Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1175. Position
"You would be wise to come directly to me, child."

Aunt Nenneke took Lane around as if he were strolling in a garden, walking around and talking.

"Oh?" Lan En said with an interested smile on his face, "You said so. It seems that Duke Heward has not made much progress in discriminating against others in recent years?"

"Kid, don't think that you can win everyone's respect just because you have fought a few impressive battles and done some amazing things. Don't be so naive."

Aunt Nenneke reached out her plump, wrinkled hands and plucked two marigolds from a bush, flowers often eaten in salads.

He ate one himself and handed the other to Lan En without looking back.

At the same time, he spoke to Lan En.

She looked like an old grandmother stuffing snacks into her grandchildren's hands and nagging at them.

Lan En obediently took the marigold and put it in his mouth to chew.

"Hey, I'm not that naive, Mammy."

“That’s for the best, because it will save a lot of disappointment that could have been avoided,” Nenneke continued.

"You can't judge a person's attitude by appearances. That old dog Seaward certainly knows how powerful you are. If they really meet, he might give you some basic respect."

"But no matter what he shows on his face, his true attitude towards you depends only on his position."

Lan En savored the fragrance of the marigolds in his mouth, as well as the subtle bitterness of the herbs.

"So at this stage, what is the position of the Duke of Ellande?"

“Hey, you’re much more perceptive than that wooden Geralt.” Nenneke looked at the young man with some surprise. “Tell me the truth.”

"Hyward has been working hard to implement a policy in recent years. He wants to help the White Rose Knights obtain authorization from the Templar Council so that every knight in the order can obtain a de facto fiefdom."

The Templar Council is an organization in Temeria that is responsible for managing the affairs of many knightly orders.

Institutions like the Knights Templar generally have higher combat effectiveness than ordinary soldiers, and many of their members are young people with noble inheritance rights, so of course they have to be careful and troublesome to manage them.

Therefore, it is normal to set up a special organization to handle this matter.

In Toussaint, the "country of knights and wine", although there is no formal military force due to policy and historical reasons, there is a cultural tradition of wandering knights.

In order to manage the wandering knights, they set up a 'Wandering Knights Guild'.

For example, when Foltest bestowed High Hill Hold on the Knights of Embers, he actually went through the process of the Templar Council.

Under normal circumstances, this process would take less than ten years to review, but the performance of the Knights of Embers under Lan's command on the battlefield of Sodden Mountain was not enough to be described as "outstanding".

It’s simply terrifying!
Therefore, with the reputation of the "Battle of Broken Sodden", the approval time that time probably set the fastest record since the founding of Temeria.

The review submitted by Duke Seaward was a process that would normally take nearly ten years to complete and would require continuous progress.

"Siward was able to get the White Rose Knights to provide him with enthusiastic assistance because of his promotion of this review."

Nenneke smiled.

"Or, in other words, he pushed for the review so hard just to gain the support of the Knights of the White Rose. This is the most popular knight order in Temeria in recent years. Of course, the Knights of Embers are nominally an outpost of Cintra and are not included in this list."

"You mean to say," Lan En carefully savored the information revealed by Sister Nenneke, "that the Knights of the White Rose are an important part of the power under Heward?"

At this time, Lan En was also lamenting the correctness of his decision to come to the Temple of Meliteli first after arriving in Elland.

Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible for him, a foreigner, to know information like these concerning the composition of the organization under the local duke.

For the Chief Priest of Meliteli, who is equally deeply rooted in the local area and whose influence is even greater and wider than that of Duke Shiward, this news is completely easy to understand.

"He worked hard to advance the review process of the Templar Council in exchange for the loyalty of the Knights of the White Rose. This means that while he accepted the loyalty of the Knights, he would also inevitably be influenced by the Knights themselves."

Lan followed Aunt Nenneke's leisurely steps, speaking in a low and confident voice.

Generally, people who have not had a deep understanding of an organization or group will naively believe that the will of the leader of the group or organization will affect the entire organization or group.

This view has some truth to it, but it is narrow-minded.

The greater possibility is that the will and tendency of the leader are nothing more than the will of the entire organization or group projected onto him.

Just like the boss of a gang must be ruthless, because the gang’s organizational form requires that they must be ruthless.

The purpose of a gang is to make money, so when a gang leader doesn't want to make money with his men, when he has made enough money and is tired of the danger, and wants to leave his affairs behind, retire, clean up his name, and disband the organization, it is most likely the time for him to die.

Because at that time his will was already contrary to the will of the organization.

So did Seaward.

He brought the Knights of the White Rose under his command, obtained their oath of loyalty, and improved his military strength. But at the same time, he was inevitably swept up by the style and spirit of the Knights of the White Rose. What is the style of the Knights of the White Rose?

——At the beginning, even though Geralt was treated well by Nenneke and enjoyed the protection of the Temple of Meliteli, the knights who came to trouble him were knights from the Order of the White Rose.

Couldn't be more obviously racist.

In order to win over this group of racists and maintain their loyalty, whether Heward wants to or not, he has to be a "racist".

This is what is called 'standpoint' determining thinking.

"It seems that I made the right decision by coming here directly instead of going to Seaward to go through the noble greeting process."

Lan En sighed again, but this time he spoke out loud.

Nenneke raised her hand to adjust the blue veil covering her head. “There was no need for you to go there and cause trouble, kid.”

"You and that old dog of Seaward's are not of the same ilk. I saw that the first time I saw it."

"The main reason you came here now is because of the Pontar Valley incident. Apart from that, you have no connection with him and there is no need for you to get to know him."

"You can rest assured to stay here." The kind fat lady said in an unquestionable tone, "This is my territory, the temple of Meliteli! Since the temple was built, no one has dared to go wild on my land."

The old woman's words were so confident and natural, as if they were as they should be.

If a student at Oxenford University, who is part of the recent "anti-superstition" movement, heard this, he would probably think it was the fanatical devotion of ignorant and backward believers to a fictitious god.

But for Lan En, he thought of the "strangeness" shown by Nenneke when he came out of the cave greenhouse just now. As the most prestigious temple of the Meliteli faith on the continent.

If someone was really so bold as to cause trouble here, Lan En estimated that this person's fate would be very "not optimistic".

"Then we are relieved." The witcher shrugged and changed the subject. "As for the business, what is the situation in Pontar Valley?"

Nenneke tugged on Lane a little, and the two of them walked around the small mess on the ground.

It was a pile of poultry feathers and bird droppings, which looked like the traces left when the priestess apprentices drove away the chickens, ducks and geese just now.

But in the temple's lush gardens, these things would soon disappear on their own and become fertility for the soil.

Speaking of this major inland waterway of the four northern countries, Nenneke's usually calm expression slightly frowned.

"How much did Foltest tell you?"

"Not much," Lan answered her, "but even these alone are enough to make people feel bad."

“That’s true.” Nenneke nodded in agreement. “If Foltest hadn’t been dealing with a sudden conflict with the Nilfgaardian Empire on the border, he would have come here in person.”

"I know everything Seaward knows about this matter."

Nenneke said this as a matter of course, without any pride at all.

"After all, when those refugees arrived outside of Elland City, the first place they thought of was of course the Temple of Meliteli. Apart from here, who would be willing to rescue those who have been walking in the mountains for ten days or half a month without any time to rest?"

"Dirty, smelly, skinny, looks like it could bring bad luck. Humph."

Nenneke couldn't quite say she was sarcastic, she just smiled in a 'I've seen this a lot' tone.

"So what on earth did these people encounter?"

Lan's tone began to change from casual conversation to cautious and focused.

He began to get into the working state of a demon hunter.

Nenneke had known Geralt for a long time and even took care of him like a son. Of course, she was also familiar with the working style of the witcher.

So there was nothing wrong with talking.

"They were originally mountain people living in the Mahakam Mountains."

Nenneke first explained to Lan the cause of the whole incident, or in other words, the cause of the incident when it was discovered.

"They live in the mountains, working for the dwarves. Mahakam is a huge mine, and the dwarves have not yet exhausted it in hundreds of years."

"Their current great elder is a man named Hogg, a conservative who doesn't want the dwarves to leave Mahakam and enter the dangerous human world. But he doesn't have any objection to allowing a small number of humans to work in the mines."

"Not only does he have no objection, but Seaward and Foltest also have no objection. After all, the gold earned by the mountain people from Mahakam still needs to be exchanged for supplies in the human society below the mountain."

"Not only do we make money by mining for the dwarves, but there are also a few hunters in the mountain villages who can hunt for some meat in the mountains of Mahakam."

(End of this chapter)