Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1949 1921. Black Knife Dixi
The underground prison was cold and damp, reeking of the city's sewers, with rats and cockroaches scurrying about in the dark corners.

Even the light seems to be suppressed here.

The candles on the wall candlesticks could only emit a tiny flame, illuminating at most a distance of half a meter around them.

The rest of the area was just a blurry, dark expanse.

In this situation, it seems that using the magic circle of the Golden Law fundamentalism to encircle and suppress people can be considered a kind of preferential treatment.

After all, the Golden Law fundamentalism, although colder and more rational than the Golden Law itself, still shines with a golden light.

Fortunately, Lan En ventured deeper and deeper into the prison, but the number of suppression arrays within the prison increased.

The witcher's boots made a steady thud on the damp brick floor, drawing the attention of the prisoners in the cell.

The black-knife assassins had all their equipment stripped off.

This includes the light armor that allows for free movement without making a sound, and the concealment veils that, despite having used up most of their power, still retain some effectiveness.

They were all wearing only a single layer of clothing, and each of them was encircled and suppressed within a golden magic array.

Whether it's due to their rare bloodline or the training methods of the Black Knife Assassins, most of them are tall and slender, much more shapely than the average person. Each one has a nine-headed figure like a supermodel.

Furthermore, when they were captured, the Golden Dynasty had only lost one demigod, and the Golden Law had not yet collapsed.

Therefore, medical resources were not strained at all, and everyone received treatment, for fear that these criminals who had committed heinous crimes would succumb to their injuries and return to the Golden Tree. This led to the subsequent trials and interrogations ending without any progress.

Lan En had previously encountered Black Knife Assassins retreating from Rodel on the road, and he even cut off the leg of one of the assassins who attacked him on the spot.

But now, having seen this row of cells where the Black Knife Assassins are imprisoned, under the golden magic array, no one is missing an arm or a leg.

It seems that they had all used the Red Dewdrop Holy Grail Bottle back then.

Lan En walked through their cell doors, looking at each one.

During this period, major events have occurred one after another in Rodel, and the changes have become increasingly escalating, to the point that these black-knife assassins who started the whole thing are now somewhat forgotten and ignored.

The black-knife assassins were tall and beautiful, but each of them stared emotionlessly at Lan En's silhouette shrouded in shadow as they walked past their cells.

They didn't shout, and they didn't say anything.

It was as if, after completing the assassination on the night of the black knife, they had no other desires in life.

It wasn't until Lan En passed by the last cell in this row of cells, the one with the golden magic circle shining brightly, that things changed.

"Ah."

A weak, feeble laugh came from the cell.

Lan En, who had been walking as usual, paused, then retreated slightly, making a scraping sound as he stepped on the damp brick floor, and stopped in front of the cell.

But his body remained shrouded in shadow.

"Judging from this silhouette, you're the man from that night, right?"

Inside the cell, the black-knife assassin, trapped within a beam of light, strained to look outside and said with a smile.

The reason Lan En stopped was this: on the night of the Black Knife conspiracy, among the Black Knife assassins who were captured, there should only be one he had met.

"It is you."

The Witcher stepped forward, getting closer to the cell's bars, where the golden beam of light illuminated him slightly.

Lan En's eyes swept over the other person's calf, which was curled up on the ground, completely unharmed but not covered by the trouser leg.

The black-knife assassins are all dressed smartly in shirts and trousers, which would be perfect for wearing a light layer of armor over them.

However, this black knife alone is missing a section from one of the legs.

The pale, translucent calves, ankles, and soles of the feet formed a stark contrast with the dark, black brick floor.

Lan En tilted his head and looked at the woman in the cell... or rather, the girl.

After all, she looks to be around twenty years old, but given the lifespan of the Golden Tree people, it's impossible to guess her actual age.

Her skin looks just as white as Maria's, but Maria's is due to the Cainhurst bloodline of Yharnam, while hers might be due to the bloodline of a rare person.
Meanwhile, Maria had white hair, while this person's hair was as black as ink. Combined with her white skin, it created an alluring, profound effect.

"You seem happier than your companions?"

Lann raised his hand and lightly tapped the blessed steel fence in front of him with his knuckles. Smaug's knuckles made a crisp sound as they struck the steel.

He looked at the girl locked inside with a half-smile.

The girl inside paused for a moment, her lips twitched, but then she immediately smiled even more brightly.

“What’s wrong with being happy?” She seemed to be deliberately trying to provoke Lann, her expression contemptuous and arrogant. “We have completed our sacred duty. Marika and her decaying two fingers of the round table can no longer keep the Golden Law under the world’s control forever!”

"Goldwin is dead! What you were guarding is now shattered! I heard the commotion a few days ago. What? Is Marika enraged and starting to unleash her power?" If a proper Golden Dynasty warrior were here, given their reverence for the Eternal Queen, they might indeed be burning with rage right now.

But without a doubt, this approach is useless against Lan En.

The Witcher looked through the gate at the black-knife assassin sitting beneath the golden pillar of light and suddenly said something.

How many times have you made yourselves gag?

"what?"

The black-knife assassin girl instinctively asked a question. At the same time, she shifted her body to the side where she had fallen.

“It’s no use trying to block it, I didn’t see it,” Lann tapped his nose, “I smelled it.”

"Smell it? Here?" The girl with the black knife smiled sarcastically. "Can you distinguish between the stench of decay and the smell of vomit in the sewers?"

“A natural talent, huh?” The Witcher nodded frankly. “And your vomit is all stomach acid, which is quite unique.”

"Let me guess... after you were arrested, nobody gave you anything to eat, right?"

If you don't eat for a long time, stomach acid will accumulate and be secreted excessively, eventually leading to gastritis and stomach ulcers, and if it gets worse, it can cause stomach perforation.

However, in a normal world, a person would have starved to death by the time they developed a perforated stomach.

But the people of the Golden Tree are different after all.

"You want to torture us with hunger?" the girl with the black knife sneered. "Then you just wait and see. Do you really think such a trick will work on us?"

"They won't give us food? Perfect! We can starve ourselves to death! That's a relatively easy way to die."

Compared to falling into the hands of the torturers at the Volcano Mansion, starving to death is definitely a better way to die.

However, Lan En looked at the black-knife girl in the prison with a strange expression, as if he were looking at a little lamb that had accidentally survived from the slaughterhouse.

"You do not know?"

The girl with the black knife retorted, "What should I know?"

“The Golden Law.” Lann’s voice was calm to the point of being ruthless. “You’ve created a loophole in the Golden Law. And you’re hoping to use this loophole to make Queen Marika and the Golden Law step down from the Elden Ring and usher in a new era.”

"But... I must say, you are indeed of the same race as the rare people. Each and every one of you is quite ruthless."

"You are," the black-knife girl's expression gradually changed from provocation to bewilderment as she looked at Lan En, "What...does that mean?"

Lan En could still see a faint, almost imperceptible fear deep in her eyes.

She's probably already recalling the strange events that happened not long ago, and is starting to rethink what those events really meant.

"To dethrone Marika and her Golden Law, you can kill Godwin, creating loopholes in the Golden Law. And Queen Marika herself..."

Lan En shook his head.

"I don't know what she was thinking. Maybe she was tough her whole life and refused to be coerced, or maybe she went insane after losing her son. In any case, she smashed the Elden Ring."

Lan En twirled his finger around his ear twice.

"The breaking sound you heard that day wasn't Queen Marika getting angry; it was her smashing the Ring of Law."

Upon hearing this, the girl with the black knife was practically frozen in shock.

In front of her cell, in the cell that Lan En had just passed by, the silent, almost emotionless black-knife assassins were now staring wide-eyed in this direction.

"The Golden Law has indeed collapsed, but not in the way you expect. In fact, it's very difficult for anyone to die now."

"What did you say?!"

The girl with the black knife asked haltingly.

This time, Lan En didn't answer her immediately. Instead, he asked, "What's your name? We need to have a form of address for our conversation, right?"

“…Dishie.” The girl with the black knife looked at the man outside the cell with a complicated expression and spoke with difficulty, “My name is, Dishie.”

“That’s good.” Lann nodded. “Dish, the situation now is: it’s very difficult for people to die.”

"No matter how many physical injuries you have, no matter how torturous they are, you can't die even if you want to."

The Witcher pointed to her stomach: "So, you're lucky. Before you realized you couldn't starve to death, you didn't let your stomachs perforate and let stomach acid leak into your abdominal cavity. Otherwise, you would have suffered far more than you are now."

"And it seems there is no end in sight."

"How is this possible?" Just now, Dishi hadn't reacted much to the fact that she had starved to death, but now she looked on in disbelief. "The Elden Ring... was smashed?! How dare Marika!"

(End of this chapter)