The steward found the Lannister brothers in the hall, and by the time he brought them both to the training yard, the place was already packed with onlookers.
There were not many among them who had once belonged to the Night's Watch, yet every pair of eyes that had once belonged to Westermen now stared at the traitor—at the man who had once been Warden of the West and Lord of Casterly Rock.
It was also he who had led them to the state they found themselves in today.
These men stood in silence, watching the former Lord of Casterly Rock who was about to become, just like them, a man in a black cloak of the Night's Watch. Their gazes were nothing but complicated.
Tywin Lannister and his younger brother Kevan Lannister followed the steward in silence, passing through the crowd until they reached the center of the training yard.
The Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, Jeor Mormont, lowered his head to look at him.
Tywin Lannister lifted his own gaze toward the commander standing on the platform.
Neither man spoke. Amid the swirling snowflakes, the air seemed to freeze.
"Tywin Lannister, in a moment we will take you beyond the Wall—half a mile into the Haunted Forest."
"There, you will find an ancient grove of weirwoods left behind by the Children of the Forest. You will swear the oath of the Night's Watch beneath the heart tree."
After a brief silence, it was Jeor Mormont who spoke first.
When he heard these words, Tywin's face remained cold as he gave a faint, indifferent nod.
Ser Alliser Thorne, master-at-arms of the Night's Watch at Castle Black, now stood on the platform, sneering down at the Lannister brothers below, his expression full of mockery and derision.
Seeing Tywin Lannister remain silent, Lord Commander Jeor Mormont did not say anything further either.
He glanced toward Benjen Stark at his side and gave him a nod.
Immediately, the group descended the stairs beside the platform and made their way toward the gate beneath the Wall not far ahead. Benjen Stark and Qhorin Halfhand led the way, walking at the front of the column, calling out from time to time for the brothers of the Night's Watch ahead to open the gate.
Ser Alliser Thorne cast a contemptuous look at the two Lannister brothers before striding forward to follow.
Only Othell Yarwyck, First Builder of the Night's Watch, and Bowen Marsh, First Steward of the Night's Watch, stayed at Lord Commander Jeor Mormont's side.
And at this moment, Jeor Mormont deliberately stepped up beside Tywin.
Looking at this golden lion who had once dominated an entire region, Mormont let out a faint sigh in his heart.
"Once you swear and formally become a brother of the Night's Watch, I intend to make you my personal steward."
"I will not treat you as my servant, nor will I use this to humiliate you, and every administrative task within the Night's Watch must pass through a steward's hands."
"Tywin Lannister, I trust you understand what I mean."
Hearing these words, Tywin continued to look at him with an indifferent expression, but slowly shook his head.
"No. Thank you for your help, Lord Commander Mormont, but I do not believe I need it."
Tywin unexpectedly rejected Jeor Mormont's offer.
When Jeor Mormont heard Tywin Lannister's refusal, his eyes shifted, and confusion appeared on his face.
Just as he furrowed his brows, preparing to ask Tywin why he had refused, he suddenly noticed Tywin Lannister's hand emerge from beneath his black cloak.
And in that hand was a forearm-length dagger, its cold gleam biting.
The sharp dagger, as long as an arm, drove straight through the chest of Lord Commander Jeor Mormont without the slightest resistance.
Caught off guard by the sudden attack with no warning at all, Jeor Mormont's eyes widened, filled with disbelief.
He opened his mouth to speak, but the icy dagger driven into his chest had already drained all his strength, and the blood surging up his throat choked him completely.
Hot blood spilled from his mouth as Jeor Mormont could only lean against Tywin Lannister, who held him in his arms, slowly collapsing to the ground.
Facing Jeor Mormont, whose heart had been pierced and whose strength was gone, Tywin Lannister wrapped his arm around the Lord Commander's neck.
His tone finally carried a faint ripple as he leaned close to the Lord Commander's ear and said softly, "I am sorry, Lord Commander Mormont. This is not your fault."
With a thud, Jeor Mormont, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, fell wide-eyed into the swirling storm of snow.
Tywin Lannister smoothly pulled the dagger from Jeor Mormont's chest and calmly wiped the blood from its blade onto his sleeve.
His face remained cold and expressionless, as though he were merely performing some trivial task.
The crowd around them—none of whom had expected him to suddenly strike—did not realize what had just happened until they saw their Lord Commander lying in the snow, his warm blood staining the drifts red and slowly freezing.
[Clang! Clang! Clang!]
With a rapid chorus of drawn steel, a forest of blades leveled toward the man who had just murdered the Lord Commander—the former Lord of Casterly Rock.
Yet in the face of those sharp points, neither Tywin Lannister nor Kevan Lannister showed the slightest reaction.
It was as if none of those weapons mattered to them, even though they held no blades of their own.
"What have you done?!"
Seeing the Lord Commander die before his very eyes, Othell Yarwyck, First Builder of the Night's Watch, drew the longsword from his waist and barked a furious shout at the Lannister brothers.
As he shouted, he even raised his longsword and brought it down toward Tywin Lannister's head.
Only at that moment did Kevan Lannister, standing at his elder brother's side, swiftly draw a longsword from beside him and intercept Othell Yarwyck's strike in midair.
Then he lifted his foot and, with a single kick, sent the panicked and disorganized Othell Yarwyck sprawling onto the ground.
Not far away, Benjen Stark and the others, who had been calling for the Night's Watch brothers to prepare to open the gate, instinctively turned their heads at the sudden noise behind them—only to see a massacre unfolding right before their eyes.
Benjen's eyes widened, the whites quickly filling with veins of red.
But before he could take any further action, Kevan Lannister—who had just kicked Othell Yarwyck to the ground—raised his longsword and roared at the confused and helpless crowd around them: "What are you waiting for? Are you truly planning to spend the rest of your lives in this frozen wasteland?!"
Hearing Kevan Lannister's words, the soldiers who had originally belonged to the Westerlands—Lannister men—were momentarily stunned. Once they realized what Tywin Lannister had done, their nostrils flared with heavy, furious breaths.
And unsurprisingly, the moment Qhorin Halfhand and Benjen Stark drew their longswords, intending to cut Tywin Lannister down where he stood, those former Lannister soldiers—who had long harbored resentment and believed their lives were doomed to end in this frozen wilderness—reacted immediately.
In an instant, they attacked the few remaining original brothers of the Night's Watch around them, seizing weapons from their hands.
Some, quicker and sharper than the rest, immediately dashed off at full speed toward the armory.
Benjen Stark and the others who had drawn blades—caught in the sudden surge of bodies—could barely act. After cutting down two or three men with all their strength, they were overwhelmed and forced to the ground by the rush of Lannister soldiers piling on them.
Once they seized weapons, those who surged forward beat down the original brothers of the Night's Watch with their fists.
From Tywin Lannister's sudden assassination of Jeor Mormont, to Kevan Lannister's shout that jolted the others awake, only a few short minutes had passed—and the situation had already spiraled wildly into the unforeseeable.
By the time the armory was forced open by the swift-acting former Lannister troops and the weapons inside were distributed one by one—
At this moment, whether it was the remaining former Lannister troops—still standing there in a daze, not yet understanding what had happened—or the brothers of the Night's Watch, equally unable to accept that Castle Black had fallen just like that, all of them were forced to face one undeniable fact.
Castle Black was gone.
It had not been breached by enemies from beyond the Wall, but destroyed by their own people from within.
"Leave them alive. Do not kill them."
Seeing that the situation had been settled, Tywin looked around before finally giving his order.
The former Lord of Casterly Rock still carried the weight of his authority, and the chaos within Castle Black quickly calmed.
Even so, nearly several dozen people had died in this sudden riot.
And that was with most of them having no weapons.
But in a place like this cursed keep, an icicle beneath a roof or a stone by the roadside could serve as a weapon to kill.
As Jeor Mormont lay dead, the ground around the Lannister brothers naturally cleared, leaving an empty space around them.
Only after Tywin had slowly wiped the blood from his dagger did he hand it to his brother Kevan Lannister.
But immediately after, his gaze shifted toward the body of Jeor Mormont, lying at his feet.
More precisely—toward his waist.
There hung a longsword with a pommel carved in the shape of a bear's head.
Tywin Lannister bent down, lifted the longsword from the dead Lord Commander's belt, then straightened up again, his eyes solemn as he admired it.
Slowly, he drew it from its stiff leather scabbard.
It was a bastard sword. As a long-handled sword, it was longer than a shortsword but shorter than a greatsword.
The blade was straight, its edge razor-sharp.
The distinctive rippling pattern of Valyrian steel flowed across the entire length of the sword, darkening its surface like waves.
The sword bore the deep gray hue common to most Valyrian steel weapons. Two narrow fullers ran along either side, extending two-thirds of the blade's length, while the largest fuller filled the middle of the sword entirely.
"I remember its name is Longclaw," Tywin Lannister said, his tone sounding almost melodic as he admired the blade whose weight felt so light in his hand.
"It is said that it remained in House Mormont for about five hundred years. When Jorah Mormont fled to the Free Cities, he left Longclaw on Bear Island, and Lady Maege Mormont later returned it to Jeor Mormont."
Seeing his elder brother admiring the weapon, Kevan also looked at it and spoke.
Tywin nodded. After letting his gaze rest for a moment on the bear's-head pommel, he slid the longsword back into its scabbard.
Ever since the ancestral Lannister blade, Brightroar, was lost when King Tommen II ventured to Valyria, House Lannister had possessed no Valyrian steel weapon.
"I will find a blacksmith to reforge a new hilt for it."
After placing Longclaw back into its sheath, Tywin spoke slowly.
Hearing this, Kevan showed little concern. "And are you planning to give it a new name?"
Tywin fell silent and turned his head toward those who had ceased their violence upon receiving his order—toward the bound and beaten Benjen Stark and the others being dragged forward.
"Call it Black Lion—"
Tywin said casually, his gaze lingering on Benjen Stark, Qhorin Halfhand, and the others whose faces were swollen and smeared with blood.
Benjen Stark and Qhorin Halfhand had been fortunate. These former Lannister soldiers had no proper weapons, and since they outnumbered them, they had only beaten these so-called "brothers of the Night's Watch," without inflicting serious injury.
"Tywin Lannister, do you even know what you have done?!"
Benjen Stark's face was covered in blood. Once he was forced before Tywin, he stared at the corpse of Jeor Mormont lying on the ground—eyes wide open, still filled with disbelief.
He shouted at Tywin Lannister, grief and fury mixing in his voice.
"You do not need to remind me, Benjen Stark."
Tywin Lannister's voice was icy—colder than the winds of the Wall.
As he finished speaking, the snowfall seemed to thicken. Little by little, it was already beginning to cover the blood-stained patch of snow where Jeor Mormont lay.
"Although you are of House Stark, since you have joined the Night's Watch, I will not kill you."
"I will stay here for a time and gather my army anew."
"After I leave, you may elect a new Lord Commander of the Night's Watch."
"Do what you are meant to do. The Night's Watch should not involve itself in the affairs of the Seven Kingdoms."
After saying this, Tywin lost all interest in continuing the conversation and turned to leave.
But as he looked at Tywin's departing back, Benjen clenched his teeth.
"But out of your ambition you murdered the Lord Commander! You trampled the honor of the Night's Watch! You stained your hands with the blood of the Watch!"
"But I am not a man of the Night's Watch."
In the wind and snow, Tywin Lannister's voice drifted back.
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