The goal: defeat Brencis before Day 30 and keep the family-rescue endings alive. Exploring and open-world fighting are free - the clock only ticks on marked actions. After Day 30 you can still fight him, but the family is gone. A focused Court route finishes with days left; the clock is only tight if you rest a lot or ignore the vassals.

1Spend Time Only on What Opens the Fight

2Make the Parley Choice That Actually Starts the Fight

Want him dead + family saved
Refuse the deal and fight
Pick the hostile line ("Enough. Time to end this." or equivalent). You can go in alone (Folk Hero), with Lacra (Patricide, if her questline is done), or with Crake and the Manumits (Knyazmaker). Allies change the approach to the castle, not the core two-phase fight.
Ending you did not want
Accepting the deal or walking out
Accepting his terms (betray the Manumits, mark their hideout) ends the story without a real boss kill and locks the Turncoat route. Leaving Vale Sangora through the western gate past the Coward's Path shrine also ends the story and abandons the family.

3Optional: Early Castle Route (Skips Most Setup)

Right after the prologue you can reach Greifberg Castle without max Infamy. Same "defeat him alone" Folk Hero outcome, earlier and harder.

Reality check: doable once you have basic parry and dodge down, but it is not the intended first-play path. Phase 2 at prologue level is a multi-hour grind.

4The Fight Itself: Two Full Health Bars

Dying in phase 2 sends you back to phase 1.

Common Mistakes That Burn the 30 Days or the Ending

Typical outcome: players who stayed on Court plus the three duels report 3-15 days remaining and a short fight once leveled.

Fight Footage

Player recordings of the prologue route and the teleport into phase 2 - useful for reading the move tells before you go in.