Upon reading this, Sir Adam stopped. He raised his head, his cloudy eyes filled with shock.
He looked at Jero Legge, only to find the latter staring back at him with equally shocked eyes.
The knights around the tomb were silent, the crackling of burning torches sounding exceptionally harsh.
A young knight stammered, "No... we can't listen anymore!"
"This... this is the heretical ravings of a madman!"
Sir Adam's fingers trembled slightly, and he somewhat regretted opening it, but he still curiously turned to the next page.
The handwriting on this page began to become messy and frantic, as if the writer was in an extremely agitated and excited state, with many inkblots seeping through the paper.
Sir Adam's dry lips moved as he continued to read the mad ramblings of the deceased.
"I saw hell, Flea Bottom, I saw children rummaging for food in decaying garbage heaps, their eyes devoid of light.
I saw mothers selling their bodies just for a piece of black bread that would allow their children to live one more day."
"Yet, just a few streets away, in the noble district, the food that those nobles used for plate decorations would be enough for a hundred such families to survive the entire winter."
Jero Legge let out a chuckle, drawing everyone's attention: "A sentimental fool, the world is just like this."
He waved his hand, "We are nobles! This is the right given to us by the Seven Gods!"
Sir Adam ignored him and continued to read, his voice seemingly conveying the diary owner's confusion and pain.
"I repeatedly asked myself, is this the world I swore to protect with my life? Is this the oath knights make? Is this what followers of the Seven Gods do?"
"No, it's all lies."
"I went to my brothers, and they said I was thinking too much, that this was the rule of the world, and the weak should be trampled underfoot."
"My elder brother rebuked me, saying that the duty of our Stinkfort Family was to obey, not to question."
"But I could no longer deceive myself, my eyes saw it, and my heart saw it, they had already forgotten."
"Forgotten that our father and we, before this, were also as lowly as them."
"My brothers rejected me, and I walked aimlessly through Flea Bottom, lost and disheartened."
"Until I saw a group of people, they were gathered around a shabbily dressed person, that person was as thin as a dry stick, but his eyes held fire."
"People called him the Shepherd."
Jero's movements paused for a moment; he seemed to have seen that name in a corner of some history book.
Sir Adam's voice became even deeper, as if reciting a forbidden incantation.
"The Shepherd's voice was soft, yet it struck the heart of everyone present like a war drum."
"He said, 'Dragons are demons from Valyria! They should not exist in this land!' He also said, 'Nobles are parasites attached to the common people! They suck our blood! And they gnaw on our bones!'"
"Who starves our children? Who shames our wives? It's the dragons! It's the Targaryens! It's those high and mighty nobles! We don't need dragons! We don't need nobles! We only need to take back what belongs to us!"
"I was dressed in the attire of a noble's squire, my status should have made those people scatter in terror, but they only looked at me, and I stood there, my feet as if nailed to the mud, because every word he spoke was a truth I had witnessed with my own eyes."
Everyone fell into a brief silence, only the crackling of the torches could be heard, as they were terrified of the increasingly treasonous words this madman was about to utter.
Jero Legge, however, suddenly found the story interesting; he remembered who that Shepherd was, and he wanted to hear the end of the story, urging the old knight to continue: "Read on."
"I made my decision."
"I will become the Shepherd's guard, using the weapon in my hand to protect those truly pure commoners favored by the Seven Gods."
"I took off the noble attire that symbolized lies and put on the simplest linen clothes."
"I found the Shepherd in a filthy cellar, crowded with his followers."
"There were blacksmiths, bakers, prostitutes, and beggars... they looked at me not with fear, but with scrutiny, I was their brother and sister."
"The Shepherd was not a madman; he said he had measured the entire Westeros with his own feet and saw only oppression and lies."
"He told me that the world of the Seven Kingdoms' nobles was built upon lies, and that the lies must be destroyed to build a new one on the ruins."
"The people came before the Red Keep, they only begged the Queen to be merciful, not to levy such heavy taxes, not to send their sons to war anymore."
"They had no weapons, only humble pleas, begging for the war to stop."
"Then, the dragon came."
"The Queen sent out her golden dragon, Syrax; it descended from the sky like a burning sun, dragonfire engulfed the crowd at the front, men, women, and children... they instantly turned to charcoal, without even time to scream."
"I looked at those charred bodies, among them was an old woman who had once given me a bowl of water, and a little girl who always smiled at me; at that moment, Fallo of Dreadfort died, that naive fool who believed in chivalry, burned to ashes along with those innocents."
Jero, hearing this, found it even more amusing, and a playful smile appeared on his face: "So, this fool, he's going to betray."
The graveyard was silent, the wind whistled, a knight squeezed his clothes, and the old knight turned to the next page.
"I told my elder brother my decision, and he angrily punched me, questioning if I was going to betray the family, betray our surname,
betray our oath."
"I told him, 'No, I will follow my conscience.'"
"I left the squire's sword and the family crest on the bed; all I took was a commoner's clothes and a resolute heart. From that day on, I became a follower of the Shepherd, a traitor in the eyes of the nobles."
"I began to teach those commoners how to fight, how to pierce a soldier in leather armor with a pitchfork, how to smash a person's helmet with an iron hammer; I used the knowledge I had learned from being around nobles to teach every commoner to fight."
"The Shepherd said, 'Be patient, Fallo, let the anger continue to build, let the hatred fully ferment; one day, all of King's Landing will be judged by fire, and we only need to wait for that spark.'"
"The spark came, Queen Helaena died, and all of King's Landing was engulfed in flames."
Sir Adam's voice began to tremble; it had arrived, he seemed to see that bloody night, the King's Landing riot.
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