Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1091 1073. Reputation

 “Hurry, hurry, hurry! Hurry up! Time waits for no one!”

Thorin was at the bow of the ship, holding the scabbard Orcrest all the way to push away the wreckage of the ship or the floating corpses of orcs and humans blocking the waterway, clearing the way for the ship.

 Lan En was walking on the footpath beside the waterway.

His movements are extremely fast, even walking can keep up with the speed of the dwarves rowing.

Occasionally, sporadic orcs would rush out of the alleys beside the town's trails, but basically they would die in Lan En's hands as soon as they met, just like pulling off a blade of grass during a walk.

The flannel ball shuttled lightly on the roof on the other side of the waterway. It cleared away the orc archers who wanted to occupy the shooting angle on the roof.

"To the right."

Lan En guided the dwarves and steered the ship into the correct waterway. While squatting, he jumped up and passed directly over the heads of the dwarves. By the way, he crossed the entire waterway and continued to lead the way to the right.

 Lan chose the shortest route, and the dwarves' ship went all the way to the end of the waterway.

Further ahead is the stone brick wall of Changhu Town. Only a water-dungeon-like iron fence is cut out on the lower edge of the wall to act as a sluice to block ice floes.

　　This will definitely not make it across the ship.

But the dwarves are not in a hurry. After several cooperation and exchanges, they have always had a reliable impression of Lan En.

So at this time, a group of bearded dwarves just stopped their oars and turned to look at the witcher eagerly.

The witcher did indeed live up to the expectations of the dwarves.

 He put his fingers into his mouth and whistled loudly.

Immediately afterwards, an echoing neighing sound came from outside the wall blocking the waterway.

There was a muffled sound of "bang", mixed with the sound of stone bricks being hit by a battering ram.

The wall was originally tightly connected, but now the adhesive between the bricks has broken apart, spraying out flying dust.

 “Go back! Go back!”

Thorin was startled and quickly made the two boats pull back.

 There was another blow from outside the wall, and this time it directly broke the wall.

The bricks, either intact or broken, flew apart, and the sluice gate on the wall was naturally blown away as well.

 “Well done.”

The dwarves shouted loudly, jumped off the boat at the same time, and began to clear the debris of the stone wall to make it easier for the boat to pass.

The unicorn stretched out its head curiously from the gap. The dwarves standing on the wreckage cleaning the bricks happily wanted to jump up and touch its head, but the unicorn was too tall and the dwarves could not touch it even if they jumped up.

After discovering that Qilin stretched its head, lowering and then raising it quickly like fishing, just because it thought it was fun to tease the dwarves, the dwarves all smiled and started working without paying attention to it.

Thorin, Balin and Bilbo did not go down to clean up the wreckage because they each controlled a ship to prevent it from drifting. But they also showed uncontrollable happiness at being one step closer to the lonely mountain.

 Because that is the end and goal of the journey.

 Taking advantage of this moment, Lan En looked at the town behind him to prevent the orcs from suddenly coming to attack, and at the same time, he spoke to Thorin on the boat without turning his head.

"After leaving the town, you have to walk non-stop to the Lonely Mountain. This group of orcs is accompanied by wargs, but there won't be too many of them. Kirin has already killed more than a dozen of them outside."

"But if they are determined to still hunt you down, it will not be easy to deal with."

Thorin just stared at the lake behind the gap in the wall and the tall snow-capped mountains beyond the lake, and nodded.

Bahrain, who looked like a short version of Santa Claus, looked at Lan En who was standing on the sidewalk.

“Just say what you have to say, Lan. This journey is getting closer and closer to the end, and there is nothing more that can’t be said.”

The witcher nodded silently, then turned his face and looked at Thorin, Balin, and the bewildered Bilbo on the two boats.

“I want to make sure, Thorin, that you will follow the plan Gandalf told you in Rivendell, right?”

Thorin reluctantly turned his gaze from the gap in the wall ahead.

"Don't wake up the evil dragon, don't be greedy for gold, just take the Arken gem, and then assemble the army to defeat the evil dragon. Yes, I will do that. But I also want to reiterate my point, Lan Enna is a beast after all. Evil dragon."

“It is an evil war machine created by Morgoth in ancient times. In front of that kind of thing, we only have nine dwarves and one hobbit. I dare not say that I have a complete plan and response.”

Thorin stood up unsteadily from the ship and looked at Lann seriously.

"But I still have to do it. The key to the Turin dwarves' return to strength lies in this prophesied adventure, and I must not lose this opportunity!"

“Even if this means that Changhu Town may be threatened by an evil dragon?”

"What is there in this world without threats and risks? Orcs are raging, trolls are coming down from the mountains to plunder the mainland, and a village may be eaten up by wargs overnight!"

Facing Lan En’s expressionless questioning, Thorin was equally determined. "The townspeople of Long Lake Town have agreed to take this risk before. I confronted Bard in front of the crowd, and I promised them that I would share the treasure in the Lonely Mountain, and they completely agreed!"

“You think they don’t know the risks of consent? No one knows better than those who live in this area, Lan.”

“But they also know that as long as the treasure in the Lonely Mountain reappears, the gold I share with them will be enough to rebuild Changhu Town more than ten times! It can even rebuild River Valley City!”

“The threat of Smaug has always been hanging around the Lonely Mountain, hoping that it will sleep for decades and then pretend it doesn’t exist? Can you believe this?”

“As long as the threat of the dragon is still there, the Gushan area will never have a chance to return to prosperity! All other ideas are stupid deception and self-deception!”

There were two "bang bang" sounds. It was Balin who was sitting on the bow of the boat at the back. He took the oar and knocked the stern of the boat in front of Thorin to tell him to stop talking.

Thorin respected Balin, so he sat down with his lips pursed. The old dwarf himself stood up on the rickety boat.

 “People’s minds change, Lan En.”

The old dwarf's first sentence was concise and to the point.

"I am an old man. I have seen the prosperity of the area around Gushan at that time. At that time, relying on Gushan's funds and dwarf technology, the prosperity of this area was simply heaven and earth compared to today."

“Look at this town, Lane. It smells like rancid fish oil and the damp, sullen musty smell of canvas. This town doesn’t look like that.”

“The people living here have long had enough of huddled on a huge rock on the lake. There used to be a prosperous civilization here!”

"Why is Bud supported by the townspeople? Because he represents forge ahead and represents change! Now the townspeople just want a change! Everyone is fed up with the miserable life in a remote village!"

“You should have seen what happened when Bard confronted Thorin, almost all the townspeople thought.”

Bahrain looked at Lan En seriously.

"The most miserable and unacceptable days are the poor days."

“That’s because they haven’t seen real cruelty yet, or the days of cruelty are too far away from them.”

Lan En said calmly, a house lost its load-bearing structure due to the burning of the flames, and collapsed behind him.

  Stirring up a cloud of ashes still carrying sparks.

“They mistakenly thought that those poor but peaceful days were not worth mentioning, so they desperately wanted to escape. But I thought that after tonight, their minds might change.”

Bahrain shook his head indifferently: "People's thoughts will change at any time, and they can't change the ordinary day and night. But our determination to regain our homeland will not change, Lan En."

"At this point, we want to take back our hometown. Isn't it natural? We promise to compensate Changhu Town and the people who may be affected in the process of taking back our hometown. A huge compensation that they fully accept. ”

"If we wake up Smaug, we will definitely die first. And if they are still alive by then, the treasure in the Lonely Mountain will be available for anyone to take, and we can make a promise."

 “Thorin, say something.”

Balin shouted forward, and the dwarf prince also stood up and nodded to Lan En.

“In the name of the King under the Mountain, if we die, Lonely Mountain cannot be recaptured. Then the wealth in Lonely Mountain will belong to the survivors, and they will be able to use the money to build the most prosperous city in the world.”

Lan En was silent as the surrounding wooden buildings crackled in the flames and made a squeaking sound.

The dwarves who had finished cleaning the waterway were standing on both sides, watching Thorin and Lan in silence.

 What both of them said made sense, and the dwarves were not unreasonable people. They also feel guilty for the people affected by their actions.

 But in terms of their stance, they must be determined to regain their homeland with death.

 After all, they are all descendants of the Turin dwarves.

The atmosphere was silent for a moment until another voice appeared.

"that."

 Bilbo Baggins, the hobbit sitting behind Balin.

 He probed his head, raised his hand tentatively, and carefully turned his eyes around to look at everyone present.

 Like a timid rabbit.

 But if he was really timid, he would not be able to speak at this time.

 Still saying this

"I guarantee it on my own behalf! Thorin Oakenshield's promises are never false, and he always keeps his word."

 There were nine dwarves present, but perhaps because they were all dwarves, it was difficult to express their stance to Lan En and gain his trust.

 The final result was that a hobbit stood up and testified for Thorin with his own honor.

Thorin and the dwarves suddenly turned their heads and focused their eyes on the short and weak hobbit, causing Bilbo to laugh uncomfortably and twist his body.

Thorin pursed his lips, looked at Bilbo deeply, and said nothing more, just nodded heavily, and then sat down.