Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1727 1699. Forgiveness and Healing
The Nilfgaard military camp, which had been as dead as a ghost town, became a little more lively due to the arrival of the Knights of Embers and the captives.

But there are still not many. After all, the huge camp that could accommodate nearly 50,000 people and at least 60,000 war horses and livestock before, now has less than a hundred people coming in, and it is still very empty.

"Sir," Lincoln said after walking up to greet him, and then asked tentatively, "What about those people in the quarantine area?"

The sorceress in his arms had managed to control her emotions, and Lan En put Triss down.

"They're dead."

He said calmly, but Lincoln and the Embers frowned.

After all, they had made it clear before that they would not attack the victims who had been turned into human beasts just because they were in a hurry to lift the curse.

And now the curse has indeed been lifted, but these people... Could it be that in the end their Lord of the Knights still couldn't find the correct way to lift the curse, so he had to take action against those people?
If you are an ordinary person, you would naturally think so.

But the Embers Knights are different. They fully believe that they and their lords have the same ideas and hold the same beliefs.

So now they just frowned and wanted to hear what was going on.

If someone else had told them the news, these people would probably have put their hands on the hilt of the knife.

"They died of natural causes, very peacefully." Lan En knew what his knights were thinking with just a glance. He said softly, "The long-term detention and experiments have made their hygiene and nutrition conditions worrying."

"Coupled with the prolonged intense shock they experienced while activating the curse, their bodies were pushed to their limits. According to my observations, if it weren't for the power of the curse that kept them alive, their body functions would have stopped at least a year ago."

a year ago
In other words, before the war began, these people were already equivalent to corpses in the experiment constructed by the Nilfgaardians to create this curse?
Thinking of this, Lincoln and many Embers Knights shook their heads in unison.

“Even if we are enemies,” one of the Embers sighed, “this kind of experience should not have happened.”

When the Knights of Embers heard that these people were "clock-phobic", they already knew that these people were the Nilfgaardian army that destroyed their homeland Cintra in the last Northern War.

These people are their absolute enemies.

But like Lann, the Embers could imagine what happened to these people after they returned home.

"Even if we take a step back," Lan added with a sigh, "the Aedirn sorcerer's method was too brutal. He has not yet reached the maturity of his research on the curse. These clock-phobic people should have died long ago if they had only destroyed their bodies."

"Maybe this is just to remove the dog chain for that vengeful ghost."

Before, the vengeful ghost was at least under the control of the Nilfgaardians, but if these three or four thousand people were to be killed, it would be hard to say what would happen to it.

But it is highly unlikely that it will just disappear as the Aedirn Warlock said.

After all, vengeful ghosts are monsters born from extreme emotions in a scene where a large number of deaths have occurred.

“Ghost?” Triss caught the strange and difficult word in the witcher’s words. “Do you know it?”

"I know him." Lan En looked at Triss meaningfully, "but not here."

The sorceress nodded calmly, "I see. Don't blame Harperad, Lan. After all, it's unlikely that he would recognize that thing."

"So I don't have any intention of holding him accountable right now. After all, dealing with the vengeful ghost is strictly speaking my responsibility."

The Embers, especially the Swordbearers who had gone with Lan to the Pontar Valley to hunt the [Mist Nest Lord] Tyrannosaurus Rex, immediately understood the hidden meaning of the conversation between Lan and the sorceress.

And without further ado, he began to move the prisoners from the carriage, along with the bell, Henry, and Hans, to the ground.

Next, the Embers Knight will ask Triss for communications assistance, to re-establish contact with the Northern Alliance's command post and to gather back the scattered troops.

Although the Knights of Embers did not care much about the spoils and supplies in the Nilfgaard camp, they still needed manpower to accommodate the three or four thousand corpses of those suffering from clock-phobia.

They will be responsible for coordinating the various troops and command posts, which is a tedious and annoying task. But it is not difficult for them to do it.

"By the way, how did you remove the curse?"

Lincoln was personally moving the bronze bell carefully under the carriage and asked.

But Lan En walked forward, picked up the big clock in one hand, as casually as if he were carrying a chicken, and finally threw it directly on the ground, making a buzzing sound.

Just hearing that sound, Lincoln and the other Ember Knights around him shuddered and felt numb. They all breathed a sigh of relief after two breaths.

Lan En smiled maliciously, pretending not to notice their lingering fear. He half-knelt down and looked at the Nilfgaardian words engraved on the inner wall of the bronze bell.

But when he reached in and touched the engraved words, the smile gradually disappeared.

"Never forgive. Never forget." He whispered the meaning of the Nilfgaardian words above, "So I forgave them, and let them forget me and my sword."

"The curse no longer had a basis to stand on, so it was lifted."

As he spoke, the demon hunter raised his head and looked at Lincoln in a questioning manner. After all, it was not only himself who was involved in the destruction of Cintra, but also all the people in the Knights of Embers.

Lincoln and several Embers Knights around him did not show much emotion after hearing the method to break the curse.

"It's really contradictory that you want to lift the curse but have to forgive the monster that embodies the curse."

The young clerk frowned, but finally nodded.

"You have full authority to represent us, my lord. Curses, revenge... whatever you say, it is enough."

"We are like those clock-phobic Nilfgaard veterans," he said, looking towards the quarantine area in the military camp, where there should be no living people. "We will spare them as well, sir."

“Thank you for staying with me.”

Lan thanked them solemnly. The Knights of Embers were an order of knights loyal to him, but he had never intended to be the master of these knights.

"This is what we should do, my lord."

Lincoln bowed his head politely.

Now that time was no longer urgent, etiquette and temperament returned to these knights.

"Oh, and these two guys." Lincoln walked quickly to the side of the carriage, where Henry and Hans were trembling and slowly sitting down. "Thanks to these two guys who started a fight in the Nilfgaardian convoy, we saved about five minutes."

At this time, Hans sat down against the wooden stake wall in the Nilfgaard military camp. While sitting down, he covered his chest and twitched in pain.

Henry's condition was even worse. He was almost having hallucinations, shouting things like 'Mom and Dad, run' and 'I can't save you, I'm sorry'.

Lincoln and Embers Knight helped them both sit down.

He then turned his head to look at Lan En, only to find that the Lord of the Knights had a very subtle expression when looking at the two men.

But Lincoln didn't care much, after all, he saw that the two men were about to die.

Immediately, the clerk briefly explained to Lan the situation at the time and the help provided by Henry and Hans.

"Please save them, sir." Lincoln said, feeling a little embarrassed. "Although we are also learning, this skill of curing diseases and saving lives is really..."

The Embers were in a hurry to learn the witcher's alchemy, and since they were all witchers, they could deal with most situations by just drinking potions on a daily basis, so they didn't have much motivation to learn formal medical techniques.

It was already the best we could do to complete the initial wound treatment for Hans and Henry who were so seriously injured.

Lan En now feels very interesting and has a connection with these two young men who were captured by him in the city of Vergen in Aedirn a few months ago and have now run to the central front.

Then, Lan waved his hand, signaling Lincoln that there was no need to say more.

So the clerk and the helping Embers Knight stepped back, leaving space to treat the wounded.

Lan half-knelt down, straightened up the seriously injured Henry, and quickly removed the armor on his body that had been deformed by the blow.

With Lan's strength, even if he did it by hand, it was equivalent to a hydraulic pliers removing armor. Therefore, his efficiency was much higher than that of the blacksmith outside the field hospital who was removing armor with pliers.

"Three of his ribs were broken, he's bleeding internally, the cut on his head needs stitches, and there's a crossbow in his back. This kid is pretty fierce."

Lan En could roughly imagine Henry's condition from the wound.

"Triss, come and help me, I need your potion. Otherwise he might really die."

The burgundy-haired sorceress came happily, and it seemed that she regarded rescuing people with Lan En as some kind of dating project.

She had been nervous for too long, and now she was in the state of relaxation she had longed for next to Lan.

"coming!"

She was wearing a smart hunting suit, but she still had a waist bag on her back, which contained many magic potions that ordinary people could use.

Triss herself is allergic to magic and cannot take potions, but she is actually quite accomplished in healing spells and alchemy.

Margarita's family had been influential in the magic world for a long time, and was wealthy, which made her accustomed to enjoying a wealthy life.

But with her own craftsmanship and technology, Triss can make her living standard no worse than any other sorceress.

Lan used precise and skillful techniques to dig out the arrowhead that had been embedded in Henry's shoulder blade, and the wound was not even as big as the nail of an index finger.

It was equivalent to that apart from the wound caused by the crossbow arrow, he did not take any measures to expand the wound and just took out the arrowhead.

(End of this chapter)