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In the middle stretch between Riverrun and the crossroads, on the south bank of a bend in the Trident, stood an inn with a distinctive shape. Its long, low wings stretched out over the river as if to embrace passing travelers.
The inn's lower level was built of solid gray stone, while the upper level was made of whitewashed timber. Slate tiles covered its roof.
The sign over the inn's door depicted a king bending the knee. This inn was called the Inn of the Kneeling Man. It had a long history and had witnessed an important moment.
Today, the inn was bustling. Its stable was already packed full of warhorses. In the courtyard, beneath a pavilion wrapped in green vines, Crey was speaking quietly with Brynden.
"Lord Brynden, Tywin Lannister chose this place for the prisoner exchange... is he trying to humiliate us?
"After all, this Inn of the Kneeling Man was where Torrhen Stark, the King Who Knelt, surrendered to Aegon the Conqueror."
"You are right. He specifically included the exchange location in the terms. Apart from humiliation, he may also be implying to the other nobles that the King in the North will eventually bend the knee."
Hearing Crey's words, Brynden nodded and stated his thoughts with an expressionless face.
"Do you think the Lannisters might use this exchange as bait? Perhaps they have already laid a trap nearby."
Crey lifted his head and looked around, speaking with some concern.
"Heh. No wonder His Grace Robb told me you were too cautious and suspicious.
"Relax. I have already sent people to search every inch of ground nearby. Moreover, if the Lannisters truly did that, I would be glad.
"They would be openly trampling noble dignity and violating basic noble tradition. Every noble in Westeros would despise them."
Looking at Crey's wary appearance, Brynden gave a rare chuckle and spoke in a relaxed tone.
"Lord Brynden, Lord Crey, they are here!"
Crey was about to speak after hearing Brynden when a northern soldier hurried over from the inn's gate, saluted, and reported.
Hearing the soldier's report, Brynden turned directly and entered the inn, ordering the northern soldiers guarding the prisoners to bring them out.
Clatter, clatter!
The broad-shouldered Lord Leo Lefford of the Golden Tooth walked out of the inn first, wearing manacles and fetters. Behind him were seven unbound Lannister prisoners, all captured when Robb took Casterly Rock.
Only two of them were members of the main line: Kevan Lannister's children, Martyn Lannister and Janei Lannister. The other five were collateral kin.
When Brynden and Crey brought the prisoners to the inn's gate, Kevan and Patrek were waiting quietly on horseback. Behind them were more than a hundred Lannister cavalry and eight prison wagons filled with prisoners.
"Janei! Martyn!"
Seeing his children, Kevan immediately dismounted and rushed toward Brynden and the others.
The northern soldiers responsible for guarding the prisoners saw him rush straight over and prepared to draw their swords to stop him. But after Brynden shook his head at them, they allowed Kevan to rush into the Lannister prisoners.
Janei was Kevan's youngest daughter and had just turned two years old. During her captivity, she had always been cared for by Martyn, who was more than ten years older than her. The father stepped forward in a few strides, took Janei from Martyn's arms, and kept kissing her cheek.
Giggle, giggle!
The young Janei seemed tickled by Kevan's beard and let out a milky laugh.
"Heh, Blackfish. If you are not too fond of me to let me go, hurry and get these troublesome things off me."
Seeing everyone's gaze focus on Kevan and his daughter, Lord Leo growled at Brynden and indicated the manacles and fetters on his body.
Brynden nodded to a northern soldier beside him. The soldier understood, took out a key, and unlocked Lord Leo's chains.
"Our prisoners have all been released. Hurry and bring Lord Edmure and the others out."
Seeing their own side release the prisoners, Patrek immediately shouted to the Lannister soldiers behind him.
Creak!
The Lannister soldier captain saw Kevan, holding his daughter, nod to him. He immediately waved for his men to open the prison wagons. Edmure and dozens of his personal guards jumped down from the eight opened wagons.
"Edmure!"
Seeing Edmure regain his freedom, Brynden also stepped forward quickly, embraced his nephew, and asked, "Did you suffer?"
"No, Uncle."
Hearing his answer, Brynden leaned back slightly and carefully examined his nephew. Just as Edmure had said, he was clean from head to toe, with a healthy complexion and no trace of torture or abuse.
Brynden then looked at the dozens of personal guards behind Edmure, who were also energetic and in good condition. He spoke with deeper meaning. "It seems Tywin treated the prisoners properly."
"Indeed. Although he is an enemy, I must say he is truly a noble who upholds courtesy and honor."
Edmure remembered how he had been treated during this time and nodded in sincere agreement.
"A model noble..."
The prisoner exchange proceeded smoothly. After it was completed without incident, the two groups went their separate ways, one east and one west.
Watching Edmure speak closely with his good friend Patrek, Brynden turned and exchanged a glance with Crey. The question that had risen in his mind when he first learned the exchange conditions appeared again.
A lord of the Golden Tooth with an heir, plus seven Lannister members who were not close to Tywin, in exchange for Riverrun's only heir and dozens of elite personal guards.
Did Tywin truly value his subordinates and family members so much, or did he have some other purpose?
In Winterfell's godswood, the heart tree replaced by Leaf had unfortunately withered and died once again.
Whine, whine!
Cheerful animal growls sounded through the woods. The Wolfguard were using the method Robb had taught them to build bonds with their direwolves.
Unlike Robb and Bloodwind, the Wolfguard did not possess the close connection granted by the blood pact. If they wanted to form combat strength as quickly as possible, the first step was building intimacy.
After the direwolf pack, which had been kept in the kennels, came out for the first time, the wolves happily played with their Wolfguard partners. The Wolfguard also fed them dried meat from time to time, and their closeness increased almost visibly.
"Your Grace, Lord Sam's side is ready."
Gendry appeared from the other side of the godswood and jogged to Robb, who was observing the Wolfguard, reporting quietly.
"Mm. I will go now."
Seeing that this side basically did not require his attention, Robb took Gendry and headed to the other side of the godswood.
After walking for roughly ten minutes, Robb saw Bloodwind, Sam, Dacey, Leaf, and the others in a clearing deep in the godswood.
Before them stood a small wooden table holding various materials. Leaf was using both hands to work a ball of wet soil.
Today, Leaf was going to make explosive fruits. In order to test their power on site, Robb had deliberately chosen this clearing as the location.
"Begin."
Out of caution, Robb did not approach them. He simply waved and called from a distance.
Seeing Robb signal, Sam immediately said to Leaf, who looked like a little girl, "His Grace is here. Begin making it."
"It is already done."
Hearing Sam's words, Leaf turned around and held up a black mud ball she had already kneaded into a round shape.
Sam and Dacey exchanged stunned looks.
Although Leaf had had her back to the two of them, they had roughly seen her movements. She seemed to have grabbed several kinds of grass from the table, chopped them, put them into wet soil, and then kneaded the soil into a round ball.
"This is an explosive fruit. It can be used only after the soil has dried in the sun."
Seeming to understand Sam and Dacey's expressions, Leaf explained.
When Sam and Dacey confirmed she was not joking, the same thought rose in both their minds.
'This is far too simple. It feels as if she is merely brushing us off.'
Looking at the black mud ball in Leaf's hands, Sam thought for a moment, then ran toward Robb.
After hearing Sam's report and learning that the explosive fruit made on site needed to dry in the sun before use, Robb came directly to Leaf, who was holding the black mud ball.
He carefully took the mud ball from her hands and lowered his head to examine it.
The surface of the black mud ball had many special patterns. These patterns looked naturally formed, with no trace of manual carving.
'In the procedure Sam reported just now, there was absolutely no step where Leaf carved patterns.'
Thinking this, Robb immediately raised his head and smiled at Leaf. "You have worked hard. I remember you said you can make two explosive fruits per day. Please continue and make another. I want to watch closely."
"Mm. My magic only allows me to make one more explosive fruit."
After answering, Leaf began grabbing wet soil from the table.
Robb stood opposite the small wooden table, wanting to observe Leaf's process carefully. Sam had the same thought and stood quietly behind him.
After Leaf took roughly the same amount of wet soil as the black mud ball, she spread it flat over an empty space on the table. Then she casually grabbed some grass and began chopping it with a table knife.
Watching Leaf's process this time, the corner of Sam's mouth twitched beneath his mask. The order and amount of grass she grabbed this time were completely different from before.
So was adding grass a step that could be done entirely at random, or was it not needed at all?
Thoughts kept turning in his head, but Sam did not rashly interrupt Leaf's process.
After casually sprinkling the chopped grass over the wet soil, Leaf began pushing the spread soil inward from both sides. This time, standing directly in front of her, Robb and Sam could clearly see a soft green glow rising from her hands.
After gathering the wet soil into shape, Leaf cupped it in both palms and began kneading it into a sphere. During this process, the soft green glow in her hands kept weakening, as if it were sinking into the gradually rounding wet soil.
A few minutes later, the green light in Leaf's hands completely disappeared. The black mud ball she had kneaded into a sphere showed the exact same special patterns as the previous explosive fruit.
"Leaf, can these two explosive fruits only dry in the sun? Can they be dried by fire? And after they dry, how should we use them?"
Seeing Leaf finish making the explosive fruit, Robb immediately threw out a string of questions.
"They can be dried by fire. Explosive fruits are sturdy. As long as you do not throw them directly into the flames, there will be no problem.
"As for how to use them, there are two methods.
"The first is the simplest, and anyone can use it. Use your fingernail to scrape away any pattern on the surface of the explosive fruit. After scraping it away, you must throw it within eight breaths, or it will blow you up.
"The second method requires a user who possesses magic. The user calls to it with the magic inside the body. Once it answers the call, it will explode eight breaths later."
Leaf handed the black mud ball to Robb and answered his questions in detail.
After watching the making of the explosive fruit and hearing Leaf's explanation, Robb processed the information in a way he could understand.
To him, the core of the explosive fruit was the magic stored inside the black mud ball. The patterns on the surface were the runic formations imprinted on the mud ball during the infusion of magic, used to stabilize that magic.
Therefore, when the user destroyed the pattern with a fingernail, the runic formation became unstable, and the magic brewed for a short time before exploding.
Calling to it with magic worked by the same principle. Once the magical structure inside the black mud ball lost stability, the same explosion occurred.
"Mm. I roughly understand. Leaf, your daily limit is two explosive fruits. Is there any way for you to keep making more?"
"No. My magic is almost dry. If you want me to continue making them... unless you find another singer with magic to help me."
Hearing Robb's question, Leaf decisively shook her head and rejected the idea. Then she proposed a solution she believed utterly impossible.
"A singer with magic. With magic... could Bloodwind do it?"
Robb repeated Leaf's words twice. A flash of inspiration struck him, and he pointed at Bloodwind, who lay lazily nearby.
"It does seem to possess magic. But before, I have only extracted the magic of singers among the children of the forest. I have never tried another race."
"Then try it. You never know the answer until you attempt it yourself. Bloodwind, come here."
After hearing Leaf, Robb made the decision directly and turned to call Bloodwind over.
When Bloodwind's massive body came beside the small wooden table, Leaf nervously began making another explosive fruit.
Leaf repeated the earlier process. Only before she began piling up the wet soil, she asked Bloodwind to place a paw on her.
Robb immediately sent a thought to Bloodwind. The giant wolf stretched out his huge right forepaw and gently placed it against her back. Leaf was so small that his paw almost covered her entire body.
When Bloodwind's paw touched Leaf, a white light different from before appeared on her hands. As she kneaded continuously, the white light sank completely into the black mud ball.
From the moment the white light appeared, Robb kept staring at Bloodwind. When Leaf finished, he discovered that the direwolf's original twenty-three points of Magic had dropped to twenty-one.
"This explosive fruit... is different from the ones I made before."
Leaf's voice sounded, and Robb immediately moved his gaze from Bloodwind to the black mud ball in her hands.
Compared with the first two, the greatest difference of this black mud ball was that its surface did not bear patterns. Instead, many six-pointed snowflake designs were imprinted on it.
"We cannot tell anything from the surface. Sam, start a fire. Dry them by the flames. We will test them directly."
After comparing the two kinds of explosive fruit, Robb turned and ordered Sam.
"Yes, Your Grace!"
Sam immediately nodded and answered. Together with Gendry, he gathered many dry branches nearby and lit a campfire.
The three explosive fruits were placed beside the fire and baked for a long while before they finally dried completely.
"Sam, let me throw them. All of you move farther back."
Seeing Sam prepare to test the explosive fruit himself, Robb directly stopped him.
"Your Grace, let me do it. After all, we have never used these things before."
Holding the two explosive fruits in his hands, Sam answered with concern.
"Enough. I have seen things similar to explosive fruits before. Give them to me. I will test them personally."
"Yes."
Seeing Robb insist on testing them himself, Sam finally walked over and handed the explosive fruit to him.
Robb took the first explosive fruit from Sam, scraped away part of a pattern with his fingernail, and threw it hard toward an empty part of the clearing.
The explosive fruit turned into a blue meteor in midair and burst open on the ground. An orange-red fireball appeared with the sound of an explosion.
Because Robb threw it personally this time, he clearly felt that using an explosive fruit was much like using a grenade from his previous life, only its power was greater.
After testing the normal explosive fruit, Robb accepted the one made with Bloodwind's magic from Sam. In the same way, he scraped away part of the snowflake pattern with his fingernail and hurriedly threw it.
This explosive fruit gave off dazzling white light in the air. When it struck the ground, it did not explode. Instead, spiked ice crystals appeared out of nothing and covered that patch of ground, creating a striking sight.
"This should no longer be called an explosive fruit. It should be called an ice crystal fruit."
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