The Water Gardens are located on the beach southwest of Sunspear, with a coastal road leading directly from Sunspear to them.
This estate, built almost a hundred years ago, is very well preserved and looks almost new, with its pools, pens, courtyards, and gardens, along with exquisite beams and elegant arches featuring Dornish characteristics; this estate is considered the epitome of various Dornish estate styles.
In the past, this estate was a summer retreat for successive Dornish princes and princesses, but now it has become a sanatorium and nursery for the Dornish prince, where noble heirs from all over Dorne are sent to be raised by Doran Martell; although not adopted, there is no real difference.
On the surface, the Water Gardens appear to be an undefended estate, but in reality, there are five hundred elite Dornish warriors within the Water Gardens, and two military camps of two thousand men each are located about one Gerry west of the Water Gardens, along with over twenty warships in this sea area, sufficient to protect the safety of the estate.
When Velas and his party arrived at the Water Gardens, they were stopped by Captain Areo Hotah, who was waiting at the entrance with his guards.
"We were invited by Doran Martell, are you sure you want to stop us?" Gals looked at Areo Hotah with displeasure, saying in a deep voice.
"Lord Velas, I apologize, I am not stopping you; you may enter, but he and it must stay behind." Areo Hotah pointed to Linde and Glory beside him with extreme seriousness.
"Why? We are together?" Gals said unhappily.
"Because he is too dangerous; all of you combined are not as dangerous as him." At this moment, a lazy voice came from the estate behind Areo Hotah and the other Dornish guards.
Immediately after, Oberyn, dressed in casual clothes, emerged from the archway with a woman who was not particularly beautiful but extremely charming, passing through the guards to stand before Velas and the others.
He merely glanced at Velas before turning to look at Linde and Glory, and upon seeing the unusually large Glory and Linde in full, magnificent armor, he couldn't help but show a surprised expression and said, "I thought the rumors were exaggerated, but I didn't expect it to be true. A few months ago, this little fellow was only the size of a common Shadow Lynx, and now he has grown so large, no wonder people consider him a monster. Have you become rich in the past few months? To be able to forge such a beautiful set of armor, how much did it cost? One thousand gold dragons, or two thousand gold dragons?"
Seeing the Red Viper conversing with Linde as if greeting an acquaintance, everyone around was stunned, their gazes shifting back and forth between the two; they could not connect Linde with a prince far away in Dorne, especially those who knew Linde's background would not believe Linde would know the Red Viper.
Only Velas understood the situation, knowing that the Red Viper had appeared in Tengshi Town a few months ago, wanting to bring Na Melilia Fudeli, the Countess of Tengshi Town, to Dorne to inherit her father Prince Lemony's legacy; his acquaintance with Linde must have been then.
Facing the Red Viper's provocative conversational style, Linde responded in an extremely calm tone, "My Lord Prince, have you found a suitable spear yet? Our last encounter ended just as I was getting a little excited, which was truly a pity; I am still waiting for you, My Lord Prince, to challenge me again."
As soon as these words were spoken, the people around looked at the two with even greater shock; although it was just a short sentence, they had already heard that Linde and Oberyn had fought, and the world-renowned Red Viper had lost badly, losing as soon as they engaged.
However, Gals and the others had already witnessed Linde fighting one against a hundred, so in their view, Linde defeating the Red Viper was reasonable, and they quickly returned to normal.
Instead, the shock in the hearts of Areo Hotah and the Dornish guards behind him lingered; although they had felt Linde's power when they saw Glory accompanying Linde, they mostly attributed this power to Glory, the giant beast.
However, they knew very well how powerful the Red Viper was; all the Dornish guards present had fought the Red Viper, and they were as fragile as children who had just learned to wield weapons in front of the Red Viper.
But now Linde said that the Red Viper couldn't even get him excited about fighting, losing as soon as they engaged; this seemed like a fantastical tale to them.
However, facing Linde's statement, the Red Viper did not offer any rebuttal, seemingly acquiescing to Linde's words, which also made the guards present understand why the Red Viper would demand that Linde be stopped outside the Water Gardens and not allowed to enter.
"Haha!" As the atmosphere around them became somewhat strange, the woman in the Red Viper's arms suddenly laughed unrestrainedly and mocked the Red Viper, "No wonder you haven't been vigorous in bed these past few months, wildly swinging a spear every morning; so you suffered a great loss from someone else, making me think you were no longer interested in me and I started considering finding a few more people to spice things up."
A hint of embarrassment appeared on the Red Viper's face; he patted the woman's bottom hard, then stopped talking to Linde, and instead turned to Velas, saying, "Lord Velas, I heard you are very good at raising horses, dogs, and training falcons?"
"Yes, Your Highness," Velas bowed to Oberyn.
"Me too." Oberyn raised his hand and blew a sharp whistle, and then a hawk's cry was heard from the sky, followed by a huge hawk descending from the air and landing steadily on Oberyn's arm.
"What a beautiful Firefeather Bald Eagle!" Velas's eyes lit up; he walked up to Oberyn, carefully examined the large hawk on Oberyn's arm, repeatedly praised it, and reached out to touch the large hawk.
"Be careful." Oberyn knew how fierce his Firefeather Bald Eagle was; even his beloved would not be allowed to touch it, so he immediately warned Velas.
However, a scene that surprised Oberyn occurred: after Velas's hand touched his hawk, it did not retaliate against him; although the hawk showed a slight discomfort and shifted its body, it eventually accepted Velas's stroking.
Everyone else was surprised that Velas so easily tamed a hawk that already had an owner; only Linde knew that this might be related to the mysterious power in Velas that could create affinity with animals.
At this moment, a servant walked out from the garden, and upon seeing the group, went directly to Oberyn and said, "Lord Oberyn, the Lord Prince just asked why the guests have not arrived yet?"
"I know." Oberyn looked impatiently at the servant, then turned back to Linde and said, "It's still the same as before, everyone else can go in, but you absolutely cannot."
Linde said in a deep voice, "Lord Oberyn, do you think if I really wanted to do something, the people here could stop me? What difference does it make whether I'm outside or inside?"
Oberyn, as if deliberately trying to make things difficult for Linde, pointed to Glory and said, "There's a difference; at least the people inside will be more comfortable and won't be scared by your pet."
Linde said nothing more, turning to look at Velas, who pondered for a moment, then turned to Linde and the other knights and guards and said, "All of you stay outside, I'll go in alone."
"My Lord..." Everyone's expressions changed slightly, wanting to persuade Velas.
"Don't say anything." Velas interrupted their persuasion, turned to signal the Dornish guards, and then walked alone into the archway.
Seeing Velas's reaction, Oberyn's face also showed surprise, and he couldn't help but say, "It's truly incredible that a wild boar can emerge from a group of domestic pigs."
Everyone present knew who Oberyn's harsh words were directed at, and their faces all became extremely ugly; one by one, they glared angrily at Oberyn, and Gals Hightower even placed his hand on the longsword at his waist, as if he would draw his sword if Oberyn didn't apologize.
Facing these angry gazes, Oberyn didn't care at all; instead, he provocatively embraced his mistress and looked disdainfully at the knights.
Being mocked like this, the knights and guards were naturally extremely indignant and all expressed their desire to duel Oberyn in a martial arts tournament.
Oberyn did not look at these knights and guards, but instead turned to Linde, as if asking Linde if he wouldn't intervene and take control.
However, Linde had no intention of interfering in this matter; instead, he turned and found the shade of a tree to sit under, and Glory also leaned close to Linde, pressing against Linde's Lost Knight's Greatsword, enjoying the coolness transmitted from the Greatsword, dispelling the Dornish heat around them.
Seeing that Linde had no intention of stopping him, Oberyn no longer held back; although it was not appropriate to kill these knights from The Reach, teaching them a lesson and letting them know the strength of Dornish warriors was not a big problem.
So, Oberyn had his mistress stand aside, then casually took a spear from a Dornish warrior, walked to the small plaza in front of the estate, and very casually beckoned to Gals and the others.
Although the knights were very angry and extremely disgusted with Oberyn, they still retained a shred of rationality and would not do anything dishonorable like ganging up on Oberyn; so, one of the knights from House Appleton of Applewood in The Reach stepped forward first, stood opposite Oberyn, and challenged him.
This knight was somewhat well-known in The Reach; he was the heir to the Baron of Applewood and a regular at various martial arts tournaments; although he had never won a martial arts tournament championship, he was recognized as a powerful knight.
However, this powerful knight was no match for Oberyn; Oberyn easily dodged every attack from the knight as if toying with him, and only when the knight was exhausted did he use his spear to knock him unconscious.
After dealing with this knight, Oberyn had no intention of resting and challenged the other knights and guards again.
And so, including Gals, the knights and guards from The Reach successively stepped forward to fight Oberyn, and ultimately, without exception, all were defeated by Oberyn's spear; only Gals was able to exchange a few blows with Oberyn, and was not knocked unconscious by Oberyn, merely having his longsword knocked to the ground.
Having dueled so many people at once, Oberyn was also a bit out of breath, needing to lean on his spear to stand steadily; the surrounding Dornish warriors all looked at Oberyn with admiration, and if the occasion hadn't been unsuitable, they might have already cheered the Red Viper's name.
Oberyn's face also showed a triumphant expression; he turned and raised an eyebrow at his mistress, whose face was flushed from the recent battle, as if strongly refuting her earlier comment about him being listless lately.
However, his triumph quickly faded when his gaze fell on Linde, and he found the recent battle quite dull; after all, having experienced Linde's power, fighting these ordinary knights no longer brought him much excitement.
However, he had not considered challenging Linde now, because he knew very well Linde's current strength, which was probably much greater than it was in Tengshi Town back then; challenging Linde now would only deflate the morale he had just boosted among the Dornish warriors.
"How boring!" Oberyn threw the spear in his hand back to the Dornish guard, instructed the guard to send the knights from The Reach on the ground to the estate for treatment, then he gestured to his mistress, telling her to return to the garden first, while he himself walked over and sat beside Linde, his gaze falling on the other Lost Knight's Greatsword by Linde's hand, and asked curiously, "May I take a look?"
Linde unfastened the Greatsword and handed it to the Red Viper, a mysterious smile on his face; he also wanted to see what reaction the Red Viper would have when touching the Lost Knight's Greatsword.
"Is this dragon bone?" The Red Viper recognized what the hilt was made of at a glance, and he was even more curious about the appearance of the sword blade, given that the hilt could be made from dragon bone.
With strong curiosity, the Red Viper reached out and grasped the hilt, but the moment his hand touched the hilt, he immediately let go, and at the same time looked at Linde with a shocked expression.
"What's going on?" The Red Viper looked at his slightly numb fingers and asked in a deep voice.
Linde could clearly feel that after the Red Viper touched the Lost Knight's Greatsword, what was activated was not the Dragon Rune that generated freezing power, but the Dragon Rune that generated lightning power.
Since obtaining the Lost Knight's Greatsword, only the Dragon Rune of freezing power on the Greatsword had been active; as for the other two Dragon Runes, they seemed to be in a dormant state and had not been activated.
Because of this, when he was slaying those Ironborn in the Starry Sept in Oldtown, he did not use any energy accumulated by the Dragon Runes, because he thought that perhaps the other Dragon Runes would only be activated after the energy of the Dragon Rune of freezing power accumulated to a certain extent.
What he did not expect was that the Dragon Rune representing lightning power was activated the moment the Red Viper touched the Greatsword, which made him suspect that the Red Viper possessed some special magical constitution.
"This is a magic sword." Linde did not hide it and told him truthfully.
"Magic sword?" The Red Viper sneered twice at Linde as if he had heard a joke, but seeing Linde's serious expression, he couldn't help but confirm, "Are you telling the truth?"
"Try again." Linde handed the Greatsword back, gesturing.
The Red Viper hesitated for a moment, then reached out and firmly grasped the hilt again; although his palm still felt a tingling sensation, he was mentally prepared beforehand and, suppressing the urge to let go, pulled the Greatsword out a little, and upon seeing the exposed part of the blade, the expression on his face also became interesting.
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