Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1156 1138. The Great Purge

"Because of the Scoia'tael?"

The witcher made guesses based on the limited information he had seen, after all, he had only been back for a day.

"Scoia'tael, ha." Margarita pressed her forehead and chuckled. Tishaya, who was sitting next to her, took a sip of the blood-red wine in the silver cup.

"They are the Scoia'tael, I guess. They have spread to the Velen area. On the road outside Gos Velen, two groups of merchants have been found dead in the wilderness, and their carriages have been torn apart and thrown on the roadside."

"Really?"

Lan En asked back with interest.

Tishaya, holding a wine glass, took over the conversation and explained calmly.

"Because anyone with a discerning eye knows that the Scoia'tael was funded and promoted by someone. They are a problem, but they are not the root cause of the problem."

"The fundamental problem is that the world is going to be in chaos again."

It has been quite some time since the Battle of Sodden Mountain, nearly two years.

Although Lan En was traveling through the rift between the celestial spheres, and his perception of time was confused, Mentos would automatically adjust the schedule when he came back, so that the subject would not be completely in the dark about time.

Tishaya continued to speak calmly. She had seen many storms in her life. Although she had experienced many big events in recent years due to the development of the times, they did not shock her.

"Since the First War between the North and the South, the Nilfgaardian Empire has, for the first time in history, actually bordered the northern kingdoms. Friction and tension are natural."

"You said it was natural." Lan En leaned back in the armchair, changed to a comfortable position, and listened attentively. "So what is the current situation?"

"There is a rumor going around that the Emperor of Nilfgaard, Emhyr var Emreis, did not approve of the large-scale invasion at the time, and that the ones who attacked Cintra were actually his opponents at home who disobeyed his orders and acted on their own."

Tishaya did not respond to Lan En immediately, but instead started talking in a different way.

"No one can really tell whether this news is true or not, but everyone knows that if Nilfgaard had won the Battle of Sodden Mountain, the emperor would have given the participating legions only honors and rewards."

"But there is no 'if'. They lost."

Lan En calmly took a sip of the East of East red wine. Toussaint, which produced this precious wine, was also a vassal state of Nilfgaard.

"I tore their legions apart with my own hands."

Tishaya nodded and raised the wine glass in her hand towards Lan En as a greeting.

"So after the Battle of Sodden, this news spread quickly, and it suddenly became clear that the emperor didn't actually want to go to war. All the previous actions were just acts of disobedience by his marshals. Then people were beheaded and executed one after another."

"This is not just a 'rumor', it's a fact."

"There were eight official mass executions, and countless less official ones. Several well-known officers died inexplicably, and many officials retired suddenly."

"Emhyr was very ruthless in purging his own men."

Cleaning is a good idea.

Lan En lowered his eyes and thought for a moment. His education and experience made him understand what was going on.

Military failure is inevitable, so as a mature politician, you have to accept the reality and find ways to maximize benefits and make up for the losses in the failure.

It would be a very beneficial option for the emperor to take this opportunity to legitimately cleanse the army of various forces, place his own people in it, and increase control over the army.

"But this process takes time." Lan En continued after a short silence to think.

"If it is done, it will certainly be very beneficial. However, how to maintain the cohesion of the army and its combat effectiveness in the process will take time to adjust. The newly-installed officers will have a hard time if they want to truly exercise their management rights."

"So." Following this line of thought, Lan En continued to think deeply.

The Emperor of Nilfgaard needs time, and time can not only be compressed from himself, but also delayed from his enemies.

If the enemy is slow, it means you are fast.

It is much easier and more convenient to cause trouble to the enemy than to speed yourself up.

"So it was Nilfgaard that funded and instigated the Scoia'tael, allowing these non-human races to cause trouble in the north, buying time for Nilfgaard to take control of the army."

No longer using question marks, Lan En had already seen the thread behind this.

Due to historical reasons, namely the intersection of the celestial spheres, the humans in the north and south of this continent are actually not of the same species.

The northern humans landed nearly five hundred years ago, but the southern humans had actually arrived on this continent long ago.

The only certainty between the two is that humans are humans after all, but the rest of the people are not even sure whether they come from the same alien world.

Compared to five hundred years, which is not a long time, it is not a long time, especially in the eyes of races with longer lifespans such as elves and dryads.

The southern humans had "cleaned up" the area around their homes long ago.

To the extent that even today, in the heart of the Nilfgaard Empire, people there even believe that creatures such as nymphs, nymphs, and dryads are things from fairy tales, not real creatures. In addition, the northern humans have been cruel to non-human races in the past five hundred years since they landed.

Elves, some dwarves, and some halflings. They hate northern humans much more than southerners.

Or maybe it was just because the Southern Empire was also human that they were hated by them.

After all, the events of the last five hundred years are closer to them and they feel them more deeply.

And once they receive funding and support from the South, it is almost self-evident who these inhuman races will direct their wrath at first.

"That's why the situation is becoming increasingly tense. Anyone with a little sensitivity can feel it."

Margarita said, shaking her head.

"The Scoia'tael killed merchants outside the city, or looked for opportunities to kill any humans passing by. Then the humans in the city became panicked, and the elves and dwarves in the city also became more and more frightened. Once this fear got out of control, it would turn into an impulse to kill."

"And the elves and dwarves in the city are getting more and more scared. When they are scared to the extreme, they will think, 'It's better to hurt others first than to be hurt', and leave the city to become the Scoia'tael."

Lan En frowned and shook his head: "It's a vicious cycle."

"Yes, but what can we do?" Margarita rubbed her forehead in distress. "The mayor has complained to me many times. He said that we have to reduce the proportion of dwarven craftsmen in the Valyrian steel workshop, otherwise it will make humans dissatisfied."

"Many people say that non-human races have taken away jobs and wealth from humans."

"But if the proportion of dwarves is really reduced, won't the dwarves be scared? What if they think this is a sign of action against them?"

Lan's frown deepened.

"The current conflict can't even be contained in the workshop?"

"It's not that intense." Margarita waved her hand and drank the Dongzhidong red wine in the silver cup in her hand in one gulp as if to vent her anger.

"Both dwarven and human craftsmen can make money from the Valyrian steel trade."

"Since you can still earn a satisfactory salary, who would easily make trouble?"

"But even in the city of Goth Velen alone, apart from the Valyrian steelworks, the atmosphere in other places is a bit tense."

"And Temeria is already a country known for being tolerant towards non-human races."

Margarita's words didn't fully explain the matter, but they were enough.

If the atmosphere in Temeria has reached this point, what is it like in other countries that are already harsh towards non-human races?
In Redania, almost no one can control the radical Church of the Eternal Fire, and no one even wants to control it, because this church is the strongest supporter of the kingship.

The infamous "Boar King" of the Kingdom of Kaedwen, wished to seize all the property of non-human races within the kingdom.

In the Kingdom of Aedirn, a massacre against non-human races would occasionally break out in the city.

"This time when I come back, I don't think I have anything important to do except to fix myself a set of armor."

Lan picked up the bottle, filled his own glass, and then reached over to fill Tishaya and Margarita's glasses.

"If you need me to come forward, just speak up."

Margarita took the silver cup from under the bottle of wine held by Lan, with a relieved expression on her face.

"That would be great, dear. First, could you help me sort out the papers on my desk?"

Tishaya calmly took back the silver cup and sat upright and properly.

But the witcher glanced behind him and saw a mess of desks.

The documents on the table look messy. In fact, they are indeed messy and there are too many of them. However, considering his ability, dealing with them is as easy as reading a novel.

"But." Lan En turned around again and looked at the former dean of the dignified and abstinent department, raised his eyebrows, "Tishaya, how could you resist not dealing with that pile of stuff?"

Tishaya put one arm around herself to support the weight on her chest, and with the other hand she raised the wine glass to her mouth with a smile.

"Forgive me, Lan. I'd love to see you deal with this, and the thought of that is enough to hold me back."

"You now have, uh, an hour and a half. Go process these documents."

Margarita, who was standing next to her, lifted her blonde hair away from the corner of her mouth that was stained with red wine, and glanced at the wall clock in the room with a smile.

"Is this timed?"

Lan En felt a sense of absurdity, but he still stood up with his glass of wine and walked towards the desk.

"Time is precious, young man." Margarita said in a seductive voice, her voice seducing people as if it penetrated deep into their hearts. "How do you think I plan to spend the rest of my time?"

(End of this chapter)