Linde, who had grown accustomed to the pain in his back, walked out of the room he had been confined to for over a month, leaning on a crutch Old Man Bane had made two days prior. Although his injuries would still need at least another half a month to fully heal, they no longer prevented him from walking normally.
However, his immediate priority was to quickly familiarize himself with the people and affairs of White Village, so as to avoid any slip-ups that might reveal something amiss.
After all, the memories he inherited were not extensive; beyond knowing his current name was Linde and that he was a hunter, the rest were fragmented, offering little useful information. He didn't even know why he had sustained such severe injuries.
Walking through White Village, he quickly discerned from the surrounding houses that his current location was very backward, possibly somewhere in ancient Western world.
Although he had already made some guesses from Old Man Bane's clothing and some furnishings in his room, he still held a glimmer of hope.
"Bear Hunter?" After Linde had walked a short distance down the village's only street, he finally encountered the first villager. However, upon seeing Linde, the person couldn't help but utter a nickname, simultaneously revealing obvious fear and then hurried past Linde with his head bowed, as if Lindewere some monstrous beast.
Although Linde was very curious why this person had such a strange reaction and why he called him Bear Hunter, he did not reach out to stop the person and ask. He needed to speak and act as little as possible, and listen and observe more. Only then could he avoid exposing that he and Linde were two different people.
As he walked further down the street, he encountered more and more people. Some called him by his name, while others called him Bear Hunter, and everyone's face showed reverence or fear, the only difference being the intensity of the emotion.
Although the village was not very large, Linde, feeling unwell, still walked for a long time before arriving in front of the small tavern at the village entrance.
Over the past month and a half, he had learned that Old Man Bane owned a small tavern in the village. Although this village was completely unfamiliar to him, he still accurately found the tavern, as it was the only one in the village.
"Your injury hasn't healed, why are you out?" As he approached the tavern door, Old Man Bane, who had heard the commotion outside, stepped out and spoke with concern the moment he saw Linde.
Old Man Bane had thick, distinctive brown hair and a beard, and a plump physique that made him look like a large wine barrel. His left foot was gone, replaced by a wooden peg, and three fingers were missing from his right hand, presumably severed by a sharp weapon.
Linde smiled and explained, "I've been lying down for over a month. Walking around a bit will help me recover faster."
For Linde, Old Man Bane was definitely his benefactor, because during the more than a month he was injured and unable to move, it was Old Man Bane, and only Old Man Bane, who took care of him. Because of this, he almost mistook Old Man Bane for the father of this body.
Old Man Bane listened to his explanation, said nothing, patted his arm, and then gestured for him to sit inside the small tavern.
"Hey! Bear Hunter!" The moment he entered the tavern, everyone inside raised their cups in unison and shouted towards Linde. Although their shouts also carried a sense of awe, they were much more enthusiastic and less fearful than those he had encountered earlier in the village.
Linde knew nothing about these people and didn't know how to respond without revealing himself, so he simply nodded in acknowledgment.
The people did not show dissatisfaction with Linde's reaction; instead, they found it quite normal. This made Linde realize that his body's previous owner must have been a reclusive person.
He walked to a window seat and sat down. Old Man Bane brought him a cup of wine and placed it in front of him, then went back to his own business.
Linde picked up the wine cup and took a sip. The sour, vinegary wine was truly difficult to drink, but he still suppressed the urge to spit it out and swallowed it, without showing any inappropriate emotion on his face.
The atmosphere in the tavern did not change because of Linde's presence, but their conversation topics seemed to gradually shift, with more content related to Linde.
Perhaps because the person in question was present, their voices were much lower, and it was difficult for an ordinary person to hear what they were saying in such a noisy environment. But Linde was different; after more than a month of integration, although his body had not become stronger, his other senses had become extraordinarily sensitive. He had spent a long time adapting to this, and now it was coming in handy.
By collecting information from the conversations of these people in the tavern, Linde quickly understood where he was and what had happened to him. Although he tried his best to control his emotions, he couldn't help but show some surprise on his face.
During his recovery, he had countless times guessed where he had been reborn, and he had considered countless ancient Western kingdoms, but he never would have imagined that he would be reborn in the Ice and Fire World penned by George R.R. Martin.
Although he hadn't read the novels written by that author, he had watched the TV series adapted from them. After all, that Ice and Fire World was so famous that it was hard not to notice it at the time. He even visited many Game of Thrones forums and read discussion threads due to questions arising from certain plots.
Even though he viewed these things as an ordinary audience member, both the TV series and the forum posts provided him with a wealth of useful information.
For example, the Usurper War, which most people in the tavern were discussing as having ended last year, should be the war that led to Robert Baratheon's ascension to the throne. This also made him realize that his current time point was before the beginning of the TV series.
This was by no means good news for him, because it meant that all the information provided by the TV series and discussion threads was now useless to him.
Moreover, he understood that the system on the continent of Westeros was very rigid, making it difficult for common people to rise. Bloodline and heritage were the cornerstones of the nobles in this world, and the body he had been reborn into was just an ordinary person. What was worse, he was currently in The Reach.
The nobles of The Reach were known for their ancient lineage; the family heritage of any casual lord here could span thousands of years. House Tyrell, as the Warden of the South, couldn't even rank among the top three in terms of family heritage, which goes to show how ancient these Reach nobles were.
Such ancient family heritage naturally also represented an old-fashioned system. Bloodline was the sole standard for judging a person's status here. Even if a few exceptions appeared, they could not shake this conservative tall tower.
An ordinary person who wanted to make a name for himself here had only two choices: one was to go to Oldtown Citadel and become a Maester, and the other was to distinguish himself in the martial arts tournaments held by various lords in The Reach, to be taken as a squire by a knight, or to directly gain the favor of a knight and be knighted, just like the former Kingsguard commander Ser Duncan the Tall.
Besides this, Linde also learned that the village he was currently in was called White Village, located on the edge of Red Lake Forest in The Reach. It belonged to House Crane's territory and was not far from House Crane's Red Lake City.
The reason it was called White Village was because after houses were built here, the locals habitually used a nearby white lime plaster on the walls, so the entire village was white.
This village was the direct territory of House Crane, belonging to Red Lake City. Most of the people in the village were hunters, but they were different from hunters who specialized in making a living from hunting. The hunters of White Village primarily served as guides for Red Lake City or other noble lords of The Reach during autumn hunts.
Although Red Lake Forest around Red Lake was not the largest forest in The Reach, it was home to the largest populations of deer, bears, and other animal groups in all of The Reach. Therefore, every autumn, House Crane would invite the nobles of The Reach to hunt here and also to socialize. The hunters of White Village were a hunter's village specifically established by House Crane for the annual autumn hunting event.
Also, Linde learned why he had sustained such severe injuries and been bedridden for over a month. Why did the villagers call him Bear Hunter and hold him in such awe?
The matter, it turned out, was related to the Usurper War that ended last year. House Tyrell, as the Warden of the South, had sided incorrectly in the war. Although they were not punished by King Robert, who became the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, House Tyrell remained uneasy. Therefore, they wanted to collect various rare treasures in The Reach to present to King Robert, hoping to improve their relationship with him.
Although House Crane had an ancient heritage, it had declined, and maintaining control of Red Lake City was very difficult. They even had to intermarry with the great Reach noble House Florentine to prevent the family from falling into decay.
Under these circumstances, House Crane naturally hoped for more assistance, so when they learned that House Tyrell was collecting rare treasures from The Reach, they also wanted to use this opportunity to improve their relationship with House Tyrell.
However, House Crane had already declined, and the precious treasures in their family heritage had mostly been sold off in the past. The remaining ones carried distinct family characteristics and could absolutely not be sold, otherwise they would become the laughingstock of The Reach nobility. So they could only collect valuable treasures from other sources.
Fortunately, their territory had the richest animal resources in The Reach. Among these animals were some extremely precious ones, so they specifically offered huge rewards.
The father of Linde's current body was the best hunter in White Village. He was interested in the bounty offered by House Crane, so after obtaining permission from House Crane's steward, he entered Red Lake Forest to hunt mountain bears.
Mountain bears in Red Lake Forest were different from ordinary bears; they were twice as large and several times stronger, and their bodies were covered in a layer of reddish-brown fur comparable to armor, making them almost invincible in Red Lake Forest.
In the past, more than one group of knights attempting to boast of their bravery by hunting mountain bears had died in their attacks. It should be known that knights did not exist alone; they were accompanied by squires and a considerable number of guards and hired warriors.
So when Linde's father entered Red Lake Forest, no one believed he could successfully hunt a mountain bear.
In fact, just as everyone expected, Linde's father died in the forest. His body had been torn to shreds by a mountain bear. When the hunters of White Villagefound him, only half a skull and some incomplete fragmented remains were left.
The former owner of Linde's body, after collecting his father's remains, did not give up on hunting the mountain bear. Instead, he decided to fulfill his father's last wish and avenge him.
For the next year, he continuously entered the forest, searching for traces of the mountain bear, and spent a large amount of money to create hunting traps with sufficient lethality. Finally, more than a month ago, he completed his preparations and then entered Red Lake Forest with the traps.
In this vengeful hunt, Linde's predecessor both succeeded and failed. He succeeded in that he indeed hunted a mountain bear by himself, but he failed in that this mountain bear was not the one that killed his father, and he was severely injured in the bear's counterattack. His back was almost entirely without intact skin, and his spine was nearly broken by the bear's paw.
If it weren't for Old Man Bane, his predecessor's father's lifelong friend, risking entering the forest with others to search for him, carrying him back from the forest, and taking care of him for over a month, he might have already died in the forest. And this is the origin of his nickname, Bear Hunter.
Aside from his physical injuries, the mountain bear he hunted did not bring him any profit; instead, it brought him trouble.
Because his act of hunting in Red Lake Forest was not permitted by House Crane, the owners of Red Lake Forest, his hunting was considered theft of House Crane's property, and House Crane could execute him according to the law.
However, whether it was because they had gained a mountain bear for free, or because Linde was already close to death and there was no need to execute him, House Crane's steward stated that they would no longer pursue his unauthorized hunting. They even left five gold dragons as payment for hunting the mountain bear.
Compared to the five hundred gold dragons Kleenoffered a year ago, these five gold dragons were pitifully small, but in the eyes of ordinary people, five gold dragons were already considered a huge sum. And the person holding this large sum was an injured person, bedridden and on the verge of death. So at that time, the villagers had set their sights on these five gold dragons.
However, these villagers, whose minds were clouded by money, had to abandon their greed due to Old Man Bane's strong intervention. That is why the villagers Linde had seen earlier showed such expressions; they were clearly afraid of retaliation from Linde, whose injuries had mostly recovered.