Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1293 1265. Accurate Time
"Is the old house okay?"

Henrik said casually as he adjusted the collar of the suit jacket lining under his windbreaker.

"Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm just worried that the living conditions there won't be good and I won't be able to repay your favor."

"Anyway, I'm grateful." Lan En nodded at him and said, "That house is not bad. Mark just moved out. How bad can it be?"

After a brief chat, Henrik turned his head and looked at the increasingly dim and gloomy sunset through his mask and tricorn hat.

He spoke as he pulled out his hunter rifle from under his windbreaker and loaded it with mercury bullets.

"So how are you? Becoming a hunter?"

The mechanical "click" sound of the pistol loading bullets naturally carried a cold and hard murderous intent.

But whether it was Lan or Henrik, they obviously didn't care much about this commotion.

"I am indeed a hunter of Yharnam now."

As he spoke, Lan En took out the file Maria had given him and showed it to him.

Although Henrik only took a glance, Lan En could feel that although his tone was still habitually cold when he spoke, he was actually much more relaxed.

"Then what are you going to do at night? Sleep?" Henrik said softly, his voice muffled by the mask. "Night is when hunters work."

"Unfortunately." The witcher waved his hand and said, "I am currently working in the research hall for gray blood disease."

Henrik nodded his black cocked hat up and down. "You are unlucky. You can't have blood spilled on you. You can't feel the blood flowing from the beast's body."

But his voice, which was muffled by the mask, now carried a strong smell of blood.

Lan looked down at him.

Regardless of Henrik's character, he is still a hunter of Yharnam after all.

And there is no hunter in Yharnam who is not addicted to blood.

At least, not young Henrik.

"As a hunter of Yharnam, there will always be opportunities for these things." Lan En said calmly.

Then, the witcher naturally continued with the topic he had prepared long ago.

"Isn't the church preparing for a big hunt recently? They shouldn't leave the hunters in a place like the research hall at that time, right?"

Hearing this, Henrik first raised his eyes and looked at the witcher in surprise, as if he didn't expect to receive this news just after becoming a hunter.

But Henrik just thought about it casually and shook his head.

"Then you are thinking wrong."

As the sky grew darker, the young hunter took out a meat saw wrapped in a blood-stained bandage to prevent slipping from his waist and twisted his wrist with it.

A muffled laugh came from beneath his mask.

"That's no ordinary hunt, outsider."

Henrik called out the Yharnamese's catchphrase in a teasing tone.

"Only experienced hunters who have slaughtered wild beasts for at least ten years are eligible to join the hunt. The leader is the church's glorious first hunter, Ludwig!"

Speaking of the church's first hunter, Henrik, a rare local hunter from Yharnam, even with his face covered by a mask, Lan En could feel a sense of honor.

"The old hunters are gone, but what night in Yharnam is without hunters? The history of lycanthropy is as old as this city."

"So there must be newbies left to take charge of normal hunting."

Henrik pointed at himself with the hunter's rifle, then reached out and touched Lan's arm with the barrel of the rifle.

"That means us."

"That's a shame. I want to see what the beast looks like that made the church go to so much trouble and recruit so many people to hunt it."

Lan En spoke calmly, but the pauses in his sentences and the control of his tone were just right.

It makes people feel like they want to take over the conversation.

Although only a slit of Henrik's eye was exposed, Mentos was able to compile a lot of emotional data for reference just by activating the tiny muscles under the skin around his eyes.

As expected, Henrik was controlled by his rhetoric and strong emotional perception.

"Yeah, I really want to see the blood flowing from the beast~ or even smell it?"

Like a drug addict, Henrik sniffed and spoke in a muffled voice.

This action made Lan En frown subconsciously, but he still didn't interrupt him.

Then, Henrik added, "We can only wait and see in three days whether the souvenirs brought back by the old hunters still have the smell of the beast's blood on them."

The key information was captured by Lan's ears in an instant, and then Mentos saved it.

The estimate is to 'bring back the spoils' in three days. Does that mean the big hunt took place within two days?
After knowing the exact time, Lan En immediately realized the urgency of his current time.

The previous meeting with Simon made him realize that this was a nightmare, but it was also the deepest and most dangerous nightmare hidden by Yharnam.

But Simon did not tell him the exact time when the incident happened.

It's not that he didn't want to say it as a riddler, but he himself didn't know. He only knew that the dream should end with the iconic event of the hunting night that burned down Old Yharnam, but he was not sure when this event would happen.

He himself died so badly in this nightmare that he even forgot how many times this had happened.

This shows that there must be something in this nightmare that is constantly changing.

It is impossible to remember everything just by relying on a mechanical 'back panel'.

That's why he came to Henrik, hoping to get the exact time in the least noticeable way possible.

The big hunt that brought out all the veteran hunters happened within two days, so the hunting night must not be far away!
After sorting out the time, Lan En's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Eh? Are you leaving now?" Henrik looked in surprise at the witcher who walked away quickly after chatting for a few words.

Lan En raised his hand and waved without even turning his head: "Sorry, I suddenly remembered that I have something else to do. I have to leave first."

Henrik grumbled a few words, but he had already grabbed the hunter's rifle and the meat saw in his hands.

At this time, the last ray of sunset, which was shaped into sharp lines through the interlaced gaps between the tall and low Gothic spires of Yharnam, had disappeared.

The night fell upon Yharnam once again, just like many other nights before it.

There were few lights on the windows along the winding, winding streets, but all of them were barred and chained.

The people of Yharnam have always lived this way.

Outside at night, only filthy beasts and ruthless hunters roam.

But tonight, there is someone who believes that he belongs to neither and is moving quickly.

With a whoosh, the cloak that Lan En wore over his armor fluttered in the wind.

The sound of his boots hitting the stone floor was even more sonorous.

The hem of the dragon's skin skirt sometimes brushed against the tombstones piled along the street.

The nights in Yharnam are quiet and deserted, perfect for covert operations.

After clarifying the current time limit, Mentos immediately rearranged the time according to Lan's opinions and the roughly sorted out clues.

At the same time, the biochemical intelligent computer also simultaneously guided Lan En forward in this complex and gloomy city.

And Lan's destination is also very clear.

—the alley where he had met Simon.

The alley where all the people in that alley died of gray blood disease.

The purpose of going there had nothing to do with Simon, it was just because this was the most recent gray blood disease death area that Lan had seen with his own eyes.

There were gray blood disease patients who died outside the research hall because they were not treated in time. Are they any different from the patients who were receiving so-called "treatment" in the research hall?
The witcher hurried along and soon arrived at the entrance of the alley.

"Oh!"

A beastly patient with a long saw in his hand and rough, tough black hair that had torn through his clothes flashed past the entrance of the alley.

It was kicked away.

The body left the ground and hit another wall outside the alley, making a dull thud and a scream.

"Whoa!"

The sound produced by the deformed vocal cords is muddy and hoarse, which makes people feel disgusted.

Judging from the body of the beast patient, which was skinny but had greatly improved toughness, there was a huge footprint-shaped depression directly on its side.

That was the mark left by Smaug's boots.

The beast patient, unable to control himself, wandered around and was kicked by Lan En and flew directly against the wall.

But before it hit the wall and bounced to the ground, a gauntlet that glowed bone-white in the moonlight clamped the saw blade in its hand with a sharp sound of metal rubbing against each other.

Then the gauntlet was raised casually, and the blade of the saw was placed on the black-haired neck of the beastman.

Then with a "swish" sound, along with the sound of flesh being torn and blood splattering, the beast patient's entire head was cut off by the saw in his own hand.

Everything happened very quickly. The beast patient's screams stopped abruptly, and the time between his head breaking off its neck and his body falling back to the ground was only a second.

Lan En casually withdrew his hand. The gauntlet made of dragon scales was not even stained with the smelly blood of the beast.

When he first came to Yharnam, he had to use close-range punches and kicks to fight the patient, who had now become a beastly disease patient with his entire body covered in black hair.

In front of him now, they were just enemies that he could easily crush as he passed by.

The beastman's foul blood left large splatter marks on the wall, but Lan En was not interested in looking at it.

His face turned pale at this moment, and the veins on his neck that appeared from the armor collar were a little black.

This is the body's reaction to the toxicity after the demon hunter takes the potion.

[Advanced Cat's Eye] allows Lan En to see more clearly and even sensitively under the already good moonlight conditions.

The sound of boots clanging made him walk towards the dark alley in a calm manner.

(End of this chapter)