Bear School Astartes

”Do you know what you’re doing, Sorlin? You can’t go on like this, it’s akin to declaring war!”

On the city wall, Bilbo’s hair was disheveled, his clothes covered in dust and grime, showing an expression of ’I simply don’t know what to say’ as he looked at the abnormal Sorlin.

These days, ever since driving away Smaug, they spent most of their time in the treasury of the Lonely Mountain Kingdom, searching through the Golden Silver Sea, hoping to find the King’s Gemstone.

Let alone the thick dragon stench left by Smaug, even the dust accumulated over the years on the Golden Silver Sea was suffocating.

The hobbits initially were amazed and captivated by the spectacular wealth, but within just a few hours, Bilbo was already thinking wildly about whether he could exchange a bowl-sized gem for some pure Shire tobacco leaves.

Moreover, Elbo is simply too big, they have only a dozen people, and all manpower is focused on searching for the gemstone.

Days have passed without even a resting place being set up, living conditions inside the Lonely Mountain were primitive caves, cold and gloomy.

Just like Sorlin’s increasingly deep dark circles.

”This has nothing to do with you, Baggins.”

Sorlin coldly looked at River Valley City in the distance, but the dwarves who would normally be united around him at this time were now just bowing their heads, saying nothing.

”Oh, I think you might need a bit of a reminder!”

Bilbo said with a strange tone, laughing angrily.

”Outside, there is an Elf army, and hundreds of homeless, angry, and survival-seeking fishermen! We have only a dozen dwarves, we... we can say we are outnumbered!”

But upon hearing this from the hobbit, Sorlin just chuckled and shook his head.

”This situation will change soon.”

”What?” Bilbo was bewildered, thinking he had heard wrong. ”What do you mean?”

”It means: Master Baggins...” Sorlin walked to the hobbit and patted his shoulder, ”Never underestimate a dwarf.”

”I indeed don’t mean to underestimate the dwarves, but the temporary city walls you’ve built aren’t exactly high.”

Sorlin had just finished speaking when a noise came from the top of their temporary city wall, causing a brief disturbance among the dwarves.

They raised their weapons in reflex, guarding towards the direction of the sound, but when they truly turned around, their weapons involuntarily lowered slightly.

Lann lightly jumped down from the top of the wall.

With the disassembled armor packed away and only the left arm armor remaining, his [Light Body Skill] was more effectively utilized.

”You should all know, elves are as light as floating leaves, right? What can such city walls do, even if you smash the bridges over the moat? Can’t they just jump up?”

Lann spoke in a relaxed tone.

The dwarves mostly didn’t dare to look at him.

This was not out of fear.

The dwarves dared to face the dragon head-on to return home.

Although Lann killed the dragon, does the strength of Lann or Smaug make any difference to these dwarves?

They came with a mindset of confronting death as they formed the Reconquest Expedition Team.

What now makes them hesitate to face Lann is... the guilt as friends.

The Demon Hunter helped them along the way and was sincere.

He spoke for the dwarves in Rivendell, Balin and Sorlin had told all the dwarves about it.

Later, he went to Long Lake Town, solving many problems for them, providing reminders and assistance.

When Qi Li returned, he told everyone they invited Lann to the King’s Hall in the Lonely Mountain, making all dwarves genuinely happy, even eager to clean up the King’s Hall immediately.

But now, meeting again, yet...

”Do you have anything to say, Qi Li? Philipp?”

Lann tilted his head to look at the dwarf brothers, who flushed red and lowered their heads.

The Demon Hunter then turned to another direction.

”Or do you have anything to say, Bofur? Ouin?”

The dwarf who needed a horn hearing aid simply didn’t dare to put the hearing aid in his ear, and Bofur cursed under his breath, ”Damn.”

Dwarves are stubborn but also sincere and passionate, the current situation makes some dwarves look as if they would rather fist-fight with ogres.

”They have nothing to say, they are loyal to their King.”

Sorlin walked up from behind the crowd, seeing Qi Li and Philipp nearly throwing their weapons down in shame and anger, he had to speak.

Sorlin looked up at the Demon Hunter.

”I have nothing to say either, Lann.”

The Three-Floral Kitten squeezed out from the crowd, running to its leader on four feet, and stood beside Lann’s leg.

Lann rubbed Rong Buqiu’s head, the Elu Cat put its hands on its hips, looking at Sorlin with a more serious and confident expression.

Originally, it had a good feeling towards the dwarves, their carefree and straightforward personalities made it feel like facing the hunters of the New Continent.

But there was no doubt that Sorlin’s behavior in the past few days had changed completely.

”The same words again: I’m very grateful for your past support and for helping us.”

Now dressed in luxury, different from before, Sorlin looked at the Demon Hunter, his gaze was completely different from when he talked to Bard earlier, carrying sincerity.

Lann, on the other hand, noticed Sorlin’s heavy dark circles and the increasing number of white hairs on his forehead.

”I will share the Lonely Mountain’s treasure with you, because when you helped us, you didn’t ask for anything in return, doing it sincerely, so I will repay you with sincerity.”

”But I can absolutely not share it with others! The people of Long Lake Town want gold, they say I once promised it to them.”

”But what else could I say at that time? We were isolated, struggling with immense difficulty! We could only exchange our future for present hope! The Lonely Mountain Dwarves have been in this situation for so long!”

”We could only use what was inherently ours, the gold, to trade for help! They saw me on the verge of disaster and then took the opportunity to set a price. Is this a fair trade? Why should I fulfill such promises?”

The Dwarves pursed their lips, Sorlin’s words indeed reminded them of their once difficult life.

Originally wealthy and strong, the Lonely Mountain Dwarves felt increasingly miserable due to the rapid deterioration in their lifestyles after losing their homeland.

But Lann remained calm in expression.

”But Sorlin, is this why you don’t want to pay gold to the townsfolk of Long Lake Town? It sounds somewhat reasonable; taking advantage of another’s crisis, forceful buying and selling is indeed contemptible.”

Yet, the Demon Hunter still used his excellent reasoning skills to find a flaw in Sorlin’s words.

”Then Sorlin, were those townsfolk the ones who forced you to go to the Lonely Mountain?”

The King Under the Mountain’s originally cold and stone-like expression suddenly froze.

But Lann’s words did not stop.

”It was your own desire to restore the kingdom, your own desire for the Lonely Mountain Dwarves to rise again. Hence, you all had to enter the Lonely Mountain before Durin’s Day. This crisis, this urgent time constraint, all stemmed from your own decisions, setting it for yourself.”

”You chose a dangerous yet rewarding path and continued along it, during which the people of Long Lake Town offered help and asked for recompense. Is this unreasonable? It wasn’t them who created the crisis, forcing you onward and demanding payment.”

”Or are their demands for recompense unreasonable?”

”Because your adventure drew Beastmen and the dragon, the entire town was ruined. The gold they request now is only enough to rebuild their homes; to call it ’recompense’ is excessive; it’s purely ’compensation’.”

As Lann calmly spoke, Sorlin’s eyes flickered, tightly pursing his lips.

His expression finally aligned with the other Dwarves, yet retained a degree of stubbornness and obstinacy.

”Ultimately, it’s still about the gold! Still about a generous reward! Isn’t it?!”

Lann paused his words, deeply looking at the current Sorlin Oak Shield, only after a long silence did he sigh.

”If you insist on viewing things from this perspective...okay, Sorlin. If that’s the case, hand over the share you promised me to the people of Long Lake Town.”

The Dwarves, including the Hobbits, looked at Lann in astonishment.

Among them, Sorlin’s gaze was the most incredulous, as he couldn’t believe that someone in this world would refuse a mountain of gold.

Yet Lann still spoke like this.

”Those townsfolk are homeless; without money, many will die this winter.”

Sorlin’s originally hard expression now showed visible signs of wavering.

Compassion, guilt, helplessness... various emotions surfaced complexly on his face.

But at the same time, there was painful self-struggle.

It was as if these emotions were about to tear him apart from the inside.

Part of him indeed held these feelings, while another part opposed them.

”No, no... no!”

Sorlin disorientedly shook his head, approached Lann, grabbing his arm and shouting.

”We can’t give it to them! This is our gold! Gold that we regained through joint effort and adventure! It’s ours, belonging only to us!”

”There’s no ’us’, Sorlin Oak Shield.”

Lann withdrew his hand, causing Sorlin’s already unstable footing to suddenly stumble sideways, luckily supported by Gorion beside him.

”You won’t give the gold, and I can’t transfer it. I’m clearly managing my own property, aren’t I?”

Lann was expressionless at this moment, but anyone could see that he was angry.

His tone definitely no longer seemed calm as before, instead provoked and incensed.

”Do you have to start a fight? Do you have to cause death?”

”Just for gold? Is this gold even more important than the Durin Race’s family honor? Are you teasing me, Sorlin Oak Shield!”

”I once guaranteed for you in Rivendell, because when I first met you, you’d prepare to come back to help me after getting away, since I was there to assist! At that time, I considered you a responsible Dwarf hero!”

”And now?!”

”You’re withholding gold promised to a group of people who became refugees because of you!”

”Do you genuinely think I would find it hard to come in and take that gold?!”