Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1830, 1802. The Round Table, Dolores
The Round Table Hall held a high status, with three Rhodes Knights guarding the entrance daily.

However, Torisha seems to have a considerable reputation among perfumers, a high-status group, and in addition, Lann's eyes are indeed only amber in color, without the brilliant golden light of the blessing, making him an 'faded one' that cannot be faked.

So they were led inside amidst the astonishment of the guards at the door, who were just as surprised as Torisha.

"How long has it been since King Govre was banished and Radagan became the king's consort!"

The knight, leading them into the hall with the round table, remarked with a touch of emotion.

“Who says otherwise?” Torisia chimed in. “Uh… how many years has it been again?”

"It must have been at least several hundred years, right?" The knight leading the way was not sure. "I've already returned to the tree once, and it's been almost 150 years since I was reincarnated."

"You returned to the tree?" Torisia asked in surprise. "When? You were seriously injured!"

"There was nothing I could do. I encountered a giant lobster while on patrol, and it snapped me in two."

The knight spoke in a tone that suggested he had no fond memories.

"Besides, there are no perfumers as skilled as you to help with treatment in the wilderness. In our team that time, besides me dying on the spot, three of us died on the way because our injuries worsened."

The Round Table Hall is a fortress in the city; you don't enter the building's interior just by walking through the main gate.

After entering, there's a small area within the inner ring of the city walls, containing stables, hay warehouses, weapon racks, and the like. Further inside is the so-called round table hall.

Lan En led the Qilin, seemingly dazed, but his mind was actually wandering over the chatter between the leading knight and Torisha.

Based on the knight's words, Lann could tell that the people here seemed to have very long lifespans; hundreds of years were so short-lived that they described them vaguely.

Secondly... it's [Returning Tree] again! And reincarnation too?!
From what the knight leading the way said, it seemed that he regarded death as something as insignificant as saving a game.

So, this is what is meant by "returning to the tree"? The body is torn apart and dies, but the soul remains? And returns to this golden tree, and is then reincarnated?

The concept of reincarnation is not new at all, because almost every religion and belief system revolves around this concept.

The concept of reincarnation originates from the imperfections and suffering that people encounter in the real material world. Thus, the suppressed spirit begins to yearn for an opportunity.

A mechanism that allows one to start over no matter what, and represents the foundation of one's individual existence, such as the soul or true nature, that can exist immortally.

Since the dawn of civilization, this concept, which can be described as 'escaping reality,' has been a constant companion to religion.

This is where the power of religion in people's hearts comes from.

However, if there were a genuine and definite power that could achieve reincarnation and rebirth, then without a doubt, the faith that this power could gain would far surpass any of the empty religions that Lann had ever seen.

The undeniable allure of clear and credible reincarnation is unparalleled for normal people.

That's why those with a benevolent light in their eyes are so orderly and unhurried.

Lan En had a sudden realization.

'Because of their long lifespans, even after death they can be reborn. With these two things, any life can be said to be infinitely close to perfection. Because opportunities are limitless, and time is infinite!'

Since life is already infinitely close to perfection, what is there to be impatient about?

Maintaining the current order and praying that it will remain as stable as gold forever should be everyone's most persistent wish.

'But such power…'

Even as he realized this, Lan En couldn't help but be alarmed by this immense power.

In his mind, the only beings who could truly be called 'immortal' were the elves of the world of Arda.

They are the firstborn children of Ilúvatar, the creator god, and possess eternal life. Even after death, their souls will reunite in the halls of Mandos and be blessed in Valinor forever.

But the immortality of the Arda elves is clearly derived from the power of the creator god, the Golden Tree... If it were just a magical tree, could it really achieve this?

Lan En glanced up at the main entrance of the round table hall, where a lion emblem was embossed, though he wondered what it represented here.

The leading knight first led Lan En and his men to the stables and reached out to help him settle the Qilin.

However, the Qilin had no desire to stay in the stable, and easily dodged the leading knight's hand by shaking its head.

During this process, the ancient dragon from the New World revealed its ruby-like eyes.

The kitten skillfully grabbed the protruding horn on the Qilin's shoulder blade: "Don't move, meow!"

The leading knight was clearly taken aback.

This unusual behavior was keenly noticed by Lan En, who connected it with the almost imperceptible movements of the two tree guards when he entered Rodel's Gate earlier.

In an instant, the thoughts in my brain started running with the computing power provided by Mentos. The similarities and differences between the two anomalies were listed, and they were verified, eliminated, and concluded in a very short time.

'A velvet ball and a Qilin?' Lan En realized what the Rodel soldiers were surprised about. 'What special significance do they have here that I don't know about?'

After a moment of surprise, the leading knight, who had been about to hold the Qilin's hands, turned away, seemingly no longer caring where it went. Even if it ended up in the Round Table Hall, it didn't matter.

Torisha stood to the side, unsurprised.

However, before we could open the door to the Round Table Hall and walk inside, the door opened from the inside first.

"Squeak~"

The heavy sound indicated a solid material.

Knight Rodel, who was leading the way, stood at attention first, showing respect. Torisha, on the other hand, seemed more familiar: "Dolores, are you the only one here today?"

The woman who opened the door was short-haired, slender and graceful, yet dressed in men's casual hunting attire. She possessed a kind of capable and crisp beauty.

The woman dressed as a man named Dolores looked up at the greeting, her head covered by a hunter's hat.

"Oh, hello there, Torisha!" Not only was she dressed in men's clothing, but she also had a boyish and outgoing personality. "Has another batch of Torina water lilies finished growing? I was just thinking of saving up some Torina arrows!"

The woman dressed as a man skipped happily down the steps in front of the door and walked towards them.

“Not so fast.” Torisha shook her head. “Although you placed the order and Prince Godwin instructed us to support the Round Table Hall, we still need to use Torina’s Water Lily for our own perfumery.”

"So, you've come here...?"

“I ran into a Faded One,” Torisa said, stepping aside. “Don’t you always say you’re short-handed? I think he might be able to help.”

"The Faded Ones?" The woman in men's clothing shook her head and smiled wryly, pressing her hunting hat. "You must be joking, Torisha. The Hall of the Round Table has been around for hundreds of years, how could there still be...?!"

Before he could finish speaking, Dolores suddenly stopped.

At that moment, Lan En and she made eye contact, and they both saw each other's pupils.

Dolores had a pair of black eyes, ordinary and normal, without any blessed light within them. Lann was the same.

This straightforward method completely proves that both of them were not blessed by the Golden Tree, that is, the so-called 'faded ones'.

Lan En had originally thought that even if the Round Table Hall denied his identity as a Faded One, he had already heard a lot of news and gained an understanding of this world and that great tree, so it wasn't a complete loss.

But Dolores's behavior at this moment... could it be that the Round Table Hall is also confused?

In fact, Dolores was genuinely confused at this point.

This land, rooted in the golden tree, is called the Borderlands, and now, the entire Borderlands has been conquered by Rodel, who is under the golden tree.

They received the blessing either by force or voluntarily.

The few remaining lives that did not receive the blessing were mostly few in number, located in remote areas, and possessed distinct racial characteristics.

Moreover, since ancient times, as long as the border does not allow it, outsiders cannot enter. This is the place where the Golden Tree takes root, and also the central hub of the entire world.

No one from the outside can come in, and the area outside the border is mostly inhabited by people who have received the blessing.

As for the remaining unblessed racial traits, Lann had none of them.

A faded being suddenly appeared out of nowhere at the border? What's going on here?

At that moment, Dolores's mind was truly blank.

Between objective facts and her own memories, she began to doubt her own memories.

"You..." Dolores asked Lann hesitantly, "What unit were you in? When the First King was banished from the borderlands, I remember only our ship remained. But you weren't on it, were you?"

But in the end, those eyes that don't have a blessed light are definitely not fake!
“No,” Lann responded as always, calmly shaking his head. “I don’t know.”

"When Queen Marika stripped him of his blessing, it seemed to have hurt him deeply." The kind-hearted Torisha stepped forward to offer what she thought was an explanation for Lan En, "He got lost and ended up on the Yatan Plateau. It's really outrageous."

"Did the pain of being deprived of blessings damage your brain?"

Dolores frowned, but didn't ask any more questions.

As warriors of the Golden Legion under the First King, the pain and emptiness they experienced when their blessings were taken away by the Eternal Queen was something that even the heroes and faded figures in the Hall of the Round Table were unwilling to revisit.

Dolores felt it was no exaggeration to say that such a profound distortion and stripping of the soul caused any harm to a person.

In reality, without the help of the "two fingers," very few of those who remained would have been able to maintain their mental or physical normalcy.

But... are there really people who, after being stripped of their blessings, wandered out of the ranks of the faded ones who were expelled from the borderlands, and still exist today?

This is still too bizarre.

But Torisia, who was familiar with the woman dressed as a man, added fuel to the fire.

"In any case, I've brought the Faded One to you. He's probably been wandering for a long time, although he seems to be taking good care of himself. He truly deserves to be a warrior under the command of the former King of the Beginning!"

"But right now in Rodel, he definitely has nowhere to stay. Whether you want to help him or not is up to you."

The woman dressed as a man glared at Torisha and said sarcastically, "As a [Healer], you're surprisingly good at moral blackmail! I haven't even confirmed anything yet!"

“You’ll definitely help,” Tolissa said, shrugging with a smile in her eyes. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t be so compatible.”

Dolores, with a sullen face, looked at Lann in silence for a while before pulling the perfumer away to whisper to him.

"It's not that simple. Don't tell me you didn't realize it!"

The woman dressed as a man turned her head slightly and glanced in Lan En's direction before continuing to whisper menacingly to Torisha.

"He's a faded one, that shouldn't be surprising. But look at the people around him!"

"He was chosen by the [Wise Beasts], a faded one with the potential to become a king!"

(End of this chapter)