Bear School Astartes

Outside of the Gascoigne family house, the footsteps that were originally light enough for ordinary people to not hear paused momentarily, then quickly rushed over.

A silent, stern, and emotionless yellow-coat Hunter, almost a stereotype of the Yan Nan Hunter, stood at the door holding a saw-blade dripping with viscous blood, flesh, and black fur.

He looked around with his face hidden under a triangular hat and mask, only a slit revealing his eyes, before stepping onto the wooden floor and entering the Gascoigne family house.

"You’re back again?" Ignoring the Demon Hunter’s greeting, Henrik first let out a deep sigh. "This decision can’t be called wise, Lann."

"Wise or not, we’ll talk about later." The Demon Hunter half-knelt on the ground, calling over without turning his head, "Give me a blood vial first; someone’s poisoned here."

Henrik shook his head, the wooden floor creaking under his boots, as he walked over to Lann, glancing briefly at the unconscious Maria.

"It’s a waste to use a blood vial now."

"You have to wait until the poison consumes a wave and almost destroys her body, then give the injection. That’s when it’ll be most effective. Just wait."

The Old Hunter spoke leisurely.

Considered too experienced to die like a Hunter during the hunt, the Old Hunter, despite lacking Lann’s biology and medical knowledge,

can discern many situations solely through experience.

In emergency situations, a person’s calm demeanor can instill a sense of reassurance even in observers.

Although Lann was not particularly anxious initially, Henrik’s current presence comforted him, having just emerged from a nightmare.

With the soft collision and friction of armor plates, Lann stood up from in front of Maria, and from above, patted his friend’s shoulder.

Finally, he properly greeted him.

"Long time no see, Henrik." The Demon Hunter tilted his head and smiled, "You may look a bit older, but definitely more reliable."

"What do you mean by ’looks like’?". The Old Hunter furrowed his eyebrows, his eyes a slit due to the hat and mask.

And shortly thereafter, as Lann completely stood up, those eyes uncontrollably widened.

"And what exactly are you now... Did you eat something?"

Henrik repeatedly scrutinized the towering Demon Hunter, whose height had reached two and a half meters.

Though the young man was quite sturdy when they first met, he was still within normal human range. Now... Which normal human can develop a physique like this?

"It’s a long story." Lann shrugged, while picking up the unconscious Maria, then nodded to Edd next to them, signaling Henrik to lend a hand.

Henrik didn’t dawdle, slinging the saw-blade that was dropping bloody black fur behind him, and carried Edd out the door with Lann.

However, as he reached the doorway, seeing Lann casually grabbing the triangular hat with the swan feather on the table, memories flickered in his eyes.

When Lann, carrying Maria, caused the Female Hunter’s head, originally drooping powerless from unconsciousness, to lift during movement...

Henrik abruptly stopped walking.

"Seems indeed, it’s a long story." The Old Hunter spoke with disbelief, mingled in his muffled voice due to the mask. "That’s... Lady Maria?!"

"How could this be?!"

The Demon Hunter kept walking, leading ahead, merely waving a hand behind without turning.

"Recognized her? Yes, you must have met."

"But this isn’t the place for stories, Henrik."

Having exited the door, standing by the water channel behind the Gascoigne family house, Lann craned his neck to look down.

Under Yan’an’s gas lights, a giant black boar’s corpse lay in the mud at the bottom of the channel.

The boar seemed about as large as an Asian elephant.

Despite its unusual size, Lann had seen similar ones before in Yan’an.

But now...

Lann tsked at the boar’s corpse below the channel, then looked up at the oversized blood-red moon in the sky.

The red moon rose after Lann slew the Foolish Spider, Rom, and under the red moon, Yan’an’s monsters underwent varying degrees of transformation.

Or rather, this blood-red moonlight revealed some of these monsters’ reality.

For instance, the boar at the channel bottom now, its former eye and nasal area had completely caved in.

Within the sunken area were dozens of slippery eyeballs of varying sizes, squeezed together!

Being now dead, those slippery eyeballs, varied in size, each spread their pupils toward different directions.

The divergent directions of numerous eyeballs uneasily stirred one’s heart.

"Don’t bother looking." The Old Hunter, carrying Edd, said in a muffled voice, "Its eyeballs were already like that when it was alive."

Henrik and Lann walked side by side, the former peeling back Maria’s eyelids with his free hand, looking at the continuous stream of fresh blood from her mouth.

The blood had flowed from Lann’s ivory armor shoulder, all the way down to his shin guards.

Henrik nodded, seemingly confirming that Maria’s body had been almost destroyed, then he pulled a blood vial from his pocket and jabbed it into Maria’s shoulder.

"Was it really you who created this thing back then?" After drawing the blood, Henrik tossed the vial aside and gestured towards the blood moon in the sky.

"Under this moon, even the monsters in Yan’an look a bit... too eerie to me."

At that time, Henrik had journeyed with his colleagues to the already sealed Byron Vis and met Master William.

But then, that old fellow was silently put to sleep by Master William, and it was Lann who carried him back to Oton Chapel after finishing his business.

He hadn’t witnessed the rising of the blood moon, but it seems that he has had quite a few ’interactions’ with the monsters under this blood moon since then.

From the Gascoigne family to Oton Chapel, the path was lined only with corpses flowing thick blood, with no living monsters.

Evidently, this path had been continuously cleared.

As they gradually approached Oton Chapel, the scent of incense remained strong.

The arrival of Lann and the others certainly stirred a wave under the unsettling blood night.

Just as they stepped through the door of Oton Chapel, the Demon Hunter heard an exclamation.

"Ah!"

It was Viola, sitting in a chair with her two daughters asleep against her legs, Gascoigne’s wife.

She seemed slightly excited upon seeing Lann, but it quickly turned to concern.

Although it’s good to reunite with friends, under the current circumstances... it’s truly inappropriate to rejoice over friends entering a dangerous quagmire again.

Henrik quietly placed Adeline, who was on his shoulder, down next to a pile of incense jars, and Lann also leaned the unconscious Maria against the wall.

Only then did they have a moment to rest, to take another look at this Oton Chapel long after leaving.

Lann didn’t know how time flowed in Yan’an now, but since he left, only two or three more people had arrived at this little chapel.

Dr. Yusefka was watching over her restrained sister, worried but still showing a bitter yet grateful smile when she noticed Lann looking over.

Gascoigne’s two daughters were asleep on Viola’s lap, while he seemed to have gone out.

The prostitute whom Lann had guided from Church Town was holding her stomach, appearing uncomfortable, but she nodded in appreciation to Lann who had helped her.

"Although it seems irrational for you to have returned, on another note..." Henrik assisted in settling the two unconscious individuals and spoke quietly to Lann.

"We are indeed struggling now."

The old hunter’s eyes, wedged between his hat and mask, appeared weary yet determined.

"Resources are depleting too fast: food, water, and incense... this night is too long."

"Gascoigne and I are spending more and more time searching for resources, soon even alternating between the two of us won’t be enough."

"Who knows why it’s come to this."

The old hunter’s gaze was bewildered and chaotic.

He still hadn’t gained clarity from the tumultuous time of the hunter’s night, believing it to be just ’one night’.

Under the powers of those higher beings, the Ancient God, prolonging this hunter’s night indefinitely, all abnormalities and oddities were completely ignored from a logical standpoint.

Lann didn’t say much, merely patting Henrik’s shoulder.

He took out several items from his Alchemy Pouch to give to him.

Henrik accepted them while tilting his head slightly towards Maria, who was already beginning to awaken.

"What exactly happened? Truly... Lady Maria? She was clearly dead for a long time!"

"She is indeed Maria, but how should I put it..." said Lann, looking resigned, "Even if I explained, you wouldn’t understand. In short, I managed to pull them out from the nightmare of death."

If the person in the conversation had been a lucid hunter, the matter would have been easy to explain.

But Henrik was not ’awake’; he was merely too strong, and with Lann’s assistance, he managed to survive on this hunter’s night with only one life as the old hunter.

Sometimes, strength isn’t a fundamental difference.

Like Henrik and Simon.

One as an old hunter, strong in experience and technique to hardly make mistakes, yet unable to grasp the current real situation.

One pursued to death, yet able to traverse the Dream Realm and aware of Yan’an’s current state.

"Is it really complicated..." Henrik’s mask moved slightly as if he was pursing his lips underneath.

But in the end, the old hunter merely sighed while shaking his head.

"If it can’t be explained, so be it."

"On this hunter’s night, bizarre and terrifying things that can’t be explained are no longer rare. Hey, what does it matter about the resurrection of the dead?"

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