As the family of four entered, they saw Marko sitting in the hall. The middle-aged woman pulled her daughters forward, while her husband was carrying things into the hall, which appeared to be props for their performances.
Through introductions, Marko learned the names of the family. The man was called Lemon, and he had grown up in the puppet troupe, so he was also known as Puppet Lemon. His wife was called Aijú, and she had also grown up in the puppet troupe.
After they grew up, the two of them inherited the puppet troupe, got married, and had two daughters, the elder and younger Rose. This family had been performing at the docks near Widow's Hope.
But as time went on, everyone had grown tired of these old plays. Widow's Hope was already their last stop, and they had been here for a month.
However, the audience had been dwindling during this time, so the couple decided to put on an extra-long show today, hoping to save up some money to go to Seagull Town or King's Landing.
After the performance, Aijú saw the copper stars that Marko had given them. So, she urged her husband to ask for more. Seeing that Marko didn't seem to care about the money, Aijú knew that her family might have encountered a big merchant from out of town, so she wanted to get in touch with Marko, hoping to get a ride on his ship.
This Aijú was different from her husband; she was a very shrewd and capable person. On the way here, she had asked around to find out about Marko and his companions.
The dock town of Widow's Hope had three areas: the main dock, the Wine Market, and the Seafood Market where Marko and his companions were. Although it sounded big, there were only about a hundred shops.
Marko's lavish spending naturally attracted attention. After a little discreet inquiry, Aijú confirmed her suspicions: she needed to put on a good show for this wealthy man, giving her family a chance to board his ship and leave this place, saving them a considerable sum.
Through the soul link, Marko had gleaned the woman's thoughts. He turned to Moonshadow and Mayfair.
"Let them perform for you! Henk and I have business to discuss. Mayfair, I might need your help tonight. I'll find you later to talk about it."
"Marko! Come here for a moment; I need to speak with you."
Just as Marko was about to leave, Moonshadow called him back. He understood and approached her. After a hushed conversation, Marko departed.
Henk and the others then proceeded to the second floor. Marko assigned them their tasks for the night. When the pirates attacked the docks, Mayfair would assault the clock tower and ring the bell to alert the Flint Family's soldiers.
Henk would then lead the twenty remaining crew members to defend the Snow Bear and be responsible for signaling Mayfair and providing support.
Marko and Moonshadow would remain behind. Moonshadow had told Marko that she sensed divine power near the Flint Family's Sacred Woods. Marko's mission here was to ensure that this area and the Sacred Woods remained safe.
Moonshadow said that the power was faint, its location impossible to pinpoint. Marko didn't have time to search for it now; he'd have to wait until this matter was resolved.
After making these arrangements, Marko asked the innkeeper to prepare dinner. Although Aijú said they had already eaten, Marko still invited them. The two little girls looked at the table full of food and swallowed, wanting to go forward, but their mother pulled them back.
Seeing this, Marko directly told the innkeeper to serve them a portion of food. Puppet Lemon was so moved he almost knelt down to Marko, constantly expressing his gratitude.
After dinner, Marko arranged for Aijú and her family to stay in a guest room on the second floor. They had originally wanted to return to their own small cottage, but Moonshadow and the others persuaded them to stay.
It was late at night. The Flint Family's dock town was no longer bustling as it had been during the day. Occasionally, there were scattered lights and the sound of dogs barking.
In the clock tower at the center of the dock, two soldiers on duty were hiding in the stairwell, drinking ale. There wasn't much space in this clock tower. They were supposed to be standing at the observation hole on the top floor, monitoring the situation at the distant dock.
But today, these two guys were slacking off because a friend on the dock, who they got along with, had given them two large bags of ale.
Just as the two were enjoying their drinking, a sudden sound of wings flapping broke the silence outside, startling them.
One of the soldiers said,
"What's going on outside? Should we go take a look?"
"Hic! Are you an idiot? It's probably just old Jack's pigeons flying around. What's there to be afraid of?"
One of the soldiers stuck his head out of the vent and took a careful look. Then, he pulled his head back in and let out a belch, apparently a bit drunk.
Just then, a knock suddenly came from the stairwell, startling the two of them. Two knocks in the middle of the night would make anyone feel uneasy.
"FU*K, what's going on? Let's go see, and I'll kill whoever it is!"
The soldier who had just peeked out to check the situation cursed, a fierce look on his face. He grabbed his quenched spear and headed for the stairs, while the other soldier cautiously followed behind him.
After going downstairs, the two of them opened the tightly shut door. They pointed their spears at the person at the door, who was taken aback.
"Hey! Buddy! What... what are you doing? Be careful!"
"Huh... it's you... Sweet Wine! Uh..."
The two soldiers greeted the newcomer warmly after recognizing him, but before they could finish, the pirates behind him shot them with crossbows. The close-range ambush hit the soldiers directly in the neck, and they couldn't even make a sound.
"Sweet Wine! You take three people and check for any other guards. The rest of you, come with me to the Coast Guard. Wait for our signal."
"Understood! Boss!"
Everyone nodded in agreement and began heading towards their respective targets. Sweet Wine and his group crept up to the clock tower and carefully checked it, but they didn't find anything unusual.
What they didn't know was that Mayfair was already standing at the very top of the clock tower. She was right above the heads of these pirates. Sweet Wine and his group wouldn't even dream that anyone could stand at the very top of a clock tower.
Mayfair quietly watched the pirates gathering in the streets. She roughly estimated that the vanguard of these pirates numbered around 40.
At the Flint Family's coastal defense garrison, the two soldiers on guard at the gate and the soldiers in the two watchtowers were already starting to feel drowsy.
The two gate guards had barely closed their eyes when the pirates slit their throats. Then, the two soldiers in the watchtowers were shot with crossbow bolts. The groans of the soldiers in the watchtowers before they died alerted a soldier who was up in the night, but before he could even raise the alarm, he was shot down by a crossbow bolt.
Following this, the pirates swarmed in and slit the throats of many soldiers who were still asleep. Thirty minutes later, all fifty-some soldiers of the coastal defense force were wiped out. Even the bugler, who lived in a hidden attic, was killed, and he didn't even have time to blow his horn.
Fang Manson had planned this operation for a long time. Apart from the Flint Family's main keep, he knew this small dock town like the back of his hand.
After giving the signal to the few people on the clock tower with a whale oil lamp, the pirates immediately rushed towards the city guard's garrison. These soldiers were actually just civilians who had received some basic training, and they weren't even in the same league as the soldiers in the Flint Family's main keep.
As the signal was sent from the clock tower, three longships slowly sailed into the dock. After more than 200 pirates armed with various weapons disembarked, they all uniformly rushed towards the small square in the center of the Wine Market.
They all looked extremely excited, as if they were ready to burn, kill, and plunder to their hearts' content, just as Fang Manson was about to give the order to attack.
"Clang clang clang..."
The incessant ringing of the bells plunged his mood to rock bottom, nearly making him choke with rage. He didn't have time to blame anyone; instead, he roared, his eyes bloodshot, "Kill them!"
"Kill!"
Over 200 pirates, as if injected with adrenaline, charged toward the city guard's headquarters. Many, realizing the ambush had failed, lit torches and started fires. But their objective remained unchanged: to press forward relentlessly.
Meanwhile, the continuous ringing of the bells caused the entire dockside town to erupt. The 100-plus soldiers of the city guard, if the bells had only startled them awake, the horn blower's call informed them that enemies had already attacked.
Soon, the city guard soldiers gathered together. Under the command of their officer, Castor S. Flint, the soldiers quickly formed a loose formation. Before Castor S. Flint could issue the order, the headquarters' wooden gate was smashed open, and the pirates howled as they charged in.
Dressed in chainmail and wearing a half-helm, Castor S. Flint shouted, "Hold the line! Reinforcements from the fort will arrive soon! Attack!"
The two groups clashed, but ultimately, the city guard soldiers were no match for the Bloodhand pirates. The city guard suffered heavy casualties quickly.
Seeing the situation worsen, Castor S. Flint hastily ordered his soldiers to retreat into the headquarters' rooms, planning to use the narrow entrance to hold off the pirates' onslaught.
But it seemed the pirates had been waiting for this moment. Bottles of whale oil were smashed against the wooden structures of the buildings, followed by torches, and the fire spread instantly.
In a short while, the city guard soldiers rushed out of the rooms in fear, only to be quickly eliminated by the pirates. After dealing with them, the pirates began to loot the Wine Market.
Fortunately, the soldiers from the Flint Family castle had already arrived at the square and started organizing people to extinguish the fire and encircle the pirates.
The people of the North were known for their fierce spirit, and many civilians picked up weapons to fight the enemy. Knowing that pirates had infiltrated, many people spontaneously joined the castle's reinforcements.
Fang Manson was very helpless, but things had reached this point, and he could only do his best to achieve his ultimate goal: to destroy the Flint Family's port as much as possible.
The pirates adopted a dispersed and interspersed approach, setting fires everywhere in the port's residential and commercial areas, and taking advantage of the favorable terrain to occasionally launch sneak attacks on the people putting out the fires. They were all led by pirates who were familiar with the terrain.
For a time, the entire Wine Market was filled with fire and slaughter. Taking advantage of this opportunity, some local thugs also became bolder, taking the chance to burn, kill, and plunder, making the entire situation even more chaotic.
However, the commander of the Flint Family was also a ruthless person. Seeing that he was unable to stop the chaos, he directly used the central small square of the Wine Market as the boundary, isolating the areas that hadn't been affected.
Following that, Marko started gathering the civilians and organizing everyone to fight the fire. Fortunately, the houses in the Wine Market weren't too tall or densely packed. In a short while, the fire was brought under control, and then the soldiers began to advance little by little.
Seeing that they couldn't create chaos, the pirates began to break out towards the docks. However, this area had long been blocked by the Flint Family's soldiers, and they couldn't advance even a single step.
However, Fang Manson was a meticulous person. He had already devised a corresponding countermeasure. The three longships, after their exposure, had been moved by him in advance to the Wine Market.
Longships had a shallow draft, were fast, and were simple to operate. After seeing that all three ships were in place,
Fang Manson immediately ordered everyone to push down the wooden walls and use them as a springboard to jump directly onto the longships. By the time the Flint Family's soldiers reacted, the remaining pirates had already sailed away.
By the time the fire was completely extinguished, it was already dawn. The current ruler of the Flint Family, Countess Lisha Flint, was now looking at her usually proud Wine Market with a face ashen. She felt like she was about to explode.
She looked at Castor S. Flint, the captain of the city guard, who was kneeling in front of her, and said in a cold tone:
"What exactly happened last night? Have you found out? Why didn't the coastal defense force react at all?"
Castor S. Flint, who had narrowly escaped death in last night's battle, was a distant relative of the Flint Family. He owed his position to the main family's patronage. However, he wasn't completely useless. He quickly gathered his thoughts and answered,
"Lady Lisha! I... I don't think these people are pirates. They first wiped out the coastal guard, then attacked us. They also used crossbows, and some of the brothers were... their throats were slit. That's not something pirates would do!"
Lady Lisha calmed down as she heard this, and began to ponder these events.
"Scholar Hail! Record what happened here and send a raven to White Harbor. We need help!"
Lady Lisha commanded the scholar beside her.
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