Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1178 1160. Behind a Book

The calm, gentle and cool tone of voice naturally carries a sense of bearing and style.

Maintaining this tone in normal times will make people feel that the speaker is knowledgeable and trustworthy.

Maintaining this tone during a debate or argument will make the other party feel like they have no place to put their energy, and they may even begin to doubt whether they are really wrong.

Now, Sakia's tone and the man opposite him are in this situation.

This man had fought his way through the battlefields of the Civil War, and of course he had seen through the brutality of the Nilfgaardians.

However, faced with the other party's well-reasoned questions, his originally angry and impatient tone actually faltered for a moment, and he couldn't say anything insightful.

He just kept repeating things like "black dog" and "Nilfgaardians are all shameless liars".

It makes him seem even less believable and like an illogical, manic idiot.

But this man is not an unreasonable or unreasonable person.

He felt that his mind was a mess and he knew he had nothing to say, so he spat fiercely at the side and turned away.

After exiting the pavilion, he passed by Lan En who was approaching.

But he didn't even start the argument. He was so angry and frustrated that he just glanced up at Lan En and continued walking forward with his head down.

The armor parts on his body and the scabbard of the half-sword made a 'clattering' sound.

Lan En chewed marigolds and looked at the man's back with a bit of amusement as he walked away with his head down.

He walked into the pavilion. Sakia, who was opening a black hardcover book in his hand, was still leaning on the railing of the pavilion.

The pair of slender legs, which were tied with armor parts but still retained their beautiful shape, were stacked, entangled, and stretched out casually.

The pages of the book turned with a rustling sound. Sakia with dark blond hair did not look up, but just spoke calmly.

"That's weird, isn't it?"

"Hmm," Lann raised an eyebrow under his hood, "What are you talking about?"

"The gentleman just now." She raised her eyebrows from the pages of the book, glanced at the tall figure who walked into the pavilion, and continued.

"He wanted to have sex with me. I could tell he really wanted to because his eyes were lingering on my breasts, waist, and thighs before our argument started. But he didn't even want to talk to me for a while. It's weird, isn't it?"

This time Lan En didn't respond.

He simply tilted his head and looked at the cover of the hardcover book the other person was flipping through.

"Sir Nelven's 'A Study of the Customs and Institutions of the Nilfgaard Empire'. The research on the Nilfgaard Empire is of reference value, but not great."

Lan En just took one look and then crossed his arms over his chest, speaking calmly and rationally in the same tone that Sakia had used to speak to the man just now.

And sure enough, Sachia's reaction was within Lan's expectations.

"Oh? It seems that you are a learned man." The woman closed the book and let it hang naturally, while her eyes were fixed on Lan En.

"So, can someone like you answer my questions?"

"The inconsistency between what is described in a credible book about Nilfgaard and what the Nilfgaardians are doing now?"

There is a bit of gunpowder in these words, which means they are a bit aggressive.

This is normal, because when something a person believes in is challenged in front of her, she will most likely feel some resistance in her heart.

Just now she said, "What's puzzling is that there is a conflict between the actions of the Nilfgaardians in the book and the real Nilfgaard." But actually from her tone, we can tell that deep down she is more inclined to the appearance of Nilfgaard in the book.

And Lan En still had that calm and steady tone.

"First, we have to define what we mean by a 'trustworthy book'."

"This book is a reliable book in the field of Nilfgaard research." Sakia raised his arm, which was originally holding the book and hanging naturally, and gestured to Lan En.

Those strong and beautiful eyes were also staring at the other person's face which was mostly covered by the hood.

"King Vizimir of the North awarded the author a medal. In other words, this is a book recognized by Nilfgaard's enemies, right?"

"From a superficial point of view, the logic is correct."

Under the hood, Lan En's thin lips curled up in a small arc.

But this small arc was immediately captured by Sakia, and a nameless anger rose in his heart.

Of course, in terms of tone, Sakia still suppressed this inexplicable anger.

"You're saying I'm short-sighted?"

Lan En smiled and didn't respond, but just pointed at the hardcover book in the other person's hand.

"Sir Neilwen used a very clever writing style - please forgive me for being the only one who can describe his writing style - to bypass many things that had to be said, and then presented this book to you in this way."

Lan En took a step forward and turned to one of the pages without even looking, just by feeling it and the records on the Mentos.

He tapped on one of the passages with his fingers in leather gloves with steel plates.

"In this passage, he casually mentioned the slave system in Nilfgaard, and gave a vague description, as if he attributed the glory and prosperity of the Golden Tower City to the praise that 'Nilfgaardians are born with a natural understanding of honor and hard work.'"

The capital of the Nilfgaard Empire is called Nilfgaard City, also known as the City of Golden Towers. It is said that the roofs of all the buildings in that city are golden, and the reflection of the sunlight is as brilliant as the realm of God.

Sakia originally had a puzzled look on his face, and hesitantly followed Lan's finger and lowered it to re-examine the passage in the book.

But Lann hadn't finished yet.

He quickly turned another page.

"And here, Sir Nelven describes the Nilfgaardians' concept of equality, their mutual friendship and solidarity, and their elimination of discrimination. Sorry, I almost laughed just now."

"But this is really not a good joke, because it is a bit inappropriate to tell a joke in Nilfgaard, just like telling a joke in Hell."

At this moment, Sakia had completely lost the calmness and decisiveness that she had when she questioned the male warrior just now. She looked at the tall man in the hooded cloak in front of her with confusion.

"In fact." Lan pointed out three place names in the book and showed them to Sakia.

"In the Nilfgaardian Empire, the further south you are in the center of the empire, the more proud you are to call yourself a Nilfgaardian."

"People in Nilfgaard can say so. Although they are reluctant, they also allow people living in Vicvaro to say so."

"But at most! At most, we can include people from the Alba River Basin. Apart from the people from these places, anyone who dares to say that he is a Nilfgaardian will have a bad outcome."

"But fortunately, most people in other places don't want to be called that either."

"A rebellion broke out in Ebin, a vassal state of the Nilfgaard Empire, last year, and a large area of ​​the area was wiped out. What do you think the people there would look like if they were called Nilfgaardians?"

Sakia's mouth was slightly open at this time. She first frowned and looked at the book in her hand, then raised her head to look at the lips that were curled up in a cold smile under the shadow of the hood.

"But even if you say so, the author of this book may have used some ambiguous narrative techniques, but after all."

Lan interrupted Sakia mercilessly, and his tone changed from decisive and strong to hesitant and lacking in confidence.

"But after all, the author of this book was knighted by King Vizimir, right?"

"Yes, that's right. But my dear lady, do you know at whose expense this book was written?"

Sakia opened her mouth: ".Funding?"

"Scholars who study foreign customs and systems need to travel, even for a long time, to write books. And traveling requires taking care of food, clothing, housing and transportation, all of which cost money."

Lan En said with a smile.

"If a scholar is not so obsessed with his book that he is willing to pay for it, he will definitely find investors. It can be the school where he works, or social funding or something like that."

As soon as Sachia heard the word "school where I work", she wanted to turn to the title page of the book to see if there was any relevant funding information.

But Lan shrugged.

"But the book's sponsor was not Oxenfort University, but Prinslav Stesa."

"A Temeria Count who was very famous and had a high status in the past few years."

"Stessa?" Sakia murmured the name thoughtfully. "The Stessa who was killed by the Lord Hunter because of human trafficking and close ties with Nilfgaard?"

"But why would Vizmir?"

"Because Stassa is Foltest's cousin, and she was very powerful when she was alive."

Lan En was not surprised at all, and even spoke with a bit of boredom to Sakia, who was already a little dazed from receiving too much information in a short period of time.

"Vizimir is happy to give Stestsa some more momentum and face, as long as it can cause some trouble for Foltest at the same time."

Sakia blinked.

"Even if this book and this author are speaking well of his enemies?"

Lan smiled and shook his head.

"What's a book compared to causing Foltest trouble and wasting his energy? What's the point of giving an already famous professor an honorary title without a real seal?"

The witcher's finger touched the cover of the hardcover book again, making a slight 'dong dong' sound.

"So, do you have any idea about the definition of a credible book?"

The female warrior pouted and looked down at the book in her hand for a while.

There was a soft 'bang' sound, and finally the fingers that were sandwiched in the middle acting as a partition were pulled out, and the whole book was completely closed.

"So there is such a complicated story behind just a book? Really..."

She hesitated for a moment, her lips moving as if she was considering her words.

“It’s really a great experience.”

Sakia raised her head and for the first time carefully looked up and down at the tall man in front of her whom she had never seen in the temple before.

Finally, her beautiful eyes were fixed on Lan's left hand.

"Well, you're not bad. At least you brought flowers." She raised her eyebrows and said lightly with a bit of complacency, "You want to sleep with me too?"

(End of this chapter)