Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1989, 1961. Not particularly special.

"You mean..." Torisha's eyes, which had just snapped out of their daze, were now fixed on the Witcher, "to end this siege?"

Just as Lann said before, the borderlands are in chaos, collapsing into the abyss with no sign of improvement. The main reason for this is the breaking of the Elden Ring.

The Dharma circle is the operating principle of this world; its position and function are extremely important.

Any change to it will be reflected and manifested throughout the world.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the demigods have already torn off all pretenses and are willing to fight to the death for the right of succession and legitimacy.

But if the Golden Law had been operating steadily on the Elden Ring in the past, wouldn't this have been just a joke?
Anyway, as long as they are demigods, none of them can die. The warriors who participated in the battle, even if their bodies die, can return to the tree on the spot and enter the next life steadily.

Let you demigods each lead your armies and fight for fun; it won't actually take much effort at all.

This is the golden age of prosperity, the perfect golden law, and the abundance it could offer.

However, the prosperous Golden Dynasty was built upon the Golden Law and the Elden Ring.

Now that the legal ring has been broken, the entire dynasty has suddenly fallen from its peak.

And at present, we cannot see where the bottom of this fall is.

However, to reverse this situation, the most fundamental issue is to repair the Elden Ring and restore stability to the world's rules.

But in this chaotic world of gods and demons, someone who can do something like this is no ordinary person.

However, if we only look at the present moment, and only at what Torishia is suffering right now.

Her fear of the battlefield, her panic at the impending suffering, and her empathy for those mixed-race and ominous children... the most pressing issue now is this battle of Rodel.

"Can...can you do it?"

The perfumer looked up in disbelief and confusion, and as he spoke, he suddenly grabbed Lan En's arm.

But before Lan En could answer her, she shook her head with a wry smile and fell into a sullen mood.

“But how could it be done so easily? I… I’m not like other perfumers who have runes to give you.”

"Runes?" Now, it was Lan En who was confused. He raised an eyebrow at Torisha. "What are those? Where did you hear about them?"

The large fragments left after the ring shattered are called Great Runes, and the concept of "death" in this world is called Death Runes... Lann has heard this key concept several times from different places.

But where did Torisha, a kind but not particularly high-ranking perfumer, hear that from?

“Now, if you want to do anything or get anything, you have to exchange it for runes,” Torisha said with a wry smile. “Don’t you know? Only when those who participate in the battle harm those blessed lives will the fragments of the blessing leak out.”

"Those precious fragments are runes. And that's what everyone is pursuing now."

"Those two perfumers who came to the round table hall looking for medicinal herbs, they must have used runes to pull strings, right?"

Although Torisha was asking the question, she already had a preconceived answer in her mind.

Lan En suddenly realized that the two perfumers had indeed been secretly communicating with the servants in the round table hall before he saw them, but they seemed to be having a hard time reaching an agreement—that was, they were using runes to bribe the servants.
really interesting.

In Lan En's eyes, the original economic system of the Golden Dynasty was simply a joke, not even as good as any random computer game.

After all, they were a group of people whose most ordinary members already possessed eternal life, yet they stubbornly used gold as the basis for transactions.

Gold was not a scarce commodity during the Golden Age.

The people of the Golden Tree don't actually need gold to do anything; they're just playing a 'collective trade game' out of inertia from the past.

Originally, something that could barely be maintained by the inertia of the times should have collapsed and changed rapidly in social activities, naturally adapting to the new look of the new era.

However, the Golden Age itself was characterized by its stability, abundance, and permanence, much like gold.

This is why this thing has actually continued to exist unchanged!
Social change only began anew after the Golden Law era collapsed.

And it was as if it wanted to unleash all the changes accumulated during the Golden Age at once, and the speed of the explosion was incredibly fast!

The base currency for trade that Lann had complained about back in Lienia has changed from gold to runes.

Runes are far more valuable than gold.

All things in the borderlands are blessed, and life is bathed in these blessings. But now the Dharma ring is broken, and the blessings have weakened.

Consider the suffering of the Faded Ones when they were deprived of their blessings, and you can imagine the impact on the physical and mental well-being of all the people of the Golden Tree.

If one could truly plunder the fragments of blessing [Runes] by harming others, then this craving for satisfaction might drive many people to actually take action!

Moreover, according to Torisa, this newly emerging medium of exchange, runes, has, in a short period of time, led to various individuals within the Golden Dynasty engaging in bribery, accepting bribes, and facilitating transactions. While bribery is certainly a bad thing, compared to the previous Golden Dynasty, it's practically a 'collective trading game'.

This is already considered a legitimate sign of 'social vitality'!
“Don’t worry about runes. The Round Table doesn’t care about those herbs anyway, nobody uses them.” Lann pulled Torisha up from the corner and straightened her rumpled headscarf. “If you need them, you can use them at the Round Table. Dolores is your friend, use them if you have the connections.”

After briefly mentioning this simple matter, Lann began to give Torisha some more confidential information.

"King Cifu has no intention of prolonging this siege. Do you understand?"

While adjusting Torisha's headscarf, Lann whispered something to her.

The streets of Rhodes were now deserted and desolate, the resounding footsteps of the patrolling Rhodes knights echoing far and wide. This scene amplified many of the noises.

“Marinia originally wanted to lead the Sacred Tree Legion to join the demigod alliance, but I persuaded her to leave. But what about Ratan? Is she someone who can be persuaded with words?”

"Only by defeating the current demigod alliance before he arrives from Galid can we continue to maneuver."

"You mean...?!" Torisia looked up in surprise.

She has a kind heart and empathy, but that doesn't mean she's naive. She can understand unspoken meanings.

“The Blessed King will make his move soon,” Lann said calmly in a low voice. “He won’t wait, nor can he afford to. In this short time, he has already gathered many famous knights from all over the country to come to Rodel.”

Finally, Lan En patted her on the shoulder: "Let's just get through this period first."

Torisha remained silent, seemingly emboldened by Lann's words of encouragement, or perhaps she felt it was merely a desperate hope.

But in any case, she was more energetic than before.

After patting her face through the curtain, Torisha nodded gratefully to Lann, then walked into the dark alley behind her.

She couldn't let go of those mixed-race children and children of the ominous signs, even though those mixed-race children and children of the ominous signs actually hoped that she would give them up.

Lan En watched her walk into the darkness.

Without a sound, a patch of blue light appeared beside him.

A girl with light reddish-brown hair appeared gracefully beside the witcher.

Lan En was already used to Melina's elusive nature, so he just glanced at her sideways and casually asked, "That's strange. Weren't you rather reluctant to reveal your physical form in Rodel?"

But Melina did not respond. Her right eye, which was open, furrowed slightly as she looked at the darkness where Torisa had disappeared into.

After a while, he spoke in that consistently indifferent and aloof voice.

"Your friend seems very sad. She clearly has nothing to do with those bastards, those children of evil. But I can sense... she cares about them, they don't want her to care anymore, but their thoughts are making it harder and harder for your friend to detach herself from them."

After she finished speaking, Melina looked up at Lan En.

The Witcher noticed that Melina's brows, besides her usual indifference, also held a hint of... helplessness and confusion.

“I don’t understand, just like Mare Mare from Sunshade City. I… can’t quite understand why they have these emotions and expressions.”

The girl's lips trembled, as if she wanted to say something but hesitated, but in the end she still asked Lan En.

"As mothers, and as those born of mothers. Are all people like them?"

Looking at the girl's right eye, which was the only one open, the witcher suddenly understood where the deep-seated 'helplessness' in her eyes came from.

She knew nothing about these feelings, and wasn't even sure if Lann could tell her the answers. The unknown brought fear.

Looking into Melina's eyes, the Witcher suddenly grinned, then, as if greeting a good friend, patted Melina's back with a little force, making the girl's body tremble.

“This kind of thing, this kind of feeling,” Lan En pondered for a moment before explaining to her, “is so poignant and sorrowful that only the person experiencing it can truly understand. It’s like snow falling in winter.”

The girl didn't quite understand: "What?"

Lan En shook his head: "It's nothing special."

Melina was swayed by Lan En's pat, but at this moment, she didn't care much.

She glanced at the perpetually dark alleyway before her, and after a long while, she turned to look behind Rodel at the eternally glorious and magnificent golden tree.

"Lan En".

"what happened?"

“Could we,” Melina turned and looked directly into the Witcher’s eyes, “make another deal?”

(End of this chapter)