The Witcher - As Uchiha Madara! - Chapter 227 - Novigrad.

[Chapter Size: 2600 Words.] Third Person POV Redania. ... ... After Geralt asked Dandelion to stay quiet so as not to reveal their identitie

[Chapter Size: 2600 Words.]
Third Person POV

Redania.

...

...

After Geralt asked Dandelion to stay quiet so as not to reveal their identities so openly as he was doing upon seeing them—since the guards had already been watching them since they arrived at the square—
the bard nodded, picked up his lute, and asked them to follow him. He began to lead them into an area full of alleys, very different from the part of the city where the square was.

And so they went, descending again and leaving the high part of the city, while Dandelion commented on the events that had occurred since he left Kaer Morhen, as talkative as ever, speaking about his adventures—quite hard to believe—while earning a coin here and there as he passed through the taverns.

"It's good to see you again. I've heard a lot about the mess that happened in the kingdom of Kaedwen. I might start writing some songs about you," Dandelion said, approaching Madara, looking at him with interest and a huge smile.

"I'm the most wanted person on the entire continent. It's very likely you won't end up well when you start singing songs about me. The kings and all the organizations are after me. They'll capture you immediately and throw you in some prison to torture you, even if it means dissecting you for answers," Madara replied casually, as he turned his gaze to Dandelion, who shivered upon hearing that.

"It may sound like a threat from him, but that's exactly what will happen," Geralt had to admit.

"Yeah... I guess it's better not to do that then," Dandelion murmured, stammering.

"But still... I'm surprised to see you here," Dandelion quickly changed the subject, scratching his head.

"We're just passing through. You had left Kaer Morhen before we decided to travel across the continent," Geralt replied.

"I see. Anyway, we're almost there. You're going to be surprised to see him," Dandelion said, mentioning they were going to meet an old friend of theirs but didn't reveal who it was to Geralt, hoping to surprise him.

And as they arrived in an area full of people with suspicious looks, they found dwarves guarding a gate in the alley they entered.

"Hello, gentlemen," all four saw Dandelion approaching the gate directly, greeting the guards with pieces of bread, while they scowled at Dandelion and the other four.

"You're back here, bard? When are you leaving for good?!" they muttered, a little irritated, not seeming too fond of Dandelion.

"What's this, friends? You're going to talk to me like that in front of my acquaintances? Aren't I already brightening your days with my songs?" he asked theatrically.

"You can't be serious. It's exactly because of those songs that we're annoyed, you idiot," the dwarf replied.

"That's right! You keep singing so much it's annoying! Saying things you've done, but it's impossible to believe you actually did any of that!" the other complained.

"Anyway, you can go in. But those there—who are they?" the first dwarf asked, eyeing the four hooded men suspiciously.

Madara didn't use his Mangekyō—he was hoping Dandelion could handle the situation naturally.

"They're my friends. Zoltan knows my friend and he'll clearly want to see him," Dandelion insisted, but the dwarves didn't believe him.

"You go in alone. Call him and if he allows it, then it's fine," the dwarf said.

Dandelion nodded, beginning to look at the four.
"Well... it wasn't exactly the surprise you imagined, was it, Geralt?" Dandelion said after having to reveal the name of their friend.

"Certainly not, but I'm not at all displeased to see him..." Geralt replied. Zoltan Chivay was a long-time friend of Geralt.

"Well, I'm going to call him and I'll be right back," Dandelion said, entering the place.

Some time later, he returned with a dwarf who looked at them, a smile spreading across his face as he crossed his arms—mainly at Geralt, obviously.

"There's a face I haven't seen in a few years," Zoltan Chivay said, as Geralt approached after getting off his horse.

"Hello, Zoltan. It's good to see you again," Geralt said in a neutral tone, though he seemed a bit animated.

"Oh, come on, give me a hug, you damned witcher!" the dwarf exclaimed, spreading his arms as Geralt bent down and hugged him.

"Anyway, you're in good company. Looks like the city guards have their eyes on you," the dwarf said, noticing some men at a distance watching them but not approaching.

That raised a bit of alarm in Geralt and Yennefer. Madara was already aware—he couldn't hide his presence after entering the city under hoods, they looked far too suspicious.

"Now come on, get inside. You and your friends. Tell me your story from the past few years. We split up before that damned Nilfgaardian war invading Cintra," he said, as Geralt and the others entered the territory of the Novigrad dwarf gang.

They settled in the house where Zoltan was staying. The place was full of dwarves, and all of them looked suspiciously at the four who had come with the bard, but Zoltan was highly respected.

"Zoltan, I know you... you're not a criminal like most of these dwarves... why are you in a gang?" Geralt immediately asked with suspicion. His friend had a rather strong moral compass to be in a place like that, and it wasn't hard to guess once they entered that alley full of dwarves. The place reeked of theft and murder.

"I'm not taking part in the illicit activities, if that's what you're asking, Geralt. But I owe Cleaver a few favors. I'm helping him with a few things and he's helping me get established in the city," the dwarf replied as they had stopped in the living room to talk.

Geralt simply nodded, and Zoltan spoke again.

"So you're heading to Skellige?" he asked Geralt, while the witcher, Madara, Ciri, and Yennefer had already removed their hoods.

"Yes... we're looking for a captain who can take us to the isles," Geralt said.

"I'm surprised you managed to enter the city so easily dressed like that. Things are starting to get tense around here," he said, analyzing each of them.

Madara already knew a bit about dwarf gangs like that one. And that dwarf friend of Geralt's would open a brothel in the future with Dandelion—it seemed that some years earlier, he had also been part of the Novigrad gang.

"Either way, you're in the right place. I'd like you to stay the night here," he said, as Geralt looked at Madara, who nodded.

There was no point in leaving so quickly. They were already too suspicious walking around the city like that, so they would be followed. It would be better to stay with a gang before heading to the port—though Madara doubted it would come without a price. But it was also a good way to gather information about the current Novigrad.

In the end, the dwarf ended up giving them two rooms on the second floor.

The dwarves, who had already been keeping an eye on things, approached the house and called out to Zoltan, saying that Cleaver wanted to speak with his witcher friend. Geralt had no choice but to go talk to the dwarf boss, who had grown interested upon hearing from the other dwarves that a witcher was around.

Madara didn’t care much about it. He was heading to his room along with Ciri, who looked at Yennefer and pointed her finger before the sorceress could say anything.

"I'm about to get married, so you're not stopping me from sharing a room with my husband anymore," she said, making even Yennefer raise an eyebrow.

"Fine, ugly," Yennefer replied, a small smile forming.

Ciri entered the room with Madara, organizing things. First, he took care of the bed, placing his own—larger, more comfortable, and clean—while Yennefer did the same for her and Geralt’s bed using magic.

Geralt returned to the house at night, while Dandelion was playing a tune in the middle of the kitchen. Yennefer, Ciri, and Madara were sharing a meal.

"So, don’t tell me your services were requested," Yennefer asked as she saw him approach, raising an eyebrow.

"Surprised?" Geralt replied.

"Well, Cleaver’s got some problems, so it’s no surprise. He’s just using your skills," Zoltan said.

"Yeah, I’m supposed to do a few jobs. He told me he knows a captain who can take us to Skellige without asking for any of our information," Geralt commented.

"That would be good. Doesn’t matter if I’m a suspect here traveling through Redania... but rumors about us heading to Skellige would be very bad," Madara said. It would be better if their trail was erased from here.

They spent the night in the dwarf gang’s area. The next day, Geralt went off to do some work, wanting to handle things himself and not rely on Madara’s powers, which could easily grant them passage.

Madara didn’t care much, while Ciri seemed eager to travel.

Madara took the chance to explore the city that day, while Yennefer trained with Ciri. He quickly leapt across rooftops—the place was bustling—and headed toward more notable areas, especially one where a kind of monastery stood, which would be used by the Eternal Fire in the future as its headquarters. Unsurprisingly, it already had banners. Meaning the religion was already active.

Madara approached the place as it was being renovated. Obviously, it hadn’t been originally built for the Eternal Fire, but it was an old structure now under renovation, and soon that religion would explode across Redania and other northern kingdoms.

"The Eternal Fire is the path that will bring prosperity to all its followers. Your lives will be full of wealth and happiness!" a priest began preaching to the common folk, who looked at him with adoration.

Madara, already disgusted by it, didn’t stay. It was still morning. He left.

He might try to stop the cult’s rise if he was still around later, but that would be for another time.

Another thing he started investigating were all the city’s secret passages, sending his clones in every direction, mapping the entire city. Now he could create wood clones, able to activate all the abilities of his Sharingan and use them according to the chakra he shared with them. This helped him find hidden paths here and there, detecting every detail, and mapping each of the gangs.

Novigrad was controlled by four main gangs:
the King of Beggars, led by a man Madara didn’t know, specialized in information and smuggling;
Cleaver’s Gang, composed mostly of dwarves, led by Cleaver himself, known for using brute force, extortion, and dominating territories;
the violent gang that would in the future be led by Horson Junior—though he wasn’t the leader yet—formed by humans, involved with brothels, casinos, torture, and murders;
and lastly, the so-called Dijkstra Network, which Madara himself had already established in the city, controlled by Dijkstra from the Redanian capital. It acted as a branch to gather easy information from ships coming into the port about the entire North, focusing on politics, manipulation, and information trafficking.

After investigating each of their secrets, he uncovered some interesting things.
He was already considering taking action against one of them when a member of the gang that handled casinos and brothels—known as Horson Junior, who was quite active and ran many things for the gang leader—simply turned up worse than dead.

He had been surprised by Madara while preparing to take a bath after torturing a young girl—after Madara had already found several other victims’ corpses. This man was sadistic, and there was no reason for him to remain alive, so he was attacked in a particularly horrific way.

Madara placed him under a genjutsu, torturing him by turning all the pain he enjoyed inflicting on his victims back onto himself. Then, he implanted a fungus into his body, created using Mokuton, which slowly spread and consumed him—killing him little by little but not allowing him to die until he had suffered for days.

When they found him, his skin was corroded, the fungus spreading through his body worse than any poison.

After that, Madara returned to the dwarves’ gang without anyone noticing his absence, except those who already knew him, as he had left a clone behind due to the dwarves’ own surveillance. He focused on chakra training for the rest of the day, since Geralt was handling the problems.

When night came, Geralt entered with a suspicious look, directed straight at Madara.

"If you’ve got something to say..." Yennefer didn’t hold back, eyeing Geralt with suspicion.

"My day was busy. I killed a few monsters in the sewers that were interfering with the dwarves’ smuggling, investigated some murders here and there... but we received rather shocking news today," he said, pausing before continuing.

"First, two dragons appeared north of here. They've been seen by the kingdoms across the continent over the last two months. They’re suspected of having killed the people investigating the destruction in northern Kaedwen."

"And now, they landed just north of here. They made contact with humans, asking about Madara Uchiha..." he said, as everyone reacted with surprise and immediately turned their eyes to Madara.

"I didn’t expect those dragons to contact humans. Must’ve grown tired of searching from the sky," Madara said calmly. "Are they still there?"

"Yes. From what people said, the dragons spoke in the common tongue, saying they would reward any information about Madara Uchiha. Which is also shocking everyone—after all, that name was supposed to be long gone from the continent. Soon, the entire continent will know Uchiha Madara is back..." Geralt said calmly.

Madara smiled.

"What are you going to do, Madara?" Ciri asked.

"Well, since they’re looking for me, it would be a good time for the rumors about me on this side of the continent to start spreading.
Do you want to come with me? It would be a good chance to learn about dragons," Madara replied, and Ciri immediately nodded.

"Isn’t that dangerous?" Yennefer murmured, unable to hide her concern for Ciri. She had heard about the dragons through the rumors... and also Geralt’s version while they were tracking them in Kaedwen.

"It would be good for her," Madara replied. "She should learn about dragons. And she’ll be fine," he said, as Ciri beamed with a wide smile.

Geralt, though he thought it was dangerous, said nothing. He went on with what he had heard.

"Cleaver offered a job to investigate the death of an important member of one of the four gangs who was murdered this afternoon. The entire city is in an uproar over it, with the gang leader offering big money for answers, since the one who died was a key figure.
And I refused, saying that wasn’t part of our deal. And the one who killed him—was it you?" Geralt asked Madara directly, while the rest of the table fell into silence.

Zoltan and Dandelion were there, and hearing that a key member of that gang had been murdered clearly unsettled them—especially with Geralt pointing directly at someone sitting at their table.

"Yes," Madara said. "But if you want to hear my reasons, we’ll talk elsewhere."

That was all Madara said, while Geralt simply sighed, not wanting to press further for now.

In any case, they continued eating in silence, with Zoltan and Dandelion casting cautious glances at Madara.

Madara and Ciri stood up. He looked back at Geralt.
"Tell the captain to hold off for one more day. We leave the next. I want to see the dragons with Ciri."

"Sure," Geralt replied, watching them as they left for the room.