Linde becoming the captain of the cavalry squad caused a small stir within House Tyrell's camp. Setting aside those who had remained in King's Landing a year ago alongside Duke Mace Tyrell, nearly everyone who had come from Highgarden this time was somewhat surprised by Linde's promotion.
After all, not long ago Linde had been demoted from a knight's squire to the scout unit. Yet in just a little over half a month, he had once again become Lord Fotimo Klenne's squire—and had even obtained a position of real authority as the captain of a cavalry squad. It was truly hard to believe.
That said, those who had witnessed Linde's strength knew very well that his return to serving Lord Fotimo was only a matter of time. Even if the process was a bit fast, the outcome itself was not beyond expectations.
However, compared to caring about Linde becoming a cavalry captain, what people were far more concerned about was the news that he was forming a cavalry squad.
Though both were soldiers, the difference between cavalry and infantry was like that between commoners and nobles. Infantrymen had to prepare even their own weapons, while cavalrymen were issued horses, armor, and weapons by House Tyrell—not to mention their pay.
So when word spread that Linde was forming a cavalry squad, many people took the initiative to seek him out, hoping to join.
Faced with this situation, Linde did not hesitate at all. He directly selected ten men from among the guard soldiers. In just a few minutes, he exercised the authority Fotimo had given him to choose his men, leaving no opportunity for bribery whatsoever.
Many people secretly mocked Linde for being foolish—unable to even make use of such a great opportunity to make money. Some of those who were not selected also questioned the qualifications of the men he chose, because all of them were the same people who had gone hunting in the Kingswood with him some time ago. They were all former hunters with superb archery skills, but the problem was that none of them could ride horses. They lacked even the most basic qualifications to be cavalry.
This led many to believe that Linde had made such a mistake simply due to inexperience. Some were even waiting to see him make a fool of himself. After all, Linde had been enjoying too much limelight lately, which had already caused some dissatisfaction. As for Garlan and the others, they did not care at all. In their eyes, even if Linde's cavalry squad ran into problems, it would be nothing more than a normal expense for cultivating him.
As for Linde himself, he had no intention of explaining anything. After selecting his men, he immediately led them that very day to receive their equipment and horses, then began training in horsemanship on a relatively secluded open ground far from the Lion Gate.
After training, he even paid out of his own pocket to take his subordinates to drink at taverns in the dock district near Mud Gate. In just a few short days, his relationship with his men had grown much closer.
With the arrival of Duke Tywin Lannister, the banquet for Prince Joffrey, the king's heir, was held on schedule. Garlan, Fotimo, and the others went early to the Rose family's temporary residence in the city, accompanying Duke Mace Tyrell to attend the Red Keep banquet.
With the pressure lifted, the people in the camp relaxed considerably. Many even ran over to the tourney grounds to watch the excitement.
Although the official tourney would not begin until the next day, the grounds were already crowded with free knights from all over. Most of them were unknown, had no lands or property, and could not find employment with nobles. They could only seek fame through the tourney to find themselves a suitable lord.
All things considered, Linde was already doing quite well. He had smoothly become Fotimo's squire, earned Garlan Tyrell's regard, and joined House Tyrell. As long as nothing went wrong, he would certainly become a Tyrell knight in the future. With some military achievements, becoming a landed knight would not be a problem.
However, among the knights participating in the tourney, not all had come solely for fame. Some were entirely here for the generous prize money.
After all, in other places, a tourney with a prize of ten thousand gold dragons was already considered very good. But Robert Baratheon was extremely martial and loved tourneys. In the year of his ascension alone, he held three of them—one for his coronation, one for his wedding to Duke Tywin's daughter Cersei, and a third when Cersei became pregnant. Each of these tourneys offered a champion's prize of twenty thousand gold dragons, with substantial rewards even for second and third place.
This tourney celebrating the Baratheon dynasty's new heir had been publicized months in advance, and the announced champion's prize had reached a shocking fifty thousand gold dragons. Such an enormous sum was enough to draw not only knights from all across Westeros, but even from Essos, all rushing eagerly to King's Landing.
Someone counted it—over a thousand knights had already registered for this King's Landing tourney. This did not even include archers and warriors participating in the archery contests and melee events. If they were counted as well, the number would double. Some people even said that the scale of this tourney absolutely surpassed any tourney ever held in Westeros.
With so many warriors flooding into King's Landing, maintaining order was undoubtedly an enormous challenge. The City Watch numbered only a little over a thousand men in total, nowhere near enough to keep an eye on so many battle-hardened fighters. Thus, Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King, ordered that all tourney participants were forbidden from entering the city itself and could only stay outside the walls—completely tossing the trouble beyond the gates.
With so many energetic warriors packed together, conflicts were inevitable. Every day, disputes erupted outside the King's Gate and along the slums by the Blackwater River. Bloody fights and killings were common.
The City Watch's job was simply to wait until the fighting ended, then go collect the bodies—confiscating any remaining valuables on them as fines. If someone claimed the body, they paid a fee to take it away. If no one did, the corpse was tossed directly into the Blackwater River to drift into Blackwater Bay and feed the fish.
Previously, conflicts in the slums were limited to ordinary soldiers. But in the past two days, the disputes at the tourney grounds had escalated into clashes between knights.
Before the official jousts, knights needed to inspect the field—especially measuring its width and length with their own strides, based on their horses' size. This allowed them to find the right rhythm during a lance charge and calculate the precise moment to strike in order to hit their opponent accurately.
However, the official inspection time before the tourney was mainly reserved for knights sponsored by great nobles. Ordinary knight participants had no such privilege, so they had to measure the field in advance.
Even though the field might be adjusted once the tourney began, for these free knights, measuring something was still better than nothing—at least it provided some psychological comfort.
The problem was that the field was only so large, yet nearly a thousand knights rushed in all at once to measure it. No one wanted to wait, and thus conflicts arose.
So in these past two days, the tourney grounds had already seen duel after duel. Such spectacles were rare in ordinary times. As a result, guards from various noble camps who had nothing better to do all came early to the area, waiting eagerly for the show to begin.
When Linde and his men arrived near the grounds, it was already quite late. Because of their horsemanship training, they reached the tourney grounds close to dusk. From the conversations around them, they learned that more than a dozen fights had already occurred during the day over the order of measuring the field. Two free knights had even died in the clashes. Both were younger sons of minor nobles, and their deaths in King's Landing caused no ripples at all.
Although night had fallen, the spectators were still not satisfied. They took the initiative to gather firewood and light the braziers around the tourney grounds, illuminating the entire field so that knights who had not yet measured could continue to fight for the chance—and so they could keep watching the excitement.
After arriving near the grounds, Linde and his subordinates were quickly scattered by the dense, bustling crowd—or rather, Linde deliberately used the flow of people to separate himself from his men.
Once he could no longer see them, he quickly squeezed out of the crowd and followed the small islets along the Blackwater's bank, heading toward the fish market harbor outside Mud Gate.
Using the opportunities from the past two days of treating his men to drinks here, he had quietly familiarized himself with the surrounding area and located the special warehouse in the dock district.
This warehouse was situated to one side of Mud Gate, right up against the city wall. On the other side of the wall was a City Watch guard post. Though separated by a wall, if anything happened at the warehouse, the gold cloaks in the guard post would immediately be mobilized, circle around the gate, and arrive here within just a few minutes.
The warehouse was used by several major merchants to store relatively valuable goods. Normally, it was guarded by their own caravan guards. But this time, those responsible for the warehouse's security included not only merchant guards, but also gold cloaks from the City Watch. This made many people curious about what exactly was being stored inside.
Linde was one of those curious people. In fact, a few days earlier, after hearing from Littlefinger at Toad's Pumpkin about his smuggling operation, Linde had already become interested in these goods that were treated with such importance—and a small thought had taken root in his mind. His recent hospitality had been preparation for this very matter.
The reason he chose to act today was that once the tourney began tomorrow, Mace Tyrell would leave his comfortable house in the city and stay with the other great nobles in the camp tents outside the walls until the tourney ended. At that point, Linde would be responsible for camp security and would have no time for anything else.
Moreover, while Linde was curious about the warehouse's contents, he was not someone who would recklessly pursue secrets at any cost. If he could satisfy his curiosity without affecting himself, he would do so. But if things became difficult—if he was not confident in entering and leaving silently—he would not take the risk.
When the warehouse was first built, its designers had likely considered security. A large open area had been left around it, and torches were installed, allowing guards to clearly see anyone approaching even late at night.
The idea was good, but over time, even the best plans changed. Later generations built warehouses over the originally open space to increase storage capacity. The carefully arranged guard points were abandoned, leaving only a low wall around the warehouse—one even a child could climb over—along with two guards at the entrance and some patrols circling the area.
The small tavern Linde had been drinking at these past two days was directly across the street from this warehouse. Though it was just a low thatched-roof building, and one could not see inside the wall from a window seat, Linde still used his extraordinary hearing to discern the number of patrols and their general routes inside and outside the warehouse.
He also learned the City Watch's patrol schedule. Although Janos Slynt had promised Littlefinger to protect the goods inside, having taken the money, he clearly did not take the matter seriously. He did not station men to guard the warehouse alongside Littlefinger's people, merely dispatching a few patrols to pass through the area at irregular intervals.
Having fully grasped the patrol patterns, Linde waited for a while in a shadowed corner outside the warehouse. Once the patrol for that time slot passed, he swiftly and nimbly vaulted over the warehouse wall, landing inside. His body then darted toward the nearest warehouse wall like some kind of feline, climbing effortlessly using uneven planks to reach the roof. He lay flat against it and crawled soundlessly across the rooftop, like a four-legged lizard.
Although Linde now stood nearly one point nine eight meters tall, his build more than twice as imposing as when he was in White Village—looking like an upright bear—after fully integrating the Peacemaker's combat experience into himself, his agility had not diminished at all. It far exceeded that of ordinary people.
Relying on this agility, Linde reached Littlefinger's warehouse roof without alerting a single guard.
He slowly moved to the roof's edge near the wall, flipped over, and hooked his fingers onto protrusions in the stone. His feet found small footholds as he gradually lowered himself to a high window on the second floor of the warehouse wall.
He drew a dagger and slid it into the window seam, shifting it left and right until he found the latch. Little by little, he pried it up, smoothly opening the window and peering inside.
Several oil lamps hung inside the warehouse, casting a dim light. Torches were likely avoided out of fear of fire.
For safety, guards had been posted inside—but it hardly mattered. The man on duty was already drunk. Judging from the empty bottles on the table, he had drunk quite a lot and was sleeping soundly. The entire warehouse echoed with snoring.
Even though the guard posed no threat, Linde remained extremely careful. He lifted the wooden window slightly and squeezed his massive body through inch by inch, entering the warehouse.
Once inside, he lowered the window partway, then grabbed the beam overhead and moved slowly along it until he reached the second-floor railing. Standing on the sturdy railing, he avoided the loose, creaking floorboards and made his way to where the goods were stored.
The entire warehouse had been rented out by Littlefinger, so it did not take him long to find the cargo.
...
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(End Chapter)