Witcher: Master Kiliman’s Grand Ambitions-Chapter 7: Noble Tomb

After obtaining the information he wanted, Kiriman felt considerably more relaxed.
He casually accepted the cherry honey wine handed over by the innkeeper’s wife, took a sip while tilting his head back, and continued to ask:
“Are there any witcher contracts in this village?”
“I’ll be staying here for a few days. If there are any contracts, I can try to take them.”
The innkeeper’s wife was not surprised by his words. She seemed to have already guessed his identity as a witcher. She merely focused on preparing the food, her expression somewhat teasing, and replied with a hint of mockery:
“Now the whole world is at war. The king’s tax officials come here again and again, and the little money people have is already gone.”
“For outsiders, if you’re willing to work for free, then there are several contracts here that need help.”
“But if you want to earn money, only the lord of White Orchard can afford to pay you for work.”
Kiriman asked casually, without much expectation.
No matter the era, poverty was the most terrifying thing. Unless a person's life or wealth was truly at stake, ordinary people preferred to face more dangers rather than spend money on risks.
This was why, despite monsters roaming many places, witchers had trouble finding work.
Everyone was too poor; their pockets were emptier than their faces, simply unable to afford to hire witchers.
Kiriman certainly did not want to work for free; he did not have Geralt’s strong sense of justice.
He picked up the food he had ordered, ready to leave, when suddenly the innkeeper’s wife said again:
“But you can go see the herbalist Tomira, or the dwarf blacksmith Wilis.”
“I’ve heard some recent news; they seem to need help. You might get contracts from them.”
The herbalist and dwarf blacksmith?
They seemed like two characters who had appeared in the main game storyline.
Thinking about the pile of beast pelts and forest specialties in his storage space that he could sell, Kiriman felt it was necessary to visit them even if he didn’t get contracts.
He smiled and nodded at the innkeeper’s wife, thanking her for the information, then found a table. He leisurely enjoyed his lunch while using his keen witcher hearing to eavesdrop on the conversations around him.
Unfortunately, these drinkers were all ordinary people, and their topics were limited—either trivial matters or useless content.
The only thing that caught his attention was when merchants and scholars talked about an outbreak of plague in the city of Vizima. The scale was large, with many people already sick and urgently needing treatment.
The Flaming Rose Knights had ordered restrictions on movement, so entering Vizima directly would be very difficult for a while. One would need a pass or the sponsorship of a reputable person.
However, that was a problem for later.
Next, Kiriman spent half the afternoon exploring White Orchard village. He visited the herbalist Tomira and the dwarf blacksmith Wilis in succession.
The former was a beautiful female herbalist in her twenties, while the latter was a sturdy dwarf with a large beard.
He sold all the spoils he had obtained from the Hunter Brothers to them, keeping only some useful items.
Then he bought some herbs from the herbalist and had his witcher silver sword re-plated with silver. His funds reached more than two hundred and fifty Orens, a modest fortune.
Yes, that’s right.
The most valuable item on Kiriman was his silver sword, which was merely a high-quality Temeria longsword coated with a layer of silver.
After every battle, he needed to take it to the blacksmith for repairs; otherwise, it would lose its ability to exploit monsters’ weaknesses.
A real witcher silver sword was not only expensive but also required professional blueprints.
At his current stage, he could not obtain such a fine weapon.
That was why Kiriman prioritized White Orchard; his goal was the Viper School equipment blueprints on Kovirghm’s body.
………………
At dusk, the sunset bathed the land in a golden afterglow.
Kiriman arrived alone near the noble cemetery outside White Orchard village, fully prepared for battle.
The current lord of White Orchard was named Ignatius Veriles, a lesser baron in the Kingdom of Temeria—almost the lowest-ranking noble aside from the knight class.
But even so, as a long-inherited noble family, the Veriles family tomb was not small. Just the outer cemetery had over a hundred tombstones standing tall, with an exquisite marble statue decorating the graveyard.
The family’s key members were buried deeper underground in crypts, well preserved.
Kiriman had some understanding of this lord of White Orchard.
In fact, he was quite an unlucky fellow.
As a noble, his management ability was terrible, his territory was small, and his living conditions were not much better than many wealthy merchants—only a rural noble.
In the current war situation, a rural noble like him had no real ability to resist and could only go with the flow, being at others’ mercy. So he was constantly depressed and under great pressure.
What made it worse was his only son had issues with his sexual orientation; not only did he like men, but he was also involved with the family’s hunter, secretly meeting in the manor and engaging in unsavory dealings.
When the lord discovered this, he was furious and immediately expelled the hunter, intending to properly educate his son. Unexpectedly, his son committed suicide by hanging.
The death of the sole heir meant the Veriles bloodline was broken and the family lost its legacy.
This caused the fifty-something lord to become completely dissolute, turning into a drunken, reckless fool.
During the following period, he brought much torment to the people of White Orchard, causing many tragedies.
Several quests in the game related to White Orchard involved this foolish noble lord.
Perhaps one reason Kovirghm was sent into the tomb as a scapegoat was connected to this.
Kiriman recalled the information he knew and turned his gaze toward the tomb, looking for signs of the enemy.
Unfortunately, wraiths were a very special kind of monster.
They could become invisible, undetectable to ordinary people, and were more intelligent than common monsters, making them among the more dangerous low-level demons.
Without proper items to suppress wraiths, ordinary people would be slaughtered.
Even a seasoned witcher like Kovirghm could suffer defeat if unprepared against a horde of wraiths.
Kiriman was confident in himself but knew he had to act cautiously. Otherwise, this tomb might end up with two dead witchers.
After several minutes of observation yielded nothing, he stopped hesitating. Gripping his silver sword tightly, he coated the blade with the wraith oil he had painstakingly refined, then stepped into the graveyard.
Barely a few meters inside, before he could even get used to the terrain, a cold, gloomy wind enveloped him.
Uh! Uh! Uh!
Accompanied by chilling wailing, a terrifying ghost appeared before him—its body translucent, draped in tattered clothing.