The Divine Hunter

f I get the chance.

***

Letho’s guess was probably right on the money.
The caravan was out of the monster’s territory a short while later, and they weren’t attacked either.
The next couple of nights were uneventful, though Roy tended to most of Letho’s needs, so Letho spent most of his time recovering.
Thanks to that, he regained part of his strength.

Also, Amos seemed to be really salty about his losses, so he asked his troupe members to challenge Roy.
Roy, ever the welcoming boy, accepted their challenges and made a small fortune.

Since then, everyone looked at him weirdly.
They were fearful, but also angry.
The only one who ever won against him was Eveline, and that was only because Roy let her.
When Amos found out about that, he stopped haunting Eveline.
He was ashamed to even talk to her, since it meant she was a better player than him by extension.

“At least he knows his place.” But he keeps looking at me like he has some plans lying in wait.
Roy wanted to teach him a lesson, but he was on someone else’s turf, so he refrained from doing so.

He was also annoyed about something else.
The troupe had been keeping a close eye on them, albeit subtly at times.
But that couldn’t escape his perception.
He could feel the members’ eyes on them at all times.
Even Eveline was supervising him, and she was genuinely nice to him.
Everyone else was just pretending to respect them.

He never felt so annoyed before, not even back in Kaer or Mount Carbon.
It was the first time he felt that upset when someone so blatantly distrusted them.
It was worse than facing off against a bloodthirsty monster.

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He was a human boy to begin with.
Even though he’d seen the discrimination faced by the witchers, the full effect didn’t hit him until he was at the receiving end.
Letho once told him, “Monsters aren’t the first problem new witchers will run into; it’s the change in humans’ attitude.
Most spend years getting used to the discrimination.
Humans are social creatures, but witchers have to learn to live alone.”

I have to face monsters and humans’ bad attitude, huh? Best not to dwell on it.
I should meditate.
Roy started spending more time on meditation, just like Letho did.
And half a day had passed since then.

Something interesting also happened over the next couple of days.
Roy noticed Alan leaving camp one night with his owl, Arri.
He went into the bushes outside the camp area, and he didn’t even bring any weapons with him.
When Roy looked into it, he realized Alan was doing the same thing every night.

“Owls are nocturnal animals, so I can understand why it goes out at night, but why’d Alan go along? He’s not much better than a normal guy.
He’ll get himself killed by going into the forest at night.”

Letho’s necklace didn’t detect any magic from the troupe members, so Roy knew Alan didn’t have any magical items on him.
Alan kept bringing Arri into the forest every night, until the fifth day came.