Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1380 1352. Encounter at the Market
Lan En came out this time as usual. He wanted to chat with his old friend Berengar and replenish the gadgets he had consumed.

For example, consumables such as throwing knives, shackles, and padlocks.

These things are of little use at critical moments with Lan En's current combat power.

But anyone who has traveled far away should know that these little gadgets can really save a lot of trouble. Moreover, Lan En's "travel" is often extremely dangerous.

If you can reduce the hassle by doing more preparation, there is certainly no reason not to do it.

In addition, this set of armor also needs to be maintained by Berengar. The material of Smaug is good, but careful maintenance is also very important.

Lan walked towards the edge of the city, to the large workshop area that had flourished in recent years due to the Valyrian steel business.

Most of the time I walked on mud, and only a small part of the time I had the chance to walk on stone brick roads.

Lan En first passed the City Hall. On top of this official building, the weather vane in the shape of a golden rooster silhouette was spinning in the sea breeze.

Next is the fish market, which is full of fishy smell but has the characteristics of Gos Velen.

There are many seagulls on the roofs here, waiting to eat the internal organs that the fishermen discard after they gut the fish.

The noise of their cackling is annoying, but judging by the fishmongers' bargaining, arguing and swearing with the people passing by as usual, people have become completely accustomed to this sound.

On the fish market street, many wild cats pretended to be indifferent to everything, but they targeted both seagulls and fish entrails.

After passing the fish market, you should continue walking diagonally towards the city wall, passing the market square which is equally famous for its fish market, and reach the area of ​​the large workshop.

But after passing the market square, Lan En took a few steps back and stretched his head to look at the crowded market square.

"Is today a market day?"

Lan muttered doubtfully from under the shadow of his hood.

Then Mentos projected the date sheet that had been adjusted as soon as he returned.

Indeed, today is market day.

Originally, the two markets in the city should be equally famous, but today the market square is overwhelmingly more popular than the fish market.

There are two fairs at the beginning and middle of every month, but Lan En usually misses them because he is busy outside, and he doesn't have anything that he needs to go to the market to buy himself.

So even though he had been in Gos Velen for more than two years, he had never gone in to take a look at the market.

This time is no exception.

The reason why Lan En stopped and took a few steps back was mainly because he heard a familiar voice amid the noisy sounds of the market.

But it was so chaotic here that even with his extraordinary senses as a witcher, he wondered if he had just hallucinated.

"Berengar!" Lan stretched his head and shouted inside, "Berengar?"

No one responded, as Lan's voice was also lost in the noise.

But fortunately, with his superhuman height and observation skills, Lan En had already seen the familiar long face that was somewhat similar to that of a primitive man.
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Today, the market in Gos Velen is even more crowded and noisy than the dock square in Novigrad.

In comparison, the fish market that Lan En had just passed was as quiet as a temple during morning prayers.

Not only was it noisy, it was also crowded like a school of sardines.

Just standing outside and watching would make people lose the courage to "squeeze in".

Fortunately, Lan En doesn't care about this.

There was even an interested smile on the young man's lips under his hood.

It was still quite interesting for him to go to the market occasionally.

Especially after experiencing the Yharnam Dream, a truly spooky journey.

Lan En even thought about whether he should drag Maria and Adeline over to experience what "popularity" meant.

The vendors were yelling, the customers were yelling even louder, and the lost children were crying. Cows and sheep were also moving around in the market, as were chickens, ducks, and geese, all waiting to be sold or slaughtered on the spot. The sounds of various livestock were crowded together.

From the corner of the square came the sound of a flute, violin and lute ensemble. Apparently there were bards and musicians who wanted to make some money from the flow of people.

But what is annoying is that a man selling horns, who is obviously not a musician and whose trumpet is not a musical instrument to be played, still keeps blowing it.

Lan En was so irritated by the terrible "advertising sound" that he looked embarrassed and shrank his neck to move away. This was not music at all.

If he was in combat, he wouldn't care about noise or anything like that, but now that he was relaxed, his requirements for the environment and music naturally increased.

The young witcher was not pushed by the surging crowd. Instead, he was more afraid of squeezing others, so he walked very carefully.

However, thanks to his agility, he still paid for a fried pancake on the way.

It was a stall run by a rude and gloomy half-elf. They said they were fried pancakes, but to Lan it actually looked more like egg-filled pancakes, except that the crust was filled with sweet fillings like raspberry jam.

The rich sweetness of raspberries mixed with oil made Lan feel better again.

The sound of the trumpet also disappeared. It was estimated that the person who blew the trumpet was stabbed to death.

Lan En pouted and complained in his heart.

After he finished the raspberry jam-filled pancake in two bites, he dodged a wild cat that ran over, and a camel with strong body odor and tangled hair passed in front of him.

Lan En finally walked up to his friend.

Berengar was arguing with a dwarf who ran a blacksmith shop in the marketplace.

The dwarf had an impatient look on his face, and his hands were clanging on the steel plate. Whenever he had a free moment, he would take a few gulps of wine from the iron wine jug, then tilt his head and spit, cursing.

"How many times have I advised you? Why don't you just go to the workshop and work hard? You just want to make trouble with Master Butcher, right?" "It's that old man who's making trouble for me! Can't I just not make this money? You keep nagging me."

"Don't you want to earn this money?" Berengar shouted so that his voice would not be drowned out by the noisy market. Veins popped out of his neck when he spoke. "That's easy for you to say!"

"Do you think I care about your poor craftsmanship? I'm a fucking master blacksmith!"

"The key point is now! You, a dwarf, left in anger! What will other dwarves and half-elf craftsmen think of you? Don't they think you were wronged by human craftsmen?"

"Then I'll go over and explain it to them myself!" The dwarf blacksmith slammed the wine jug on the table and shouted with his neck stiff, "This is my personal conflict and has nothing to do with anything else!"

"Explain yourself? You?" Berengar sneered, "You said it and others will believe it? Others will only believe that I covered your mouth!"

"There are many people wrongly accused in Temerian prison. Why don't they explain themselves clearly? Even if they do, no one will believe them!"

Berengar's aura overwhelmed the dwarf, although it was unclear whether this aura was due to his loud voice or his identity as a master blacksmith.

But Lan En, who had already walked over, reached out and patted the master on the shoulder.

Berengar turned his head impatiently, looking suspiciously up and down at the hooded man who greeted him.

"Hello, sir. What can I do for you?"

The master blacksmith, who was famous in Temeria, and even in the entire North and Nilfgaard for Valyrian steel, spoke impatiently with a bit of distress at this time.

"Forget about trying to establish connections. You can wear this magic cloak to scare the hooligans, but I don't have any discounts to offer. If you want to buy goods, go directly to the Valyria Chamber of Commerce office next to the workshop area and ask."

After finishing his business-like remarks, Berengar was ready to turn around and continue his dispute with the stubborn dwarf blacksmith.

Lan En tilted his head.

He used his height to look around the crowd.

The market square was now crowded with people, but in addition to tall horses and camels and other tall animals, there were indeed several people like him.

Wearing a hooded cloak, at first glance, there was a figure that looked about two meters forty-five feet tall walking around.

It seems that the magic cloak has already gained quite a following thanks to its popularity and its ability to confuse observers.

But if you look more closely, the tall figures other than Lan En, their seemingly strong bodies, were squeezed to and fro and drifted with the current in the surging crowd.

There is a big difference between this and Lan En's attitude of remaining unmoved even when others are squeezing towards him.

It’s just that nowadays, there are so many people that no one can see what is happening two or three steps away, so no one can notice the difference.

Lan sneered, and stretched out his arm from under his cloak and pressed it on Berengar's shoulder.

The old witcher was still upset, wondering who was the one trying to establish a relationship with him.

But then, he saw the hand pressing on his shoulder, and the gauntlet covering the hand.

And he was not the only one who saw it. The dwarf blacksmith who had just taken a sip of the wine immediately widened his eyes and spat out the wine that had entered his mouth before he swallowed it!
That armor.!

Berengar glared at the dwarf blacksmith, then stopped talking to him, turned around and pushed Lan into the chaotic crowd.

With the current level of congestion, if you take one more step from the front of the stall you will be buried in the crowd.

The two men immediately disappeared from the dwarf's sight.

"You're back? When? Why didn't you tell me?"

Berengar said as he squeezed in. There were many people and noises in the market, and in the chaos, they could talk peacefully.

"I just got back!" Lan said with his head down, but he had to shout it out against the noisy background. "I was just about to look for you, and here I ran into you. What are you doing here?"

Berengar pinched his brows in pain and shouted with his eyes closed.

"A dwarf craftsman quit his job."

"Is he very skilled?" Lan En asked curiously.

"Technology? He has nothing! He's just a little more efficient, that's all." Berengar snorted coldly, "The key is not in technology, but in identity!"

"At this moment, I just calmed down the people on both sides. After he left, the elves, half-elves, dwarves, and halflings became nervous again. They spread the word that I calmed people down before so that I could do it in secret! Fuck you!"

The inhuman craftsmen are afraid.

And given their current situation and social atmosphere, they have every reason to be afraid.

Once people become afraid, no matter how high their IQ is, it will all stop functioning. They may do all kinds of stupid things out of fear, just like an unstable powder keg.

"It's not a big deal. I can take him back today."

Berengar waved his hand and shook his head, as if it wasn't worth talking about.

"It's really not a big deal."

Lan, on the other hand, now seemed to not care about the troubles that Berengar was talking about.

He walked with Berengar, but his face under the hood was frowning as he looked at a makeshift podium set up in the crowd.

"The point is that even Gos Velen is this kind of person now?"

"what?"

Berengar asked subconsciously in confusion, then turned his head to look in the direction Lan was looking.

On the makeshift podium made of a pile of wooden barrels, a fat guy with a shaved head and wearing a linen robe was climbing up.

(End of this chapter)