King of The Wall

2020-11-02

Chapter 13 Winterfell and Cries for Help

Winterfell is not a city, but a castle. The purpose of its existence is just like the Red Keep in King's Landing, it is only to provide shelter and protection for the lords, it does not undertake various urban functions, and there is no such creature as "citizens". According to legend, it was built by Brandon the Builder with the help of Giant. As a noble family castle, Winterfell can be regarded as imposing, but compared with another building built by the same person, The Wall, both in terms of size and majesty Not worth mentioning above.

Excluding the surrounding villages and the temporarily abandoned winter town of Summer, Winterfell is less than a hundred acres enclosed by high walls, and a small half of it is Godswood. In addition to the entourage, subordinates, servants and their families who serve House Stark, the residents who live in the wall have only one standing army with hundreds of them, which is the largest standing army in North except Night's Watch.

As a Ranger who has stood guard on The Wall and killed Others in the Haunted Forest, there's really not many things in this world that can fool Igor. When he first saw Winterfell, his inner thought was not shock or admiration, but a little surprise: the political center of the North, the home of so many important characters, is actually so small. No wonder you can get in a hurry when connecting to a king!

But after thinking about it, oneself subconsciously compares what he sees with The Wall, I am afraid that there is no building that can be called "big" in this world.

It was getting late, and full of thought, Igor followed Benjen through the Winterfell gate and entered.

"Welcome home, Lord Benjen." The guard who has followed House Stark for many years, of course, knew his lord's younger brother, and he graciously took the reins of the Chief Ranger's horse, "I'll have someone arrange for you right away. The residence and bath."

"No need, what about my brother?"

"My lord has just received the king, and now he is probably busy in the main castle... I don't know. ."

"The king has arrived?" Benjen frowned, "Damn, I've been two days ahead of schedule... Fortunately, I didn't miss the dinner party, go on with your business, I oneself to see him. "

"Yes, my lord."

The Winterfell is now full of people, and the once spacious school grounds are full of horses, vehicles, boxes, and busy servants. Robert Baratheon's northern tour brought hundreds of entourages and escorts, while the queen and princess brought more luggage... A large number of people could not be accommodated in Winterfell, and they had to be divided into towns outside the city to be properly Solved, people coming at the gate of the castle, people going are not very busy at the moment, Benjen took Igor familiar to shuttle between the high and low corridors of the castle, and soon came to the main castle as the residence of the members of the House Stark family... After saying hello Enter, but after a while, find Duke of Winterfell, who is hiding in the study.

"Benjen!" Eddard Stark was instructing the servants to arrange the hospitality. When he saw the young brother's face with an unrepentant smile, he stood up, waved the servants to leave, and walked to the brother after he gave it. The brother gave him a big hug: "How is it, Wall's life...is still that hard?"

"I'm used to it." Benjen patted his brother's arm and let go of the other party: "But recently Wall has Something happened to North, and I thought it was necessary to inform the North guard."

"Well, the wildling thing...I've heard from the letter. But you wouldn't know that I'm dealing with that guy Robert today. It took a lot of effort, that guy is as fat as a pig now." Duke of Winterfell complained to his brother with a wry smile, who had dark brown hair and a long face carved in the same mold as Benjen's, even with a smile on his face. The imposing manner of anger and self-righteousness is the first guy Igor saw after crossing over with a real ruler style: "Wait until today's welcome dinner is over before mentioning it?"

"No. , right now. What I'm about to talk to you about is more important than welcoming dinner parties, kings, queens, and everything else in the world." Benjen Stark shook his head gravely, turning back to Igor beckons with the hand standing by the door: "This is my ranger, he will tell you what happened."

Seeing the solemn expression of the younger brother, Ed put away his smile and turned his head to look towards Igor: "Hello... Friend, what's your name?"

It's only possible in North that a soldier can be treated so politely by a Duke's noble. Igor knows that the friendliness of the other party is mostly aimed at the black clothed worn by oneself: "Adults can call me Igor, I am not from Westeros, and I don't have a surname in the usual sense of Seven Kingdoms."

"Not from Westeros. ?" It was the first time Ed heard about the existence of a foreign Night's Watch, looked at Igor with a curious look, and looked towards Benjen with a questioning look.

"Igor is from some unheard of continent west of Westeros." Another Stark shrugged and introduced him: "He ran into the Others while out patrolling the wall with Waymar Royce and fled back. Wall alerted us."

"Others?"

...

Ed complexion sank, looking towards Igor again with suspicion in his eyes .

He doesn't believe the Others exist, and it seems to him that Waymar Royce's disappearance is most likely a wildling ambush. As the most important bannermen of oneself's adoptive father and brother-in-law Jon Arryn, the missing father Yohn Royce was a guest at Winterfell on the way to send his son north to join the Black Shirt Army. All his actions and words revealed that he hoped that oneself, the Lord of the North, would give his son a lot. The meaning of taking care... Although the disappearance of a Night's Watch Ranger can't be blamed on oneself, the Duke of Winterfell, it still brings discomfort to Ed. He always has a feeling of "can't explain to the child father" illusion.

"Wait a minute, if I'm not mistaken, you're one of the three rangers that Waymar Royce took out of the wall, if the Others killed your commander, why let you and The other person is back?" Ed's attitude soon changed and became overbearing: "According to the rules and regulations of Night's Watch, what should we do with deserters?"

"It's not that the Others let us back, but we Escaped after suffering untold hardships." Igor tried hard to ignore the terrifying rays of light in the North Guardian's eyes, realizing that even a little bit of timidity at the moment could have bad consequences. "Furthermore, when approaching Wall, another Ranger and I were Together, they killed a pursued Others."

"Where's the body?"

"Others evaporated after death, leaving no remains," explained Igor. Knowing that this is like a sophistry, he quickly added without waiting for the other party to answer: "But I have other evidence."

"oh?" Chai let out a light breath from his nostrils, turned around and walked to the desk where oneself handles government affairs, and sat down in the chair on the other side: "Take it out and show it to me."

......

Benjen stood aside and said nothing, while Igor picked up his bag as quickly as he had rehearsed and put it on the chair opposite Eddard Stark and started his performance.

He brought all the Broken Swords and obsidian daggers to Winterfell, three Broken Swords each in three sturdy stab-proof leather pouches. Igor took them out one by one, put them on the table and put them together one after another... Waymar Royce's sword was so shattered that it took Igor a little time to put it together. Although Winterfell's master frowned, he still patiently waited for him to put it together. After everything was done, he asked: "Three Broken Swords, and a black dagger, what does this mean?"

"Three Broken Swords, from three men who had fought against Others head-on. Among them, Waymar Royce fought valiantly to the death; Gary was seriously injured and still recovering slowly in Castle Black, and I was the only one who was lucky enough to still be alive." Igor spoke steadily and familiarly as he introduced the first lord of the north. Take the evidence on the table: "And this little black thing is the obsidian dagger that ultimately killed Others."

"So, the three who fought 'Others', all swords Broken?" Ed cups one fist in the other hand with his chin up, he understands oneself younger brother, Benjen is not a fool, if the Night's Watch in front of him is just a simple deserter, he will never bring it to him I came in front of oneself, so I decided to listen to the other party's explanation: "But how do I know that these swords were not broken by you?"

"Please look at the broken holes of these swords." Igor used Fingers for Duke Stark to observe: "Can you find that the damage to these three swords is a little different from normal?"

"I've never seen a sword break like this, how can I do it? What?" It took Eddard Stark a while to figure out the problem, he experienced, of course Broken Sword had seen quite a few, but never seen a weapon break. He picked up a small piece of Waymar's broken sword from the table in confusion, put it in his hand to observe it for a moment, and knocked it, he finally determined that it was real steel.

"Frozen." Igor spit out a catchy word: "To be more specific, I think Ice Magic on Others' weapons made the steel swords shatter. The weapons they used looked like It looks like Ice is condensed, but Night's Watch's standard steel swords are all broken in a single blow."

Then, Igor used the same set he had used against Commander Mormont and Maester Aemon before. After the speech has been perfected, it is repeated. This time, he had enough rest and good food and drink, and his physical and mental strength had recovered. Whether it was the plainness and intelligibility of the narrative content, or the moderate and persuasive tone of the speech, it was far superior to the previous time.

After explaining the reason for the broken steel sword, he briefly modified the process of escaping from Others battallion and counter-killing the pursuer by chance and informed the other party. Eddard Stark listened patiently throughout the whole process, until Night's Watch finished all the prepared speeches, then put down his chin-supporting hand and looked thoughtful at his brother who was standing beside him.

＊＊＊

Benjen Stark looked at Ed, knowing that the big brother still didn't believe in the existence of Others. To tell the truth, you can't conscientiously say that oneself has seen it with his own eyes.

“Shadow Tower also submitted reports of suspected Others sightings, Castle Black and Eastwatch Rangers both claimed to have found a huge number of wildlings migrating in groups, and many villages were vacant, which looked like they were in Dodging something..." The Chief Ranger made a last-ditch effort: "There is a series of signs that the Wall defenders are facing unprecedented challenges, and what the Night's Watch Legion looks like now, I won't say you know, we Help is needed now."

"I will inform the following, and you can go to the prison to pick someone..."

"Night's Watch needs supplies and troops now, not a few Scum or recruits!" Benjen blunt interrupted the big brother, "Having a bunch of criminals with only basic training to defend the Seven Kingdoms? It's just barely supporting the situation, let alone the current critical situation. This time I specially brought People come here, not just to do the same thing as Wandering Crow!"

The room fell silent, and Ed Duke, who was robbed by the meal, sat quietly, playing with the obsidian dagger handed in by Igor, while He bowed his head in thought.

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(end of this chapter)