The Witcher 3: 7 Book Stories All Wild Hunt Fans Should Read

7. The Lesser Evil

What It’s About: Geralt arrives in the town of Blaviken hoping to make some dollar off of a monster he’s killed nearby.

He encounters the mage Stregobor who pleads for Geralt’s help against a ‘monster’ who is in fact a cursed woman called Renfri, with whom he has a complex history. Renfri and her big bad band of mercenaries are effectively untouchable thanks to a royal edict, and she and Stregobor both offer Geralt the chance to murder the other, calling it ‘the lesser evil’.

Geralt refuses them both, but upon realising Renfri plans on massacring the town to draw Stregobor out he slays her and her band before they can start their killing, but because nobody knows of their plans he becomes reviled by the townsfolk.

Why You Should Read It: If you hit the seventh word of that first segment and heard a great bell ringing amidst a wave of deja vu, that’s because you recognise it from one of Geralt’s myriad of nicknames - specifically, ‘The Butcher of Blaviken’.

The climax of this story marks the moment he acquired this rather undesirable moniker, but the road leading to it adds an extra weight. Though Geralt may not be fond of it, he recognises it as a distinction, a reminder that morality isn’t easy.

He did the right thing that day, but it was still a terrible thing to do, such is his place in the world.