The feeling of looking at the ruins of Old Tengshi Town from a distance and up close was completely different. Only by truly standing before these ruins could one truly understand why the Green and Black factions fought over this place during the Blood Dragon Dance.
Linde's Highgarden warhorse, mounted beneath him, refused to go any further once they reached the town's outskirts. Clearly, its animal instincts sensed that the atmosphere within the ruins was off. Glory, however, became exceptionally excited, jumping back and forth, unwilling to settle down.
Linde had no choice but to tie his horse to a small tree outside the ruins and walk towards the ruined castle at the top of the hill.
The moment they entered the town, Glory couldn't help but begin devouring the resentful spirit energy freely roaming the area. What it couldn't swallow, it channeled into Linde's body.
Having experienced it once before, Linde was able to handle it well, though his face still uncontrollably turned very pale.
Linde walked quickly, and before long, he had already reached the outside of the castle ruins. At this point, he saw a very faint flicker of firelight inside the castle ruins, which he hadn't noticed earlier because the walls had blocked his view.
"Who's there?" The person who had lit the fire inside the castle had clearly heard Linde's footsteps and asked.
"A woman?" It was a woman's voice. Linde couldn't help but be stunned after hearing it. A woman appearing alone in the deserted ruins late at night was clearly unreasonable, so he pulled up the hood of his cloak, covering his face, which had turned pale from the resentful spirit energy, and said, "A traveler who has come to admire the Blood Dragon Dance ruins."
Hearing Linde's self-introduction, the woman in the castle ruins was silent for a moment, then, like a host, said, "Come in! This is just a ruin, nothing worth seeing."
Upon hearing this, Linde waved his hand at Glory, signaling it to stay outside, and then walked in alone.
The moment he entered the castle ruins, what first caught Linde's attention was not the ruins themselves, but the woman standing within them.
"So tall! So strong!" The first time Linde saw the woman, he couldn't help but exclaim in his heart.
It was no exaggeration to say that the woman was at least two meters thirty or forty centimeters tall. Linde, with his height, would be a head shorter than her. He suspected that there was giant blood in her body, as giants truly existed in the world of Ice and Fire.
Through the faint firelight, Linde saw the tall woman's face. While not beautiful, it was passable. Beneath her golden hair were a pair of bright, large eyes. Her high-bridged nose was somewhat crooked, appearing to have been injured and not healed properly. She had some small freckles on her face, but they weren't unsightly. Additionally, her facial features were somewhat sharp, giving her a more masculine and heroic look.
For some reason, the first time Linde saw this woman, he felt that she looked somewhat familiar. After quickly recalling, he realized what caused his sense of familiarity.
The woman in front of him, in both stature and appearance, was very similar to the female Nord warrior who single-handedly defeated a werewolf in the promotional animation of the game Elder Scrolls Online, which he had played in his previous life. The only difference was that this woman was only wearing ordinary peasant clothes, while that female warrior was clad in armor and wielding a great axe.
However, even without armor or a weapon, this woman still possessed an extremely strong deterrent. No wonder she dared to come to these supposedly haunted ruins alone at night, completely unafraid of a strange man's arrival.
While Linde was observing the woman, she was also sizing Linde up and down, and in the woman's eyes, Linde was also very strange.
His strangeness was not because he deliberately wore a cloak hood in such a dark environment, nor was it that his exquisite leather armor and war boots were completely unlike a traveler's attire. What truly made the woman feel strange was that Linde was equipped with four swords. In addition to the two swords at his waist, he also carried two swords on his back.
The woman was also proficient in various weapons. She easily discerned from the hilt and other details that the two swords on his back were hand-and-a-half swords. What truly caught her attention were the two Knight's Greatswords at his waist.
While she could wield both of those Knight's Greatswords with her strength, she could certainly not do so with ease.
However, this stranger, who claimed to be a traveler, seemed to follow a dual-wielding path, as it was not difficult to tell from the position of the two Knight's Greatswords at his waist that he used two swords. She truly could not imagine what it would be like to fight with a Knight's Greatsword in each hand.
"Crazy!" This was the first assessment the woman had of Linde in such attire.
"Or a fool!" The second assessment followed closely.
"You are not a traveler." The woman spoke very directly, picking up the woodcutting axe she had placed aside, and looked at Linde, saying.
"You are not a farmer either." Linde had already vaguely guessed who this woman was, so he bowed slightly to her and said, "Countess Na Melilia Fudeli."
The woman was not surprised that Linde recognized her. After all, her stature and physique were so prominent that it would be difficult for anyone who had heard of her reputation to mistake her.
"Who are you?" Na Melilia asked in a deep voice.
Linde did not hide his identity and said, "Linde of White Village, but now I have a name, Linde Terra."
"Linde of White Village?" Na Melilia was stunned, as if she had thought of something, and said, "Bear Hunter Linde?"
Clearly, the hunter of bears song must have already spread here.
"That is I," Linde bowed slightly, admitting.
Na Melilia tightened her grip on the axe handle again and said in a deep voice, "Are you here to kill me?"
Linde was stunned, very surprised by this question, and retorted, "Why would Earl you think I am here to kill you?"
Na Melilia seemed to sense that Linde had no ill intent, relaxed a little, and said with a hint of teasing in her tone, "Perhaps it's because I am the bastard daughter of Prince Lewyn, a martyr of the Targaryen Dynasty, or perhaps it's because I occupy a good place that makes people envious."
Linde smiled and said, "The bastard daughter of Prince Lewyn is just a rumor, and even if you are Prince Lewyn's bastard daughter, King Robert would not take his anger out on you for a dead person. You should know that he can even tolerate Barristan the Bold, so how could he not tolerate you? As for occupying a good place and making people envious, that is possible."
"You seem to know something?" Na Melilia was very clever and heard some hidden information in Linde's words.
"A little," Linde admitted.
Na Melilia looked at Linde and said in a deep voice, "I've heard your hunter of bears song. You're not quite like what the song describes."
"People change," Linde explained. "I think the hunter of bears song you heard, Earl, should be the old version. A lot has happened since the events described in that song, for example, I am now a Knight."
"A Knight?" Na Melilia also showed surprise on her face. Although she was destined to be an Earl from birth, she was also very aware of how difficult it was for an ordinary person to become a Knight, so she couldn't help but ask curiously, "Can you tell me about it?"
"Of course," Linde didn't intend to stand while talking. Instead, he found a suitable large stone to sit on, and then, with some omissions, told Na Melilia about how he became Fortimo Klenne's Knight's squire at Joel Flower's recommendation, and then went with the House Tyrell contingent to King's Landing to participate in the martial arts tournament, and some things that happened during the martial arts tournament.
"You beat up the King, and then the King knighted you and invited you to join the Kingsguard?" Na Melilia's face was filled with disbelief when she heard that King Robert had knighted him.
Linde smiled and said, "Our King Robert is not a qualified King, nor is he a qualified noble, but he is a good warrior."
Na Melilia didn't seem to agree with Linde's words, but she didn't refute them. She then asked Linde, "So what are you doing in my backwater now? Don't tell me you're really here to see these ruins."
Linde did not hide it and frankly admitted, "I came here this time mainly on Duke Tyrell's orders to clear out the bandits in this area, and Tengshi Town's location is very suitable as a central stronghold."
"Bandit suppression? Did you bring an army?" Na Melilia hesitated for a moment and asked.
Linde honestly said, "My cavalry unit is currently stationed in the dense forest not far from here. There are two hundred official combat personnel, all cavalry, and dozens more in the logistics team."
"You want your people to be stationed here with me?" Na Melilia frowned, confirming.
"That is indeed the idea, of course, that still depends on whether you are willing, Countess," Linde said, seeing Na Melilia's thoughtful expression, adding, "However, before that, I think there are other things to do."
"What do you mean by that?" Na Melilia clearly misunderstood Linde's words and tightened her grip on the axe again.
Linde calmly said, "On the way here, I wiped out a group of bandits called the Bloodshoe Brotherhood. I think you should know their origin, Countess?"
Na Melilia was stunned and said, "The Bloodshoe Brotherhood? Aren't they the bandit group from the Golden Road?"
Linde nodded and said, "Yes, but Duke Tywin recently sent troops to clear them out, and their remnants fled to the area east of the Mander River, which is within your territory."
"In that case, I should thank you," Na Melilia raised an eyebrow and said.
Although the actual territory controlled by Na Melilia was only the small village of Tengshi Town, the land she nominally controlled was very large. Large areas of land on both sides of the Mander River, extending to the Rose Road and the Golden Road, were nominally Fudeli Family lands.
However, these lands had begun to break away from the Fudeli Family's control since the Blood Dragon Dance, so much so that Na Melilia now completely disregarded these lands as her own territory and felt no particular gratitude towards Linde for clearing out the bandits entrenched there.
"No, that's not the point," Linde emphasized, saying, "Later, I obtained some more intelligence. The intelligence mentioned that more than a dozen bandit groups are currently forming a bandit alliance under the organization of a bandit group called the Poison Scorpion Society, and their target is to plunder Tengshi Town."
Na Melilia said with a surprised look, "Plunder Tengshi Town? Are they all crazy? Are they coming here to steal stones?"
While surprised, Na Melilia also felt a hint of doubt. The bandits in this area knew very well how poor Tengshi Town was, so they would generally not waste manpower and resources to steal things here. The Poison Scorpion Society was also a bandit group entrenched in this land, so they should logically know the actual situation of Tengshi Town and should not have made such a decision.
Linde continued, "The dozen or so bandit groups gathered by the Poison Scorpion Society are all bandit gangs from near the Golden Road, and they are all targets of Duke Tywin's current clear-out."
Na Melilia was very clever and quickly realized what Linde wanted to say, confirming, "You mean Duke Tywin wants to use these bandit groups to…"
Na Melilia did not continue speaking. She knew very well that some things should not be said too clearly.
She was silent for a moment, picked up her axe, and walked out of the castle ruins, telling Linde, "Come with me."
Linde did not refuse either. He stood up and followed Na Melilia out of the castle ruins.
After walking for a while, Na Melilia suddenly stopped, raised her axe, and stared at the shadow of a nearby ruined wall, while also warning, "Be careful, over there…"
"Don't be nervous, Countess. That's my companion." Linde stepped forward, stopping Na Melilia's attack. He then saw Glory emerge from the shadows, come to Linde's side, rub against Linde, and then curiously look at Na Melilia.
Glory's reaction also surprised Linde, as this was the first time Glory had not bared its teeth at anyone other than him. Even Raul, who fed it daily, would elicit a display of fangs and an attacking posture when he approached.
"Is this a Shadow Lynx?" Na Melilia was stunned and confirmed.
"Yes," Linde nodded.
"Are you a Shapeshifter?" Na Melilia couldn't help but ask curiously.
"No," Linde shook his head.
Perhaps feeling that further probing might touch upon Linde's secrets, Na Melilia did not continue to ask. After glancing at the Shadow Lynx again, she continued walking down the hill.
They quickly walked down the hill and entered Tengshi Town.
Although it was just a town the size of a village, there was still a tavern here, and the sounds coming from it indicated that many people had gathered there.
Na Melilia walked directly to the outside of the tavern, motioned for Linde to tie his horse at the entrance, and then led Linde into the tavern.
Just as Linde had guessed, the tavern was full of people, but what surprised him was that the people in the tavern were not farmers from Tengshi Town, but a group of Dornishmen wearing armor and carrying weapons. Some of these Dornishmen even looked familiar; Linde seemed to have seen them at the martial arts tournament, as they were House Martell warriors sent from Dorne to participate in the martial arts tournament.
Among this group of Dornishmen, there was one person who was extremely special: short black hair, well-defined features, a face somewhat similar to Na Melilia's, but his gaze was colder, and combined with his languid expression, he felt like a coiled, seemingly harmless, but in fact deadly, viper.
"Red Viper." Seeing this Dornishman with a special temperament, a name surfaced in Linde's mind.
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