By the time he reached this point, Viktor basically already knew how the rest of the story unfolded.
And the questions in his heart, tangled like knots in a rope, were gradually untied.
After experiencing the heavy price of justice, Angus decided to carry out this grand god-making plan.
To cast aside all emotions and ultimately become true justice.
And the chosen candidate for this god-making plan was naturally Gwen, who had died in the womb but had been revived by the god's spark.
Viktor turned another page of the notebook and saw a sentence Angus had left behind, "She is the child bestowed upon me by the gods and should continue carrying out their will."
Even so, there was one thing Angus could never completely avoid.
That was the fact that Gwen was still human.
As long as she was human, emotions would be difficult to avoid.
The cultist possessing Joshua told Angus,
From the time Gwen was young, shape the environment in which she grew up.
Make her spend a childhood completely lacking the care of family.
As long as Gwen grew up in an environment where no one dared approach her, she would inevitably develop emotional deficiency in the future.
A Gwen free from all emotional entanglements was exactly the outcome the cultist possessing Joshua wanted.
Perhaps because the Goddess's followers had grown up without parents, or perhaps because their parents had long since died.
As a result, they knew nothing about human emotions.
The less love a child receives during childhood, the more they crave it.
Preventing Gwen from experiencing any affection from the very beginning was itself a flawed approach.
Under such extreme suppression, Gwen might eventually rebound in the opposite direction when it came to emotions.
So Angus came up with a ruthless solution.
He did not allow anyone to get close to or care for Gwen, not even the servants in the house.
And when she was still very young, he sent her away for knight training.
However, he alone allowed Kefra to approach Gwen.
Only Kefra did not know how their mother died.
She did not know that her younger brother Joshua had already died.
Nor did she know that her youngest sister was a child who had died and then been revived by a god.
Kefra knew nothing.
But there was one thing she did know.
Gwen was her family.
Without understanding why her father and brother both ignored Gwen and showed her no concern at all, only Kefra defied her father's orders and gave all of her family's love to Gwen.
And Kefra's care became the only light in Gwen's gray childhood.
Even in the future, when she was respected by countless people and had friends like Liya, Kefra remained the only irreplaceable family member in her heart.
Feeling the thin, brittle pages beneath his fingertips, Viktor gently turned the notebook.
As fresh lines of text entered his sight, he continued reading, "My plan is..."
"For me and my child Kefra to complete her ascension to godhood."
"But before that, I must stabilize Gwen's emotions."
He knew very well that when it came to family affection, Gwen's heart had already been completely sealed off.
What remained was the biggest problem.
Love was one of the few emotions that could rival family bonds.
Although Angus could control the emotional ties Gwen had with her family, he could not be completely certain when it came to romantic love.
He was deeply worried that Gwen would someday fall in love with someone.
After all, Gwen's beauty would undoubtedly attract many suitors. This was something Angus had to consider.
Fortunately, this problem was solved by Angus's comrade-in-arms, General Tisnato Clavenna, and his son Viktor.
When Viktor was still a child, he accompanied his father on a visit to the North.
In fact, Angus had never originally considered arranging a marriage between Gwen and Viktor.
The notebook mentioned that it was Viktor who brought up the idea himself.
The first time Viktor saw Gwen, looking at the little girl who was much younger than him, he said something that shocked Angus.
"If you're worried about your daughter's future, then leave her to me."
"I guarantee she won't fall in love with anyone."
Angus looked at Viktor and discovered that the young boy's eyes contained a depth of wisdom that did not match his age.
That wisdom flowed like light through the darkness in his eyes before being swallowed by a mysterious vortex.
And so, he arranged the engagement between Gwen and Viktor.
In the end, Viktor successfully fulfilled his promise.
In truth, Viktor did nothing.
He simply continued being as hated as ever.
And after inheriting the Clavenna family at twenty and becoming lord, over the next nine years,
he deliberately hid his talent and drove his reputation to rock bottom.
Because of the engagement between Viktor and Gwen, Gwen was unable to come into contact with other men around her age.
Everyone feared Viktor.
No matter how outstanding Gwen was, nobody dared approach her.
Viktor became Gwen's best shield.
And Viktor's hated behavior successfully caused Gwen to start disliking him.
Under such circumstances, Gwen completely cut off her desire for romantic love.
"I have fulfilled all the conditions. Only the final ascension remains."
As for why Angus cut off everyone's concern for Gwen yet allowed Kefra to remain, it was because he had experienced it himself.
Angus had personally endured the agony of losing loved ones.
It was a pain that felt as though all attachments in the world had vanished, leaving only despair.
At that moment, his heart had nearly become numb, as if it could no longer feel any emotion.
Had he not remembered that he still had one daughter left, Kefra, he might have completely severed all emotions in that moment of overwhelming grief.
And become a heartless demon.
Therefore, based on his own experience, Angus set this condition for Gwen.
Kefra became Gwen's only attachment to the mortal world.
Once Kefra died, whether by accident or simply through aging and death, Gwen would choose to cut away all her emotions and devote herself entirely to justice.
Completing the final path to godhood.
When Viktor read this, a ripple stirred in his heart, and he could not help but sigh deeply.
Everything matched.
The Valkyrie Gwen from the game began her transformation after Kefra's death.
After Kefra died, she became a ruthless killing machine that only knew how to carry out the Empire's orders.
Until she personally killed her own father, Angus.
After cutting away every emotional bond, Gwen completely became a sword of justice.
At this point, the notebook's record came to an end.
Angus's memories stopped at this exact moment, with nothing beyond it.
Because this was the core of Angus's plan from beginning to end.
However, the notebook never mentioned why Kefra became a Witcher.
It could be determined that even Angus, as Kefra's father, did not know the reason.
He had never planned to control Kefra's death, because no matter what happened, his plan had already succeeded.
As long as nothing unexpected happened in the future, even if Kefra simply died of old age, Gwen would still lose her emotions.
But Angus had never expected that in the end, Kefra would become a Witcher.
And while pursuing the Demon of Greed, Yerm, she would be killed by the demon and eventually die in the royal capital.
The demon's actions caused Gwen to cut off her emotions ahead of schedule.
Still, Viktor was curious about one thing.
If Angus had known how Kefra died, would there have been even a brief moment when he felt anger and sorrow over his daughter's unexpected death?
Perhaps there would have been.
When he gathered all the knights of the North and tried to rebel in one decisive strike against the royal capital, perhaps part of his motivation was revenge for Kefra.
But in the end, no one knew for certain.
Just as the events that happened in the game would no longer happen now.
"Because I'm here."
Viktor closed the notebook with one hand and steadily placed it on the wooden table.
With the serious-eyed crow perched on his shoulder, he walked out of the cozy cabin.
Stepping onto the snow-covered ground, his footprints formed a long path through the deep snow.
Standing amid the wind and snow, Viktor gazed at the bottomless darkness ahead and the heavy snowfall drifting through the air, then let out a soft breath.
The moment it left his lips, it turned into white mist and quickly scattered in the wind.
Viktor turned back and looked at the cozy cabin that held those memories.
Some things, once buried, should never be uncovered again.
He lightly pinched his fingers together.
A crimson glow slid from his fingertips, and roaring flames instantly burst from beneath the snow surrounding the cabin, wrapping around the entire structure.
In the blink of an eye, the whole cabin was swallowed by blazing red fire.
The towering flames swayed wildly in the raging wind, as though making one final struggle amid the snowstorm.
The entire cabin was consumed by crimson fire.
Viktor did not look back.
Bright flames lit his back, while deep darkness stretched before him.
Silently, listening to the crackling bursts of burning wood beside his ears, he walked across the snow and left.
The cabin burned in the snowfall before collapsing into blackened ruins.
The dark figure in the distance became more and more indistinct, and the long trail through the snow was gradually covered by fresh snowfall, buried beneath a thick new layer.