"Is that all there is?" Lynd looked at the goods before him, a frown on his face.
The goods Lynd discovered were merely precious items like tea, silk, and ceramics from the Far East. While these items were indeed valuable, they didn't seem worth Littlefinger's special trip to King's Landing, or even his specific request for Janos Slynt to provide extra protection for this batch of goods.
"Did he intentionally use these goods as bait to attract the attention of interested parties, while the actual smuggled items he valued were placed elsewhere?" Sensing something was amiss, Lynd's mind raced with possibilities, while he cautiously surveyed his surroundings. If these goods were bait, then a trap, and a deadly one at that, surely accompanied them.
However, no matter how he sensed, he found no abnormalities inside or outside the warehouse. The guards patrolling around the warehouse also made no unusual movements. The only thing that made him uncomfortable in the entire warehouse were the snores of a few drunken guards.
"It seems I was wrong." Lynd chuckled self-deprecatingly, feeling he had been overly cautious. He looked at the goods again and immediately realized why he had misjudged.
While the value of these goods might not warrant a person like Littlefinger risking a trip from the Vale to King's Landing, especially during this chaotic period, it didn't mean they were worthless. In fact, if sold in King's Landing, these goods could easily fetch tens of thousands of gold Dragons.
If it were Littlefinger, the Master of Coin on the Iron Throne a decade and a half later, he might be qualified to use tens of thousands of gold Dragons as bait. But currently, as merely a port city's customs officer, Littlefinger was clearly not grand enough to pull off such a lavish scheme. Therefore, these goods should not be bait, and the smuggled items that brought Littlefinger specifically to King's Landing should be hidden within this batch of goods.
After realizing this, Lynd carefully re-examined the goods. This time, he didn't just glance over them; he meticulously checked every bag and box.
Soon, he noticed that several boxes containing silk felt off. These boxes were the same size as the others, but their weight was significantly greater. Undoubtedly, the contents of these boxes were more than just silk.
Although these boxes were locked, such primitive locks were quite simple for Lynd. As early as Whitegrove, he had anticipated encountering similar situations, so he had retrained his lock-picking skills from his previous life, just in case.
As expected, he pulled out two oddly shaped iron pieces and inserted them into different positions in the keyhole. Then, by moving the iron pieces back and forth, he felt the position of the lock pins and adjusted the iron pieces little by little. Soon, the lock of one box was opened by him.
Lynd carefully removed the lock, placed it aside, and then slowly opened the box lid, avoiding making too much noise.
Once the box was successfully opened, Lynd looked inside and saw neatly arranged rolls of silk. It seemed he had misjudged, but no expression of disappointment appeared on his face.
He carefully took out the silk rolls and placed them aside. Soon, all the silk inside the box was removed. Then, he gently tapped the bottom of the box. After hearing the sound that echoed back, a smile appeared on his face.
Next, his gaze searched the bottom of the box and found a hidden clasp. He then inserted his finger into the clasp and lifted the entire bottom panel of the box.
Inside, there was another compartment filled with weeds for cushioning. Among the weeds were some very ancient-looking bronze, silver, and gold artifacts.
"Are these the smuggled goods Littlefinger values so much?" Seeing these items, Lynd felt a slight doubt. He really couldn't tell their value, but he didn't jump to conclusions, knowing very well that due to his limited knowledge and perspective, he couldn't accurately assess the value of such items.
With his doubts, Lynd re-covered the partition, put the silk rolls back in their original places, restoring everything. But he didn't leave immediately. Instead, he opened the other boxes that felt unusually heavy. It wasn't until he opened the fourth box and saw the items secretly stored inside that he understood what these smuggled goods truly were.
The fourth box contained only two items: a cracked Dragon Egg and an exquisite dagger.
Upon seeing these two items, Lynd's initial focus wasn't on the cracked Dragon Egg with its scaly shell, but on the exquisite dagger. From its striking and unique bone handle and steel blade, Lynd could almost certainly identify it as a Valyrian steel dagger with a dragonbone handle. This dagger was also very likely the catalyst for the War of the Five Kings a decade and a half later.
"Has Littlefinger obtained this dagger so early?" Lynd felt a mix of doubt and curiosity, so he wanted to take the dagger out of the box and examine it closely.
However, as his hand touched the dagger's dragonbone handle, a distinct burning sensation spread from his fingertips throughout his body.
At this moment, this mysterious burning sensation was not Lynd's primary concern. What concerned him was that the energy bar below the Peacekeeper, which was already more than three-quarters full, was flickering like a breathing light under the influence of this burning sensation.
The sudden change left Lynd somewhat flustered, but he quickly calmed down and carefully examined what kind of changes the burning sensation from the dragonbone dagger brought to his golden finger's energy bar.
But after a careful inspection, he was somewhat disappointed, because this burning sensation, apart from making the energy bar continuously flicker, did not cause any other reactions. It didn't even push the energy bar forward a single bit.
Despite this, Lynd did not believe that the influence of the dragonbone on the golden finger in his body was so simple. He felt that he just hadn't discovered it yet.
Thinking of this, Lynd placed his hand on the cracked Dragon Egg again. This time, there was no burning sensation, but a chill like ice and snow spread from the point of contact to his hand.
This chill did not spread throughout his body like the previous burning sensation, nor did it cause any abnormalities in the golden finger. Instead, it flowed through his body like a stream, gathered in his chest, and then injected into Honor, which was in the pouch on his chest. Honor, who was sleeping soundly, seemed to sense this chill and stirred slightly before continuing to sleep.
Although Lynd had conducted some training on Honor to reduce its wildness, he didn't know if the training time was too short or if his training methods were wrong. In short, Honor's wildness not only didn't decrease but actually grew stronger. Besides showing affection for him and obeying his commands, it would attack anyone else who came even slightly close.
Moreover, as he grew, Honor's teeth also became increasingly strong. Not only could he bite through the ropes that bound him, but he could even bite through the wooden bars of the cage. Therefore, to avoid accidents, Lynd always kept Honor by his side, and this time was no exception.
Fortunately, Honor was very obedient. If Lynd ordered him not to move, he truly wouldn't move, even when sound asleep, and wouldn't make any unusual noises, causing Lynd no trouble.
However, what Lynd hadn't expected was that bringing Honor with him this time would lead to an unexpected discovery.
He didn't know what effect or change Honor absorbing that chill would have, but he was very clear that this cracked Dragon Egg had undergone a transformation with the loss of that chill. The most obvious change was that the scaly patterns on the Dragon Egg's shell had become dull and lifeless, and looked somewhat like stone, far less dazzling than before.
"Could that rumor about the albino Shadowcat be true?" This made Lynd ponder, wondering if the chill was the remnant of a dragon's soul within the Dragon Egg, and the absorption of the chill by the Honor lynx seemed to align with the old saying that albino Shadowcats devour souls. This coincidence made it hard for him not to make connections.
However, now was not a good time to investigate whether Honor had changed. He re-covered the box's partition and did not take the Valyrian steel dagger with the dragonbone handle. After all, that dagger was too conspicuous, and taking it now would cause unnecessary trouble, especially drawing Littlefinger's attention, which would definitely be more detrimental than beneficial.
As for the Dragon Egg, although it had changed, it wasn't noticeable. Lynd also left the other Valyrian era antiques untouched, putting them all back as they were. Then, he quietly left the warehouse by the same route, the entire process silent, without alarming anyone.
After leaving the warehouse, Lynd, wanting to quickly check if Honor's body had any problems, did not stop on the way. Instead, he walked along the slums near the city wall, heading towards the Lion Gate.
Although passing directly through the tourney grounds would be a shorter route, that area was already crowded with people. The refugees and poor people from the surrounding slums had also gathered there to watch the excitement. Conversely, the slums where these people lived were much less crowded. The ground was a bit dirty, but it could save a lot of time.
When Lynd arrived at the road exit of the slum outside the Lion Gate, preparing to turn towards the House Tyrell camp on Lion Hill, he saw the Lion Gate slightly ajar. Immediately after, several Lannister soldiers dressed in reddish-brown iron armor carried a person out of the gate.
Lannister, after all, mined gold, and their family's equipment and weapons for their soldiers far surpassed those of other families.
Other noble families, including his House Tyrell, mostly had their lowest-ranking soldiers equip themselves with their own gear and weapons. Only special units, like Lynd's newly formed ten-man cavalry troop, received armor and weapons specially prepared by House Tyrell.
House Tyrell was slightly better, able to provide a few pieces of clothing, but other families not only had to prepare their own weapons and equipment, but even their food.
Compared to these noble families, Lannister's financial investment in their direct army was astonishing. Their family provided leather, iron, and steel armor based on the direct army's affiliation. Their weapons included iron-tipped spears, sharp iron swords, and so on. All equipment was paid for and forged by Lannister, so Lannister's direct army also appeared more disciplined than the armies of other families.
It was precisely because they possessed such a powerful army that even though King Robert Baratheon and King's HandJon Arryn strongly disliked Lannister, they still had to choose to intermarry with Lannister.
Now, two Lannister soldiers in iron armor were risking violating the city gate restrictions, making the City Watch guarding the gate open it, and then carrying someone out. This made Lynd curious about who this person was.
It should be known that in Lannister, only the household guards of direct family members were qualified to wear iron armor. This meant that these two soldiers were from the retinues of Jaime Lannister or TyrellLannister. As for why Kevan Lannister wasn't mentioned, it was because Lord Tywin's brother was currently stationed at Casterly Rock and had not come to King's Landing.
Although the torches outside the Lion Gate were not very bright, Lynd's superhuman vision could still make out that the person being carried by the two Lannister soldiers was a girl, a completely naked girl.
The two men carried the girl to a garbage heap not far from the Lion Gate, then directly threw her into the pile. After muttering a few words, they turned and left.
The girl thrown into the garbage heap did not move. Even when she fell onto the garbage, her body showed no protective reflex, looking as if she were dead.
After the Lannister soldiers left, some people from the surrounding slum gathered around the garbage heap. It seemed they were all interested in the corpse. It was well known that in Flea Bottom in King's Landing, a corpse could fetch a good price.
Lynd wasn't interested in why the Lannister soldiers would throw a girl's corpse outside the city, so he didn't go closer and was about to leave.
But as he turned, he saw the corpse's hand move. It seemed the girl was still alive. Some people from the slum also saw this, but they apparently didn't intend to let the girl continue living. Someone picked up a stone from the ground and was about to smash it into the girl's head, to make her truly pass away.
If the girl had died, Lynd might not have cared how the corpse was finally disposed of, but now that the girl was still alive, his basic morals from his previous life prevented him from ignoring it.
Moreover, more importantly, as the combat experience of the Peacekeeper fully integrated into him, he felt that his personality had become increasingly indifferent, especially regarding life. The only way to resolve this side effect was to use his thoughts and personality from his previous life to dilute the mental changes produced by the integration, so saving this girl would also benefit him.
Almost simultaneously with the decision to save the girl, Lynd quickly rushed towards the ill-intentioned commoners, and before the stone in one of their hands could strike the girl, he landed several punches, knocking them to the ground.
Afterward, he ignored the fainted commoners and looked at the girl covered in wounds. After a slight hesitation, he picked her up and walked towards the House Tyrell camp.