Vizima City, the capital of the Kingdom of Temeria.
This is the largest, newest, and most developed port city in the entire kingdom, directly ruled by King Foltest and belonging to the Temerian royal family.
Tens of thousands of residents live in this city, along with several small towns in the Vizima suburbs and surrounding areas, the royal army, and various villages, factories, and production centers established to serve these residents, forming the most densely populated area in the entire kingdom.
Of course, these statistics sound impressive, but for Guilliman, who once lived in a super-modern city with tens of millions of people, what they called the 'kingdom's capital' was just a slightly larger town, not worth too much surprise.
By the time he rode the elf woman's tall horse and rushed to the country inn Mrs. Ryanna mentioned, the sun hanging in the sky had already begun to slowly set, and it was nearing dusk.
This was a huge inn, roughly half the size of a football field.
Besides a large vegetable patch behind the inn for growing their own food, there were stables, outhouses, a blacksmith's shop, a tavern, lodging, and a whole host of other buildings.
They were clustered together, interconnected, and there was also a spacious courtyard for guests to stroll, dry clothes, chat, and so on; the facilities were quite complete.
Not only that, but a wooden fence made of hundreds of huge logs, each over a person's height, was built around the inn, completely blocking the threat of various wild beasts and small monsters, giving people a strong sense of security.
When Guilliman pushed open the inn's main door and entered the tavern hall, it was already filled with a large crowd of travelers from all over the country.
Various accents, shouts, curses, boasts, and singing filled the air.
A bard with a wide-brimmed hat, playing a lute, seemed to be singing the story of the legendary witcher, Geralt.
A group of tall, bare-chested boxers covered in tattoos occupied a corner of the inn's hall, organizing an exciting bare-knuckle boxing match with many onlookers.
And in another corner of the inn, several women, gaudily dressed, scantily clad, revealing large areas of smooth skin, and quite curvaceous, were enticing customers with seductive tones and gazes.
This lively and boisterous atmosphere made Guilliman feel a little tempted, wanting to experience medieval tavern culture.
Unfortunately, an urgent commission prevented him from taking the time, so he could only give up.
He composed himself, feeling a slight regret, and after scanning the hall, he keenly spotted his target.
It was a thin, haggard, and dejected half-elf middle-aged man, covering his forehead with both hands, either weeping or lost in thought.
Guilliman didn't stand on ceremony. He quickly walked over and sat opposite the man, then tapped the table with his hand and said in a deep voice:
"Mr. Scott, I am a witcher hired by your wife, Mrs. Ryanna. I am here to help you find your daughter, Miko."
"Can you tell me what clues you've found today?"
Hearing his voice, the man named Scott slowly raised his head, his eyes red and bloodshot, as if he hadn't slept all night.
He didn't doubt Guilliman's identity. Instead, he covered his face with his hands in despair, almost whimpering:
"Oh, my Miko."
"I haven't found anything."
"I've pleaded with the guards, questioned the village chief here, sought out the leader of the mercenaries, and even went to beg the town's priest, merchants, and even beggars."
"I knelt on the ground, begging them, but they all said they knew nothing and told me nothing, as if my daughter had been taken by a demon."
"Ah, boo hoo hoo!"
Watching the half-elf man in front of him cry so helplessly, Guilliman suddenly felt a bit speechless.
Hey, hey, hey, you're the pillar of the family! It's only been less than a day; you should at least hold on a bit longer.
He grumbled inwardly, but his face remained expressionless.
Alas, in the information-scarce Middle Ages, ordinary mortals were indeed helpless against criminals, especially organized, violent, and protected ones.
After a few seconds of consideration, he asked Scott for the addresses of the people he had just mentioned, as well as some other basic information, and then turned and left.
In fact, before coming here, Guilliman already had some suspicions.
In this era, human trafficking was rampant.
And those who would abduct a young elf girl, besides some supernatural influences, would primarily be gang members, cult organizations, local thugs, or certain perverted nobles.
Whether it was to sell her for money or for some special fetish, their suspicion was always the greatest.
Moreover, at this time, it was less than a year until the beginning of the game The Witcher 1.
The Salamandra gang, the largest evil gang in Vizima City in the game, should have already been established and was rapidly expanding with the funding of the Order of the Flaming Rose.
This was a despicable organization of scoundrels who would stop at nothing to make money, engaging in drug trafficking, extortion, human trafficking, murder, and robbery.
In his mind, there was an 80% chance that this kidnapping case was done by the Salamandra gang; finding them would surely lead to some clues.
Anyway, they were just a bunch of heinous scoundrels, even more detestable than the idiotic commoners. It was better to kill a few innocent ones than let a guilty one go; killing them would be completely guilt-free.
Unfortunately, this gang was currently in a secretive phase, and their hiding place was unknown.
Guilliman used his keen witcher hearing to secretly investigate the tavern, but he couldn't find any drug dealers, not even a single clue about the Salamandra gang.
He sighed and decided not to waste time here. While the sky hadn't completely darkened, he turned and rode his horse away from the inn, heading towards the town where the priest was located.
According to the information he obtained, this so-called priest was actually a cleric of the Eternal Fire cult.
He had been propagating the doctrines of the Eternal Fire in the small town on the outskirts of Vizima City for many years, where he had numerous followers, was deeply entrenched, and held extremely high prestige, an existence that ordinary people could not offend.
However, unfortunately...
The world of the witcher indeed had many gods; powerful gods could move mountains and fill seas, omnipotent, and even weaker gods could perform many miracles that seemed impossible to ordinary people.
But as the most popular and mainstream cult in the North, the Eternal Fire cult's revered Eternal Fire was a complete fraud, a fictional divine image with no supernatural abilities whatsoever.
From the most esteemed archbishops to the priests scattered in almost every human town and village, everyone in this cult was a glib-tongued charlatan, full of talk about benevolence and morality, but in reality, only capable of swindling, cheating, and having no real skills.
What this cult excelled at was deceiving ignorant commoners, inciting emotions, and manipulating public opinion to achieve their own goals.
And eighty percent of the witchers' bad reputation in the North was caused by this damned religion.
If it weren't for the Eternal Fire cult being wealthy enough to form a powerful cult military force, these religious swindlers, who only collected money and cheated people throughout the North, would have been devoured alive by the nobles long ago.
However, the deterrent power of the Eternal Fire only existed in the secular world, only among ordinary people who feared their cult's armed forces.
For our Witcher lord, these scoundrels, who could only show off among ordinary people, were merely lambs to be slaughtered.