After leaving Old Father Bain's tavern, Linde went straight back to his small cabin. Demonstrating swordsmanship in the tavern had already left him exhausted, and once he got home, all he wanted to do was lie down on the bed and rest properly.
However, the intense pain coming from his back made him realize that now was not the time to rest. He needed to adjust the position of the bandages so that the wound on his back wouldn't worsen.
Although using dual-wield sword techniques placed extra strain on his not-yet-recovered body and caused his back injury to deteriorate slightly, everything had been worth it. Things had developed exactly as he had planned. Now, all he needed to do was stay at home and wait for what came next.
Ever since he regained consciousness and learned that he had been reborn into a world similar to the Middle Ages, he had been constantly thinking about his future path.
Being an ordinary commoner was the first option he eliminated. Since he had been reborn once, there was no way he was willing to remain at the very bottom of society—especially when he possessed a cheat.
Becoming a merchant was also quickly ruled out. Whether in the East or the West, merchants generally did not enjoy high status or good treatment. Unless it was a specialized merchant city-state or country, merchants were little more than walking money bags.
Thus, becoming a noble in this medieval world became the only path he truly acknowledged. Over the following month or so, he carefully considered all kinds of ways to become a noble and devised numerous contingency plans for unexpected situations. After all, at the time he had been bedridden and unable to move—thinking was the only thing he could do.
Although this world was not exactly the Western medieval world he had imagined, but rather the world of Ice and Fire, the social systems of the two were not all that different. The methods he had conceived while lying in bed were still applicable.
That said, there were still some details that needed adjustment—adjustments that could help him obtain power and status more quickly. One such example was the tournament.
Originally, he had not included tournaments as part of his planned promotion path. As far as he knew, in true medieval settings only nobles were allowed to participate in tournaments. Those novel tropes where commoners don armor, conceal their identities, and win fame and fortune by secretly participating were basically impossible. They were nothing more than a novelist's fantasy. Every noble participating in a tournament would undergo strict identity checks—there was no possibility for commoners to take part.
But the tournaments of the Seven Kingdoms were different. Aside from the core knightly jousting events, there were also melee team battles and archery contests. The latter two allowed commoners to participate, and winning them could still earn honor and gold. While the rewards were far inferior to those of the joust, they were still excellent opportunities to make a name for oneself.
Once someone gained fame, it was possible to catch the eye of a great noble. By entering their service and earning some military merit, one could obtain the chance to be knighted. Even without joining a great noble, one could rely on reputation to become a squire to a knight, which likewise offered a path to knighthood.
Knights were the lowest tier of the noble system in the Seven Kingdoms. While becoming a knight did not yet count as becoming a noble, it was the very threshold—the stepping stone—toward nobility.
Of course, Linde had also considered other ways to become a noble. For example, using his knowledge to gain the favor of certain nobles, becoming a counselor or administrator under them, slowly earning their trust, and eventually being granted the title of landed knight.
But such a title was extremely unstable, offered almost no room for advancement, and made it virtually impossible to ever become a lord.
Littlefinger was the perfect example. He represented this type of court noble. Despite employing every scheme imaginable, he never truly became the lord he wanted to be. Even though he held the title of Lord of the Fingers, none of the nobles of the Vale treated him as a true lord. When he was killed, not a single Vale noble stood up for him. This showed just how fragile such courtly noble status really was.
At present, Linde was not worried about becoming a guard of Red Lake City. With Old Father Bain's involvement, this matter should be simple. Even without the dual-wield swordsmanship granted by his cheat, he could still become a guard.
What came after becoming a guard—how to accumulate enough merit, how to gain recognition and become a knight's squire, and then a knight—was the truly difficult stage. For ordinary commoners, this phase was nothing short of a complete transformation. And completing such a transformation required far more than just strength.
The best example was the sellsword Bronn. Despite his excellent skills, he remained a mere mercenary for a long time. Only after meeting Tyrion did he gain knighthood through a stroke of fortune. Thus, for ordinary people, strength was not the most important factor in becoming a knight. The most important thing was finding someone who could provide an opportunity for advancement. And in Linde's eyes, House Crane clearly lacked such conditions.
In his previous life, while browsing A Song of Ice and Fire forums, Linde had read an analysis article about the major and minor lords of the Reach. That article also analyzed House Crane—a family that was practically transparent in both the original novel and the TV series.
The analysis wasn't extensive. In the end, it could be summarized in just two words: dependence. In this dependent state, House Crane had to watch the mood of the Florent family for a very long time. Gaining power and status through House Crane was basically impossible.
However, this didn't mean House Crane was completely useless. In fact, there was one aspect Linde could exploit—Fortimo Crane, a collateral branch member of House Crane. Linde didn't know his current situation, but he could be sure of one thing: Fortimo would eventually become the master-at-arms of Highgarden. If Linde could latch onto this connection, he could establish ties with House Tyrell. That would greatly increase his chances of becoming a knight.
As he thought through all this, Linde's hands never stopped moving. He casually picked up two wooden sticks from beside the bed, roughly the same thickness and length as arming swords. Then he tossed a cloth bundle—tied up with fabric and placed near his pillow—into the air. Using rapid movements of his wrists, arms, and forearms, he executed dual-wield sword techniques, striking the falling bundle and keeping it bouncing in the air without letting it touch the ground.
Ever since half a month ago, when Linde was able to sit up in bed and move his hands again, he had been using this method to train and familiarize himself with the dual-wield swordsmanship granted by his cheat.
Although the cheat had flooded his mind with a massive amount of combat experience and techniques, that didn't mean he had truly mastered them. He still needed extensive practice to fully internalize them.
The cheat he gained after rebirth was the source of his confidence—the reason he believed he could carve out a future in this world. While it wasn't as overpowered as the cheats found in some novels, it was more than sufficient for him.
His cheat mainly consisted of two things. Or rather, more accurately, one was a cheat, and the other was a talent that came with rebirth.
For some unknown reason—perhaps due to a mutation caused by the fusion of two souls during rebirth—his physical constitution and mental perception had become somewhat inhuman.
For example, his self-healing ability was strong enough to allow someone with a nearly severed spine to recover within just over a month. As for ordinary flesh wounds, they would heal completely within a day or two. This alone would greatly increase his chances of survival in future wars.
Of course, this self-healing wasn't without flaws. The biggest drawback was its massive consumption of food and supplements to sustain the recovery process. Most of the expenses during his month and a half of recuperation had gone into this. In that sense, it still obeyed the law of conservation of energy.
Aside from self-healing, all of his senses had been enhanced to an unbelievable degree. His heightened hearing allowed him to clearly hear the sound of tiny insects flying outside the house. His vision was sharp enough to see dust motes drifting through the air.
At the very beginning, this enhancement of perception was pure torment for him. Lying in bed, unable to move, he had to spend most of his time learning to control these suddenly amplified senses.
Compared to his self-healing and sensory enhancement, the improvement in his basic physical attributes—strength and agility—seemed rather ordinary. They remained within the range of a normal person and still required training to improve. The only advantage was that the results of training were extremely direct.
This "directness" was literal. While training, he could see an energy bar representing his physical attributes slowly increasing. Although the increments were tiny, they provided valuable reference data, allowing him to adjust his training methods based on the rate of increase.
This energy bar came from his rebirth cheat—a system based on the game For Honor, but modified beyond recognition.
Calling it "beyond recognition" was no exaggeration. The only connection it still had to For Honor was the hero models and ability settings. Even then, the heroes were incomplete—only the nine heroes from the Knight faction existed.
The ability granted by the cheat was simple. By selecting the illusion of a corresponding hero in his mind, he could directly obtain that hero's combat techniques. However, he could only select one hero at a time. To choose another, he needed to fill the energy bar through training.
Because he had been in a semi-conscious state when making his choice—his body wracked with pain and his mind muddled—he hadn't thought it through at all. He had treated the cheat as a lifeline, believing that choosing a hero illusion would instantly restore his body, like leveling up and healing in a game.
Instead, not only did his body fail to recover, but the massive influx of knowledge left his mind in a constant fog for several days, as if he had been drugged.
It was only after he fully regained clarity and began organizing the knowledge injected into his mind that he realized he had chosen incorrectly.
Under normal circumstances, Linde would have chosen either the Warden or the Conqueror, as these two heroes were the most knight-like, and their combat techniques were true knightly arts.
Yet he had chosen the Peacekeeper—a hero whose fighting style resembled that of a dual-wield assassin. He even tried to accept only the combat techniques while ignoring the dual-wield setting, using a single sword to execute the Peacekeeper's techniques. The result was intense discomfort. The techniques became awkward and stiff, as if he had never mastered them at all.
This made Linde realize that while his cheat was powerful, it also came with certain restrictions.
Although he wasn't particularly satisfied with the Peacekeeper's dual-wield swordsmanship, it was sufficient for his current situation. What he needed to do was fully recover physically, then strengthen his basic attributes so that he would have enough stamina and strength to use the techniques properly—instead of being completely out of breath after less than a minute of execution, like just now.
Over the next half month, Linde spent every day familiarizing himself with the Peacekeeper's dual-wield swordsmanship as much as possible. Whenever he had time, he would stroll through the village, then head to Old Father Bain's tavern and sit in a secluded corner, listening to the conversations of passing patrons to gather as much information as he could.
Although White Village wasn't a large settlement, its location was extremely special. It lay precisely at the junction of Oakenshield City, Red Lake City, and Goldengrove. Merchant caravans and travelers from all three cities had to pass through White Village to reach other destinations. As a result, the tavern never lacked customers, and all kinds of news could be heard there.
For instance, the most discussed topic recently was King Robert's plan to hold a grand tournament in King's Landing to celebrate the birth of his first child, Joffrey. As the first tournament hosted by the Baratheon dynasty, its significance was extraordinary. The scale would undoubtedly be massive, with knights from all Seven Kingdoms gathering in King's Landing.
However, compared to events in distant King's Landing, the people in the tavern were more concerned about matters closer to home—such as the bandit problem.
Although the War of the Usurper had ended nearly a year ago, its negative consequences lingered. The supporters of House Targaryen had not been completely eradicated. Many had fled into the mountains and forests after their defeat, mixing with wildling tribes and occasionally emerging to raid and plunder.
As the second most prosperous region in the Seven Kingdoms, the Reach not only had vast farmlands but also extensive forests—perfect places to hide. The Red Lake Forest was one of them.
Half a month ago, a group of bandits claiming to be remnants of House Targaryen had drifted into the Red Lake Forest and established a stronghold. They specialized in ambushing merchant caravans that took shortcuts through the forest. Four or five caravans had already fallen victim to them, resulting in over a hundred casualties. Among the dead was a collateral member of House Rowan of Goldengrove.
As a result, House Rowan was sending people to coordinate with House Crane of Red Lake City and House Oakheart of Oakenshield City to jointly clear out the bandits in the Red Lake Forest.
(End of Chapter)