Bear School Astartes

”It seems the time recorded in that nightmare was really distant.”

Erin turned her head back and spoke softly to Lann.

”Did you and Simon discover the truth of that nightmare together? As far as I know, Lady Maria has been dead for at least... decades, right?”

When mentioning the concept of time, Erin faltered for a moment.

Just as Lann knew, their sense of time had been destroyed in this endless night of hunting.

So after that pause, Erin could only vaguely say words like ”decades” rather than a more precise time frame.

”It’s complicated.” Lann shook his head, ”That nightmare, you could say, has been cleared up and concluded by Simon and me. But Simon died before it ended. Will that have an impact?”

”To be honest, I don’t know.” Erin’s crow mask swayed left and right. ”Under this blood moon, even we encounter situations we’ve never seen before.”

”But maybe, I mean maybe?” The Red Witch cautiously raised a finger and said. ”We could check the places he used to frequent? If he hasn’t disappeared because of the nightmare’s dissolution, there should be clues.”

”Leave it to me.” The worn cloth on her gloved hand was tossed outside Oton Chapel’s door by Erin.

It was up to her to determine what happened to Simon, because although there were three people lucid here, one was a foreigner, and the other was the Red Witch, who had difficulty moving around.

”This matter is not just about determining whether he survived.”

After deciding that Erin would find him, Lann emphasized softly.

At the same time, those amber cat eyes seriously regarded Erin and the Red Witch.

”We need to confirm, after a dream realm collapses, what state the people emerging from it are in.”

The present Yan’an is a massive dream realm inhabited by multiple Ancient Gods and elevated beings seeking to give birth to a divine offspring, complete their incarnation rituals, yet interfering with each other’s plans out of jealousy.

After being trapped in this nightmare for so long, what state the Yan Nan People will be in upon emerging... perhaps we can draw references from Simon.

Maria and Adeline aren’t suitable reference cases because they were brought out by Lann using the Demon Wolf’s Fang, which didn’t follow the ’normal process’ of ’dismantling the dream realm and coming out.’

The differences in mechanisms here are unclear, and neither Lann nor the others dared to risk it.

Understanding Lann’s intent, Erin nodded solemnly, then pondered before asking.

”I think I understand your meaning...,” the two dark lenses on the crow mask stared at the unusually tall foreigner, ”it seems you want to end all of this quickly.”

”But are you really confident?”

”Not too much.” The Demon Hunter pointed a finger at his temple thoughtfully, ”Sixty percent? No, seventy percent maybe.”

These days, he and Mentos have always been speculating about the lost, or rather, sealed memory.

Although the memory was tightly locked and cautiously secured, based on his instinctive reactions and feelings over time, both he and Mentos were heading in a rather optimistic direction with their speculations.

Under such circumstances, he felt he should have a seventy percent chance to end this nightmare.

”Honestly, my confidence isn’t very strong, but the current situation is...”

Lann spoke softly while turning his head to look at Henrik.

At this time, the Old Hunter was carefully placing the bread rations and large salted meats, which Lann had previously retrieved from the Alchemy Pouch, into a storage box.

He looked as if he cherished them greatly.

”Now, there’s no time left for us to delay.”

Lann spoke heavily.

Gascogne’s lovely daughters, Victoria and Oliveira, those two little girls were clearly trying to sleep more to eat less.

So even when lying on their mother’s lap, Viola’s, they frowned in their sleep, looking extremely uncomfortable.

Lann, though not particularly confident himself, was somewhat influenced by his pursuit of perfection.

In fact, upon hearing his level of confidence, both Erin and the Red Witch immediately raised their heads, looking at the Demon Hunter’s face.

They were surprised and incredulous.

They didn’t feel that Lann was being unreliable; instead, they thought his confidence was remarkably high!

”Seventy percent?!” Erin, whose voice was usually cold and ethereal, was now so excited her pitch was slightly off. ”Wait! Haven’t we yet to even find a clue on how to end this dream realm?!”

She even straightened her back, standing from the wall she’d been leaning against.

”You ended that deep, terrifying nightmare, which is indeed impressive, Lann. But I must remind you, you surely received some reminders and information from Simon in this process, right?”

”He is obsessed with that deep nightmare, having chased its truth for God knows how long inside it. That’s how he accumulated various pieces of information. But we now...”

Saying this, Erin pointed outside the door of Oton Chapel.

The direction she pointed to wasn’t the broad ’outside world’ but towards the blood moon in the sky.

”Ever since this blood moon rose, none of us have gone through more! Everything is unknown!”

Erin lowered her hand but tilted her chin towards Dr. Yusefka and her bound sister.

The muffled voice beneath the crow mask said, ”Like the choir members, I’ve never dealt with them in this nightmare before. I haven’t even seen them, I thought they all died off in the church hierarchy.”

”Now within Yan’an, the traffickers from the unseen village of Yahagul have also started showing signs of activity.”

”Around the Great Cathedral in Church Town, those deliberately created, decadent and bloody remnants indicate that the hunters of the Blood Race from Cainhurst have also started to surface.”

”Now Yan’an, even excluding the influence of some Ancient Gods, is just a tangled mess! How can you solve this nightmare?”

Facing Erin’s questioning, who was forcing herself to be rational in the midst of surprise, Lann nodded indifferently.

”Yes, it sounds like after the blood moon, Yan City is indeed a tangled mess that’s beyond description.”

”Even you, a lucid Hunter who’s been struggling in retrospection for who knows how long, haven’t encountered such a big mess.”

”But Erin, think back...”

As he spoke, the Demon Hunter raised his head, looking up at the ominous blood moon through the door of Oton Chapel, his gaze revealing deep intent.

”Isn’t the source of all these drastic changes, this special lunar phase... raised with ’certain someone’s’ help?”

Lann emphasized ’certain someone.’

This emphasis threw Erin and the Red Witch into a state of sudden realization but also a bit of confusion.

As if they suddenly remembered the existence of such a person.

This situation is abnormal.

Very abnormal.

The reaction caused by the blood moon is so intense, why had Erin, who knew that Lann’s actions led to the rise of the blood moon, never traced this logic further?

Their thoughts were influenced.

In an instant, Erin sharply raised her head and met Lann’s gaze.

They both realized this point.

But at the same time, Erin held her head, trying to sort out her current thoughts.

”I was indeed influenced, but something’s off, I’m still lucid...”

Crow Hunter murmured, acutely aware of the oddity in her thought influence.

Like Henrik or Gascogne, even if someone told them ’the current time in Yan’an is behaving abnormally,’ their clouded thoughts and logic wouldn’t comprehend it.

But Erin and the Red Witch now, merely from Lann’s remark, instantly became aware of the issue’s existence.

”Sir, regarding this phenomenon, there are two possible expansions.”

Mentos, in Lann’s mind, based on the subject’s instantaneous reaction, completed a logical deduction simultaneously and presented the deduction to the subject.

At this moment, Lann not only wasn’t flustered that his important helper, the lucid Hunter beside him, was subjected to thought influence, but even raised his brows, his mouth showing an intriguing smile.

”Otherwise, the means used to influence Erin’s thoughts cannot compare to those of the Ancient Gods. Therefore, a mere mention actually could bring enlightenment.”

”Otherwise, this thought blinding needs certain conditions to dissolve, much like the memory I stored away with Mentos.”

”And if it’s the second possibility, then my mere mention made them directly realize... the condition is obvious, isn’t it?”

Yes, the condition is very obvious — this sentence, this logic, has to be said to them by Lann!

The Demon Hunter looked at the coldly hanging ominous blood moon outside the small chapel’s sky, murmuring softly to himself.

”You truly are waiting for me, huh...”

”Master William!” *2

Lann’s murmur overlapped with the Crow Hunter’s sudden low whisper.

It was obvious that at this moment, they both immediately realized the crux of the matter.

After all, it comes back to this figure from Byron Vis’s academy days, whose influence is incredibly profound across academia, research, development, habits, even customs of Yan’an and the Healing Church.

It can almost be said that his academic theories and the students he brought forth have shaped Yan’an’s current form.

Undoubtedly, after Byron Vis has closed, and his students have deviated from his academic path, with the desires of the Ancient Gods projected onto humans.

This master made his last, and most important, guidance to a foreigner from The Otherworld.

—The answers and guidance Lann sought were always rocking leisurely on the chair by the lake reflecting the huge bright moon.