Bear School Astartes

”Don’t get so close.”

Out of character, Margaret actually backed away a little from Lann’s side.

But before the Demon Hunter could even be surprised that this esteemed Headmistress had finally made some progress and was no longer an embodiment of unrestrained debauchery, he caught sight of Margaret’s eyes again.

There was fire burning in those eyes.

The searing fire of lust.

Feelings and desire are all mashed into one sticky paste between a healthy man and woman; once mixed, there’s just no separating them.

”You look like you’re about to devour me.” Lann didn’t shy away from the blazing desire in her gaze, just smiled low and teased. ”But it seems you’ve at least learned to hold back?”

”There was no ’holding back’ in the original plan.”

Margaret’s beautiful brows lifted slightly, her tone carrying a hint of provocation.

She tipped back her neck, that long, tender white throat like a swan’s; her scarlet lips came close to Lann’s ear, breathing out sultry warmth and whispers.

”I got the news about your Magic Ring together with Qilin, and I did have a banquet ready, with Tishaya too...”

”But originally, I was thinking we could use half an hour, let me ’grab some fast food’ to take the edge off first.”

”Half an hour?” Wrapped in this suggestive tangle of atmosphere, Lann murmured in genuine surprise, ”Half an hour is enough for you to ’grab fast food’, sure, but that leaves me hanging, doesn’t it?”

”What else did you expect?”

The bewitching, voluptuous blonde beauty gave him an inviting little smile.

But after that smile, her gaze still stayed a bit hazy as she leaned even closer to the Demon Hunter, mumbling.

”Why are you even more irresistible this time you’ve come back...?”

Lann clicked his tongue and stepped back, opening up some distance, which earned him an annoyed little ”tch” from Margaret—but at least it snapped her out of it.

The Ancient God’s Curse was forcibly pressed down inside his body; the harm couldn’t leak out, but that deep, high-dimensional allure a higher life form exerts on mortals had seeped outward, soaking into his flesh.

The researchers of the Healing Church and Byron Vis, just facing the long-dead corpse of an Ancient God, had already been beguiled into madness and death in batches.

This eerie, seductive pull needs no extra explanation.

”Remember to keep your distance.” Lann looked down his nose at Margaret with a deliberately aloof, reserved expression, joking as he spoke. ”If we really end up with physical contact later, I’m afraid you won’t be able to handle it.”

The Headmistress of Airetusa shot him a vicious glare, but in the end still accepted his suggestion and shifted a bit farther away from him.

At least until this meal was over... she’d have to endure.

-----------------

Margaret still had to busy herself for a bit before she managed to set up a simple banquet.

Previously, although she’d learned at the same time as Qilin—through the Magic Ring—that Lann had already returned, she’d only out of habit told the academy kitchen to prepare food on the scale for a few people to eat and chat, nothing more.

With two extra people suddenly added, the little table she’d planned to set up in the Headmistress’s bedroom simply wasn’t enough; she had no choice but to open up a reception room on short notice and have it cleared out to serve as a dining hall.

”There seem to be a lot of people here, but none of them ever come out?”

Only when Maria had set her tricorn hat down by the edge of the table did she finally ask.

Just now, while walking through Airetusa’s corridors and stairwells, she’d only quietly observed.

As one of the most suitable settings for a horror film, a school at night with no one around is obviously high on the list.

This empty yet lavishly grand castle seemed to stir up some bad memories in Maria.

Airetusa is an academy for training Female Warlocks, but it’s still a school.

And to rein in the playful nature of Female Sorcerer Apprentices during their student years, the rules are actually quite strict.

Otherwise Margaret wouldn’t have panicked so badly when one student got swindled away by some wild man that she went to Velen herself to search, only to end up—this dignified Great Mage—taken down by a surprise catapult shot from the shadows.

Because Airetusa runs as a closed boarding school.

The Female Sorcerer Apprentices, though they sometimes can’t stand their own rampant desires and sneak off to Gos Velen to have some fun, still have to obey the academy’s schedule.

Now night had only just fallen, but the apprentices’ range of activity was already starting to be restricted; they weren’t allowed to run around.

”Welcome to Airetusa, friends from out of town.”

Once they were seated, Tishaya raised her glass with poised grace and spoke her words of welcome.

Earlier, the hostess air Margaret had shown in front of Maria and Adeline collapsed instantly the moment they faced Tishaya, who had truly been running this academy for centuries.

She even ceded the main seat on her own, without Tishaya needing to say a word.

Which let Lann silently mock her for quite a while with a smile that hid more than it showed.

On the other hand, Maria and Adeline both found their expressions hard to keep straight, yet still followed etiquette, raising their glasses in response to Tishaya’s welcome.

Proper, bona fide Yan’an locals were suddenly being called ”friends from out of town”; it was honestly a bit hard for them to get used to.

Of course, that slightly teasing remark was the ”little reminder” Lann had leaned in to whisper into Tishaya’s ear when he entered just now.

After finishing the welcome speech, Tishaya uncharacteristically knocked back a big gulp of the Toussaint East of East red wine in her glass, as if trying to douse a fire whose source she couldn’t quite place.

She normally would never be so discourteous.

Meanwhile, Maria and Adeline, faced with this national-treasure-level vintage from the Land of Knights and Fine Wine, only took a sip and then lost interest.

Which made Margaret and Tishaya think that in the Otherworld Lann had visited this time, the wine must have been far superior to Toussaint’s, and that their arrangements were a bit underwhelming.

”It’s not the wine.” Lann bit into a donut stuffed with plum jam as he explained to the slightly unprepared Tishaya and Margaret. ”It’s just that the Yan Nan People prefer blood to wine.”

”Blood?” Now even Tishaya was intrigued.

Without so much as lowering her head, she re‑aligned the table setting that had been thrown off by the earlier toast, and watched the two guests with mild astonishment.

”Are the people of that world all blood‑drinkers? Do you drink animal blood? Surely you don’t go around drinking each other’s?”

”No.” Maria’s cold, even voice snagged for a moment, but she finally let out a slow breath. ”It’s just... an addictive vice. Edd invited Adeline and me here because we want to eradicate any potential hidden dangers.”

”Looks like we’ll have to rely on Magic. We’re going to trouble you for that.”

As she spoke, Maria raised her glass in salute to Margaret and Tishaya.

Born of Blood Nobility, in the high society world of socializing and banquets, it’s only a matter of whether she wants to do something, never whether she can.

Though Yan’an and the Magical Middle Ages differ in etiquette, that rigorously meticulous, slightly cumbersome aura is unmistakable.

Just as whenever Lann arrives in a new world, even if he knows nothing of the local customs at first, people instinctively never take him for someone uncultured or ignorant.

”Don’t be so stiff.” Taking advantage of his tall, long‑armed frame, Lann slid a plate of salted grilled anchovies to Adeline’s side of the table, squeezing half a lemon over them in passing.

After seeing to the guests he’d brought, Lann finally turned his head and began recounting the last world’s events to Tishaya and Margaret.

”A world whose deep structures are all occupied by a bunch of... higher beings of that sort of appearance?”

Like listening to a horror tale, Margaret blinked, then washed it down with a mouthful of red wine.

”And this time, you killed an Ancient God?”

Even though sharing bizarre Otherworld experiences with him at the dinner table after his return had already become routine for the Female Warlocks...

What he’d done this time, spoken aloud, was still startling.

”It was only thanks to what I’d piled up before, and to the preparations we arranged ahead of time after discussing it with the Lady of the Lake.”

Lann was far from smug. Speaking of that battle with the Moon God, the relaxed pleasure of a traveler faded from his face.

It really wasn’t a duel one could talk about lightly.

”I had the Lady of the Lake look them over, and I’ve checked with my own eyes as well: the blood in their bodies no longer carries that deep power of the Ancient Gods.”

The Demon Hunter took a cleansing sip of white wine and brought the topic back to the present.

”But to be safe, I still think we need to replace every drop of blood in both of their bodies at least three times. That blood was once entangled with the power of two Ancient Gods.”

”Even if the Ancient Gods’ power has long departed, the traces of influence it left behind won’t simply vanish.”

”Replace the blood three times?”

When it came to treatment plans and academic questions, Tishaya was the only one at the table who could keep up with Lann’s train of thought.

Margaret’s genius lay in the field of spellcraft; biology and Alchemy were not her domain.

Tishaya still had a wine glass in hand, but her mind was already running the calculations, her eyes unfocused.

”How much time are you planning to take to complete it?”

”There’s no rush.” Lann answered crisply, then gave Maria and Adeline a reassuring smile.

The two of them knew nothing of Magic or Alchemy; at this point their calm listening depended entirely on their trust in Lann.

”The Ancient Gods’ power has been purged. They don’t have the ability to cross worlds. Taking it slow is fine—safer, too.”

”Then there’s no problem.” Tishaya pronounced, firm as a hammer blow. ”As it happens, during the time you were away, the three plants you brought back from the New Continent have already gone through several growth cycles.”

”Their medicinal efficacy has weakened drastically, just as we predicted. But they’re still far better than anything on the market. You might want to start experimenting with Alchemy using varieties cultivated locally.”

”Really?” Lann’s eyebrows lifted in genuine surprise. ”The restorative herb, Blue Mushroom, and Mandala Mushroom all managed to grow?”

But then he immediately frowned.

”You followed the standard protocol for introducing non‑native species, right? If we trigger a biological invasion, that’ll be a huge headache.”

”They’ve survived purely because their own Life Force is strong enough.” Tishaya answered his first question, then, for some reason, responded to the second with a faint sigh.

”As for biological invasion—they’ve been under my direct supervision and cultivation the whole time. There’s no problem.”

”Under your direct supervision and cultivation?” At that, Lann’s frown deepened. ”Did something happen while I was away?”