Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 2039 2011. The Foreseeable Division
"Don't think that you'll be safe just because you've driven off Rataen. Just wait and see, the real trouble is yet to come."

He spoke with great certainty, almost to the point of sounding old-fashioned and greasy.

After withdrawing her attention from General Shattered Star in the distance, Marlenia seemed to have made a decision. She stopped looking up at the sky in the valley and focused solely on what was in front of her.

Therefore, when Lan En spoke, the Valkyrie tilted her head. Although the upper half of her face could not be seen, one could still sense her confusion.

"Ratan arrived too quickly, far beyond what Blessed King and Twofinger expected. Although I think they can definitely deal with Ratan, they are probably too caught off guard to control the damage."

"Ratan won't be paying attention to the Volcano Mansion when he's launching meteors, and his brother's precarious front? I don't believe it."

Lan En shook his head and sighed, "The legion sent to the Volcano Mansion to wipe out Lacad's forces was all for the sake of a quick victory. Their personnel, equipment, and numbers were all top-notch in Rodelri. Now I think they're going to collapse."

"But what does this have to do with your situation after returning to Rodel?" Marlenia asked coldly. "The more setbacks Rodel suffers, the more it will value strong people and helpers. Isn't that normal?"

“Under normal circumstances, this would indeed be a normal thought.” Lan En was still engrossed in taking out his alchemy pouch. He first nodded in agreement, then smiled slightly. “But the situation now is not normal.”

Before Marlenia could react, Lann continued.

"Since the Golden Meteor brought life to this world, have you ever seen Two Fingers personally take action? They are the communicators between this world and the Supreme Will. In the past, their most active action was at most to select a god."

"If the gods fail, they fail; if they succeed, they succeed. In any case, they are the two fingers, the messengers of the supreme will. The changes in the world are merely the affairs of mortals."

"But the Two Fingers of the Round Table, even without divine intervention, He still personally helps the Golden Dynasty... Can you honestly say you can't feel this favoritism, or rather, 'obsession'? Is it no different from the Two Fingers before?"

Marlene did not respond.

Because that's the truth.

In the belief system of the border region, the two fingers hold a very high status. They are the bridge and divine messenger between mortals and the supreme will.

What should normal two fingers look like?

Anyway, although Michaela and Malenia were both divine beings and should have been chosen by Twofinger, they had barely seen the face of Twofinger, the one who had chosen them, throughout their lives.

Perhaps it's because their two fingers didn't believe they could accomplish the feat of changing dynasties within such a stable and enduring system as the Golden Dynasty, so they simply ignored these two extraordinary individuals.

It could be for other reasons, but anyway, they barely show their faces.

In comparison, the round table's two-finger approach to favoring the Golden Dynasty is truly excessive and seems quite abnormal.

"The Two Fingers of the Round Table are not obsessed with dynasties; they don't care about such things at all. What they care about is the Golden Law, which they have chosen. Whoever can guarantee that the Golden Law will still occupy the Elden Ring, they will help."

"The reason we couldn't reach an agreement with Lakad and Gefia, who were besieging the city, was because of this. The reason we put the Blessed King, whom no one had ever seen or heard of before, on the throne was also because of this."

"The Blessed King also wholeheartedly supports the Golden Law, which is the foundation of the seamless cooperation between the Blessed King and Two Fingers. But now..."

The Witcher looked up at the sky, which was divided into small sections by the mountains around the valley that had been shattered in the earthquake.

Even so, one can still see the still-burning fiery clouds and the remnants of meteors in this small patch of sky.

This is the power of the [Shattered Star General].

"The King's heart remains aligned with the Golden Law. I have no doubt about that. But what about his abilities?"

"After suffering such severe losses, is he still capable of starting from Rodel and reconquering the border region?"

Lan En looked at the sky and spoke calmly.

In fact, ever since Torina sent him out of the dream, apart from the initial shock of seeing the meteor shower in the sky, Lann immediately realized the change in the situation after discovering that 'it was Rataen who attacked the Yatan Plateau'.

Rodel's army's expedition to Mount Gmir has failed and will suffer heavy losses.

Because of these losses, Rodel will effectively lose the ability to reconquer the border regions.

Moreover, because King Blessed has already proclaimed himself King of Rodel, he has also become an enemy of all the major powers in the border region.

He is the target of public criticism.

Under such circumstances, will the Round Table Two Fingers still maintain a close and trusting cooperative relationship with Montgomery?

Having lost the ability to conquer the border regions, Mongot has become a liability for the Two Fingers of the Round Table.

Finding a new, stronger figure to support would give Him a better chance of restoring the Ring of Law and the Golden Law than continuing to support the current Mongot.

Thinking with two fingers: efficient yet ruthless.

From the moment Montgomery lost the Volcanic Expeditionary Force, his relationship with Twofinger had already changed.

And it's not just two fingers.

When Lan En entered the palace, Mongot extended an invitation to him personally, rather than through the round table hall. This was one of the reasons Lan En thought Mongot was quite intelligent.

—The Blessed King was also very clear about the basis of his cooperation with the Two Fingers, and he would not blindly trust the Two Fingers of the Round Table.

Now, after the failed campaign against Mount Gmir, Rataen dealt a major blow to Rodel's fighting force and was also seriously injured and forced to retreat.

Lakad was already seriously injured some time ago, and was almost completely overwhelmed afterward.

One of the twins of the Sacred Tree has gone missing, while the other is with Lan En, preparing to search for him together.

For a moment, all the demigods in the border region found themselves in an awkward situation where they had no time to spare.

Completely frozen!
This stalemate is definitely not a good thing for the border regions, because the world's rules are continuing to collapse without any end in sight.

But at this critical juncture, no one possessed the strength to conquer the world again and to consolidate resources to save everything.

That would just lead to a bunch of people killing each other, watching the world get worse and worse.

Meanwhile, within the city of Rodel, the relationship between the Blessed King and the Hall of the Round Table will become unpredictable as Montgomery loses the strength to reconquer the borderlands.

Lan En now bears the label of the Faded One and has spoken privately with Mongot in the palace, making him the only person in the public eye to have seen the true face of the Blessed King.

If we were to return to Rodel now, we would inevitably find ourselves at the center of a conflict.

Lann must be crazy to go back and get caught in this mess, between the Two Fingers of the Round Table and Mongot.

Without needing to spell it out, Lann simply emphasized to Marlene the Two Fingers of the Round Table's unwavering commitment to the Golden Law and the Blessed King's current powerlessness after suffering losses. In fact, the Valkyrie already understood.

The Two Fingers of the Round Table will not abandon the Golden Law. The Blessed King has now become a liability in achieving their goals, so the Two Fingers will naturally jump ship and start afresh.

Now we only care whether the process will be done properly, or at least whether it can be done in a respectable manner.

Marlenia shook her head.

Knowing these things is one thing, but for the Sacred Tree and herself, the most important thing right now is to find Michaela.

Marlenia's decision was made the moment she decided not to go to Rataen.

Her brother did indeed have plans for the [Shattered Star General], but without his instructions, Marlenia dared not act rashly, even though the opportunity was good.

"Where are you going to find a highly learned mage?" Marlenia asked Lann, focusing on the present moment. "Are you going down to Lienia without returning to Rodel?"

The best way to crack the teleportation technology in this world is, of course, to use a mage from this world.

Unfortunately, Lann did know a mage in Lienia, but while the Topus man was nice, his mage skills were... a bit difficult to talk to.

Before they left, Lann suggested that Tops and Craig find a secluded place to hide from the war. I wonder if those two guys managed to escape wave after wave of legions marching from Lienia into the Altan Plateau.

They're probably fine, since those two don't have anything worth paying attention to.

“I don’t know any powerful mages in Lienia, but…” Lann responded casually to Marlenia’s question, “I do know quite a few mages in other places. I think I can find some help.”

As he spoke, the Witcher reached into the alchemy pouch, found his target, and took it out.

It was a crystal-clear, cone-shaped piece of crystal.

Marlenia had no knowledge of magic and spells; she only made a rough guess that it might be some kind of brilliance.

“In any case,” Marlenia nodded to Lann. “Please do it as soon as possible.”

"It's no use telling me to hurry up; this thing is all about luck." Chaotic magic flowed from the demon hunter's body into the crystal, causing it to glow faintly. "But no matter what, it's still better than blindly searching for a mage you don't know."

Given the distorted sense of time and lifestyle that the people of the Golden Tree developed during the Golden Law era, if they really wanted to find someone, it would be considered efficient to handle the matter for more than ten years.

After waiting for about two hours, the cone-shaped crystal in Lan En's hand began to glow faintly again.

The Witcher smiled and said, "Looks like I'm having a lucky day."

He once again channeled all the chaotic magic power generated in his body into the crystal, connecting it to the other end through the cone-shaped crystal.

A facet on the crystal flickered, and a holographic projection condensed from the light.

"They've...joined!"

In the holographic projection, an excited female voice shouted, accompanied by some noise fluctuations caused by equipment and technical problems.

(End of this chapter)