Bear School Astartes

Chapter 9: 9. Accidental Law

The Demon Hunter’s body undergoes magic transformation, extending his lifespan far beyond ordinary people, resulting in a heartbeat frequency that’s much lower than normal.

Bordeaux’s bleeding, therefore, is much slower than that of an average person.

Yet, despite this, with a long halberd thrust into his abdominal cavity, the Demon Hunter’s blood has pooled into a red puddle beneath him.

Lann and Bordeaux both know time is short for him.

The stench of monster blood, human blood, and the earthy smell of the grass mingle together from the gaps in the armor, forming a strange odor.

Lann, not long ago, would have vomited bile within three seconds under such a scent.

But now, with his boots treading in the blood pool, sending out stench and ripples, he feels nothing at all.

Undeniably, he has been changed by this world.

”You, from the beginning, have completely survived the mutation.”

Bordeaux said with some effort.

”You possess emotions.”

Stumbling over words, yet astonishingly enough, the nearby Long Halberd Soldiers collecting their captain’s body were stupefied, dragging their comrades to move further away.

Under normal circumstances, he should already be in a comatose state by now... Demon Hunters truly are mutants.

Lann, not minding the dirt, sat directly across Bordeaux, on the blood-soaked mud ground.

This was his most relaxed moment in a month.

He smiled leisurely, ”Yes, that’s right.”

Saying this, he also pointed at his head with his index finger.

”I was very lucky, the mutation process didn’t take anything away from me.”

Bordeaux nodded dumbly up and down with his hairy head, while the incredibility in his heart was known only to him.

The process of mutating ordinary people into Demon Hunters is unbearably painful.

Most Demon Hunters are eccentric, a phenomenon not only caused by physiological mutations but greatly due to mental distortion from excessive pain.

And someone like that youthful individual, who after a seven-day mutation, immediately formulated a plan and concealed emotions?

—What a joke!

In numbed shock, Bordeaux recalled his first encounter with Lann.

The young man whose skin was so tender that even a noble lady would envy him, the young man whose legs would go weak upon seeing beheaded individuals...

That was not someone who had suffered! That wasn’t even someone who had witnessed a cruel world!

Bordeaux had even believed all along that Lann was kin to a great noble from a distant country accidentally exiled here through a teleport accident.

However, a soft-legged shrimp that hasn’t suffered wouldn’t possess such willpower and thought.

Bordeaux was a Demon Hunter who had personally undergone the mutation process, and in his mind even the most tenacious and proud warrior’s offspring would turn into a trampled sludge during the mutation process.

But... Lann...

”You aren’t... some noble son from a distant country, are you?”

Bordeaux’s lips were still bleeding, but he stared intently at his student, uttering every word.

”Even if he were Veltrest’s offspring, I wouldn’t believe he would possess your kind of... this kind of...”

Veltrest, the king of Temeria.

He was undoubtedly one of the most powerful individuals on this land. He could certainly provide the world’s top-notch education and training for his heir, but Bordeaux still couldn’t compare, in his mind, those trained ones to Lann’s current display.

...Far behind!

Insight, endurance, decisiveness... it was a gap filled with ancient wisdom and the scent of blood!

He knew his circumstances from the start, even simultaneously having a countermeasure at once.

At least in terms of historical experience, Veltrest also couldn’t teach such a person!

Lann collected the alchemical bag in his hands, shrugging.

”A bit of insight, a bit of knowledge, coupled with a constant sense of urgency pressing down on you... it wasn’t difficult given the education I’ve experienced. Of course, I’ve never said I’m any ’noble descendant’.”

”Ha, yes, it’s all my speculation, you never said a word.”

Bordeaux let out a cold laugh.

Lann suddenly raised his head, eyes wide, ”You laughed?”

The increasingly weak robust man hesitated in surprise himself, nodding, ”Laughed? Perhaps. Maybe it’s the massive bleeding, taking away the components suppressing emotions within me. I kind of hate you now, but it’s too late, right?”

Bordeaux’s bushy beard cracked a cold smile, his leather-gloved hand resting on his belly, the armor gap already filled with his own blood.

Even a slight movement would cause it to overflow.

Yes, with this much bleeding, nothing matters anymore.

”Seems like you’ve indeed regained some emotions at life’s last moments. Then are you interested in talking?”

”Talk?” Bordeaux wore an unfamiliar smile, exerting his final effort to wriggle slightly on the ground, seeking comfort.

Of course, this led to even more bleeding.

”Talk about what?”

”Talk about why you ’got’ me. I don’t think you would save a penniless farmer.”

Lann folded his hands, watching his mentor with intrigue.

He was handed over to Bordeaux by ’the law of accident’—also known as fate—from a farmer’s hand.

The hellish nine lives mutation process, the constant impending sense of doom during apprenticeship... it all originated from this ’handover.’

Lann was now laughing, but it didn’t mean he stopped caring.

On the contrary, he still vividly remembered that day when he was transferred like a slave.

Bordeaux now spoke without reserve, he had nothing left to care about.

”Ah, the law of accident. Haha, that indeed was an accident.”

The bearded man laughed weakly, then recounted the transaction process to Lann.

Bordeaux worked only for money, the farmer’s plight wasn’t more precious in his eyes than roadside weeds.

But accidentally saving someone while solving a mission target, he would never let go of that life-saving money.

Even if the other party hadn’t posted a notice to hire a Demon Hunter, even if the other party was a farmer struggling to feed his family, he would definitely demand compensation.

The Bear Demon Hunter was most obsessed with this fact.

Yet Bordeaux also knew, in a place like Velen, impoverished to the bone, a farmer truly was too poor to scrape out even half an ounce of oil, thus under the thought of ’must get something, anything, can’t return empty-handed’, he initiated the law of accident.

So, when the wretched farmer took Bordeaux home with a bitter face, opened the ragged door and let him take something according to the law of accident.

That young man who had inexplicably crashed through their house roof, lying in a pile of weeds, was naturally the obvious choice.

The Northern Countries prohibited slavery, true enough.

However, an inexplicable apparition, lacking identity or registration documents, wasn’t considered ’human’ in any dynasty or country.

Thus, the farmer immediately stripped the young man of his decent-looking clothes, classified him as a possession, expelled him and the adjacent mutant from the house.

”This is the experience, neither grand nor surprising, not every Child of Destiny’s birth will become a legend, for example, you are not.”

Bordeaux spoke sarcastically, now increasingly human-like, though this phenomenon also meant there was less blood within him.

”But for me—merely a humble Demon Hunter, your appearance was too coincidental and too absurd. So even I, lacking emotions at the time, was unwilling to bear the risk of defying fate, leaving you below. Finally, even though Demon Hunters tend to be solitary, I turned you into one of us. Fortunately, you’ve done well, excluding the potion from the Trial of Grasses, you’ve already started making profits for me.”