Tissaia de Vries, after the likes of Alzur and Cosimo, was one of the oldest sorceresses still alive.

Although she belonged to the same tier of high-ranking sorceresses as Yennefer and others, her power had long since far surpassed Yennefer's, being just a step away from legendary status.

Now, though she had relinquished the heavy responsibilities of Aretuza, entrusting the rectorship to her student Margarita, she wasn't a completely hands-off manager. She still cared for Aretuza and its students in her own way.

While not at the same time or place, Tissaia's philosophy aligned perfectly with that of Grandmaster Vesemir of the School of the Wolf.

Tissaia also wished to prevent Aretuza from being embroiled in the vortex of political strife, and she certainly didn't want to see her students used by the ambitions and desires of the Northern monarchs, sacrificing themselves for futile causes.

But maintaining neutrality among the Northern Kingdoms was far from simple. Aretuza Academy was located in Gorthur Gwillt, which was within the Kingdom of Temeria.

The current King of Temeria, Foltest, was quite friendly towards Aretuza and had never made impolite demands for the Academy to fight for him.

However, King Vizimir of Redania, Temeria's neighbor, known as "the Just," was not like Foltest. He had, on several occasions, sent envoys to Aretuza Academy, subtly expressing his desire to offer generous terms to help the Academy solve its "graduation means unemployment" problem.

But Tissaia and Margarita had turned him away with various excuses. Nevertheless, they were unwilling to provoke King Vizimir, so they exchanged some favors with Redania in other areas, lest King Vizimir believe Aretuza had completely sided with Temeria.

As time passed, Tissaia increasingly found it difficult to maintain neutrality among the Northern Kingdoms. With the economic downturn, the lives of common people in various countries became increasingly difficult and miserable. The rising Engel coefficient led to growing resentment and hostility among the populace. Social contradictions gradually surfaced and intensified.

The kings, of course, were aware of this. They simply didn't care about the commoners but weren't so blind as to ignore the burgeoning crises. However, the kings' methods of resolving these crises were something even Tissaia, who had lived for centuries, couldn't fathom.

They had many solutions, yet they consistently chose the worst one. To maintain their positions of power, externally they incited friction and disputes between kingdoms.

Internally, they redirected the conflicts towards non-human races within their borders, thereby diverting the public's attention from repeated policy failures and the ever-widening gap between rich and poor.

In recent years, while there hadn't been any major wars among the Northern Kingdoms, small-scale border conflicts had been incessant and

continuous. As an old woman who had lived for centuries, the current state of the world truly felt rotten.

Facing such a situation, Tissaia couldn't control it, nor did she want to. She merely wished to protect Aretuza, her ideal haven, and keep her students far from conflict and the maddening power struggles that gave one a brain hemorrhage just by looking at them.

It was at this time that she suddenly noticed Triss, that naive little girl (from Tissaia's perspective), visiting Aretuza Academy much more frequently. Of course, Tissaia didn't mean that graduated female students couldn't return. It was just that this was unusually frequent.

Noticing something amiss, Tissaia deliberately engaged Triss in conversation. She then easily extracted Lynn's name and deeds from Triss's lips.

As a centuries-old sorceress, Tissaia keenly realized that this witcher named Lynn was not simple. That was why she came to meet him before he was about to leave Novigrad. She wanted to get a proper understanding of whether he had the potential to be an ally.

Seeing that Tissaia's expression was not feigned, and knowing the plot, Lynn understood Tissaia's character and true nature. He carefully considered his words and said, "The Brotherhood of Sorcerers appears to be glorious on the surface, but in reality, its situation has reached a very dangerous point."

"How so?"

"Madam Tissaia, the current rector of Aretuza Academy... if I'm not mistaken, is Margarita Laux-Antille, am I correct?"

Although she didn't understand why the topic had suddenly shifted from the Brotherhood of Sorcerers to Aretuza Academy, Tissaia still nodded: "That's right."

Lynn smiled slightly: "I heard that when you were the rector of Aretuza, the entire academy's atmosphere was very strict and rigid, but after Madam Margarita took over, the atmosphere changed completely."

Tissaia frowned, growing more puzzled. "What exactly are you trying to say? Please express your point directly."

Lynn spread his hands: "What I want to say is very simple. I'll ask you a question: if Aretuza Academy now had an advisor, and the academy had to consult that advisor's opinion for everything it did, what would you think?"

Tissaia, having lived for centuries as a sorceress, immediately understood Lynn's meaning. He was using Aretuza Academy to allude to the Northern Kingdoms, and the advisor to allude to the Brotherhood of Sorcerers.

"Your example isn't appropriate, because the royal advisors sent by the Brotherhood of Sorcerers to the Northern Kings only offer insights in magical matters and do not participate in court politics."

"Is that truly the case?" Lynn cleared his throat. He picked up his glass and took a sip of rose wine.

If you want to talk about this, then I'm wide awake. As someone who studied history in college before becoming a chef after graduation, Lynn began to recount, as if listing family treasures.

"The Six Years' War ended in 836 with the mediation of 'The White' Raffard, and a peace treaty was signed in Brugge."

"Temeria, supported by Raffard, benefited from the war, and many princes and dukes of smaller kingdoms who stood against Temeria were forced to leave their own countries."

"After 'The White' Raffard's death, King Abdank of Temeria also passed away soon after."

"Because Abdank had an intellectual deficiency, he left no heir."

"The nobles within Temeria engaged in an even longer conflict over the succession to the throne. This conflict continued until the 11th century, and because it was so protracted, the people saw no sign of its end, so it was also known as the Endless War."

"Then, this seemingly endless war, which threatened to continue until the end of the world, was brought to an end by the legendary sorcerer, Alzur."

....

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