Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1364 1336. The Reality of Life

For some reason, Maria's eyes were gleaming with disbelief.

Yes, 'somehow'.

After all, in Maria's subjective time, she had seen the sun and the day not long ago. All the changes and the collapse of her worldview actually originated from one night before, just one night.

But for some reason, Maria felt a sense of melancholy as she felt she was in another world when she felt the light covering the side of her face under the brim of her hat.

How long was that night before?

How long has it been since I last saw the sun?

Or in other words, have I ever really seen the light?

The conflict between memory and feeling made Maria freeze in place as she took a step out of the alley.

Bewildered and incredulous, she looked up at the sunlight that was filtering through the gaps in the spires of Yharnam's Gothic buildings.

Then he turned around to look at the witcher in the alley, who seemed to have been exhausted to the point of unconsciousness, but was still smiling with his head down.

"What did you do?"

Her long legs in long leather boots stepped on the stone floor. She trotted to Lan En's side and half-knelt down, asking in an unconsciously anxious tone.

She herself didn't know what she was so anxious about at this moment, but this feeling of disbelief kept surging up from the bottom of her heart.

"what have you done?!"

Unconsciously, Maria had lost all of the style and habit of the Yharnam hunters, who would remain silent even when a blade cut across their throats.

Her voice traveled far in this empty dawn.

So far that it attracted something.

The 'clicking' sound of claws stepping on the stone floor helped Maria break free from the wave of chaotic emotions and regain her qualities as a Yharnam hunter.

She turned smoothly and quickly to face the entrance of the alley, and the one-shoulder cape on her left shoulder swung in the air, forming a gorgeous and neat arc.

The Cainhurst precision rifle in his left hand was loaded and aimed.

The unique cold murderous aura of the Yharnam hunters was directed specifically at that place.

But "Ouch?"

A dog, a skinny dog, was about to pass through the alley when it suddenly jumped three feet high as if it was pricked by a needle, and its messy hair stood up.

He ran away whimpering without looking back.

Maria, with her finger on the trigger of the rifle, just stood there in a daze, looking at the dog under the muzzle of the gun running away.

Because it's a normal dog!

A dog that is dirty, thin and looks almost dead, but is indeed a normal creature!
Its ribs are not exposed. Although its belly is flat, there is still a layer of belly skin covering the bones and internal organs. Its messy hair also grows from the skin, not from the bones, internal organs, and bone marrow deeper inside the body!

The first time Maria saw a normal creature, it was like seeing the sun.

In her subjective memory, she should have just seen these things, but her feelings did not match her memory.

Subconsciously, Maria pressed down her tricorn hat with the hand holding the gun, using this action to calm her head from the conflicting confusion.

"Dreams. Reality. The past. Everything is so messy."

The female hunter whispered in confusion.

Amid the chaos of a group of high-dimensional life forms fighting each other, everything about Yanan seemed illogical, absurd and chaotic.

But fortunately, the hunters of Yharnam are already accustomed to dealing with this situation.

Since it was already sunrise and even ordinary creatures had begun to run around the city, Maria could finally give up her previous plan of finding her own way and asking for help.

She supported the semi-conscious Lan En and walked with his arm.

If it was that dangerous night in Yharnam, Maria felt that it would be safer for both of them if she first covered the unconscious Lan with some disguise and then went alone to look for someone, rather than carrying a heavy burden around.

Maria carried Lan and walked in the city illuminated by the light of dawn.

Although she already knew that this was the 'future' Yharnam, the scene before her still surprised Maria.

It's not because of technological advancement or the expansion of urban size, but because of decay.

This city, which is several times larger than Old Yharnam, undoubtedly represents the technological progress and expansion of scale that has emerged over time.

But at this moment, the cold sunlight of dawn was shining on the ground.

On the side of the road, there is a headless statue of a female angel with her hands raised to the sky as if praying for something.

Tiny vines were entangled on its body, and one could vaguely see dark red blood that had seeped into the stone.

But it had been too long, and even with the sensitivity of Yharnam hunters, who could smell the blood in other people's veins from a few meters away, it was almost impossible to tell what kind of blood it was. Several bodies that had weathered to the point of only bones were lying by the pool in the small square.

Logically speaking, the corpse should have become a clean skeleton, and the clothes on the body should have weathered into pieces.

But the clothes of the Yharnam civilians fit perfectly on their skeletons.

Dirty and yellowed white shirt, frayed suspenders, work hat or old wide-brimmed hat.
There are also pitchforks beside them, and muskets and torches used by civilians.

These things are all fine.

Maria walked along a road that seemed vaguely familiar. After passing the pond, she saw a skeleton on the ground that was probably dressed as a hunter.

It was still the combination of a long-dried skeleton and unreasonably intact clothes.

But the hunter in front of me, wearing a suit, woolen coat and a neat top hat, must have been quite fashionable when he was alive.

Even from Maria's perspective, this outfit is very fashionable in this era, so let's just call him a fashionable hunter.

But Maria did not see any rifle or other weapons on the hunter's body, and did not know what the situation was when he died.

After turning around and seeing a large closed iron gate, Maria realized that she should have gone to Gascoigne's house.

A female hunter was carrying a man who was much taller and stronger than her. Even though Maria's physique was not weak, there would always be some bumps and bruises.

Lan En's boots, which were covered with dragon scales that interlocked with each other, made a clanking sound on the stone floor.

On the buildings on both sides of the small park by the pond, there is a window protected by thick iron railings with several iron chains wrapped around the railings. It seems that the window is hesitantly or cautiously opening slightly because it can feel the sunlight coming through the curtains.

The man did not seem to notice Maria standing in the small park by the pond.

In other words, he is now so confused that he doesn't know what to do.

After confirming that there was real sunlight outside the curtains, he almost tore off the curtains on the window.

I looked at everything in front of me in confusion and at a loss.

There were some black hairs of lycanthropy under the bandage on his head, but they were very slight, so slight that one would think he just had overgrown eyebrows.

He was like Maria who had seen the sunlight and the normal dog before, covering his head at this sight.

It feels like I have forgotten too many things, and it feels like I can’t process so much information.

But in the end, he did not have the same strong nerves as the Yharnam hunters. After turning around and shrinking back into the room, he let out a cry of pain and astonishment.

Too many people died.

This hunting night is too long.

Even if they were lucky enough not to become lycanthropes, or have their house broken into by mad lycanthropes or hunters, they would still have difficulty surviving hunger and thirst.

In today's Yharnam, it is an ideal situation if one person out of hundreds of people can survive.

She couldn't help but tilt her head and look at the still dazed witcher.

If it weren't for him, this city wouldn't even have the chance to feel sad.

"Squeak!"

The rusty steel door hinge made a harsh sound as the mechanism turned.

If it happened at night, this noise would undoubtedly be unacceptable and fatal news.

But now, the person who opened the mechanism was standing relaxedly next to the mechanism lever.

Henrik raised his head, holding down his tricorn hat. Although his eyes were stinging from the gap between the hat brim and the mask, he still looked at the morning light greedily.

After being stimulated by the light and crying, he sniffed and nodded muffledly to Maria who walked in through the open iron gate.

"I guessed that this is the only road you are familiar with."

The old hunter first skillfully lifted Lan's head, rolled his eyelids, and looked at his mouth.

The final tone was as calm as ever.

"Nothing serious. Looks like he's lacking blood. But I don't see any big wounds on him."

"After all, I'm not a professional doctor. Let's go and take him back to Orton Chapel."

The cold light of dawn gradually becomes warmer as time goes by.

But in Yharnam, there were increasingly noisy voices, those voices expressing collapse and pain.

But Maria, who was holding Lan, and Henrik, who walked to the other side and held up the witcher's other arm, felt the reality of life amidst these increasingly noisy sounds.

It is not bloody and absurd like in a dream, but real life belonging to human beings.

(End of this chapter)