Chapter 35:Title below (4/5)

<b><i>The one who was condemned by the majority is not always the one who is to blame</i></b>

A few hours passed before the kid fell asleep, and August left him to relax. August went to get Geralt and later go back to the city.

When August was about to leave, Nenneke get a grip on his arm and said in a deadly serious voice with her face fully devoid of emotions, "August, I beg you, do not create a bloodbath. Keep your temper in control. "

With a snort, August replied, taking his hand back. "I will take Geralt along"

"He won't stop you," replied Nenneke with a heavy sigh, "He will barely be just the slight inconvenience that you will walk through"

"Tsk" August clicked his tongue and said in a slightly annoyed voice, "I will try, can't promise anything"

August made his way to the site where Witchers trained and found most of them there playing with Hans and not training. August rolled his eyes and walked toward the only one that was training here - Geralt and approached him saying, "Geralt, I need your assistance".

Geralt nodded his head, asking, "What happened?"

August confusingly inquired, feeling a kind of lost by Geralt's response. "Why are you asking such a question? It is not like I only talk to others about tasks".

Geralt replied with a slight smile, "No, you do just that"

August frowned and skipped the topic, not putting his mind on this anymore. "I require your help" with a slight pause, August explained what exactly happened, starting from an encounter with a child.

After hearing the story, the one confused was Geralt, since he did not know why would August ask for his help. "But why do you need my help?"

August explained with a frown, "I don't want to exterminate the entire city accidentally"

Geralt almost spat a mouth full of blood when he heard 'accidentally'. With a quick nod, Geralt went to pack in a hurry. "Meet me in 5 minutes at the entrance. I need to grab a few things".

….

Both Geralt and August made their way towards the city and approached the gates. For obvious reasons they were wearing hoods, to hide who they are, since August didn't leave the city nicely.

But they were surprised to see nobody at the gates. A lot of sounds were coming from the main square, but it had little importance to August. August leaded the way towards the house where the kid's mother was.

Upon arriving, they found nothing there, nobody, no trace of blood or the intense cruelty that was present just a few hours ago. Feeling something fishy, both August and Geralt made their way towards the central square, seeing a large crowd all around. In the middle, at some height, stood Lord of the city.

All the street was enveloped with cheers, with words of citizens about how they admired their Lord, how they value him.

"Wahne Issos bless you, goddess"

"We love you, Lord Wahne"

He is loved by the citizens of his city. That, however, didn't justify the acts he committed in the dark, those acts that never got revealed.

Both August and Geralt just observed what this man is going to say and what the curtains were hiding. There is definitely something he wants to show to others.

The man asked for silence, gesturing with his arms to silence the crowd. When everything calmed down, the man spoke in a powerful and inspiring voice.

"Greetings, citizens of Ellander! How is your life?"

The response was explosive. People were shouting words of support and gratitude.

"Good!"

"Excellent"

"Everything is because of you Lord"

Lord continued, "Thank you, thank you. You all are flattering me. It is not just my achievement, but yours as well. Without you, outstanding citizens of this city, Ellander, this city would never bloom as it blooms right now. I came here and gathered all of you here to first thank every single one of you. You have been very supportive of initiatives that we are introducing in the city, and I can't thank you enough to express the amount of gratitude I feel when such vigorous support is coming my way from your side."

"But this is not all. Lately, our city has faced horrible events taking place. Yes, I'm ashamed to admit it, but I must do it to stay loyal to all of you. Noble and brave soldiers of this wonderful place that protected this wonderful city were killed without a bit of mercy."

The crowd was enveloped in a negative response, with anger boiling inside, "Kill those guilty"

"Burn them of fire"

"For worrying our lord, they must face the cruellest punishment, executing via setting on fire"

The lord pointed in the man's direction that screamed those words and with a nasty smirk on his face, announced, "Exactly, like this brave and courageous man just said. I thought the same thing. Nobody may impel this place as they want, handicap our city in the chaos of blood and horrible deaths."

Taking a pause, he continued, "And that is the reason I gathered all of you here. One who wreaks havoc inside the walls of Ellander must be punished. There is nothing better than fire that can purify their sins against the honest folks of this city. I must announce 'Executing of the Witch with purifying holy fire'. She dared to kill your honest husbands that were serving in the military and tried to catch such a lawless witch and in the process, they were killed giving their lives for their duty."

Once again, the crowd demanded the blood of the witch. They were no longer thinking with their head. Instead, their entire thoughts process was captured by the crowd.

"BURN THE WITCH"

"SEND HER TO THE PUNISHMENT OF THE GODS"

"SHE HAS NO RIGHT TO BE AMONG US HONEST FOLKS. LET THE GODS BE THE JUDGE".

Lord continued, "I announce". He turned in the curtain's direction and spread his arms wide in a graceful posture. With that, the curtains revealed a woman that was covered in bruises, but all the blood and dirt were removed from her. Her glassy eyes were staring in the distance, completely ignoring the crowd, showing no response. They were just non-existent to her.

August, seeing the woman, wanted to dash at the man right this moment and behead him this immediate moment. But a firm grip held him.

August looked at Geralt, whose bloodthirsty eyes were expressing extreme anger. August didn't care and said in a commanding voice, "Let go of me Geralt, I must deliver this bastard a feel of my sword."

Geralt gritted his teeth and replied, while applying all of his strength to hold August, "Stop, brother. There is too much witness here. I'm with you, but let's do it when nobody can see, and we won't endanger all of those that are innocent. Remember, those here also have children. If you start a massacre here, many people will die and you won't make it out alive. I wish for no such an end".

Reluctantly, August stopped, but this didn't stop the anger boiling inside of him.

The Lord continued, "Let's proceed and give this awful witch a taste of enteral fire, undying raging fire. This fire will light a path ahead of us and will never let us die, showing us a way to survive. This will be a sign of progression and better days to come. LET THE ETERNAL FIRE BURN, LET THE ENTERAL FIRE BURN WITHIN YOU, FUELING THE FIRE THAT PURIFIES OUR LAND OF EVIL!"

With that said, a lot of soldiers brought torches setting up the gigantic construction made of wood with a woman that hardly could perceive what is happening around her and where she is.

Huge fire enveloped her, but not a single scream reached the ears of the crowd, only a slight whisper that the ears of the Witchers could catch. "I hope you are safe, Albert..."

Suddenly August felt a hand on his shoulder, turning around his eyes dangerously shrank, showing extreme hostility. There stood...

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Do I need to say anything?