Not long ago, when the Wieber Family's reinforcements arrived, Joel received a raven from the Rowan Family. From it, he learned that the allied forces of the Rowan Family and the Oakheart Family had already crushed the bandits in Red Lake Forest. Just as Joel had predicted, the bandits were now retreating toward Firmhold, apparently intending to use a smuggling passage to slip into the mountainous outskirts of Corn City and hide there.
It was unclear whether this was intentional on the part of the Rowan and Oakheart families, but those bandits had only been routed—not annihilated. Their casualties were not heavy, and their main fighting strength remained largely intact. This would undoubtedly place enormous pressure on Joel's forces. For that reason, the raven specifically instructed Joel to focus on interception—drag the bandits down near Firmhold, and wait for the allied forces to arrive before encircling and exterminating them.
What the Rowan Family clearly had not anticipated was that, in order to wash away the suspicions clinging to them, the Wieber Family would bring all of their troops to support Joel. This gave Joel far more forces at his disposal than expected and also changed his original plan. He no longer intended to set up ambushes inside the forest. Instead, he chose a small valley that the bandits had to pass through during their retreat, planning to wipe them out through a frontal battle.
"You will take ten men and station yourselves at Goat-Horn Cliff. Set up a signal bonfire there. If any bandits pass through, light the bonfire and delay them as much as you can until we arrive with reinforcements." Inside Firmhold's council hall, Joel pointed at a crude map, tapping a conspicuous goat-horn mark as he gave the order to Lind.
Hearing this, Lind frowned. When he had previously surveyed the terrain, he had passed through Goat-Horn Cliff. It was the unavoidable route to the smuggling passage—only by passing through Goat-Horn Cliff could one reach the cliffside plank road carved into the sheer rock face.
Although Goat-Horn Cliff was indeed an excellent place for ambush and interception, it was located far behind the main battlefield. As long as nothing went wrong on the front lines, almost no bandits would be able to flee that far. No bandits meant no merits to be gained, and that naturally left him dissatisfied.
However, given the current circumstances, he could not openly oppose Joel's decision. He could only cautiously offer his own suggestion.
"I've already scouted the terrain there. It's not particularly difficult to defend. There's no need to assign men to me. Besides, those men aren't very strong to begin with, and they've never worked with me before. If we encounter enemies, they'd only become a burden. I can defend that place alone."
As soon as Lind spoke, everyone around him froze—including the knights of the Wieber Family. All eyes turned to Lind, faces filled with astonishment. They had heard of people complaining about having too few subordinates, but this was the first time they had ever heard someone actively refusing them.
Joel's knight squires merely felt that Lind was arrogant—perhaps even mad—while the Wieber Family's knights grew increasingly curious about Lind's background.
In fact, ever since Lind had been summoned by Joel to attend the pre-battle council, the Wieber Family had already begun to take notice of him. After all, in the entire council hall, everyone else was either a knight, a landed noble, or a knight squire. Only Lind stood out, dressed plainly like a commoner—it was impossible not to feel curious.
Faced with Lind's suggestion, Joel showed no unusual expression. He merely glanced at Lind coldly and said in a low voice, "And what makes you think you can stop fleeing bandits by yourself?"
Lind replied calmly, "I am a hunter. I know how to set traps. I don't think routed bandits will be harder to deal with than a mountain bear."
Joel studied Lind for a moment longer, then said nothing more. He nodded and accepted Lind's proposal.
Since he now knew his task, Lind felt there was no reason to stay in the council hall any longer. He turned, preparing to leave.
At that moment, Ael Morrison—the man Lind had previously knocked unconscious with a single punch—suddenly stepped forward and said, "Lord Joel, while I trust this hunter's abilities, he is still only one man. If bandits escape through the area he is guarding, then we will fail to completely wipe out the remnants of the Dragon Family. If word of this gets out, others may think we deliberately assigned only one person to such an important position in order to let the Dragon Family remnants escape. That could bring us considerable trouble."
Joel gave his squire an extra glance, a faint smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. Then he turned to Lind and said, "If anyone escapes from the position you are guarding, you will be wanted as an accomplice of the bandits. Knowing that, do you still intend to defend Goat-Horn Cliff alone?"
Everyone thought Lind would change his mind.
But Lind remained calm. He simply smiled at Joel, nodded once, said nothing, and walked out of the council hall.
"Hey, stop! You haven't—" Ael Morrison didn't understand Lind's meaning and tried to call him back.
"That's enough!" Joel snapped sharply. "This matter is settled. Instead of wasting your thoughts on such trivial people and matters, you'd do better to focus on the battle ahead." His gaze swept over his knight squires as he roared, "Your families sent you to me so that you could earn merit and make a name for yourselves. I do not want to see you turned into corpses and sent back to your families. Take this seriously, all of you. This is war—not some autumn hunt for pampered young masters and ladies. Do you understand?"
Joel's blunt scolding of his own squires in front of the Wieber Family instantly made the atmosphere in the hall turn solemn. No one spoke. It wasn't just the reprimanded squires who felt humiliated—even the Wieber Family's knights felt awkward.
Fortunately, Joel soon shifted the topic back to battlefield deployments, easing the tense mood in the hall.
Even so, although everyone appeared to be focused on the orders Joel was issuing, quite a few people—especially those from the Wieber Family—were still curious about Lind's identity and planned to ask Joel's squires about him later.
At this moment, Lind had already arrived at the leatherworker's workshop of the logistics unit. The leather craftsman who had previously followed a knight squire's orders to give Lind trouble immediately stood up when he saw Lind, hurriedly fetching the modified leather armor from the rack beside him.
"This set of leather armor has been modified according to your instructions. Please try it on and see if there's anything else that needs improvement," the leatherworker said, bowing deeply, his attitude far more respectful than before.
Lind took the armor and examined it. In addition to adjusting the size as requested, the craftsman had added thin iron plates to increase its defensive power. Lind tried it on and found that the plates did not interfere with his movements at all. When the upper and lower straps were fastened, the edges of the iron plates overlapped, reducing gaps and indirectly enhancing protection.
"Not bad. Very good." Lind nodded in satisfaction, then took out two Silver Stags and tossed them to the leatherworker. "Good work. This is your reward."
The leatherworker quickly accepted the coins, wiping sweat from his forehead.
Lind then asked, "I need some rope. Do you have any?"
"What thickness do you need, sir?" the leatherworker asked.
Lind gestured to indicate the thickness and length.
The leatherworker immediately turned around and brought out several bundles of hemp rope used for binding prisoners. "Will these do?"
"They will. Very good." Lind took the rope, gave it a tug, nodded in satisfaction, and handed over another Silver Stag.
The leatherworker hurriedly shook his head. "No, no! This is normal consumption. You don't need to pay for it."
Lind did not insist. He put the coin back into his pocket, slung the ropes over his shoulder, and strode out of the castle.
Once outside, Lind headed swiftly toward Goat-Horn Cliff. From the information Joel had revealed during the meeting, it wasn't hard to infer that the bandits fleeing from Red Lake Forest would likely reach the vicinity of Firmhold by early morning at the earliest. That meant he had only a single night to set up his traps.
The road at night was difficult to travel. Even though Lind had inherited the former owner's hunting experience and abilities, he still moved much slower than during the day. It took nearly twice as long for him to reach Goat-Horn Cliff.
Upon arrival, he didn't rest at all. Instead, he immediately began setting up various traps around the area. Fortunately, when he had scouted the terrain during the day, he had already considered the possibility of roaming bandits passing through here. He had marked suitable trap locations in advance and even collected materials while moving around nearby. This meant he didn't need to do anything extra—he simply followed the plan he had made earlier.
Working alone, he labored until midnight before all the traps were finally in place. Along the way, he also dealt with a lone wolf that had tried to ambush him.
There was a small mishap when handling the wolf's corpse—the smell of blood attracted other carnivores. Fortunately, he threw the body far enough away that none of them disturbed the traps he had set in the forest.
The fact that Lind's former self had once hunted a mountain bear using traps alone already proved how deadly his traps could be. This time, he also incorporated several jungle trap techniques he had seen on television in his previous life. Not only did this significantly increase the traps' lethality, it also made them extremely difficult to guard against.
Using traps to deal with enemies might feel somewhat dishonorable compared to winning glory through open combat, but for Lind at present, earning merit was the most important thing. As for reputation—he didn't need to worry about that for now.
After all, the titles of Bear Hunter and Dual-Sword Master had already brought him more fame than he could reasonably bear at his current status. Excessive fame would inevitably attract unnecessary trouble—just like Ael Morrison provoking him this time, which was likely caused by that very reputation.
So now, he needed to suppress his overly inflated notoriety a bit. Killing enemies with traps was a suitable method for that.
Of course, all of this depended on whether any bandits would actually escape the battlefield and take this smuggling route. That was something Lind couldn't predict—and evidently, Joel couldn't either.
Joel placing Lind in the rear was likely meant as an explanation to his knight squires. After all, one of them had been knocked unconscious in full view of everyone. Without some form of justification, the families behind those six squires would inevitably raise objections.
Over the past few days, Lind had come to see things clearly. Those six were less Joel's knight squires and more temporary placements from various noble families, sent to Joel to seize the opportunity presented by this campaign against the so-called "Dragon Family remnants" and earn military merit.
Under normal circumstances, a knight would have one squire. In special cases, there might be two or three—Ser Barristan the Bold, for example, once had three at the same time. But someone like Joel having six knight squires was virtually unheard of.
Though Joel's reputation was not small—he and Fortimo Cleone were known together as the Twin Blades of the Reach, and his swordsmanship had even earned praise from Barristan the Bold—his fame was largely limited to the Reach and its surrounding regions. Moreover, due to his status as a bastard, his standing was not particularly high. Forget six squires—even having three would be seen by many as arrogant and improper.
Given the intelligence Joel had displayed, there was no way he failed to see the drawbacks. Yet he still accepted all six squires, which clearly meant he had no choice in the matter and could only passively comply.
Furthermore, judging from Ael Morrison's skills, it wasn't hard to see that the six squires were, in fact, quite mediocre. They weren't even as capable as veteran foot soldiers, at best possessing some basic formal sword training. Bringing people of such strength onto the battlefield while keeping them close at hand was, in itself, highly peculiar.
However, Lind didn't dwell on any of this. To him, how others acted was unimportant. What mattered was whether he could seize the opportunity before him.
After setting up the traps, he chose a concealed spot as his ambush point. He gathered some damp branches to build a bonfire, added plant down and dry firewood as kindling, then sat down to wait as time passed.
During this time, he also pondered whether he could earn merit in this joint operation by the three lordly families to suppress the bandits. In his view, although he had been assigned to the rear and far from the main battlefield, it wasn't impossible for him to gain achievements.
If he were lucky enough that a straggler escaped from the front lines, then that person would almost certainly be an important figure among the bandits. Only someone important would know about this smuggling route, and only someone important would have the strength to break out of the encirclement.
In that case, even without fighting on the front lines, he could still earn considerable merit.
Lost in thought, time passed little by little. Aside from the sounds of animals moving about and the wind rustling through the trees, there was nothing else to be heard.
Lind did not force himself to stay awake. Instead, he regulated his breathing and entered short, shallow bouts of sleep at regular intervals, allowing him to maintain a clear and alert mind.
Whether it was good luck or bad, as the sky began to lighten and dawn approached, the area around Goat-Horn Cliff became shrouded in mist. Then, as a cold mountain wind swept down from the northern slopes, the fog turned into a chilly drizzle that fell over the forest. The dense rain mist severely limited ordinary visibility.
Even so, Lind's vision could still pierce through the rain and fog, allowing him to see black smoke rising in the distance.
It seemed that the battle on the front lines had already begun.
...
The fully completed English PDF of this fan-fic is now available on my Patreon shop.If you want to support my work and enjoy the entire story in one go, grab the PDF and binge-read it from start to finish without any breaks.
Patreon Shop:patreon.com /InkNovels
Here are a few fan-fic titles that I've recently uploaded on my Patreon:
"Game of Thrones: Dragon Prince"
"Game of Thrones: Political Life"
"Game of Thrones: Lannister Kingdom"
"Game of Thrones: Ruler of the Deep Seas "
" Game of Thrones: From the Elden Lord to the Young Wolf"
"Game of Thrones The Glory of a Knight"
(End Chapter)