[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-bear-school-astartes":3,"chapter-bear-school-astartes-bear-school-astartes-chapter-284":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Bear School Astartes",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1619964,2087,"Chapter 284 284: 284. Brokilon","bear-school-astartes-chapter-284",284,"\u003Cp>Early the next morning, Lann was fully dressed and rode out of Airetusa's gates on Bopai, who was equally ready.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A well-armed, sturdy warrior emerged from the academy of the Female Warlocks, attracting meaningful glances from many residents of Gos Velen as Lann crossed the stone bridge over the sea.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The look as if to say, 'Look, those Female Warlocks finally let that poor guy out.'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bopai's steps were light and leisurely, as it had been far too idle as a warhorse recently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You can only prance like this for now.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lann adjusted his body's center of gravity in rhythm with the horse's steps, while lightly patting Bopai's neck.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Once my new sword arrives... tsk tsk tsk, how will your little frame bear it?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lann currently weighed at least thirty kilograms more than before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As a high-headed horse, Bopai could still manage, but once equipped with Belengar's gear... even a warhorse of Codwin's lineage might find its long-distance mobility severely hindered with the additional weight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Margaret had proposed opening a portal for him and Bopai, and her alumni in Brugge could assist them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Lann declined the offer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In his own words: \"That thing muddles the mind.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I hate being unable to control my body. Unless necessary, I prefer riding a horse.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Warlocks seem to have their sense of balance altered by chaotic energy, so they wouldn't have much of a reaction when passing through portals.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But perhaps they had just grown accustomed to it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, compared to a mobility that vastly surpasses the era, dizziness is a trivial price.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lann planned to head south from Gos Velen, along the border of Brook Leon Forest, passing through the kingdoms of Hidaris and Videns to reach Brugge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason the North was referred to as the 'Northern Countries' was indeed because this land was too fragmented by its many nations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>-----------------\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lann rode Bopai on a dirt path outside the forest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The winter morning sky was in cold colors, and clouds of white mist billowed from the nostrils of both man and horse with every breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The mist from Lann's nose was slightly thicker than Bopai's, as his body temperature was higher than that of the warhorse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the forest, the overnight moisture from the leaves had condensed with the temperature drop, turning into frost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The ethereal mist enveloped everything, blending into the breath of man and horse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under the shadow of his hood, Lann's slightly glowing eyes remained steady, but he had already heard the sound of bodies slipping through the leaves in the forest beside him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The morning was very quiet, making the Demon Hunter's hearing exceptionally keen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a Dryad, an intelligent race that had inhabited Brook Leon Forest since the Ancient Era.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Lann were to describe them, he felt these creatures were like nymphs living in the forest, using leaves, bark, and animal materials.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All of them were female, graceful yet agile, with grass-green skin...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Thud thud...thud\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bopai's dispirited hoofbeats came to a halt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lann patted its neck, \"Hey, you had a good night's sleep! Don't get lazy... hmm?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn't that Bopai was unfit for long journeys after a leisurely life, but because there was a human corpse laid out right in the middle of the dirt path before its hooves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The winter's cold had suppressed the spread of scent, causing Lann to completely miss it while distracted earlier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Demon Hunter sat in silence on his mount.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The warm life that had long surrounded him in the dean's room at Airetusa nearly made him forget what kind of world this was.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But now, a long journey in search of someone brought his sky-high thoughts back to earth, returning them to reality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was a magical Middle Ages where ordinary people could die at any moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lann shook his head silently, dismounting to approach the corpse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a middle-aged man with a scruffy beard, his body dirty and covered with grass, and a frozen look of terror on his stiff face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"A clean, swift arrow.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lann muttered to himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The straight arrow had pierced through the eye socket, into the cranial cavity, leaving the deceased to die without realizing it, let alone feel pain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fletching was bright feathers of a pheasant, glued together with tree resin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Whoosh\" went the arrow as it cut through the air. Then \"thump,\" the arrowhead embedded itself six steps away from Lann, on a piece of rotten wood lying on the ground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lann calmly looked over, seeing another arrow had already been planted on that piece of rotten wood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a warning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A warning for outsiders not to enter Brokilon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The forest was not welcoming to humans: royal messengers, woodcutters, farmers... none were welcome.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This deceased fellow either did not heed the warning, or was too panicked, causing cognitive dissonance, as he threw his lumber axe into the forest, embedding it in a tree trunk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, an arrow found its way into his eye socket.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Dryads were always accurate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lann could see the fleeting figures of Dryads in the forest, drawing their bows and taking aim at him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He said nothing, simply dragged the corpse of the deceased to the side of the road, away from the forest, tidied it slightly, and continued his ride.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Demon Hunter's duty was to hunt monsters that harmed humans, or so he had been told in principle and story.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The whole scene resembled brutal, barbaric Dryads harming the hard-working lumberjacks trying to support their families.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet Lann bore no killing intent toward the wary Dryads in the forest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thanks to the early doctrines instilled in him, Lann had read many history books at Airetusa.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These clearly stated that humans in the North had landed on the Northern Continent in great ships after a Conjunction of the Spheres.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But how did the now-dominant human race view Dryads, these native forest dwellers?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The practice of kings issuing decrees to trade gold coins for Dryad scalps.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This explicit ruling even made Lann think he had traveled back to the American Continent's development period during the United States' landing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Human kings coveted the wood and minerals of the primal forests, and in the name of 'civilization,' they notified the natives to make way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Dryads would never give up their homeland, letting the few survivors drift to human-established 'reserves.'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, they picked up bows and began killing, but the kings would not cut down the trees themselves; the Dryads killed only the peasants who labored for their livelihood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then hostility and hatred spread not only at the upper levels but throughout the nation, escalating further.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Retribution began, leading to equal retaliation, leading to excess retribution in return...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No one, not even the most authoritative historians at Ossenford University, could pinpoint who moved first.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The source was long tangled in the vortex of hatred.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ethnic conflicts are among the most complex and difficult to resolve.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lann found no straightforward standard of good and evil, as he preferred.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Both sides committed acts unbecoming of intelligent beings, and it appeared they would continue to do so.\u003C\u002Fp>",1182,"2026-06-06T10:40:07.942Z",1,"novelbin.me","61414fd4190e856472f2ce8c76a99d7cda5d2441c0155d850b0e87e1f09d8a14","bear-school-astartes-chapter-285","bear-school-astartes-chapter-283",1043,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fbear-school-astartes-cover.jpg"]