Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1604 1576. Pressure Antique
"Haha! Look who's back?"

Gede had heard their footsteps before, but he didn't pay much attention to them. He wanted to deal with the troublemakers he had taught a lesson first.

After Lan En spoke, he was surprised to find that the person coming over was actually an old friend.

The two Bear School witchers, who were supposed to be as cold and ruthless as ice, were now walking towards each other with emotional smiles on their faces.

With a 'pop' sound, they held each other's outstretched arms, then pulled each other closer for a simple hug.

"You're growing your beard again? Didn't you say before that it was too troublesome?"

Lan teased Gede.

But Gerd shrugged nonchalantly: "Beards are indeed troublesome, but when I go to relax, I find that girls really like the furry touch, you know?"

He understood, but Lan En still made a 'tsk tsk' sound as a mockery.

Gerd leaned sideways and looked behind him through Lan's arm.

"Oh, Kitty and Kirin are back too. But who is this pretty lady?"

The fluffy ball squatted on the Qilin's back and greeted Gede, whom he had met before.

But Cassandra.
"Beautiful lady?" With a subtle and aggressive smile on her face, Cassandra walked up from Lan and extended her hand to Ged.

Gede didn't think much about it and reached out to shake it.

Lan En also took a small step back with a malicious smile.

The two men held each other's arms. In this respect, the way of greeting in ancient Greece and the magical Middle Ages was very similar.

But then
"Crench!"

The leather part of the arm armor of the Advanced Bear School was the first to make a sound of being squeezed and rubbed vigorously!

Ged's mouth under his beard suddenly twisted.

His face turned red and warm at a speed visible to the naked eye, just like the troublemaker he had just angered.

"Crack!"

A moment later, Gede reacted and retaliated by exerting force with his palm, squeezing the connecting parts of Cassandra's metal arm guard, causing a noise.

This tense handshake lasted about ten seconds, and finally, Gede was the first to let out a "puff".

They both let go of each other.

"For the sake of smallpox and cholera!" Gerd waved his hands and shouted like he saw a ghost, "Lan En, where did you find such a powerful girl? You don't seem to like being called Miss? Then what should I call you?"

Ged felt like his forearm muscles were about to burst, and he very cautiously asked Cassandra how she wanted to use personal pronouns.

"Cassandra." The falconer waved his hand. "I'm not really that particular. As long as she's not a delicate lady, that's fine."

"I understand!" Gerd nodded immediately, "I totally understand, man!"

It seemed that Cassandra's personality was very much to his liking. He didn't care about the pain of his arm being pinched, and just laughed and shook hands with the other party normally.

Then he looked at the roaring bear head pendant around his neck, and then at the same one around Lan's neck.

He picked up the pendant with one finger and shook it twice: "There's no magic in this. Where do you get so much strength?"

"Strictly speaking," Lan En responded to Gede's question, "She used some techniques that are different from magic. Just understand it this way."

"Okay." Gerd was not a person who would hesitate much, and immediately called Lan En and the other four to go deep into the factory area. "Come, I'll take you to find that old man Berengar. How about having dinner together tonight? My work is not over yet."

"No problem." Lan En agreed first, "But these ones next to it, are we going to put them here?"

As he spoke, Lan raised his chin towards the troublemakers on the road who had not yet recovered from being dragged away by Gede.

"They? Nothing serious." Gerd acted as if he was used to it. "See that guy inside who didn't even have a pair of pants, just a pair of underwear and a pair of shoes and came here?"

"I've seen him twice this week alone. If he really had no pants, I think he would have been frozen to death in this weather."

"He probably knew he was going to get beaten, so he simply didn't wear his pants to avoid getting them dirty or torn."

Lan En glanced at the troublemakers who were almost recovering from the pain, shook his head and walked forward: "What's going on?"

Gede's punches and kicks were very measured, and not a single bone was broken.

Cassandra looked around and found that forging and smelting, which were very powerful jobs closely related to weapons and equipment, were very much in line with her aesthetic taste.

"What's the big deal?" Gede shook his head helplessly as he walked forward, "Didn't you hear everything just now?"

"The Valyrian steel business has not stopped, and trade with Nilfgaard is still maintained. That's why many people have come out now and said they want to teach us a lesson."

"But this is not normal." Although Lan En had just returned, he was able to keenly and calmly sense the unnaturalness based on just a few words.

He said calmly: "The news that the enemy troops are stationed outside the border can indeed bring a lot of pressure to people. It is normal for people to become dizzy under pressure and take various drastic actions."

“But the pressure is not that great now.”

As Lan En walked, he looked back and saw that the men who had just been knocked down were now staggering to their feet and preparing to leave.

"If the Nilfgaardians had already reached the vicinity and caused a large number of casualties, and a large number of locals had lost their relatives and friends, then of course their anger and fear would explode. I'm not surprised that the factory area was razed to the ground."

"But now, the news of the Nilfgaardian army is still far away, why are they reacting so strongly?" The salami slicing tactics, or the step-by-step tactics, work because they fit the psychological characteristics of human beings.

Take Nilfgaard’s journey north as an example.

The pressure that the Nilfgaardian army brought to the northerners did not increase steadily as they moved north, but rather increased in steps.

If we divide it in the simplest form, then: when the northerners heard that the Nilfgaardians had declared war, the psychological pressure was one. When the Nilfgaardians attacked the neighboring countries of their own country, it soared to fifty.

Reach the border of your own country and level up to seventy.

Finally, it directly hit the city where he was, soaring to 100, completely exploding.

It's completely normal and understandable that the Valyrian steel business would suffer as a result of this.

But if the residents are not under enough psychological pressure, how could they possibly cause trouble at the frequency that Gede mentioned?

"What you said is similar to what Xi Leton said. So, did you really just come back?"

Gerd said this jokingly, but the second half of the sentence became serious.

"I don't quite understand what Xileton said about business, but the meaning is probably the same as yours. He and Berengar are also having a headache."

As they talked, they walked past several factories and finally arrived at Lan En's original destination - the largest main factory building.

"Malaca~"

After entering the door, the heat from the forge and the deafening sound of iron hammering rushed in, turning Cassandra's wheat-colored face dark red.

The molten iron flowed like a stream, the piled-up steel billets looked like small hills, and the human, dwarf, elf, and half-elf craftsmen were all busy at work.

"Dwarf? Really short!"

On the way, Lan had actually introduced to Cassandra the complex racial composition of this place, but as a person born in a purely human world, Cassandra was still surprised by it.

"Oh, right! If I say they are short, will they get angry according to their customs?"

Although she had relatively little experience, Cassandra had traveled back and forth between the small islands in the broken landscape of the Aegean Sea, and knew the principle that "customs vary from one island to another".

After her initial exclamation, she turned around and asked Lan En in a low and cautious voice.

"Short? Not really." Lan En greeted Cassandra familiarly and said, "But remember, you can't say they are not strong enough, or that their beards are ugly or short. That's all."

"Like being strong?" Cassandra laughed, "I like it too!"

The ball of fluff jumped past Lan's feet, trotted on all fours and arrived at the door of Berengar's office. After opening the door, he stuck his head in and greeted him.

"Meow! We're back!"

Lan En and the others came in later, and when Gerd was at the door, he went back to patrol the streets of the factory area.

"Aha! My friend!" In the office, the red-bearded dwarf Shiloton was sitting across the desk from Berengar.

When he saw Lan En coming in, his eyes lit up and he immediately stood up from his chair.

Then he saw the strangely dressed Aegean beauty behind Lan En, and quickly continued the words he had just said.

“Uh, and this one.”

Xileton gave Lan an all-knowing look, but before he could even blink.

A strong force pulled him so hard that his head shook violently.

When he glanced up, he saw that his hand was already held by Cassandra.

"Hello, dwarf. Ha! You really do feel heavier than you look. Pretty solid."

"H-Hello to you too, ma'am!"

Celton responded to Cassandra's somewhat familiar greeting, but his eyes had already glanced at Lan.

The meaning in his eyes was very clear: Where did you find such a strong beauty? She has strong hands!
After Lan En introduced each other, he closed the office door behind him.

The ball of fluff had jumped onto the back of a chair and was squatting on it like a little lion.

Berengar stood up, took out two more silver cups from the cabinet, filled them with wine, and handed them to Lan and Cassandra.

The old witcher's cat eyes briefly glanced at Lan En and found that the boy seemed more energetic than before, then he passed by.

Instead, it stopped at Cassandra.

"Hmm." He turned around, picked up the wine glass that had been poured when he was talking to Xileton, and took a sip, making a sound that was unclear whether it was from tasting the wine or the person in front of him.

"Hello, Cassandra. I think I know how you got here. But please let me satisfy my curiosity first."

"Of course." The falconer opened his hands generously.

"The armor you are wearing is of very old craftsmanship. To be honest, it's a bit primitive. But just from looking at it, I feel that its performance is definitely inconsistent with its craftsmanship."

"Also, the craftsmanship of the greaves, breastplate, arm guards, and the knife on your waist must have been several generations behind. Are you digging out antiques to use in a fight?"

"That's not wise, Cassandra. Technology is advancing, and antiques are unreliable."

(End of this chapter)