Bear School Astartes

After experiencing the current atmosphere in Gos Velen City, and verifying whether his previous plan was effective.

Lann walked past the famous fish market of Gos Velen again.

The smell of fish and blood was still strong here, and the city’s stray and domestic cats had a good sense that when fishing boats returned to port with their haul, they gathered here hoping for scraps from the fish-processing.

The cats in this city were even more familiar with the working hours of the port fishing boats than the newcomer fishermen and fish traders.

However, given that cats could sense the Chaos Magic Power on Demon Hunters and found it repulsive, none approached Lann as he walked past.

He walked all the way to the edge of the city wall near Gos Velen.

The noise belonging to residential or commercial areas began to fade, and the air saturated with the smell of sea goods gradually disappeared.

Instead, it was replaced by the clanging of steel, and the smell of burning charcoal and heated steel.

This was the workshop district of Gos Velen, which had risen in recent years.

Thick black smoke rose straight into the sky from the chimneys, starkly contrasting with the clear skies of Gos Velen and the blue coastline with white waves.

Some would say this was pollution, a destruction of nature by humans, but many more believed the black smoke symbolized economic benefits.

Meaning, it represented more food in bellies and more clothes on bodies.

”I told you! Dwarf blacksmiths and human blacksmiths are not to have separate forges! Nor will they be allowed to set up separate work areas!”

The sound of hammering rang out, and through the walls could be heard Belengar’s somewhat distorted voice, shouting loudly and with hostility.

”No one is allowed to refuse cooperation on grounds of race! Everyone! I mean everyone who still wants to work here, get to work just like when this workshop was established! Understand?!”

”Fuck your mother! And fuck your mother! Especially fuck your mother! Dare mention this request to me again, and go set up your forge in the mud of Velen village!”

”The money earned here will have nothing to do with you lot anymore! Let’s see how much you bastards can earn on your own in a month!”

Lann walked into the workshop, feeling the wave of heat rush towards him, and only saw Belengar standing on an anvil.

The anvil wasn’t particularly large, just enough to fit a pair of feet. But the Demon Hunter’s previous training made his movements nimble and stances stable.

He could even spin circles on the anvil while pointing out the three below, cursing ’fuck your mother’.

Two were human blacksmiths and one was a dwarf blacksmith.

The circle of blacksmiths below all remained silent. Belengar’s long face, when angry, still had quite an intimidating presence.

Especially when he had the cat eyes representing a Demon Hunter.

People’s general perceptions of Demon Hunters hadn’t dramatically changed, but at least they acknowledged the Demon Hunters’ combat prowess: it certainly surpassed a veteran killer.

This taught the broad-shouldered, thick-waisted blacksmiths to engage in rational dialogue with Belengar.

Not only that, but as Lann entered, he glanced silently at the wall flanked closely to the entrance.

A man, clad in black medium armor, carrying two hand-and-a-half swords on his back, with an ’M’-shaped hairline, was leaning against the wall, sporting a cynical, sarcastic smirk, watching the group of blacksmiths.

This was Lambert, who had replaced Geralt, earning money in Gos Velen.

”Hey, this is an internal workshop affair; no idle people allowed.”

The Wolf Demon Hunter said without turning his head.

”Especially not you, hiding under a magic cloak, pretending to be tough.”

Apparently, not only did Lann sense him as he entered, but Lambert also noticed Lann.

”Well, you’ve truly misunderstood me, Lambert.”

The sound coming from beneath the cloak made the Wolf Demon Hunter pause, turning his attention from the commotion to confront Lann’s slightly lifted hood.

Two pairs of cat eyes met.

”That mouth of yours is just as sharp as ever. In these confused, ever-changing times, finding something unchanged actually brings me a bit of comfort.”

Lambert shot Lann a symbolic, cynical smile that always seemed to carry a mocking undertone.

”No need for sarcasm, I know my smile is annoying. But isn’t it funny? I never considered changing it.”

”Hmm~” Lann drew out the sound and nodded, ”Yes, just that tone, it’s even more comforting.”

After speaking, Lann moved a few steps aside, standing against the wall Lambert leaned on.

As Belengar continued spinning circles, spitting curses from the anvil, the circle of blacksmiths, considering technical prowess or brute strength and rank, were too intimidated to offer any rebuttal, leaving them all silent and downcast.

Thus, they did not notice another person entering the workshop.

”What’s the situation here?”

”Don’t ask me for more; I’m just dragged here as a guard to hold the place down. You know those muscle-bound, brainless men at fancy tavern doors, right? Exactly like that.”

Lambert said, still not raising his head, continuing the interrupted activity of wiping the edges of his chainmail with oily cloth.

The design of this armor was initially collected around Ker Morhan, an advanced armor of the Wolf School, a lightweight yet sturdy leather jacket wrapping the inner chainmail layer.

It looks quite new, probably just made by Belengar not long ago.

But considering the extent to which Belengar dislikes Lambert, it’s likely that this guy paid the full material fee before persuading Belengar to start the furnace.

Perhaps coming over this time to ’hold the fort’ is also part of their plan.

The ’lively crowd’ in the workshop is clearly divided into several factions, truly living up to the saying, ’where there’s people, there’s a Jianghu.’

Next to the three guys cursed as ’f**k your mother’ by Belengar, even though they were being scolded directly, they stubbornly gathered a group of people.

The other large group of people are in the stance of spectators.

With expressions like, ’I know this matter is serious, the situation is really screwed up, but I’m also scared, and I don’t want to get involved.’

What slightly reassured Lann was that Fergus, Yuna, and their bald Dwarf Grandmaster Blacksmith master, Tuer Butcher, were clearly not among those being scolded.

In the end, the Old Demon Hunter, seeing that a round of angry scolding didn’t disperse the crowd gathered around those ’f**k your mother’ folks, sighed, waved his hand, and jumped off the anvil.

”Alright, this matter ends here,” he announced, ”Let’s get back to work.”

So after the crowd dispersed, the clanging of forging grew even more intense.

After jumping off the anvil, Belengar walked towards Lambert, who was at the workshop door.

But as soon as he looked up, he saw a person wearing a Magic Cloak, hiding their face and revealing only bits of themselves, standing by the Demon Hunter of his own school.

Wait a minute... a Magic Cloak?

The Old Demon Hunter’s mind quickly turned, understanding instantly.

After studying the Elf Beacon, Tishaya and Margaret’s research progress on the celestial conjunction phenomenon had almost surpassed all human mages in the current world.

Moreover, with each return of Lann, they collected data and phenomena, continually deepening their understanding of the world, leading them to predict Lann’s return time with increasing accuracy.

Who knows, they might be able to make some improvements on the Elf Beacon and achieve some innovation like cross-world communication.

Regarding Lann’s return time prediction, Margaret would always inadvertently mention it to Belengar.

So the Old Demon Hunter actually knew that Lann’s return was just a matter of days.

”Thank heavens, finally someone capable of calming the situation has arrived.”

Belengar sighed with relief, walking towards the two Demon Hunters across from him.

”This situation really makes my head spin!”

”Oh, don’t say that.” Lann straightened up from his previously wall-leaning stance, chuckling, ”Your face is already long enough. If your head gets any bigger, it’ll be unsightly, Belengar.”

With that, the hood casting a shadow tilted slightly towards Lambert.

”Look, the old hand’s brain is more useful than the newbie’s, huh.”

The only formal Demon Hunter of the Wolf School present let out a habitual sneer at this.

Belengar did not respond, only sighed heavily again.

At this moment, among the many blacksmiths who had dispersed, the Dwarf Grandmaster Tuer Butcher, accompanied by his dwarf apprentice and a human female assistant, approached.

Their movement, among blacksmiths who seemed to have returned to normal work, drew several subtle gazes.

Belengar turned to look at the Dwarf Grandmaster who stopped as he approached.

”Alright, this isn’t the place to talk. Let’s move elsewhere.”

The Dwarf Grandmaster nodded straightforwardly, the flames of the workshop reflecting on his bald head.

The group moved past the seemingly bustling yet secretly scheming blacksmiths towards the office area next to the workshop.

When Lambert reached the door, he naturally leaned against the wall again outside Belengar’s office.

Upon entering the office, though there were no more furnaces, red-hot charcoal, or steel, there were piles of documents and work records instead.

However, the office next to the workshop still had the smell of coal and hot charcoal.

Lann naturally started standing in front of the filing cabinet, pulling out a record of the workshop’s operations, removing his hood to begin reading.

Meanwhile, he smiled, without turning his head, asking Belengar.

”You’ve hired Lambert as your security guard?”

”I’m giving him a meal to eat!”

Belengar, sitting in the chair behind the desk, shouted towards the outside in response to Lann’s question.

”F**K YOU! Belengar!”

Of course, Lambert outside the door could hear, so he responded with a shout from outside, without opening the door, separated by a wooden plank.