Bear School Astartes Chapter 301. Trust

Chapter 301: 301. Trust

"What’s going on with you?"

Seeing that he wasn’t the only one having bad luck, the old veteran was also experiencing misfortune, Lann felt a lot better suddenly.

Geralt was montarily blinded by the silver-haired smile, he had already dug a rather deep hole, and in that brief distraction, the shovel missed the dirt and hit the void, causing him to stumble and nearly fall in.

Fortunately, he reacted quickly, sticking the empty shovel into the ground beside him to steady himself.

"For the sake of the plague..."

He instinctively cursed a bit before turning his head.

"When I got here, the villagers were troubled by the water ghosts in the lake. They ca smiling, seeking help, and even offered a bounty, so I agreed."

"But it wasn’t just water ghosts! It was a swamp witch with four or five even more ferocious drowning ghosts!"

Lann wasn’t particularly surprised upon hearing this, as it was rather common.

"And then? You can’t expect farrs to know the difference between monster species like a demon hunter. To them, any creature living in water and harming humans is a ’water ghost’."

Geralt adjusted his grip on the shovel, continuing to dig with great effort while using his distinctly calm tone to retort.

It’s quite codic when retorts co from soone whose voice is so calm it barely fluctuates, even if what he said wasn’t particularly funny.

"What else could I do? I killed the swamp witch and the drowning ghosts, then brought back the heads for paynt. But... you know what those farrs say when they want to dodge paynt, right?"

"Let

think..." Lann casually rattled off a string of typical excuses, "Kind sir, have rcy, my child is eating acorn flour to stave off hunger, we really don’t have money, blah blah."

Geralt nodded.

"That’s right, but you put it too generally. The village elder explained it in more detail: The king wants to push the Brokilon boundary inward a bit for more timber and minerals. For this, there’s now a war tax in the nearby area, along with conscription. If the village doesn’t want to provide labor, they must pay instead. In just a few months, taxes have been levied multiple tis. They’re barely able to eat now; even though they live by the lake, there’s not even a smoked fish on the table..."

"Tsk tsk." The young demon hunter with the Valerian steel formula, who never expected to worry about money again, clicked his tongue lightly.

"Seems like your professional expression isn’t working very well."

The White Wolf sighed, "In the end, I only received ten Oren coins, originally it was supposed to be twenty. But even those ten, they tried to fake it! They mixed Silver Coins and stones in the money pouch!"

"That’s why I’m digging here to get the paynt that belongs to ."

Lann looked around and understood the situation.

This village has only a little over twenty households; in the Northern Countries, such villages are commonplace. People pool money to purchase and repair farming tools, buy seeds and livestock, and conduct business.

Using numbers and collective strength to resist natural disasters and human misfortunes is the survival thod spontaneously ford by villagers.

And in such villages, the collective assets are usually stored in a hidden place.

For demon hunters, the commoner’s hiding is not considered hiding.

"Although it’s a bit rude, I’ll still confirm... you would only take what you deserve, right?"

Lann walked next to the hole Geralt was digging, where a hoe was placed for loosening the soil.

The old Wolf demon hunter rolled his eyes at the Bear cub: "What do you take

for? I’m a demon hunter who works for pay, not a shaless robber."

So Lann shrugged his shoulders, picked up the hoe, and started digging with him.

After digging about two feet more downward, they finally unearthed a small jewelry box-like chest.

Lann leaned on the hoe and stood aside, while Geralt whistled, feeling assured that his efforts were finally about to pay off.

But when he rubbed his hands and opened the box, his already expressionless face froze.

Seeing this, Lann curiously leaned over, and after glancing inside, the amused expression vanished from his face.

"Just this, not even a single Oren coin?... Are you sure you didn’t get it wrong?"

Geralt shook his head, "I didn’t get it wrong... This is their last remaining asset. I even snuck into the elder’s house and rummaged around."

Lann was silent for a mont, then sighed.

"So, those villagers weren’t lying to you."

Geralt pursed his lips, "I thought they had money they didn’t want to spare, seeing they still had dogs and chickens in the village. But now it seems... they will have to eat their livestock and poultry soon."

With a "thud