Chapter 40: Three Minutes to Master Noble Disguise
Arthur suddenly felt a prickling sensation on his arm; Triss had broken his barrier and rushed toward Mara and her son.
She gently patted Mara's back with one hand and stroked Everett's head with the other, softly chanting: "Do not fear, do not grieve. Living well is the greatest comfort to your loved ones."
After repeating the mantra several times, Mara gradually calmed down, and young Everett fell into a deep sleep in his mother's embrace.
"Is my husband truly dead?" Mara looked up at Triss, desperately trying to suppress the tremor in her voice.
The Sorceress did not answer the question, but her expression and Arthur's sigh provided the answer.
Mara clenched her teeth tightly against her lip, not releasing the pressure even when beads of bright red blood appeared. Her gaze was vacant, as if looking at something very far away. For a moment, Arthur thought this poor woman would collapse.
But less than a minute later, she wiped away her tears:
"You suggested I do some business in Flotsam. Do you have any suggestions?"
This woman had completed the psychological transition from widow to single mother in under a minute.
Kolgrim: "I've been to Novigrad. Apart from luxury goods, everything there is outrageously expensive. I heard prices are lower in Flotsam. Perhaps you could replicate your lumber business methods there and reopen the door to fortune."
Triss immediately objected: "Novigrad is complex, with powers that Vizima can't compare to. Nobles, guilds, gangs, and the Church. Offend any one of them and you won't survive."
"In my opinion, you should only operate in Flotsam first. When you have gathered enough information, then consider moving to Novigrad."
At this point, the Sorceress suddenly paused, then laughed mockingly:
"How could I forget? There's an even better way to gain a foothold in Novigrad than by starting a business you can continue to impersonate a noble."
"While it won't grant you any actual privileges, it will help you avoid many unnecessary hassles."
Mara's eyes flickered, and she said with little confidence: "I still don't understand the noble customs very well. Heraldry is simply too complicated…"
Triss chuckled, covering her chest:
"Please forgive me, but that day I deliberately intended to play a little trick, which is why I rattled off all that information to you."
"Since you are only impersonating a noble to avoid trouble, there are many shortcuts you can take. The simplest of which you can use right away."
The Royal Sorceress's words were intriguing, and even Arthur couldn't help but perk up his ears.
A quick-fix method for playing a noble?
Triss said: "You can pretend to be a woman who won the lottery with a stroke of luck. When someone strikes up a conversation, if they look like a noble, you say, 'My husband does such-and-such…'"
"And if the person doesn't look like a noble, you say, 'I don't speak to commoners.' This way, whether they are noble or commoner, they will hold their noses and keep their distance!"
Mara's eyes lit up: "That truly is a great method, but…"
She nervously twisted her fingers: "In the past, my husband was responsible for delivering goods to the lords. I'm not very good at distinguishing who is a noble…"
"That part is very simple." Kolgrim stepped forward, pointing to his face:
"People whose expressions look dead and lifeless when looking at everything, like mine, are nobles. And people whose clothes are ragged like mine are commoners."
Adda jumped out and asked: "Then, what about people whose expressions are as dead and lifeless as yours, and whose clothes are also as ragged as yours?"
Kolgrim chuckled: "Then, of course, that would be a Witcher a noble brute."
He mimicked the Northern accent of a noble's coarse language so vividly that even the coachman laughed.
But Mara still felt the need for security: "But what if that person manages to restrain themselves and asks about my husband?"
Triss thought, if someone can endure all that, they're only going to care about when your husband is coming home.
But she patiently replied: "Your previous story about the 'Knight of the Throne' is quite suitable high status and few in number, making it harder to expose the lie."
She raised her hand and pointed at Arthur:
"Look, when the time comes, you just describe him, only saying he's a bit older."
Arthur didn't immediately catch on, pointing to himself in disbelief: "Me?"
Triss emitted a pleasant 'Hmph' from her nose: "Don't doubt it. As far as I've seen, you are the most convincing Knight of the Throne to ever pretend to be a Knight of the Throne."
By this time, the coachman had reloaded the luggage onto the carriage, so Triss waved her hand: "It's getting late. I'll tell you more about this boy on the road."
...
Listening to the laughter of the women and children intermittently erupting from the great carriage, Arthur couldn't help but sigh at the profound lack of entertainment these people endured.
Triss had told his story from start to finish no less than five times (only changing the reason for killing the Lord to a secret decree from the King), yet these people never tired of it.
Mara, especially, seemed particularly fond of the part about Arthur returning to White Orchard. Each time she heard about Arthur shooting down the gate with a pistol and a sword stroke, she would let out an excited shriek, nearly shaking the young buds from the branches.
Perhaps she simply wished her own husband had met a Knight as iron-willed and extraordinarily brave as him.
Arthur restlessly shifted in his saddle. To guard against a renewed attack from the mounted patrol, he and Kolgrim rode on horses, one in front and one behind the carriage, acting as outriders.
The patrolling was nothing; Arthur was even hoping to test the effectiveness of his [Expert]-level swordsmanship on those brutal riders.
The real difficulty was the riding. Sitting on the saddle for so long, Arthur felt blood blisters forming on his inner thighs and buttocks.
Fortunately, the hardship was not in vain. As the sky grew dim once more, a line of text reappeared on the earthy-yellow road:
[Horsemanship proficiency has increased. Current level: Apprentice]
[You sit more steadily on the saddle]
Hmm, looks like a brand new skill.
As for the effect, Arthur was quite satisfied: the moment the text appeared, he felt the saddle beneath him was not as hard or as bouncy as before.
"You look like a seasoned cavalryman now," Kolgrim remarked when they set up camp: "Sometimes I truly don't understand. It seems no matter what skill is related to combat, you always grasp it in the blink of an eye."
Isn't that the truth!
After all these days, Arthur finally figured out the nature of the cheat he possessed:
Skills used when personally engaging in combat as long as the basic conditions were met were learned instantly and perfected quickly.
Skills not used personally but that enhanced combat ability, such as alchemy and horsemanship, allowed him to easily gain experience and intuition that took others decades to accumulate.
However, if a skill was neither related to combat nor directly helped improve his fighting ability, he had to rely on his own sweat and intellect to study it the most typical example being the shield spell used for simple weather protection.
...............
AN: For early access to advanced 80 chapters on P-a-treon:
Join now: P-a-treon/Chaos_God
(Just remove the- hyphen to access normally)
Thank You so much For your Support and for Reading!