Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1175 1157. Position

"It is a wise choice for you to come directly to me, child."

Madam Nenneke took Lan En around and talked as if she were walking in a garden.

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

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

Madam Nenneke stretched out her fat and wrinkled hands and picked two marigolds from the flowers. This kind of flower is often put into salads for consumption.

She ate one herself and handed the other to Lan En without looking back.

At the same time, she said to Lan En.

She looked like an old grandmother who stuffed snacks into the hands of her grandchildren and then naggled.

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

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

"That's the best, because that would save a lot of disappointment that could have been avoided." Nenneke continued.

"You can't judge a person's attitude by appearance alone. 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 savored the fragrance of marigolds in his mouth, as well as the subtle bitterness of plants.

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

"Hey, you are much more sensitive than Geralt." Nenneke looked at the young man with some surprise. "Tell the truth."

"Seaward 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 group can obtain a substantive fiefdom."

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

Institutions like the Knights generally have a higher combat power than ordinary soldiers, and many of them are young people with the right of inheritance of the nobility, so it is of course necessary to be careful and troublesome to manage them.

So it is normal to set up a special organization to manage this matter.

In Toussaint, the ‘country of knights and fine 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 wandering knights, they have set up a ‘Wandering Knights Guild’.

For example, the High Hill Castle that Foltest granted to the Knights of Embers actually went through the process of the Templar Council.

This process is normal, and it is normal to review it for less than ten years, but the performance of the Knights of Embers under Lan En on the battlefield of Sodden Mountain was really not enough to be described as ‘outstanding’.

It was simply terrifying!

So with the reputation of ‘breaking the battle of Sodden Mountain’, the approval time of that time is estimated to have set the fastest record since the founding of Temeria.

And the review sent by Duke Heward is the kind of process that normally takes less than ten years to push for progress.

"Siward was able to get the White Rose Knights to provide him with enthusiastic help because he promoted this review."

Nenneke smiled.

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

"You mean," Lan En carefully savored the information revealed by Nannieke, "the White Rose Knights are an important part of Siward's power?"

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

For example, as an outsider, he would never know the news about the composition of the organization under the local duke.

For the chief priest of Meliteli, who is also deeply rooted in the local area and even has a greater and wider influence than Siward, the duke, there is nothing wrong with these news.

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

Lan En followed behind Sister Nenneke's leisurely steps, speaking in a low voice.

Generally, for those who have not deeply understood an organization or group, they will naively believe that the will of the group or organization leader will affect the entire organization or group.

This view has some truth, but it is very narrow.

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

Just like the boss of a gang must be ruthless, because the organizational form of the gang requires them to be ruthless.

The purpose of the gang is to make money, so when the gang boss does not want to make money with his men. When he has made enough money and dislikes danger, so he wants to leave his things behind, retire, whitewash, and disband the organization, it is most likely that he will die.

Because at that time his will has already violated the will of the organization group.

The same is true for 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.

And what is the style of the Knights of the White Rose?

——In the beginning, even though Geralt was well entertained by Nannick, enjoyed the treatment of a guest, and enjoyed the protection of the Meritelli Temple, the knights who came to trouble him were the knights of the Knights of the White Rose.

Couldn't be more blatantly racist.

In order to win over this group of racists and maintain their loyalty, Hiward had to be a 'racist' whether he wanted to or not.

This is what is called ‘standpoint’ determining thinking.

"It seems that I did the right thing by not going to Seeward and going through the process of greeting the nobles and coming here directly."

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

Nannik raised his hand to straighten the blue veil covering his head: "There is no need for you to go there to find trouble, kid."

"You and that old dog Seeward are not the same people. I could tell at the first sight."

"Now you come here mainly because of the incident in the Pontal Valley. Other than that, you have no interaction with him and there is no need to know him."

"You can rest assured to stay here." The kind fat lady said in a tone that left no room for doubt, "This is my territory, the temple of Meritelli! Since the establishment of the temple, no one has dared to stay on my property. Go wild."

The old woman's words were firm and natural, as if they were taken for granted.

If a student of Oxenfurt University and the recently launched ‘eradicating superstition’ movement heard this, they would probably think that this was the fanatical belief in fictitious gods by ignorant and backward believers.

But for Lan En, he thought of some kind of "strangeness" that Nannick showed when he came out of the cave greenhouse just now. As the most prestigious temple of the Melitelli faith on the continent.

If someone really dares to cause trouble here after eating the bear's heart, Lan En estimates that this person's fate will be very "unoptimistic".

"Then we'll feel at ease." The demon hunter shrugged and changed the topic, "As for business, what is the situation in the Pontar Valley?"

Nannick pulled Lan En slightly, and the two of them lifted their feet to walk around a small mess on the ground.

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

But in the lush gardens of the temple, these things will soon disappear on their own, becoming the fertility of the soil.

Speaking of this inland water transport artery of the four northern countries, Nannick's usually calm expression also frowned slightly.

"How much did Foltest tell you?"

"Not much." Lan En answered her, "But just these are enough to make people feel bad."

"That's true." Nannick nodded in agreement with the young man's statement, "If Foltest hadn't had to deal with a sudden conflict with the Nilfgaard Empire on the border, he would have definitely come here in person. "

"I know everything Hiward knows about this matter."

Nannick said it matter-of-factly, without any pride at all.

"After all, when those who fled outside the city of Elland, the first thing they thought of was the Temple of Melitelli. Who else would be willing to rescue people who had walked in the mountains for ten days and a half without any time to rest? "

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

Nannick couldn't be described as sarcastic, he just smiled in a 'seen a lot' tone.

"Then what happened to these people?"

Lan En's tone began to change from a leisurely conversation to a cautious and focused one.

He began to enter the working state of a demon hunter.

Nennik has known Geralt for a long time and even takes care of him like a son. Of course, he is also very familiar with the working style of the witcher.

So there was nothing uncomfortable about it.

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

Nannik first explained to Lan the cause of the whole incident, or in other words: the cause of the incident being discovered.

"They live in the mountains working for the dwarves. Mahakam is a big mine, and the dwarves have not finished digging it for hundreds of years."

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

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

"Not only are they mining for the dwarves to make money, there are also a few hunters in the small villages of the mountain people who can get some meat in the mountains of Mahakam."