Chapter 12 Our Hero

New Barrel City is located on the lower reaches of the Golden Tree River. It is a closed city of the Forsoway family, a great nobleman in the Reach. Because it is close to the Rose Avenue and the Golden Tree River, it is also a gathering place for merchants. Almost all goods are shipped to Golden Tree City, Red Lake City, and Ancient Oak. The city's goods will be collected and distributed here instead of taking the High Court line.

The reason why merchants would make this choice is because the High Court has a heavy tax. Transporting goods to the High Court requires an additional heavy tax. Merchants naturally know how to make trade-offs if they want to make profits.

Later, the Tyrell family of Highgarden significantly reduced the taxes on caravan transit and canceled some unreasonable taxes, hoping to draw this group of merchants from New Barrel City.

But merchants have become accustomed to gathering and distributing in New Barrel City. In addition, the lords of Red Lake City, Cold Howling Castle, Ancient Oak City and other cities have also built some roads for the convenience of business. Although these roads are very simple and cannot be like Rose Avenue. The roads are comparable, but the merchants who come and go are already used to it, so High Court only attracts a small number of merchants, and the vast majority of merchants still choose to stay in New Barrel City.

However, there seem to be a lot of merchants gathered in New Barrel City in recent days. Not only the caravans that have unloaded their goods have not left, but even some merchants from High Court have also gone to New Barrel City. They all seem to be waiting for something.

Some well-informed people soon got some information. It turned out that some time ago, Golden Tree City, Red Lake City and Ancient Oak City had obtained additional gains in the encirclement and suppression operation against the Red Lake Forest Bandit. It turned out that the Red Lake Forest Bandit was a remnant of the Long family. The rumors turned out to be true. The three major families seized a large amount of supplies from the bandits. These supplies not only included food, but also weapons. There were also a large number of valuables that could be exchanged for money at any time. Among them, some of the dead of the Mad King were found. Important supplies that were lost previously.

Therefore, some people speculate that the Mad King may have anticipated the fall of the Long Family before his death, so he gave some supplies to people who were loyal to the Long Family to take away, and the bandits in the Red Lake Forest were one of them.

Although there are a lot of materials seized this time, the money is very small. The three major families do not need so many materials. What they need is money that can be used at any time. The other thing is that these materials are also marked with the Long family's mark. They He was also worried that if he kept these supplies, Robert Baratheon would regard him as a remnant of the Dragon family and find excuses to deal with them.

Therefore, they need to sell this batch of supplies as soon as possible and replace them with golden dragons and silver deer. There are only two places near them that can quickly dispose of this batch of supplies, one is New Barrel City and the other is High Court.

However, now all the energy of the Tyrell family of Highgarden is on repairing the relationship with Robert Baratheon, and they have no energy to deal with these business matters, and the patriarch of the Green Apple Fossoway family However, Count Tuckers Fossoway, the lord of New Barrel City, was very active in this matter. He even took the initiative to contact the three major families and offered good conditions, such as giving up taxes, etc., so that the three major families could transfer these batches. The supplies were placed in New Barrel City.

Some people wondered if Tucker Fossoway would gain nothing by doing this, but there were also smart people who saw Earl Tucker's intention of doing this. The transaction tax on that batch of materials was not what Earl Tucker valued. , what he values ​​​​is the caravans that gather in New Barrel City for these materials. These caravans will make New Barrel City prosperous for a long time, and their additional benefits far exceed the tax on the materials.

However, for the ordinary people of New Barrel City and the lower-level guards of the caravan, the profit plans of those high-ranking nobles are too far away. They do not care. The things they care about only emerged in this battle to encircle and suppress the bandits. Legendary stories, such as Joel Flowers who broke the formation and killed the bandit leader alone, Alex Oakheart who led 13 cavalrymen to defeat hundreds of bandits, etc.

However, among the legends created by these famous knights, one person's legend stands out so prominently, and this person is also the most legendary of all legends. This person is the legend of Lind, the bear hunter.

Compared with those high-ranking knights, the bear hunter Lind, who is also a commoner, makes the common people feel more involved. When they hear the ballads about bear hunters from the bards in the tavern, they always feel like it. It is to be able to bring yourself into it and create a legend with the bear hunters in the story.

Before the encirclement and suppression of the bandits in the Red Lake Forest, the story of the bear hunter Lind had been circulated in taverns in various cities in the Reach. However, those who heard it at the time only regarded Lind as a lucky hunter. They only admired his heroic, loyal and filial character in avenging his father and hunting mountain bears, but no one considered the bear hunter to be a true warrior.

However, now after hearing the legendary story of the encirclement and suppression battle, everyone's view of the bear hunter Linde has changed greatly. Even this change makes people feel a little incredible, like a person they have known for a long time. An acquaintance suddenly becomes like a stranger you have never met before.

He refused the assistance of ten soldiers and went to guard a key location alone. He killed nearly a hundred bandits who had fled from the battlefield. Among the bandits he killed were two remnants of the Long family. Such an exaggerated record would make anyone listen. When I arrived, I felt that this was simply a fabricated rumor, but this achievement was recognized by Sir Roman Webber of the Webber family of Coldhowling Castle and Sir Joel Flowers, who ended the encirclement and suppression war. The integrity of these two people is It is well-known among the nobles of the Reach.

As a result, the bear hunters' experiences in this encirclement and suppression battle were compiled into songs by some bards and began to be circulated in the taverns of Red Lake City, Ancient Oak City, and Golden Tree City. They were also liked by the common people, and the bards also made money. Every bowl is full.

After seeing that this ballad could make money, other bards also began to take the initiative to spread this ballad, and the reputation of bear hunters once again spread in various cities in the Reach, and New Barrel City was naturally one of them.

After nightfall, the civilians of New Barrel City who had finished their work came to a tavern near the dock to relax. The mercenaries from the caravan also poured into the tavern to spend their commissions and have a drunken life. The resident bard of the tavern The Bear Hunter's Song was played for the third time today. Although the bard's voice was average, everyone still listened to it very well.

"Here's to our heroic bear hunter!" When they heard the bear hunter waving his swords to kill the incoming enemy, someone couldn't help but raise the wine glass in his hand and shouted loudly.

"Here's to our hero bear hunter!"

"Here's to our hero bear hunter!"

…

As soon as someone started, shouts of respect for bear hunters were heard one after another in the tavern. I don’t know if the sound spread out and stimulated the people in another nearby tavern. Shouts of respect for bear hunters also rang out in that tavern. And these shouts gradually spread to other taverns in the city and around the caravan bonfires.

I don’t know since when, the bear hunter Linde became the incarnation of a civilian hero. The civilians regarded him as their idol, and set the longing for life that they hoped to have but could not have in the hunter. For bear hunters, when bear hunters create a legendary story, they also have a feeling of participating in the creation of this legendary story, and then they have more and more respect for the bear hunters who have never been masked.

"If this situation continues, I may soon be able to hear someone shouting 'Long live the bear hunter.'" In an inconspicuous corner of the tavern, two outsiders wearing cloaks were sitting, one of them A tall middle-aged man took a sip of the mead in the cup, turned to look at his companion who was sitting in the corner and eating quietly, and said with a lot of ridicule.

The man raised his head slightly, looked at the other person, and said, "I hope I won't be beheaded by our new king for this reason."

The other party continued to tease: "No, I think with the character of our new king, you should be appreciated, and maybe there will be a place for you in the Kingsguard."

"Forget it, I still want to continue the family line." As the highest honor of knights, the highly respected Kingsguard seemed worthless to that person.

"You are such an ambitious guy!" The middle-aged man took another sip of wine and said with appreciation.

The two people sitting in the corner of the New Barrel City tavern were Joel Flowers and the bear hunter Lynd who is now sung in the ballad. The civilians and mercenaries in the tavern who shouted bear hunters did not realize the object of their worship at all. Just around.

This also made Linde couldn't help but have an idea, what would happen if his identity was revealed now? Was he carried by these people and paraded through the streets of New Barrel City, or was he kicked out of the tavern as a madman? Linde thinks the latter is more likely to happen.

The reason why the two of them appeared here was entirely because Joel wanted to fulfill his promise to recommend Lynd to Sir Fertimo Crane as a knight's squire.

After attending the celebration banquet in Golden Tree City, Joel did not stay in Golden Tree City to participate in the discussion of follow-up matters, nor did he return to Red Lake City with the Klein family team. Instead, he took Lind directly south along the Golden Tree River.

Originally, Joel was planning to take a boat all the way south to Highgarden, but when the ship docked at the New Barrel City dock, he heard dock workers chatting and mentioned that Highgarden had sent a team to King's Landing to participate in the new king's victory for him. The tourney held by the first heir was led by Ser Garlan Tyrell, the second son of the Duke of Highgarden, and Fertimer Krenn, who has become the head guard of Highgarden and Garland Tyrell's swordsmanship teacher. En also followed, and the group had already arrived at New Barrel City. After repairing one night, they would continue on the road tomorrow.

Since Sir Fertimo was already in New Barrel City, there was no need to go to Highgarden, so the two disembarked in New Barrel City.

It was just late at night when the two got off the ship. It was not suitable to go to the place where Tyrell's family was stationed at this time, and all the hotels in the city were already occupied by people from various caravans, and there were no empty rooms at all, so Joel I decided to spend the night in the tavern and go to see Sir Fortimore early tomorrow morning.

"Don't you want to drink it?" Joel asked after finishing the mead in his cup, pointing to the untouched cup of mead in front of Lind.

Linde shook his head and said, "I don't drink."

"What a boring guy!" Joel took Lind's glass of wine and took a sip. Then he looked at Lind eating slowly and felt that time passed too slowly.

These days of getting along, especially the two days after leaving Golden Tree City and sailing south, because he and Linde stayed together for a long time, he also deepened his understanding of Linde a lot.

Self-discipline, extreme self-discipline was his latest evaluation of Linde. After these two days of observation, he found that Linde arranged everything very carefully, including when to do things, how much time it takes to practice swordsmanship, and how much time it takes to eat and rest. There are detailed arrangements for all activities such as how much time it takes, as if he has a time list in his hand, and he lives according to this list every day, which is extremely boring.

This extremely self-disciplined character reminded Joel of a person, Randyll Tarly, Earl of Horn Hill.

Fortunately, the man in front of me could still joke and joke with each other. He was not as serious and unsmiling as Randyll Tarly, like a piece of cold iron.

However, even so, he was somewhat glad that he did not accept Linde as his attendant. You must know that when he saw Linde's achievements a few days ago, he couldn't help but have an impulse to accept Linde as his attendant. , instead of cheaper fortimo.

After all, a knight squire who is so powerful will be of great help to him. At least when he goes to the battlefield, he has a capable assistant to cooperate with him, unlike the few knight squires now who still need to distract him. take care of.

But this idea only went through his mind once and was forgotten by him, because he did not have so much time and energy to train a civilian, and more importantly, he did not think that Linde would be able to leave in the future. How far.

After finishing the mead in the cup, Joel felt a strong urge to urinate. He stood up and staggered a little. He was not a good drinker and was already a little drunk after drinking two large glasses of mead. He staggered outside the tavern, looked around, and then found a secluded place next to the tavern to prepare for convenience.

However, when he took out his things and prepared to release the contents in his stomach, he didn't realize that a man sneaked up behind him, raised a wooden stick and hit him hard, and quickly hit him when he fell to the ground. He groped for a few times on him and took away his wallet, sword and other valuables, even his bearskin cloak.

At this moment, Linde, who was in the tavern, did not expect that Joel would be attacked and robbed outside. He was still chewing the food in front of him carefully.

The reason why he ate so elegantly was entirely because the food in front of him was too unpalatable. Although the bread had grapes inside and a layer of honey on the outside, the bread was too hard. He had to bite off a piece and needed to chew it. It took a long time to chew it up and swallow it.

Linde wanted to throw away the bread in his hand, but he thought that he would have to face more of this unpalatable food in the future. If he didn't adapt now, it would be too late to adapt later.

Just as Lind was trying to deal with the food in his hands, two people, one tall and one short, walked in from outside the tavern. They glanced around the tavern and saw that there was only one person sitting next to Lind, so they walked over and said, Without saying hello to Linde, he sat at the other two seats on the table in front of Linde.