Bear School Astartes

This is an era where information flows extremely poorly; even with a group of warlocks, who are developers of technology beyond their time, their numbers are too few and their quality varies greatly, so they can hardly make an impact on the broad social level.

Since leaving Airetusa, Lann has been heading south.

He plans to travel straight across Videns’ territory and then enter Sintra.

The more he heads south, the thicker the unsettling, hysterical atmosphere of fear hangs in the air.

This is the feeling exuded from the words and actions of the local residents.

Every household is packing their luggage, packing each day, then unpacking when they need something from the packed parcels, back and forth.

They are confused and at a loss.

To survive, they must be ready to flee north at any time. But they are too poor, and the land they’ve cultivated, the houses they’ve built, and the immovable property... these things are hard to abandon.

So they can only work locally, like condemned prisoners awaiting execution, muddling through just to earn a day’s meal.

Waiting until the front of the war truly reaches them, and a knife is at their throat, to flee.

Lann hurried along the way, which meant he barely entered the cities along the route, naturally unaware of the news that had already caused a sensation and panic throughout the northern countries—

The Sintra massacre.

What confirmed for him the style of the Niflgaard Army was what he saw personally.

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Lann, holding Bopai, stood on a cliff; below at his feet was a river channel between Brugge and the Sintra border.

His gaze went beyond a newly painted fence, seeing the rooftops of a few houses and the smoothed pillars of the dock.

The windlass creaked.

The ferry stirred up waves and headed directly for the shore. The blunt bow parted the river, pushing away grass and leaves coated with dust on the water’s surface. Ropes groaned in the hands of the boatman as the crowd by the shore became restless. Women shouted, men cursed, children wailed, accompanied by the bleating of cows, horses, and lambs.

It came together as a monotonous, low song of fear.

”Back off! Make way! Back off, damn it!” shouted a knight, his head wrapped in a bloody rag.

His horse stood belly-deep in the water, irritably raising its forehooves and splashing water. The dock echoed with screams and shouts. Soldiers wielding shields pushed the crowd away, jabbing with their spear handles.

”Keep away from the ferry!” the knight shouted, swinging his sword, ”the army has priority! Back off, or lose your head!”

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the valley, a group of fully armed soldiers were marching toward the ferry crossing. The heavy weapons and armor kicked up a cloud of thick dust, even drifting to the feet of the shielded soldiers ahead.

On the side of the river already crossed, people barely had time to disperse before they were already crushed together, and yet looking further away, countless crowds still flowed toward the small dock on the other side like ants moving house.

Lann needed to cross the river to continue ahead, so he grabbed a young man alone, carrying only a small bundle.

With a hard, dry loaf of bread, he exchanged for his explanation.

”Why are we all running over from the other side of the river like our butts are on fire?”

The young man savagely gnawed at the dry loaf like he hadn’t eaten for days, giving Lann a disbelief glance from under his hooded cloak.

The Demon Hunter was sitting on a rock at the moment, covered by the cloak, so the young man couldn’t quite make out his physique.

”Why else? The Niflgaard people! Anyone who hasn’t crossed will die! Be massacred! Do you understand?”

”Massacred? Aren’t you exaggerating, mate?”

Below came the neighs of horses being pushed onto the ferry, the sound of hooves stamping on the wooden boards, the crowd’s screams and commotion, splashes from the carts hitting the water, and the mooing of cattle poking their heads out of the water.

Lann saw the knight with a bandaged head riding into the crowd, shouting, ”In order, you sons of bitches! One at a time! Or I’ll cut you down!”

Meanwhile, Lann’s shoulder felt a surge of aching, a sensation brought on by rapid muscle growth.

Although it had been less than a week since the implantation of the [muscle enhancement organ], his muscle dimension had already risen to another level, even causing the armor’s clasps to shift uniformly backward on the leather straps.

”Isn’t what you’re saying a bit exaggerated?”

Lann subtly shrugged his shoulder to slightly relieve the aching sensation.

”Why are you all panicking so much? Haven’t you seen a war? You should be from the heartland of Sintra; isn’t the fighting over there already done? The front should no longer affect you.”

”Typically, after the royal army finishes the necessary battles, outcomes are decided. Then, the king and nobles would reach agreements, sign treaties, drink themselves silly at banquets, indulge in debauchery. None of this concerns the dock workers! What’s the chaos really about?”

”Heh, you clearly don’t know anything.”

The young man seemed relieved after surviving a disaster, as if crossing this river meant survival.

”This is no ordinary war, not for inheritance or the ownership of land. We aren’t facing two quarreling noble lords; if that were the case, we’d have plenty of experience managing such matters.”

He began listing off with familiarity.

”We’d escape and hide as soon as the army approached. Take valuable possessions, hide or bury what we can’t take. After they’re done fighting, we return to life, maybe even pick up some good stuff from the battlefields and make a small fortune. But this time it’s different... This war is entirely different from before!”

Speaking of which, his expression grew fearful.

”The Niflgaard people won’t leave us houses to return and live in... No more... only scorched earth and corpses, they will destroy everything!”

”Wait, what good is it to destroy everything? The purpose of war isn’t destruction. War has only two reasons: first is power, second is money. And Niflgaard people want neither, not thinking of profiting from more people, not thinking of ruling more people, just thinking of destruction?”

Lann was puzzled. After hearing an Aebin Merchant’s evaluation on Niflgaard last time, he revised his view that ’Niflgaard is somewhat like Great Qin’.

Now he thought ’Niflgaard is somewhat like the Sun Never Sets Empire linking its colonies’.

But even the notoriously unscrupulous Sun Never Sets Empire didn’t conduct massive slaughter or large-scale destruction of colonies!

Those are all money! Isn’t war for money?

But the young man no longer wished to continue speaking.

”I can’t argue with you, sir. You’re articulate and smart, not like us who work the land, but your eloquence can’t change the facts. The fact is: the Niflgaard people are doing exactly what I said!”

”I should keep heading north, I suggest you should too, sir.”

”No, I still have some business to attend to in Sintra.”

”But Sintra no longer exists, sir. I came from there.”

Lann’s body suddenly froze as he was rotating his shoulders; the dark hood turned towards the young man.

”What did you... say?”