Bear School Astartes

After Nanik finished explaining what they currently knew to Lann, she left alone.

She was the chief high priest of this divine hall, and usually, she was already too busy to touch the ground, maintaining the operation of this divine hall.

However, before leaving, the plump and kind old lady still gave Lann a few more words of advice, full of concern.

”We still don’t know what that thing in the mist is, nor do we know how that mist appeared in the Mahakan Mountains. But one thing is crystal clear, child...”

Nanik looked at the shadow under Lann’s hood with her old and profound eyes, and said seriously.

”That thing, just from the savage and wild traces of destruction, can scare a hunter who has been trekking in the mountains for decades into losing his sanity. Though part of it may also be due to the hunter’s tragic loss of his family.”

”In dealing with such ferocious and bizarre things, I have some superficial insights,” Lann nodded slightly toward Nanik, ”but thank you for your information and reminder, I will be doubly careful.”

”It’s best to do so.”

Nanik sighed, turned around, and left.

Lann watched her back, casually picking another beautifully full golden calendula from the edge of the garden and chewing it.

The flowers in this garden seem to grow... exceptionally nutritious.

Whether for medicinal or culinary use, they surely have good effects, even making Lann feel a bit tempted.

Mist.

While chewing on the slightly bitter petals with a grass and wood freshness, Lann pondered the keyword gained from Nanik’s information.

The first thought and suspect of the demon hunter would naturally be the so-called [Little Fog Demon].

This is a carrion-eating creature, meaning it won’t reject any meat.

They often appear in swamps or mountain wildernesses.

Generally, they are elongated humanoid figures with pointed ears and grim heads, the lower abdomen exposed as if they were ripped open.

This monster possesses natural magic power, which allows it to manipulate mist.

With this ability, the older and more powerful little fog demons can use magical mist to project remotely, transform shapes, and imitate sounds.

If you suddenly hear a woman or child’s awkward cries for help in the wild, seasoned peddlers and travelers would know it’s not good news.

It’s likely the little fog demon remembered the voice and appearance of those who encountered tragedy before, using mist to mimic them and lure others over.

Others can make the summoned magical mist have corrosive or toxic properties.

In the mission where Lann killed in Bordeaux, they first thought that the toxic mist with chaotic magic power was created by a little fog demon.

Although it was ultimately proven to be just a magically-induced unknown mist.

Just like all the curses, unexpected magical experiments, and chaos magic power gathering points that keep emerging in this world every day... nothing too different.

However, it is evident that when demon hunters face a mission, and if mist appears as a characteristic, the little fog demon is the first suspect.

After all, these creatures are widespread, abundant, and their ability to control magical mist enables them to exhibit varied performances.

And although these creatures are not like phantoms or water ghosts, which are social creatures, they do not mind grouping in threes or fives to hunt.

Thus their already diverse and changeable mist gains more unpredictability.

However...

”Can the little fog demon truly have such a level of destructive power?”

Lann kept chewing, speaking softly.

The power and mana of little fog demons grow with age, but to this extent... is there a fog demon in the Mahakan Mountains that has lived since humans first landed and is still alive now?

The demon hunter shook his head helplessly.

The problem now isn’t a lack of investigative direction, but too many possibilities.

This is a vast world, where mages are conducting magical experiments every moment, and perhaps at the edge of the civilized world, an experiment is on the brink of losing control.

Then the out-of-control experimental results or phenomena could be tossed to who knows where with an emergency teleportation technique for safety.

It’s said that Kovir once experienced an unnatural sudden thunderstorm, where thunder crushed a developing mine, causing countless casualties and losses.

Finally, by the king’s command, mages traced it all the way to the royal mage in Ophir, a thousand miles away.

The world on the surface seems no different than the ignorant medieval times, but telling the Ophir people on another continent that ’actually, the Northern humans on this continent are otherworldly people, aliens’...

Then these Ophir people, wrapped in turbans and sprinkled with spices and perfume, would also naturally accept it without much surprise.

The power of magic is developing and expanding rapidly, and any outstanding mage will conduct imaginative experiments.

However, the technique of ”Teleportation Technique” can turn the consequences of an experiment that were originally confined to a small area into something that can appear anywhere in the world.

Mages won’t feel there’s anything wrong with ’throwing trash’ all over the world.

Just as in Lann’s hometown world, during the early industrial revolution, people didn’t care about discharging pollution and waste into the environment.

Some even considered rivers flowing with industrial wastewater as a symbol of civilization’s progress.

Because people who haven’t developed to a certain extent actually do not realize that the destructive power of humans has already exceeded the natural carrying capacity of the world and the environment.

During the long development of civilization before this, there has never been a time when humans mastered such power and continued advancing.

Before this, humans have always been insignificant in the face of nature, so they have no experience, nor do they realize this point.

Apart from the possibility that ’a mage’s experiment somewhere in the world went out of control, and the product or consequence was randomly teleported to the Mahakan Mountains,’ there are many other possibilities as well.

The Chaos Magic Power is inherently a dangerous force with mutative and twisted nature, and without intervention, its mere gathering can cause some twisted consequences.

There are many magic nodes in the Mahakan Mountains, who knows if the Chaos Magic Power independently caused some anomalies?

Lann could list several parchment sheets with such speculations.

After all, regarding what actually happened this time, it still needs to be seen with one’s own eyes on-site; otherwise, it’s just mere speculation out of thin air.

Meanwhile, Lann is contemplating matters regarding the ’mist’ and instructing Mentos to record various speculations in the document library.

And to simply devise some plans to respond to various possibilities.

On the other side, in the gazebo resting outside the garden, a man and a woman’s voices seem to grow increasingly emotional, gradually resembling quarreling.

”Niflgaard people are all black-skinned dogs! What’s there to say?”

The man’s voice impatiently said, but then the voice of the woman opposite seemed not to hear the impatience in the tone and continued to ask.

The ”clapping” sound seems to be the palm slapping the hard cover of a book.

”But why?” The woman’s voice sounded gentle in tone, yet her words were resolute and steady, very much with a strong woman vibe.

Just the question...

”This book says that Niflgaard people are gentle and courteous, unlike Northern people who have many differences and mutual disdain. As long as united under the sun banner, they are all countrymen. Isn’t this ideal?”

”The author of this book is Nelvin, a well-known professor and scholar at Osenford University who studies the South. He was knighted before King Vizimir in Redani; his words should be quite credible, right?”

The man and woman in the gazebo are in dialogue, and Lann is also moving toward the gazebo from the garden exit.

The gazebo is made with wooden pillars, a ceiling, and a stone base; the thick and ancient wood already shows small cracks, yet it is still painted with various bright paints, outlining various curves and patterns.

And some corners are adorned with wreaths.

Bright and cheerful patterns and wreaths match the dark brown wood, with a style very reflective of Meretelli’s faith.

”Indeed! Ha! Gentle and courteous? Madam, you really should go to Sodden Mountain and Old Sintra to see how gentle and courteous those places are after even the ethnic groups have changed!”

The speaker was a male warrior dressed in combined leather and plate armor, with a hand-and-a-half sword on his waist.

He himself appeared unremarkable, but his tone showed that he was a witness to the Southern-Northern war.

In front of this male, who was visibly angry and impatient, the female casually perched on the gazebo railing had much more distinction.

She had dark golden hair, with a ring of red and white cotton cord as a headband on her forehead. Her face bore a mature yet strong beauty, but her eyes were exceptionally clear.

She wore a red and white checkered cotton armor vest and cotton armor trousers underneath, with assembleable plate armor parts binding at her knees, shins, elbows, abdomen, and other parts.

Yet even with this rigid and cumbersome attire, on her it revealed the so-called ’beauty of curvature’ and ’beauty of lines.’

The neckline of the cotton armor vest seemed unable to close, opening generously to reveal healthy and vibrant skin and deep cleavage.

Generally speaking, if someone specializing in combat dressed this way, she most likely wouldn’t want to live, though there is a small chance it’s because she has some special skills.

But observe the weapon beside her—a knight’s two-handed sword that ordinary male warriors can’t use flexibly.

That indicates she is probably in the latter situation.

”I think you misunderstood my meaning.”

The woman, referred to as ’Sachia Sase’ by Nanik, calmly faced the male warrior.

”I haven’t denied the facts that have happened, nor do I intend to defend the Niflgaard people’s massacre. My question is: why does the description of characteristics in a rather credible book differ from reality.”