Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1332 1304. Echoes of the Past

Lan didn't know how to comfort the murdered Son of God, so he could only follow the knowledge of the witcher and perform some simple rituals using the methods of comforting children who died prematurely or died suddenly.

He took out some herb, lavender, and five or six other medicinal herbs from the alchemical leather bag at his waist, built a simple small fire and lit it.

The incense of these herbs has the mystical effect of appeasing the dead and purifying evil thoughts.

There is salt in the sea water, so he didn't need to sprinkle salt around Kos's body to surround His body with the ocean.

Finally, after placing the still smoking ashes from the fire incense on the boat, Lan En stepped on the dirty sea water and pushed the boat step by step away.

Under the deep moonlight, the candles lit on the boat and the sparks of incense flickered in the air.

"Do you want to say something?" Lan En waded back through the water, looking at the boat drifting away, and whispered to Adeline and Maria behind him. "To send off the dead, you should say something."

"We?" Maria stared at the candlelight on the boat, which was getting smaller and smaller. Her tone was cold and self-deprecating. "We have committed irreparable sins. Can we still give a eulogy now?"

Lan En didn't say anything, just stood there.

And Adeline held Maria's arm tightly and looked at her pleadingly.

Although she refused, Maria took a deep breath, raised her hand to take off the tricorn hat with swan feathers on her head, put it on her chest, and opened her mouth towards the receding boat.

"Oh, dear son of Kos, return to the sea."

Maria's voice was hard and dry, and her hands unconsciously clenched the hat she held in front of her chest.

"The unfathomable curse, the unfathomable ocean, the acceptance of all that exists and all that is possible."

The voice was difficult to speak because of regret and apology, but in the end it already had a kind of calmness that accepted the reality and punishment.

"Return to your ocean mother's body."

The dirty waves were swaying, rocking the boat like a crib.

Until finally, the candles and incense on the boat disappeared on the other side of the sea level, leaving no trace.

It's over. This is the curse from the murdered Son of God.

The moon in the sky seemed to suddenly become much brighter, and the large dark clouds that had originally obscured the moon now dispersed as if being forced back by the light.

The moon shone through the gaps in the dark clouds, illuminating the people on the coast and Kos's body.

“That was a great eulogy.”

But just as the three people present were still gazing absentmindedly at the distant sea level, an old and quiet voice spoke slowly from behind them.

"It is a fitting eulogy for the orphan, Maria."

The huntress suddenly turned around, and Adeline staggered as she turned around.

[First Hunter] German was currently sitting next to Kos's body, in a wheelchair that had appeared out of nowhere.

The old hunter was like any other aging man, with a hunched back, as if his spine no longer had the strength to support his body.

A normal foot and a wooden prosthesis were placed on the footrest of a wheelchair, and a crutch was in his hand.

"teacher?"

Maria asked uncertainly as she slowly put on her tricorn hat.

Gehman, as the female hunter he personally taught, it can even be said that there is probably no one in the whole of Yharnam who knows him better than Maria.

But why does the old man sitting in the wheelchair look so haggard?

And why would he appear here silently at this moment?

"You seem to have many questions for me, my dear Maria."

German, the old hunter who had personally delivered the Son of God's corpse to the cathedral in the church town not long ago, watched the people there perform the dissection, went crazy, and finally left quietly.

At this moment, he looked like he was about to die. He lowered his head as he spoke, and the brim of his top hat drooped down, almost covering his eyes. He did not seem to have the strength to straighten it.

But no matter how abnormal German's behavior was at this moment, for Maria, he was the mentor and spiritual pillar she had always wanted to find in these drastic changes that lasted only one day.

Unlike his usual carefree attitude, the Blood Noble put on the tricorn hat a little deeper because he subconsciously pulled harder than usual.

"Teacher," Maria took a step forward hesitantly and asked in a tangled tone. "I saw too many things and too many events in this day."

"The patients with gray blood in the research hall have worms in their blood! [Blood therapy] can't save people, but it feeds those worms!"

"And there's a hunter! The hunter who just injected the blood collection bottle into the vein in his thigh! He went crazy! He turned into a beast right in front of me!"

"Doesn't [Blood Healing] cure everything?!"

"I used to know all these things, such as the Healing Church, [Blood Healing], Gray Blood Disease, and Beast Transformation! But now, what exactly are they?"

She thought she knew everything, but in just one day, everything she witnessed following Lan told Maria: what you think things are, are never what they really are.

Under this kind of impact, Maria was still able to keep her voice trembling slightly, and she was generally calm. It was already her cold feeling as a Yharnam hunter that was suppressing her.

But as Maria's closest mentor, German seemed to be unable to hear his disciple's self-doubt and emotional breakdown hidden beneath his calmness.

His top hat merely nodded up and down in a slow, stiff motion.

"It's been a long time since you asked me a question." "I didn't expect that you would come here instead of staying in the research center this time."

"This isn't something the 'normal you' would do. You must have been influenced by someone."

Maria frowned, and at the same time, she clenched the handle of the [Fallen Leaf] knife at her waist.

"teacher"

She didn't understand what these words meant, what was 'normal me' and what was 'this time'?
But at this moment, German slowly raised his head, and his eyes under the brim of his top hat did not fall on his students.

Instead, he walked straight past Maria, and amid the sound of the waves, he looked at the back of the witcher who was facing the sea.

The sound of boots stepping on the sea water was heard, and Lan En turned around at this time.

Under the moonlight, the sea breeze blew his hair into a ball of dancing silver.

"You actually dare to come back, ha, hahaha."

The old voice laughed in a low voice.

"You are clearly a wicked guest who broke into someone else's garden without permission and then ran away. Don't you feel guilty or afraid at all? Even a little bit?"

Lan En lowered his eyes and chuckled indifferently.

"After all, I never thought that the person who was in my dream would appear in front of me alive now."

"First Hunter, Geman."

He was also the old man in the wheelchair whom Lan En saw after he fell asleep when he first arrived in Yharnam, and who wanted him to be injected with Yharnam's blood!

When German saw Lan again, he just said this and seemed to no longer care about her. He looked at Maria, who seemed to be still cold and calm on the surface but was actually about to collapse.

"You want to know a lot of things? Okay, you are my best student, I will tell you."

Then, German told the truth to Maria and Adeline who was beside her.

The Research Hall is where the parasites obtained from Kos's corpse are studied.

Gray blood disease? Gray blood disease is just like what Lan En said, it is a man-made plague that the Healing Church deliberately spread to expand the scope of infection in order to explore the knowledge contained in the disease.

Treating disease is not the goal. Disease itself is a means of exploring mysteries and a research method.

The patients in that research hall would definitely not come out alive from the moment they entered to receive the so-called "treatment".

Everyone will die, the only difference is whether their illness can provide new knowledge to the research of the Healing Church.

As Gehman spoke calmly and without any waves, Maria's leather gloves made a creaking sound as they clenched on the handle of Fallen Leaves.

At this moment, the words that the patients had said to her and the words she had said to the patients began to emerge uncontrollably in her mind.

"Ms. Maria, my head hurts! Is it going to explode? Is it?"

"Ms. Maria, hold my hand, please!"

Those patients accepted Maria's comfort, or it was because of Maria's comfort that they were able to persevere through the painful treatment or research process.

Maria also planted many chrysanthemums in the garden of the research hall. She hoped that these flowers, which she loved most, could bring comfort to the patients with their fragrance.

Sincere treatment can be felt by others.

So because of Maria's solemn assurance, the patients believed that as long as they held on, there would always be hope of curing the disease.

And your mentor
Under the shadow of the tricorn hat, Maria's blood-red eyes were filled with disbelief, grief and suspicion as she looked at German sitting in the wheelchair.

My most trusted mentor. He knows everything!

He watched as those patients died in endless pain because of their trust in him.

I am so stupid!

Previously, when Maria faced Ludwig, who only had a head left but still believed in the Healing Church, she just felt that he was deceived and was really pitiful.

But what about this moment?
Ludwig, who always believed in the Healing Church, and myself, who always believed in my mentor. Is there really any difference?

"Oh!"

The mercury bullet was fired from the finely crafted musket with intricate carvings, but when it shot towards the old man in the wheelchair, it seemed to pass through an illusion.

It hit nothing, and in the end the mercury bullet was just buried in the sand of the beach.

Maria's hand holding the gun was shaking abnormally.

But German even had the leisure to turn his stiff and old body around and look at the crater.

"Yes, Maria would do that."

There was even a hint of nostalgia in the old hunter's tone.

"But what a shame. What a shame, you are just a bunch of remnants of the past."

"Nothing can be done."

(End of this chapter)