Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

The man that Olivia met was the legendary witcher from the School of the Wolf [1] – Geralt of Rivia. Geralt had milk-white hair. The dryads in Bronkilon called him ‘Gwynbleidd,’ which meant ‘White Wolf’ in Elder Speech [2]. His other alias was far less noble – ‘Butcher of Blaviken’ [3], a name that had been forced upon him after a bloody incident which occurred in the town of Blaviken.

In Blaviken, Geralt had slaughtered Renfri and her band to save the lives of the innocent villagers of Blaviken. To the commoners, what Geralt did was random massacre. Little did they know that Renfri and her band had been planning to slaughter the villagers of Blaviken.

From this incident alone, it became apparent that Geralt the witcher was nothing like the traditional witcher. Witchers from the Continent obeyed rules like so:

1. Strictly abide by neutrality, and never involve themselves in political and commercial conspiracies.

2. Only kill monsters if you want to and/or the pay is good. The payment is negotiable and would be directly proportional to the risks involved. Never work for free, and never ask for sky-high payments.

3. Never accept commissions other than killing monsters. You are not allowed to be mercenaries or assassins. You are not allowed to kill intelligent non-human races. You are not allowed to slay beasts and creatures that are harmless to humans. Never accept tasks that require you to disperse locusts or rats.

4. If you had to abandon your righteousness and point your sword at humans because of your own conscience or certain situations, then you must silently leave after doing it. You are not allowed to receive rewards or other benefits because of this.

The so-called ‘Witchers’ Code’ was more like a set of workplace professional ethics code. It was put together by the culmination of elder witchers’ experiences and life-lessons. It aimed to reduce the rejection and discrimination from humans by maintaining the witchers’ neutrality and discreetness. At the same time, they could avoid being made used of, or disbanded by the political powers that preyed on them. In reality, this ‘Witchers’ Code’ was just a personal moral constraint. If a witcher willingly breached the Witchers’ Code, he would not be subject to any form of legal action.

Olivia obviously did not know who Geralt was. However, Geralt currently sat atop a brown, beautiful large horse. He wore a set of witchers’ armor from the School of the Wolf that set him apart from regular knights. He looked dominating and powerful.

Geralt was a very handsome man. However, there was an extremely ferocious scar at the left side of his face. It stretched from the top to the bottom of his face, slashing through one of his cat-like eyes. This scar had actually been inflicted by the Cockatrice [4] of Spalla [5].

Geralt was just another stranger to Olivia. As they had not interacted before, she could not check on this strongman’s past through the game system’s ‘Character Information Bar.’

From his outer appearance alone, he seemed very ferocious and tough. He was a white-haired man with a short, half-up, half-down ponytail and unkempt beard, which made him look very rogueish. Compared to the perfectly handsome Vilgefortz, he looked far more nefarious.

Olivia glanced at him for a few seconds before devoting herself to her drawing again.

However, Geralt noticed something off. As a detective, no, as a witcher, he could sense something amiss from a mile away. He would then use his cat-like eyes to follow the trail. When you long press the right-click of the mouse, the world would become dark, and clues would be illuminated in red and yellow color…

Through his observations, he discovered that this loli was around ten years old. She was dressed up elegantly and could not be a commoner. Her long silver hair reached her waist was the material of fairytales. In conclusion, this loli was most likely a noble.

There was one big issue. There were no bodyguards around her, not even one. This girl’s parents had been too negligent. Aren’t they afraid that something bad would happen to her?

This world was hostile, far too hostile for the likes of an innocent child. Fortunately, it was a relatively upright witcher who had came across her. If she had met robbers or bandits, he could not even imagine what sort of tragic end awaited her!

The truly desperate could care less about your noble blood. As long as they had the courage, nothing would stop them!

As Geralt was deep in thought, his brow furrowed. A thick fog was slowly surrounding him and the girl!

It was still hours before sunset. A moment ago, their surroundings had been surrounded by dazzling sunrays. Fog did not simply appear at this time…

The surrounding area’s visibility plummeted. A bright light appeared, not far away from the fog. It gave other people a feeling of warmth, tempting people to walk there.

Geralt saw the elegant, delicate-looking girl actually set her pencil down. She looked at the bright light in curiosity and made to walk towards it!

Geralt scolded this pampered brat in his heart. He quickly dismounted and stopped the girl’s movements. He used his pleasant, mellow growl and whispered, “If you are ever in the swamp at night, it would be better for you to stay put and wait for dawn, even if you have to stand waist-deep in water infested with leeches. If you ever see a bright light in the fog, you should never, ever walk towards it.”

Olivia had a blank look on her face. Her voice was innocent and gentle, which could easily bring out the protective nature of others. Naively, she quipped, “Swamp? But we are just at the border of the forest…”

On the other hand, Geralt had already drawn his silver blade. He took out a bottle of Necrophage oil [6] and applied it on himself, and said as if he was reciting lines out of a monster manual, “The fog is the enemy of travelers. In the forest, it could get one lost. At sea, it could cause ships to collide with rocks. However, such dangers pale into insignificance, if compared to the monsters known as foglers. Foglers have powerful arms and claws, yet their true danger lie in their mastery of deception, bewitchery, and confusion. The foglers need not attack people. Instead, they just have to drive their prey into madness and make them walk into the swamp. Then, they would just have to wait for their prey to drown in the waters. Little girl, you are lucky that you met me, a professional Witcher today. If not…”

Geralt did not have to say anything else, but the meaning of his words was self-evident. If he had not been there, then the foglers would have butchered this cute loli. Then, they would eat her to the core of her bones.

However, to Geralt’s surprise, this ‘weak and delicate’ girl did not seem one bit bothered. On the contrary, she looked excited.

What he did not know was this girl had just received a green-colored ‘Witcher Quest’ – Assist the witcher in slaying foglers.

The quest’s rewards consisted of skill points. Other than that, there was actually a ‘Foglet Dedoction’ [8].

Translation note:

[1] “School of the Wolf” (狼学派) known in Nilfgaard as the Order of Witchers, is a school of witchers headquartered at Kaer Morhen in Kaedwen.

[2] “Elder Speech” (古语), also Hen Llinge is the language of the Aen Seidhe elves. As it is one of the oldest languages still in use, it is referred to as the Old or Elder Speech while the lingua franca is Common Speech.

[3] “Butcher of Blaviken” (布拉维坎的屠夫) is one of Geralt’s aliases. Geralt gained the moniker after what transpired in the story “The Lesser Evil”.

[4] “Cockatrice” (石化鸡蛇) also known as a skoffin and kurolishek, is an ornithosaur.

[5] “Spalla” (斯巴拉) is a fortress in the kingdom of Lyria and Rivia, just north of the Yaruga river from Dol Angra.

[6] “Necrophage oil” (食尸生物油) is an Oil in the Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. There are Standard, Enhanced, and Superior versions of this Oil.

[7] “Foglers” (小雾妖) are magical beings said to have arrived during the Conjunction of the Spheres. They tend to be found mainly in swamps, forests, or in the mountains and lure their prey into traps using magic. They have glowing eyes and mouths, keen ears and long pointed fingers and feed on the bodies of their victims.

[8] “Foglet Dedoction” (小雾妖煎药) is a potion in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.