Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1078 1060. Bard
Most of the houses in Changhu Town are built with wooden boards, which results in very poor sound insulation. Basically, the noisy voices from two streets away can be heard.

The townspeople are busy and noisy, and the sounds of their voices basically fill most of the day.

Because of this problem, Lan En had no confidence that he could find the dwarves by hearing in such a noisy environment.

It would be possible if he had already implanted the enhanced organ [Lyman's Ear] at this time.

But this place is different.

There are many people around who are watching this two-story wooden house, and these people who are watching are not as noisy and busy as ordinary people.

They all quietly went about their business.

This reduced a lot of the surrounding noise, allowing Lan En to use his extraordinary senses as a demon hunter to hear some information from a not-too-far away location.

The voices that concerned him were rough and eccentric, and even when mixed with angry complaints, they actually sounded quite amusing.

It's the dwarves!

"found it."

Lan En's expression did not seem very surprised. After all, he and Flannel Ball had searched almost a quarter of the area of ​​Changhu Town, so it was not surprising to run into him.

Immediately, Lan En turned over and jumped down from the second-floor corridor of the wooden building where he was, and walked towards the two-story wooden house.

There were three surveillance personnel in front of the wooden house. They immediately spotted the abnormal figure walking straight towards their surveillance target.

But the three of them didn't dare to move at all.

After all, they were just monitoring, not even fighting. When this guy, who was two heads taller than an average person and had muscles that looked like he could crush someone to death, approached them, they had no intention of standing up to block his way.

"But don't you think it's unusual that you didn't react after seeing me?"

The man who was sitting on a fishing boat in the middle of the waterway and seemed to be fishing suddenly trembled uncontrollably.

His fishing boat was placed across the middle of the waterway, also serving as a floating bridge.

When Lan En came over, the big hand just pressed on his neck, and the man's eyes rolled up and he lay limply in the boat.

The other two people who were looking at the main entrance of the two-story wooden house were already swallowing nervously when they saw Lan En walking towards them.

When he really started to make a move, she simply dropped the pottery and tapestries that she was pretending to admire and ask about their prices, and turned around to run away.

But before they could take two steps, a fluffy ball fell from the sky, holding his helmet in one hand and a white radish that he got from somewhere in the other.

After two 'dong dong' sounds, he stood between the two people.

Then the body falls to the ground.

The kitten threw away the carrot, put on his helmet again, and stretched out his paw to make a "yeah" sign.

"Handsome meow!"

Lan, who was very capable of providing emotional value, nodded twice in agreement with the flannel ball's self-indulgence, then walked up the stairs to the two-story wooden house.

At this point, the dwarves' words, which had been unclear just now, were finally confirmed.

"What is this? I have never seen such a weapon."

"This is a barbed spear, modified from a harpoon. That is a square-headed hammer, modified from a blacksmith's hammer."

"We paid! Real silver coins! And you're just giving us this junk?"

When the dwarves were in Rivendell, they had a good relationship with Lan, Flannel, and Kirin, and they could play together.

So the witcher could distinguish the voices of the thirteen dwarves and one hobbit, but there was an unfamiliar tone mixed in.

And this unfamiliar tone sounded like it was full of helplessness as it explained to the dwarf customers.

"We are going to a wilderness full of dangers. To face the dangers, we need to use really good swords and guns! Made of steel, top-grade steel that has been tempered a hundred times! Not iron! And soaked in water!"

"Are you trying to kill us?"

From the voice it seemed that this was Bofur, a guy with a very good character among the dwarves, but at this moment he sounded very angry.

Lan En did not delay and simply stood outside the second-floor door and knocked on it.

There was a knock on the door, and the quarrel inside suddenly stopped, followed by a noisy collision sound.

I guess those weapons that the dwarves sneered at just now have now been used by everyone.

The unfamiliar voice of Lan En quickly whispered to comfort the dwarves.

"Don't do it! Do you want to kill someone in my house? Stop, I'll take care of it!"

After a flurry of activity, the flimsy wooden door, which was almost useless in front of Lan En, cautiously opened a crack.

"What's going on?" A handsome but weathered human face appeared through the crack. "What's going on?!"

The first half of his sentence after he opened the door was quite fluent, but he was wary.

But when he found that he could only see a person's chest when he looked out the door, he stuttered and realized that something was wrong.

His height was just enough to match Lan's bearskin cape.

The bearskin cape processed and enchanted by Berengar is undoubtedly shiny and smooth, revealing its nobility and ferocity.

The man who opened the door raised his head stiffly, with cold sweat on his forehead.

Until he finally met Lan's eyes as he lowered his head.

"You may call me Lan, sir. I am at your service."

"Oh, I'm in Lower Bud, and I'm at your service, too."

Lan En narrowed his eyes slightly. The man in front of him was polite but a little unfamiliar.

Moreover, this windbreaker looked like it had a lot of patches on it, as if it had been worn for many years.

Family downfall? Mentos quickly combined the information and gave a guess. But Lan downgraded the filing level of this information in his mind. He was not a detective now.

"I'm here to meet a group of dwarf friends. Is that convenient?"

As Lan En spoke, he reached his hand into the house, as if asking a question.

"Friends?" Bard was a little surprised. These dwarves knew the elves?

Aren't they at odds?

But before he could react or think, the dwarves behind him shouted happily.

"Hey! It's Lann guys!"

Hearing the dwarf's cheers, Bard still frowned with doubt, but he still opened the door.

The witcher walked in with his head down, followed by the fluffy ball, who raised his little paw to greet the confused Bard.

"Good morning, gentlemen."

Lan En came in with his head lowered, and was careful not to collide with the clotheslines or anything else in the room.

"It's so nice to see you, Lan!"

Fili, Thorin's nephew, jumped over and patted the witcher's lowered hand.

The other dwarves were also in high spirits, except for Thorin, who stood by the window, looking out with a deep gaze. Balin, who looked like Santa Claus, was beside him.

When they saw Lan En come in, they just forced a smile at the witcher.

What Lan En didn't hear just now was that Bud had three other children in his family.

A big boy, a big girl, and a little girl.

They were not too alarmed when they saw a room full of strange dwarves. They just sat quietly in the corner of the crowded room.

The boy was fine, but the two girls, after seeing Lan En's face when he came in, began to laugh quietly with their hands covering their mouths, and occasionally jumped a little with excitement.

It felt like seeing the characters from a fairy tale come to life. The girls were very polite and although they were excited, they did not interrupt.

However, the demon hunter had seen this situation many times, so he just nodded at them politely as a greeting.

"What's going on with you?"

Lan turned to look at the group of dwarves. They were all wet, which was not a good condition given the temperature of the lake.

"He even lost his weapons. He looked as if he was being hunted and had nowhere to go. Gandalf didn't tell me that."

"Did Gandalf send for you? What is he doing?"

Bilbo asked, sniffling under a blanket.

He cared deeply for Gandalf.

"He has his own important work to do, so he asked me to tell you something new."

Lan looked around at the dwarves and hobbits, then glanced covertly in the direction of the Bard family, indicating that this matter was best discussed in private.

So the dwarves tactfully ignored the topic.

"Everything was fine."

Balin's now iconic white beard was all stuck together because of the water, he sighed.

"Gandalf led us through the magical Mirkwood, but he received a message from a bird and hurried back into Mirkwood."

"We didn't care. After all, we had come all the way from Mirkwood. But not long after Gandalf left, we encountered a large group of orcs. They tried desperately to kill us."

"We have no choice but to jump into the river and hope that the current will carry us away. And as you know, if we carry weapons and armor in the water, we will only sink to the bottom. We have no choice but to abandon most of our equipment."

At this point, Balin stroked his beard out of habit, but it hurt because his beard was wet and tangled, so he smiled bitterly.

"Thankfully we walked out of the Mirkwood and the remaining river is not very long. Otherwise, we would have drowned in it."

They had lost all their leather armor, their mail, and all their heavy weapons, such as their hammers and axes and spears.

Everyone was left with only a single layer of clothing and a small dagger or a short knife. Only Thorin and Bilbo did not lose their weapons in the river because the elves' weapons were light and powerful.

Lan nodded silently, indicating that he understood the current situation. He tilted his head again and saw Thorin's other nephew.

"Kili," Lan called out, frowning. "What's wrong with your leg?"

One of the two youngest, most lively and trouble-making dwarves in the team is now sitting quietly on the bed with a pale face.

"No, I'm fine."

Kili managed a smile at Lan.

Ou Yin, who works as a doctor in the team but has poor hearing and often has to use a metal speaker in his ear as a hearing aid, said this.

"He was shot in the leg by an orc. I treated him promptly. We have to wait and see how well it works."

Lan nodded and said nothing more.

But Bud next to him interrupted in surprise.

"Wait!" The man, who must have been handsome when he was young but now has gray hair on his temples, frowned and looked serious. "You just said orcs? Did the orcs chase you near the river and force you to jump in?"

"Those ugly and cruel murderers."

Thorin said hatefully.

"No, this must be a mistake. How could orcs appear around here? They disappeared from this area even longer than the dwarves did!"

"Perhaps that's what history says, but we have to face reality now, Bard." Lan said to him with his head down. "The orcs are coming."

(End of this chapter)