Lynd becoming the captain of the cavalry squad caused a small stir within House Tyrell's camp. Those who had stayed in King's Landing with Mace Tyrell a year ago were one thing, but almost everyone who had come from Highgarden to King's Landing this time was somewhat surprised by Lynd's promotion.
Not long ago, Lynd had been demoted from a knight's squire to a scout, and now, in just over half a month, Lynd had once again become Vortimer Crane's knight's squire, and had even obtained the real power of a cavalry captain, which was truly incredible.
However, those who had witnessed Lynd's strength also knew very well that it was only a matter of time before Lynd became Lord Fortimo's knight's squire again. Even though the process was a bit fast, the outcome did not exceed everyone's expectations too much.
But compared to caring about Lynd becoming the cavalry captain, they were more concerned about the news of Lynd forming a cavalry squad.
Although they were both soldiers, the difference between cavalry and infantry was like the difference between commoners and nobles. Compared to infantry, who even had to prepare their own weapons, cavalry would be supplied with horses, armor, and weapons by House Tyrell, not to mention their pay and benefits.
So when the news of Lynd forming a cavalry squad spread, many people voluntarily came to Lynd, hoping to join the cavalry squad.
Facing this situation, Lynd did not play any games. He directly selected ten people from the guard warriors, exercising the right to choose that Fortimo had given him in just a few minutes, without giving any opportunity for bribery.
Many people secretly called Lynd foolish for not taking advantage of such a good money-making opportunity, and some of those who were not selected questioned the qualifications of the people he chose. This was because all the people he selected were those who had gone hunting with him in Kingswood a while ago. All of them were hunters by origin, with excellent archery skills, but the problem was that none of them could ride horses, so they had no basic qualifications to be cavalrymen.
This led many people to believe that Lynd made such a wrong choice because he lacked experience. Some people even waited to see Lynd's downfall, as Lynd had been too prominent lately, which had caused dissatisfaction among some. Garlan and others, however, did not care about this matter at all. Perhaps, in their view, even if Lynd's cavalry squad had problems, it was nothing, and could just be considered a normal expense for training Lynd.
As for Lynd himself, he had no intention of explaining either. After selecting the candidates, he led them to collect equipment and horses that very day, and began training in horsemanship in a relatively secluded open space far from Lion Gate.
After training, he would pay out of his own pocket to take his subordinates to the taverns in the Dung Gate dock area for drinks. In just a few days, his relationship with his subordinates had improved significantly.
With the arrival of Tywin Lannister, Prince Joffrey's banquet was held on time. Garlan, Vortimer, and others had already gone to House Rose's temporary residence in the city early to attend the Red Keep banquet with Lord Mace Tyrell.
Because there were no restraints above them, the people in the camp also relaxed a lot, and many even ran to the Tournament grounds to watch the excitement.
Although the official Tournament was to be held tomorrow, the Tournament grounds had already gathered many free knights from various places. Most of them had no fame, no property, and could not be hired by nobles. They could only find a suitable master for themselves by participating in the Tournament to gain fame.
All things considered, Lynd was already doing well. He was able to successfully become Fortimo's knight's squire and gained the attention of Garlan Tyrell, joining House Tyrell. If nothing unexpected happened, he would certainly become a knight of House Tyrell in the future, and if he then achieved military merits, becoming a landed knight would not be a problem.
However, among the knights participating in this Tournament, there were not only those who came for a chance at fame, but also some knights who came entirely for the generous prize money of the Tournament.
It should be known that in Tournaments held elsewhere, a prize of ten thousand gold dragons was already very good, but Robert Baratheon was extremely martial and loved Tournaments. In the year he ascended the throne, he held three Tournaments: one was when he first ascended, another was his wedding to Cersei, Lord Tywin's daughter, and the third was when Cersei was pregnant. The champion's prize money for each of these three Tournaments was as high as twenty thousand, and other participants, such as the runner-up and third-place winner, also received substantial prize money.
This Tournament celebrating House Baratheon having an heir had already begun to be promoted several months ago, and the announced champion's prize money reached an astonishing figure of fifty thousand gold dragons. Such a huge prize money, let alone Westeros, even knights from Essos rushed to King's Landing impatiently.
Someone estimated that more than a thousand knights participated in this King's Landing Tournament, not including archers and warriors participating in the archery competition and team battles. If those were included, the number would be doubled. Therefore, some also said that the scale of this Tournament definitely exceeded any previous Tournament held in Westeros.
And such a large number of warriors pouring into King's Landing was undoubtedly an extremely severe challenge to the public order of the entire King's Landing. The city guard of King's Landing totaled only over a thousand people, making it impossible to keep an eye on so many experienced warriors. Therefore, King's HandArryn ordered that all those participating in the Tournament were not allowed to enter the city of King's Landing, and could only reside outside the city, completely throwing the trouble outside the city walls.
With so many energetic warriors crowded together, conflicts and friction were naturally inevitable. Every day, one could see constant disputes in the slums outside the King's Gate and by the Blackwater Rush, with armed clashes and fights being common occurrences.
The job of the city guard was to wait until the battle ended, then go collect the bodies, and confiscate any remaining valuables on the bodies as fines. If the bodies were claimed, a fee was paid to take them away; if unclaimed, they were directly thrown into the Blackwater Rush, floating down the river to Blackwater Bay to feed the fish.
Previously, conflicts in the slums were limited to ordinary warriors, but in the past two days, conflicts occurring at the Tournament grounds have turned into conflicts between knights.
Before the official Tournament, knights needed to inspect the grounds, especially needing to measure the width and length of the grounds with their own legs based on the horse's length. Doing so allowed them to find the correct rhythm when charging with a lance and calculate the position to strike, so as to accurately hit the enemy.
However, the measurement time before the Tournament officially started was mainly reserved for knights participating from prominent noble houses, while ordinary knight participants simply had no measurement time whatsoever. Therefore, these ordinary knights had no choice but to measure beforehand, before the official Tournament began.
Although the venue might be adjusted after the Tournament begins, for those ordinary free knights, having a measurement is better than not having one, at least psychologically it will feel better.
However, the venue was only so large, and nearly a thousand knights suddenly poured in, all scrambling to measure the grounds. No one was willing to wait, and thus disputes arose.
So these past two days, the knights at the Tournament grounds have already had a series of duels in advance, and such a spectacle is not usually seen. For a time, the guards in the various noble camps who had nothing to do all arrived early around the Tournament grounds, waiting for the show to begin.
By the time Lynd and his men arrived near the grounds, it was already somewhat late. Because they needed to train on horseback, it was already close to evening when they reached the Tournament grounds. From the conversations of those around them, they learned that during the day, there had already been more than a dozen fights here caused by disputes over the order of measuring the grounds, and even two free knights had died in the conflicts. Both of these knights were the second sons of minor nobles, and their deaths in King's Landing did not cause any ripples.
Although it was already dark, the spectators were still not satisfied. They proactively found firewood and lit the braziers around the Tournament grounds, illuminating the entire Tournament grounds so that the knights who had not yet had time to measure the grounds could continue to contend for the right to measure, and they could continue to watch the excitement.
After Lynd arrived near the grounds, he and his subordinates were separated by the bustling crowd, or more accurately, he deliberately used the crowd to intentionally separate himself from his subordinates.
After he could no longer see his subordinates, he quickly squeezed out of the crowd, then followed the small island along the Blackwater Rush to the fish market port located outside the Dung Gate city wall.
Through the opportunity of inviting his subordinates for drinks here the past two days, he quietly familiarized himself with the environment of this area and found the location of the special warehouse in the dock district.
This warehouse is located on one side of Dung Gate, right next to the city wall. The other side of the city wall is the city guard's police station. Although separated by a city wall, as soon as anything happens at this warehouse, the Gold Cloaks from the police station will immediately set out, bypass the city gate, and arrive at the warehouse, taking at most only a few minutes.
This warehouse is used by some large merchants to store relatively valuable goods. Normally, they are guarded by their own merchant caravan guards, but this time, the people responsible for the security of the goods in the warehouse are not only merchant caravan guards but also the Gold Cloaks of the city guard, which makes some people curious about what goods are stored in the warehouse.
Lynd was also one of those curious about the warehouse goods. In fact, a few days ago, after he heard Littlefinger's smuggling activities on Todd's Pumpkin, he had already become curious about these goods that were so highly valued by him, and had a little idea. His hospitality these past two days was also preparation for this matter.
The reason he chose to act today was because after the Tournament began tomorrow, Mace Tyrell would leave his comfortable little house in the city and stay with other great nobles in the camp tents outside the city until the Tournament ended. At that time, he would be responsible for the security of the camp and would have no time to do anything else.
Furthermore, although Lynd was curious about the goods in the warehouse, he was not someone who would recklessly pursue secrets. If it didn't affect him, he would satisfy his curiosity. But if things became difficult and he wasn't confident he could enter and exit the warehouse without a trace, then he wouldn't take the risk.
When the warehouse was first built, the builders might have considered the security of the warehouse, so they left a large open space around it and installed some torches around the warehouse, which allowed the guards guarding the warehouse to clearly see if anyone was approaching, even late at night.
The idea was good, but as time went on, even the best ideas would change. Later builders constructed warehouses on all the originally reserved open land to increase storage capacity, and the carefully arranged guard posts were abandoned. Only a fence that even a child could climb over was added around the warehouse, and two guards were stationed at the entrance, with some patrolling personnel added around the warehouse.
The small tavern where Lynd and his men had been drinking these past two days was across the street from this warehouse. Although it was just a not-very-tall thatched-roof house, and sitting by the window couldn't see what was inside the fence, Lynd still used his extraordinary hearing to discern the number of people and the approximate routes of the patrol teams inside and outside the warehouse fence.
Additionally, he had also mastered the patrol schedule of the city guard. Although Janos Slynt had promised Littlefinger to protect the goods in the warehouse, having accepted money, he clearly didn't take this matter seriously. He didn't send anyone to guard the warehouse with Littlefinger's men, only dispatching a few patrol teams to patrol near the warehouse at irregular intervals.
Lynd, who had already figured out the patrol routine, waited for a while in a shadowy corner outside the warehouse. After that period's patrol passed, he quickly and agilely climbed over the warehouse wall and landed inside the warehouse. Then, like some kind of feline, he quickly rushed to the nearest corner of the warehouse wall, easily climbed onto the warehouse roof using some uneven wooden boards on the wall, and then completely lay flat on the roof, crawling silently across the roof like a lizard.
Although Lynd's height has now reached approximately one meter ninety-eight, and his physique is more than double what it was in Whitegrove, making him look like an upright bear, his agility has not diminished at all as the combat experience memories of Peace Envoy have fully integrated into him, completely surpassing ordinary people.
With his agile movements, Lynd reached the roof of Littlefinger's warehouse without alarming any guards.
He slowly moved to the edge of the roof near the wall, then flipped over, gripping the protruding parts of the wall with his fingers, and stepping on some protruding points with his feet, slowly moving down until he reached a high window on the second floor of the warehouse wall.
He pulled out his dagger, inserted it into the crack of the high window, moved it left and right, found the window latch, and slowly pushed the latch up, successfully opening the window and looking inside the warehouse.
Several oil lamps hung in the warehouse, making it very dim. The reason for not lighting torches was perhaps a concern about fire.
For safety, people were also arranged to guard the warehouse, but arranging them or not made no difference, because the guards were already drunk. Judging from the wine bottles on the table, they had drunk a lot and were sleeping soundly, with snoring filling the entire warehouse.
Although the guards inside the warehouse no longer posed a threat, Lynd's movements were still very careful. He slightly lifted the wooden window, then squeezed his sturdy body into the window opening, inching his way into the warehouse.
After entering the warehouse, he slightly lowered the window, then reached up and grabbed the overhead beam, moving little by little to the second-floor railing. Stepping on the sturdy railing, he avoided the loose floorboards that could easily make noise, and arrived at the area where goods were stored in the warehouse.
The entire warehouse had been rented by Littlefinger, so he didn't spend much time finding the goods.