Chapter 123 Earl of Summer Hall

When everyone at the banquet venue was surprised because there was no Lynd in the reward list, King Robert smiled and said to everyone: "Don't you think I will forget that our God's Chosen Lynd ran thousands of miles, continuously Recapture five castles, defeat tens of thousands of enemies, and kill Balon’s eldest son, right?”

After hearing what King Robert said, everyone felt that something was unusual.

Then, King Robert was seen pulling out a scroll from his sleeve, handing it to Grand Maester Pycelle, and said, "Read it."

Grand Maester Pycelle took the scroll, opened it and looked at it. His face could not suppress a look of surprise. Then he looked up at Linde, his eyes full of curiosity and confusion.

Others in the venue were also curious about the contents of the scroll in Grand Maester Pycelle's hand, but they couldn't urge the Grand Maester to read it quickly.

"What are you waiting for? Read it out." King Robert ordered impatiently.

Grand Maester Pycelle stopped thinking and recited: "In the name of His Majesty Robert Baratheon I, King of the Andals, Rhoynar, and First Men, Ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, I am promoted to the Seventh The god chose Baron Linde Terra as the earl and gave him the royal domain of Summer Hall and all its fief taxes, which his descendants will inherit for generations to come. "

Everyone present was stunned, and even several guardian dukes looked shocked. The reason for their shock was not that Lind's title was once again promoted to earl. In fact, many people present could guess that Lin De Due to Virtue's merits and Robert's love for him, promotion to the title is inevitable, and it is not impossible to leapfrog the rank and become an earl.

What really surprised them all, even surprising, was that King Robert gave Summerhall to Lynd as a territory.

You must know that before it was burned down by the fire of Aegon V, the Summer Hall held special significance. Usually, in addition to becoming the Prince of Dragonstone, most of the heirs of the Targaryen Dynasty would also serve as the Prince of Summer Hall. That is to say Summer Hall also has a similar meaning as the heir of the kingdom.

Although Summerhall is now in ruins, the significance of these ruins has not disappeared. Therefore, after Robert became king, the land of Summerhall has been idle there. Everyone thought that maybe Stannis would wait until Stannis obtained it. After some achievements, this land will be rewarded to Stanlis, which just completes the inheritance tradition of this Targaryen dynasty.

But he didn't expect that this land, which Stannis had already regarded as his own, would be given to others by King Robert. No wonder his face was so ugly when he entered the venue.

As for Queen Cersei, she also had a quarrel with King Robert over the ownership of the land of Summer Hall. She felt that this land should be given to Joffrey Baratheon when he came of age and then be sealed. He is the Prince of Summerhall and officially becomes Robert's heir.

Now her plan has been shattered before it was implemented, and her face is naturally not looking any better.

On the other hand, Linde seemed very calm. He walked out of the crowd, took the scroll from Archmaester Pycelle, and then retreated into the crowd.

At this moment, his mind began to quickly recall the location of Summer Hall and the fief area.

He found that King Robert's gift of Summerhall to him did not seem to be random, but rather seemed to be specifically selected for the enclave he obtained from the Tyrell family.

The territory of the Summer Hall is very large, extending to Green Valley City and the edge of the Royal Forest to the north, to the border with Black Harbor to the south, and to the east is the ridge at the end of the Crimson Mountains. The enclave of Red Earth Hope is just connected to the territory of the Summer Hall. It can be said that Now the entire northeastern end of the Crimson Mountain Range is under Linde's control. The size of the territory alone is no less than those of the first-class lords who have been passed down for thousands of years.

And the more important point is that after he got the Summer Hall, his territory and Nymeria's territory were only separated by Green Valley City, and even if they were blocked by Green Valley City, his territory and Nymeria's Territories can also be connected through kingswood.

Linde's pensive expression made people around him mistakenly think that he was confused by such a huge reward, and they couldn't help but laugh in their hearts. After all, Linde is just an ordinary person. Facing huge benefits, he can't act like a real noble. Keep your emotions and anger a secret, and feel in your heart that if it were you, you would never lose your temper like this.

At the banquet venue, now that the list of rewards has been read out, the person who punished them naturally also needs to be dealt with.

Following King Robert's order, the nobles of the Iron Islands, who had been imprisoned for more than ten days, were led to the center of the banquet venue.

The leader I saw was Balon Greyjoy. He had a haggard face and pale hair. On his head was the unique driftwood crown of the King of the Iron Islands. This crown, which symbolized authority in the Iron Islands, looked more like A humiliation.

Behind him were the members of the Greyjoy family, including Victarion Greyjoy, Aeron Greyjoy, etc., followed by Harlaw Island, Great Wyk, etc. Among the lords and nobles of the Iron Islands such as Iron Island and Old Wyk Island, Dagon Harlaw, who expressed his intention to join Linde, was among them. However, he looked extremely depressed at the moment. I heard that it was because his brother died on Fairy Island. In naval battle.

Among the crowd, there were several children. Among them, the man and woman following Balon Greyjoy should be Asha Greyjoy and Theon Greyjoy.

However, when these people came out, Lind's focus was not on Balon Greyjoy and other great lords like others, but on Aeron Greyjoy who was following Victarion. Greyjoy.

At the moment, Aeron Greyjoy looked extremely pale, as if he had just recovered from a serious illness, his hair was hanging down like seaweed, and his whole person seemed a little crazy.

It is said that this is because during the sea battle of Fairy Isle, Aeron Greyjoy was knocked into the water by Stannis's attack. He was hit in the head, fell unconscious, and sank directly to the bottom of the water. Everyone thought that He had drowned, but was brought ashore by the waves a day later. Then he was walking around like crazy and was discovered by villagers from a nearby village and taken to Lannisport.

Although everyone thought that Aeron Greyjoy's madness was caused by being hit in the head by Stanlis, Lind knew that was not the case because he saw faint waves of energy emanating from Aeron's head. Magic power, and through Glory's eyes, he could see it more clearly. That magic power turned into a vague octopus-like sea monster, lying on top of Aeron's head, and all its tentacles penetrated into Aeron's brain. Inside, it looked like it was sucking the nutrients from Aeron's brain.

After walking to King Robert's throne, Balon Greyjoy took the initiative to kneel on the ground. Others also knelt down, and then saw Balon Greyjoy removing the driftwood on his head. He took off the crown, smashed it hard on the ground, smashed it, and lowered his head waiting for the final judgment.

Although Lind already knew what the result would be, he still wanted to know why King Robert let the pirates of the Iron Islands go.

You must know that after learning about the history of the Iron Islands rebellion, I feel that King Robert's final judgment is really incomprehensible. He just sent the children of several great lords to other lords as adopted sons and hostages, and there was no other punishment for the Iron Islands. , this is really unreasonable.

You must know that according to Eastern thinking, the only way to deal with things like rebellion is to kill the nine tribes. This may not be done in the Western world, but at least it should be eradicated, right? Why shouldn't Balon Greyjoy be put back as his King of the Iron Islands, while others continue to be their Lords?

However, Lynd heard the verdict next. It was indeed as he knew. Balon Greyjoy and other Iron Islands nobles were not executed, nor were they reduced in rank. All their assets were merely confiscated and used To compensate for the losses in the Western Region and the military expenses of other counter-rebellion armies.

However, thinking about it, this can’t compensate for much. After all, the Iron Islands are extremely poor places. How can there be so much money to compensate for this? You must know that everything they grabbed is in Linde’s hands, so before announcing this During the punishment, some Iron Island nobles who knew the situation in Fairy City couldn't help but look at Lind.

In addition, the Iron Islands' taxes will triple in the next five years, which will undoubtedly make the already poor Iron Islands even poorer.

"It would be too light a punishment to let a group of rebels go like this." After hearing the punishment, Lind couldn't help but murmured in a low voice.

Randyll Tully looked at Linde and said in a low voice: "Which one is more dangerous, a group of bandits who have lost their restraints or a group of bandits who are restrained and have many internal conflicts?"

Hearing Randyll Tarly's words, Lind immediately understood what he meant, guessing that the Iron Islands should be in chaos at this moment, and the ironborn, who had lost the restraint of the nobles above their heads, became more unscrupulous.

The purpose of putting these great nobles of the Iron Islands back now is to restrain the iron people, and the high taxes will fall on those iron people. They will hate the nobles above them, and the nobles will also be particularly hateful among themselves, for example, they are unwilling to rebel. of the nobles will hate the nobles who supported the rebellion, the nobles who have lost more will hate the nobles who have lost less, and all the nobles will hate the Greyjoys.

At this time, Linde suddenly thought of something and stood out from the crowd and said, "Your Majesty, I feel that these punishments alone are not enough."

Everyone's eyes fell on Lind, and King Robert sat up straight and said, "Earl Lind, do you have any suggestions?"

Linde said seriously: "The reason why the Iron Islands have the habit of plundering is entirely because of their belief in the Drowned God. What the Ancient Path of the Drowned God pursues is rape and plunder, creating a new world with blood, flames and songs. If this is not corrected, If this is a barbaric and cruel belief, then the Iron People of the Iron Islands will continue to rob, and will continue to cause harm to any village or city along the coast of the Seven Kingdoms."

King Robert said thoughtfully: "What do you mean..."

Lind continued: "Declare the Drowned God as an evil faith that must be banned, and make the Faith of the Seven Gods the only faith in the Iron Islands."

"No!" Before anyone else could speak, Aeron Greyjoy yelled and wanted to rush over to attack Lind, but was immediately restrained by the people around him. However, his strength seemed to be very strong, several times bigger. Only one person can barely hold him down.

Seeing this, Lind turned around and walked to Aeron Greyjoy, knelt down, reached out and touched his head, and said: "Quiet!"

As his voice fell, everyone saw a burst of white light shining on Lind's hand, and Aeron Greyjoy, who had been struggling violently just now, calmed down as if he had been really comforted, but his eyes changed. It felt extremely empty, as if it had lost its soul.

Everyone looked at Linde's actions in surprise, and several of them even exclaimed a miracle.

However, they did not know that Lind had a dragon crystal pendant with a dragon rune necklace in his hand. When stroking the top of Aeron's head, he released all the power in the pendant, slightly dispersing the... The sea monster's magical power from the octopus caused Aeron to fall into a state of soullessness, and also caused the white light effect just now.

After letting Elen calm down for a short time, Lind turned around, and at the same time sprinkled the powdered dragon crystal on the ground without leaving any trace, then walked back to the royal family and looked at Lao, who had the same surprised look on his face. Bo, said: "Your Majesty, what do you think of my proposal just now?"

"You just...what happened when your hand glowed just now?" Robert's mind was all focused on the scene of Linde's hand glowing just now.

"That's just a small ability given to me by the Seven Gods." Linde responded vaguely. Anyway, it was the kindness of the Seven Gods when someone asked. With the Church of the Seven Gods backing him, he didn't need to make other excuses at all, and as the Seven Gods It’s normal for God’s Chosen One to have a little ability!

Robert also gradually came back to his senses. He did not dwell on the white light just now, but seriously thought about Linde's proposal just now, and said: "Your proposal is very good, the belief of the Drowned God..."

"Wait a minute," Ed Stark suddenly stood up and said, "Your Majesty, after the Andals brought the faith of the Seven Gods to Westeros six thousand years ago, they started to fight with the local faith of the old gods. After a thousand-year war, the Faith of the Seven Gods finally signed a sacred covenant with the faith of all the old gods of Westeros. Everyone living on the continent of Westeros has the right to choose the faith he wants. Peace. If your Majesty bans the belief in the Drowned God and forces the Iron Islands to believe in the Seven Gods, then the belief in the Holy Covenant will inevitably be broken. What will your Majesty do about Dorne who believe in the old gods and have other beliefs? Do you want to force us to convert?"

After hearing what Eddard Stark said, before Robert could speak, Lind took the initiative to admit his mistake and said: "This is indeed something I didn't expect. I am still too young and don't think as deeply as Lord Eddard. Your Majesty, please forget this stupid suggestion of mine.”

"You are indeed still too young, but it doesn't matter. You still have enough time to study. Just invite a better bachelor to the city and learn more knowledge from the bachelor." Robert also reacted when he saw Linde as the proposer. No longer insisting, he ignored the suggestion and waved Linde to leave.

Linde, who retreated back to the crowd, felt the adoring gazes cast on him from the surroundings. It was obvious that his hand just now had given enough shock to all those who believed in the Seven Gods.

At this time, Garland suddenly came to him and asked: "Master Linde, you don't seem like the kind of person who likes to stand up and give advice to others. Why..."

"If you promise something to others, you must complete it." Before Garland could finish asking, Linde gave an incomprehensible answer. After saying that, he turned towards a seven-year-old with a frustrated look on his face in the Western Region. The bishop looked over.