Chapter 184 Merry

The creaking sound of the metal gate rubbing against the rock wall was very harsh. In a daze, Merry Frey, who was sitting against the outer wall of the animal house, opened his eyes and looked around. He found that a team of fully armed plate-armored knights were riding back from outside the castle.

Black Walder?

The headache caused by the hangover made Merry's mind a little sluggish, but he still recognized the short and sturdy figure sitting on the black warhorse at a glance.

Didn't he go to hunt down the monster?

How did he come back so soon?

Did he kill it successfully?

This thought made Merry feel excited, and his somewhat scattered eyes quickly gathered. He began to scan the entire team and search for a white figure.

That monster was so terrifying. Not only could it not be killed no matter how hard you tried, but it also held a grudge. The entire Frey family was troubled by it. Now if it was really killed, it would naturally be a great joy - at least, many people would not have to be so cautious when going out.

For Merry, this was something to celebrate, because he was the one who brought the monster back, or rather, the monster was originally a pet dog raised by his wife, but after attending King Robert's wedding, the pet dog became more and more bizarre. Later, something happened, and he, the original owner, was often blamed by his family members...

Thinking about all this in a trance, Merry soon showed a look of disappointment. Because he did not see the body of the monster among the group of more than 20 knights.

This proved that these people returned empty-handed again.

This was normal. After organizing hunting many times, no one had ever succeeded. The leading knight named Black Walder in the sight was notorious, but he was not a smart person.

However...

Who was the child?

Merry found something special.

Because the monster's claws and teeth had special toxins, the candidates for hunting monsters could only be fully armed knights, otherwise a slight scratch could cause big problems.

However, it seemed that there was a child in this knight team?

A handsome little boy...

Looking at the short figure on the horseback of a certain knight, Merry was thoughtful--

Whose illegitimate child is this in the family?

Black Walder's?

It's not quite like that. Although Black Walder is short, fat and strong, he doesn't look very good.

Who else could it be besides him...

Thinking about it, Merry yawned and felt a little bored.

It didn't matter to him which illegitimate child it was. In the Twins, as long as it wasn't the illegitimate child of his Marquis father, it wouldn't be a big news.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but look at the leading knight who got off the horse and was taking off his armor with the help of his servants.

His old Marquis father was almost eighty years old, but his seventh wife still gave birth to a healthy baby girl this year. This made many people wonder whether the beautiful wife of the Marquis, who was several decades younger than her husband, had an affair with someone in the castle.

Some of the inquisitive people in the family generally believed that this person might be the great-grandson of the Lord Frey in front of them, a cruel guy called Black Walder.

Because Black Walder has always had a bad reputation, Merry also suspected this. He even thought about going to his father to tell tales when he was drunk a few times, so that he might get some money for wine. However, thinking about Black Walder's bad reputation in the Twins, he was a little scared, and finally this idea never turned into action.

Thinking of this, he felt his head aching again, which made him grimace for a while, and then he climbed up from the outer wall of the beast house with difficulty, and staggered towards the well.

Back then, Merry Frey was the strongest and most promising person in the Frey family. How could he be afraid of such a young junior? It was just that he was really unlucky. That damned Kingswood Brotherhood...

Thinking back to the Kingswood bandit suppression operation he participated in during the reign of the Mad King a few years ago, Merry felt his head hurt even more, and even his butt began to ache.

Sir Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Dawn, led the army to successfully wipe out the notorious Kingswood Brotherhood, contributing a new asset to his already glorious life.

After that battle, his former squire companion Jaime Lannister was personally knighted by the Sword of the Dawn, and he was in the limelight for a while.

And himself, the most promising person in the Frey family, contracted the rash before the battle began...That damn prostitute, just thinking about it made Merry angry.

What made him even more angry was a woman named White Deer Wenda in the Royal Forest Brotherhood, the evil woman who captured him in the war and branded a deer head on his butt.

How could such a perverted woman exist in the world?

Whenever he thought of this, Merry was afraid and hated it. Although he heard that White Deer Wenda was dead later, he paid special attention to it and found that no one had seen the body of the female bandit.

So Merry thought that the woman must have run away.

This speculation made Merry always have the idea of ​​going out to find out information and then find someone to take revenge when the opportunity arises in the past few years, but...

The severe pain that seemed to be cracking the skull came again and again, making him sigh dejectedly.

After being captured by a female bandit, he was redeemed, but in the subsequent battle, he was unfortunately hit on the head by a mace, and his knightly career came to an end. Not only could he not continue to fight, but he also always felt headaches on weekdays, which seriously affected his life. There was no other way except drinking to relieve the pain.

What else can I do?

Have a few children and raise them well?

As he squatted down to wash his face at the edge of the well, Merry thought about this dejectedly, feeling that there was really no hope in life, so he might as well dive into the well to get rid of it...

However, this thought did not continue, because he suddenly heard a melodious bell from the top of a tower deep in the castle, which made him startled and recognized that it was a signal from his father, the Marquis, to summon family members in the castle.

What important things could happen at this time?

He was secretly surprised.

Has the war in the western Haijiang City changed?

Or has his old father, who is almost toothless and has suffered a stroke, finally died?

The thoughts in his mind did not prevent him from getting up and rushing over. In fact, because he had washed his face, Merry's movements were much more agile than before, so he entered the hall of the Twins in a short while.

This generation of the Frey family has many descendants. The hall in the castle was crowded with people at a glance, and it was as noisy as if he had entered a trading market.

Merry did not like to come here, because he felt that the hall was really gloomy, lacked light, and always had a rotten smell.

However, his father had a high prestige in the family. He, the ninth son of the Frey family who originally had a promising future but now lived a life of idleness and waiting for death, really caught the eye of that person, who would always bring him up and ridicule him, so Merry did not dare not come, lest his father could not find him and get angry.

But what happened again?

He saw his bald father sitting on the black oak chair at the head of the hall. Although he had loose bags under his eyes and lacked front teeth, he still looked energetic, so a guess in Merry's heart was quietly broken.

Then he suddenly saw that there seemed to be an outsider in the hall?

The boy who had returned with the knights before?

Merry recognized the boy at a glance, after all, he was really eye-catching. And this discovery also made him more certain that the boy must be the illegitimate child of someone in the family, and now he was brought back to "recognize his relatives".

His father, the Marquis, had many children, and his children's children were countless. Sometimes he might not remember who was who, but he attached great importance to his own children. When he was in the mood, he would take care of them even if they were illegitimate children. He couldn't help but make some sarcastic remarks, but generally speaking, the boys who were ridiculed by their fathers would get some benefits.

Moreover, the Freys generally don't look good. If someone has a beautiful illegitimate child, it would be hard not to attract the attention of his father, the Marquis...

Merry, standing among the Freys in the hall, thought he had guessed the truth, but the steward's report later wiped out his guess, and the inexplicable emotions in his heart were also swept away, and turned into surprise.

What did he hear?

King Robert's younger brother?

Lord Renly of Dragonstone?

Is that the boy in front of him?

The new king Robert does have a younger brother who is much younger than him. As a noble, Merry naturally knows this. Unfortunately, although he participated in the wedding of King's Landing, his status was not high, and he could not get into the core wedding banquet, so he never saw the real person.

However, he heard that the boy named Renly was given Dragonstone because King Robert was dissatisfied with the current heir Stannis, and was ready to ignore the inheritance law and make his younger brother the next generation heir of the kingdom.

This matter was discussed by the Freys in the castle after the wedding of the new king, and Merry himself also made many speculations about it - mostly some casual conversations with drinking buddies.

But.

I heard that Renly was sent to Highgarden as an adopted son, so why did he run to the Twins now?

This distance is a bit far...

It is understandable that his old father received a visiting royal member so grandly, but this question puzzled Merry.

The distance between the Twins and Highgarden is almost half of Westeros...

So he began to ask quietly, but unfortunately no one around him knew the truth, but someone knew how Lord Renly was brought back.

"I heard that Black Walder encountered it when he was tracking the monster." A Frey beside him whispered, "He also brought back a person who was scratched by the monster."

"Scratched?"

This made Merry stunned for a moment, and he didn't care about gossip anymore. He shivered involuntarily and asked hurriedly, "Where is that person?"

"He was placed in the Riverside Tower."

The other party answered, and then whispered, "We must avoid that place when we go out later."

Merry nodded hurriedly after hearing this.

It's no big deal to be scratched by ordinary wild beasts, but it's different to be scratched by his wife's former pet dog.

A boy who takes care of the animal shed in the Twins was scratched not long ago, and he went crazy the next day. He bit everyone he saw in the castle and had no reason at all.

It's okay if it's just like this, but the key point is that the person who is bitten will also go crazy...

Thanks to the book friend Buing for the 500 reward, and thank you to the book friend Xiaotang246 for the 100 reward~