that serpent and even if one of them was true he'd consider killing the most of the untrustworthy witchers here himself.

Getting rid of the murderous thoughts Zeno ate the mushrooms and washed the herbs down his throat with the blue juice he was given.

Immediately his stomach protested with a terrible ache but Zeno didn't mind the pain. It wasn't going away like usual, no doubt due to magical properties of the food but Zeno used to function perfectly with tremendous amounts of pain.

He looked over to Geralt who was now somewhat green due to disgust and decided that he needed to gather more friends.

'Lambert and Eskel should be here as well as Remus since Geralt seems to be the Netflix version. I might as well befriend them since I know they will survive.' Zeno thought but he didn't look for them.

Instead he followed Vesemir who was supposed to give them their first lesson in fencing.

Zeno would have preferred to go to another witcher school instead of this but it seems that his destiny was already decided.

_______

The place where the fencing training took place was a mess, Zeno honestly didn't want to see how messy this keep will get after the sacking if it was already this bad.

Vesemir stood next to the weapons rack with a glare, he was definitely not expecting to instruct the newborn calves on how to swing their sticks.

"All right, now listen up because I am going to do this once before I leave you to yourselves. This is how you use a sword..." Following his talk Vesemir showed a series of stances and various attacks which included some pirouettes that excited the children.

Afterwards he threw a training sword to Zeno who was standing at the front and said." Your turn kid, just try to replicate the moves I showed."

That killed all the excitement the children had and now they were worrying about their own turns.

Zeno shrugged and weighted the dull blade in his hand noting that it was heavier than his biomass sword before he did the same moves as Vesemir without fault.

"..." Vesemir.

"*Smug!*" Zeno.

Vesemir was stunned for a second before he came back to himself, the children were clapping Zeno as he was deconstructing the moves Vesemir showed so the children could actually understand them.

A vein throbbed on Vesemir's temple before his eyes grew determined and he finally decided to take the teaching seriously.

Once Vesemir taught them the basics, the time they had was all used up. After the fencing they ran around the keep until their legs gave out.

Zeno overheard the Witchers talking about how it was going to be some show when they let the childeren on the killer trail.

By the time everyone was on the ground, there was only a handful left who hadn't fallen unconscious. Zeno's immortality made sure he recovered instantly, sure he was hurting all over due to the mushrooms and herbs but he could still move.

So he carried the children who literally passed out on the floor while running, seeing him the other children helped as well. It wasn't for some altruistic reason either, Zeno noticed he was earning Karmic Virtue just by being a decent human being.

[Well, the conditions of earning Karmic Virtue are based on the world's standards.] System informed.

{That is messed up.} Ouryuu commented.

'It just means more Karmic Virtue for me.' Zeno smiled softly as he laid another child to their makeshift bed in the stables.

'This kid is too soft...' Vesemir shook his head looking at Zeno and the rest carrying the children. 'Then again it creates comradery amongst them.'