Chapter 39 Wolf Lair

Wolf's Den is the oldest castle in White Harbor, so old that it has a history of almost a thousand years.

When the Stark family was still the King of the North, a king named Jon Stark built this fortress at the mouth of the White Blade River, which is almost where White Harbor is now, to resist pirate invasions. .

The original residents were the youngest sons, brothers, and uncles of the Stark kings. Their descendants formed the same branches as Clay's personal guards. Among them, these branches formed a group called Gray Stark.

This branch of House Stark had occupied the castle of the Wolf's Lair for five centuries, but they were on the wrong side when the Red King of the Dreadfort and the Wolf King of the Starks went to war.

Although most members of the Stark family are generous people, they obviously cannot tolerate rebels, especially when these people are branches of the family.

After the killings, as the Red King of the Dreadfort surrendered, the castle also lost its owner.

After several twists and turns, it was successively occupied by the Fitterling family, the Locke family, and the Schlatt, Lang, Holt, Ashwood and other families of Winterfell. Finally, the castle came to the Mandalay family. in hand.

With the establishment and expansion of White Harbor, the Mandalay family has transformed into the richest family in the entire North. The small Wolf Lair is certainly not worthy of this prominent family.

As a result, a new castle was built on the high hill inside the city. The huge white city wall protected the city and the fortress inside, and the Wolf's Lair, which was located alone outside the city, was also called the Old Castle.

Now, this is the prison of the Mandalay family and the headquarters of the entire White Sea Guard.

Clay has been here before, but only on the periphery, because there is a very ancient sacred forest here. Unfortunately, today, the only heart tree in the sacred forest that has been shrinking in size no longer has much magic power.

Getting on horseback again, under the protection of several White Harbor guards, Clay followed Sir Bartimus into the ancient fortress.

Entering the pulled-up iron gate, Clay felt that the knight suddenly relaxed for some reason, as if it was very uncomfortable for him to just go to Newcastle to see his old man.

Clay noticed that the soldiers, or jailers, here were not wearing the silver-white armor worn by ordinary White Harbor guards, but a gray-black uniform.

The silent guard stepped forward and grabbed the reins of Clay and others' horses. Although Bartimus had a broken leg, he jumped off the horse very freely and handed the reins to a scar-faced guard. On hand.

After that, Clay heard the voice of Sir Bartimus for the first time. The voice was hoarse and unpleasant, like ceramics rubbing against gravel. He said:

"Master Clay, welcome to the Wolf's Den."

The dry welcome speech was not warm at all, but rather cold. He pointed to some surrounding buildings and continued:

"What you see now is the prison part of the entire Wolf's Lair. All guilty people will be tried here, and we are also responsible for sending them to meet the old and new gods."

Clay wanted to take a look, but Sir Bartimus stopped him. He leaned on an oak cane and looked at Clay:

"After you finish handing over to me, you can see everything here anytime you want, but now, Master Clay, we'd better go through the handing over first."

Regarding this, Clay had nothing to refute. Although he had only been a noble young master for a short time, his ears were accustomed to flattery and his eyes were used to seeing flattering smiles. When he suddenly met Sir Bartimus, Clay Lei was somewhat uncomfortable with it.

Passing through the old and dilapidated buildings, Clay realized that there must be a lot of space down there. For a population as large as White Harbor, it might be possible to fit all the prisoners in the prison. It must not be small.

The target of the two is behind these prison buildings. There is the tallest building in the entire Wolf Lair, a tall and thick gray tower.

Near this building, Clay saw a lot of gray-clothed guards. From the way they walked and the way they held weapons, Clay judged that these people could fight up to five of them by themselves. Of course, they would do it together.

Stepping up the stone stairs, Clay entered this tower that had endured the erosion of time for nearly a thousand years.

I originally thought that the inside would be similar to the mouse tower in the world of witchers, with spider webs, rotten wood, and darkness and occlusion. However, I didn't expect that it would be unexpectedly clean.

The torch was inserted into the wall and burned quietly. Although the wooden structure inside was mottled, it was obvious that someone had maintained it for a long time. The old and new wood were intertwined, so the color appeared uneven.

There are many windows in the tower, and bright spots fall on the table or floor, making the interior brighter.

There are several people here, or there are several people in the room where Clay is, about three or four, who are recording something around a table. There are many notes neatly placed on the project leader's table, and Clay can recognize them. It was the letter tied to the raven's leg.

Now Clay understands why the place is so heavily guarded. Such a large amount of raven information must not be leaked.

Knowing what Clay wanted to ask, Sir Bartimus, who was already responsible for answering questions, spoke up:

"Here is the information reported by the White Sea Guards from a total of thirty-four places in the Northern Territory, the Riverlands, the Western Territory, the King's Territory and some valley areas. They are summarizing it here."

Good guy, this is the number of famous nobles in these places. Basically, they are all caught in one fell swoop.

Secretly stunned, Clay nodded calmly on the surface. Although he didn't know how useful this information was, the financial resources of White Harbor were evident from the deployment of manpower in so many places.

Clay was brought to a place similar to a conference room by Sir Bartimus. A long table stood in the center, a larger chair stood in the center, and was surrounded by some ordinary chairs.

There were still people in the room, five people to be precise, looking at Clay silently.

Clay was led to the largest chair and sat down, and he didn't refuse. He was about to take over this place, and he couldn't show any weakness at this time.

"The five of them are the general managers responsible for the five regions I just mentioned. They are also responsible for distributing and executing specific tasks. They are more suitable to answer your questions than me."

After speaking to Clay, Sir Bartimus took off a dim ring from his finger, pushed the ring to Clay with his finger, and said to the five people:

"The ring has been handed over. From now on, Clay Manderly, the grandson of the Earl, will become the new commander of the White Sea Guards."