Chapter 16 Arriving at Bitter Bridge

Although in the TV series, the continent of Westeros does not seem to be very big. The cities are close to each other and it only takes a few days to reach them. However, in fact, the cities in the Seven Kingdoms are very far apart and it takes a long time to travel between them. Measured in months or even years.

For example, Linde went from Jinshu City to Xintong City in only four or five days because he went down the river very quickly. However, if he took the land route, it would probably take more than a month to get there. This is assuming the road conditions are good. If the road conditions are bad, it is possible to extend it for another month.

After the Tyrell family's team left New Barrel City, they walked northeast along Rose Avenue. Stopping along the way, it took them almost a month to reach Bitter Bridge.

Baron Almon Caswell, who had received the news in advance, was waiting outside his castle to greet Garland Tyrell's team. He said that a banquet had been prepared and asked Garland to stay for the banquet and stay one night. I'll leave tomorrow to show my kindness to the landlord.

Baron Caswell, who only wanted to please the Rose family, behaved in an extremely humble manner, and Garland Tyrell could not find any reason to refuse. In the end, the team was stationed outside Bitterbridge Castle. Garland, together with the knights and nobles in the team, , went to the castle to attend the banquet.

Although Lind was a knight attendant of Fertimo Klein, he was not qualified to participate in this kind of noble banquet. He could only stay in the camp with the rest of the team and enjoy the food provided by Baron Casway.

In more than a month, Linde did not learn any combat-related skills from Fotimo. Fotimo directly told him that he could no longer teach him anything in terms of swordsmanship and combat, and asked him to follow his previous methods. The only thing he could do was teach Linde how to be a knight's squire.

Therefore, it became his daily routine to take care of Fertimo's war horses, help Fertimo maintain his armor and weapons, learn some basic knightly etiquette, etc. The rest of the time, he followed his past methods to improve his physique and train for group battles. .

However, what is really very useful to Lind is the cultural class that has nothing to do with knight fighting.

Every night, Fertimo would ask Maester Holly to teach Lind the history of the seven kingdoms, the family history of each great noble, as well as the coat of arms and family motto of each family.

Originally, Lind's knowledge of the world of ice and fire came from previous life dramas and discussion posts on forums, and part of it came from a setting book about the world of ice and fire (interestingly, Bachelor Holly said that this book really existed in the Citadel, but only a few maesters can read), and don’t know much about the real Westeros.

Although being able to systematically learn this knowledge will not directly improve his combat effectiveness, it will play a very critical role in obtaining a higher status in the future.

Maester Holly comes from a small vassal under the Tyrell family and has high attainments in history and culture. This time he is just following the Tyrell family's team to King's Landing and is not a member of the Rose family.

At first, Bachelor Holly was very resistant and reluctant to teach Linde, not because he had any objections to Linde's identity, but because he had his own things to do, and teaching Linde knowledge took up too much of his personal life. time.

But as time went by, his mentality gradually changed, from passive to active. Sometimes on the road, he would even call Lind to the carriage where he was sitting to teach the unfinished lessons of the previous day.

The reason why Bachelor Holly has undergone such a big change is entirely because he felt the joy of being a teacher for the first time in Lind.

The noble family where Bachelor Holly belongs is located at the junction of the Reach and Dorne, and often conflicts with the Dornish people. Therefore, this family is extremely martial and takes other knowledge very lightly. The children of the family only need to learn some noble etiquette and rivers. Part of the aristocratic history of the Bay is enough, which makes Bachelor Holly useless in that family.

This time, Maester Holly will go to King's Landing all the way, mainly because a friend of his in the city wrote to tell him that Grand Maester Pycelle intends to compile a history of the Targaryen Dynasty, and hopes that the city will send a maester with a red copper necklace to go there. King's Landing Auxiliary.

Maester Holly was well-known in the city for his expertise in history, and he fit the requirements of Grand Maester Pycelle very well. His good friend knew that he was unhappy in that noble family, so he told him about it.

On the day that he received the letter, Maester Holly immediately resigned to the nobles he worked for, and then went on the road alone.

Fortunately, he had good luck and met several caravans heading to Highgarden, and he arrived at Highgarden with the caravans without any danger.

Later, he learned in Highgarden that the Tyrell family sent people to King's Landing to participate in the tournament, and he joined the Rose family's team.

So when Fortimo came to him and asked him to teach Linde knowledge, he couldn't refuse.

Because the swordsmanship competition at the New Barrel City garrison left a very deep impression on Bachelor Holly, coupled with the reputation of the bear hunter and Lind's identity as a hunter, he subconsciously associated Lind with the nobles he taught before. The student drew an equal sign.

However, after teaching Linde knowledge for a few days, he found that Linde was completely different from the people he taught before. Linde showed extraordinary enthusiasm for all the knowledge he taught, except for the lessons he planned every day. , Linde even asked him about knowledge outside the course, and even later had some academic discussions with him about the content of the course. He sometimes couldn't answer some of the questions raised during the discussion.

However, what really shocked Bachelor Holly was the learning ability shown by Linde. Linde had completely mastered almost all the knowledge he taught just once, and he had already fully memorized the books after just reading them once. , which gave Bachelor Holly the illusion that there was a sphinx living inside Lind.

"You should go to the Citadel!" This sentence became what Bachelor Holly would say every day.

This matter quickly reached Garland's ears, and after confirming that Linde really had extremely high learning ability, he allowed Linde to borrow the books he brought with him on his trip, but he could only borrow them every time. Borrow a copy.

Lind's amazing learning ability once again caused quite a stir in the team, but this time the sensation was compared to when he left New Barrel City. People in the team learned that he was the bear hunter Lind. The sensational effect generated by this incident was much weaker.

That day, after the swordsmanship match with Fotimo, the nobles, soldiers, servants, grooms, etc. in the team all guessed about Linde's identity. Although among various guesses, some people guessed that Linde was hunting bears because of Linde's use of double swords. However, due to the huge gap between Lind's age and body shape and the public's perception of bear hunters, this speculation was the first to be rejected.

As a result, the next day, after Garland announced in a very high profile that the bear hunter Lynd had joined the Tyrell family before the team set off, everyone realized that Lynd was the legendary figure sung in the bard's ballad.

After the initial shock, everyone in the team accepted Linde's joining and welcomed Linde's joining. After all, there are various dangers on the way to King's Landing. One more powerful warrior like Linde would also be welcome. Just one more safety.

After getting along for more than a month, Linde did not encounter anything that made things difficult for the newcomer or questioned his ability. After all, the sword fight with Fotimo that day had already made everyone in the team know how strong he was, and Anyone with a discerning eye can also see that Garland Tyrell thinks highly of Lind, so whether he is a noble, a guard, or a servant, he shows enough respect for Lind, and even deliberately makes friends with him.

However, some of these deliberate friendships were their own ideas, and some were instructed by others. Therefore, during this period, both Fotimo and Garland were secretly observing Lind's performance to see what he would do. Don’t get lost in these sweet words.

However, Linde's performance made them very satisfied. When faced with deliberate friendship, he acted as naturally and casually as a real aristocrat. He did not become arrogant because of these sweet words. On the contrary, he was more like a humble person. Students also learn various knowledge and skills from anyone around them. For example, he learns from grooms how to feed horses, from warriors how to maintain armor and weapons, from servants what kind of etiquette should be used when facing nobles of different statuses, etc.

However, what satisfied Garland and Fortimo the most was Linde's highly self-disciplined character. Everything he did every day was clearly arranged, and all the rhythms of life were executed according to his plan. This highly self-disciplined character His personality reminded them of Lord Randyll Tarly.

For ordinary people in the team, Linde's highly self-disciplined character is not particularly lovable, but it can gain extra respect. Compared with Linde's personality, Linde's combat power is more attractive. them.

Because Fotimo's training of Linde was basically in a free-range state, Linde could only carry out targeted training on his physique and actual combat ability according to his original plan. Physical training could be completed by himself, but actual combat Ability requires the cooperation of others, so Linde's actual combat training every day has become a fixed entertainment time for this team, because Linde's actual combat is not a one-on-one combat, but a one-to-many combat.

From the first four people to five or six later, Linde has completely adapted to this one-to-many fighting method. Later, perhaps he felt that the increase in the number of people could no longer bring any effect to the training. He also asked his training soldiers to put on armor, hold shields and spears, and form a battle formation to fight with him. Only then did he feel the pressure again, and he was even almost defeated by his training soldiers several times.

For other people in the team, being able to see exciting battles every day makes the originally boring march more interesting. They will always gather around the training ground to watch for Linde and his sparring partners. The soldiers cheered, and even some maids would throw wild flowers picked by the roadside at the person they liked at the end of the training, and Linde was naturally the one who received the most flowers.

In actual combat trainings, Linde's powerful combat power also subtly affected these warriors, and the respect he gained increased day by day. Even though he was only a knight's attendant, he had more say in the Rose Family team than ordinary people. There are many more knights.

This also made many knights and nobles feel jealous of Lind. These people had tried to say bad things about Lind to Garland, but to no avail. This time Lind did not attend the meeting at Bitterbridge Castle. The banquet is more or less related to people like them. Otherwise, even if the knight's attendant's qualifications are somewhat low, he can still sit in the corner of the banquet hall.

Lind didn't care about not attending the castle banquet, at least not as much as the knights and nobles who were jealous of him thought. After having dinner in the team's camp, he was alone outside the castle. Daily throwing practice on a flat ground in a small town.

Among the Peacemaker's combat experience is the skill of throwing weapons. This skill can produce surprising results in one-on-one battles, but it is not suitable for group battles.

However, based on the idea that there is no harm in practice, Linde will also take time to train this ability.

However, after a period of training, Linde felt that he had underestimated this ability. He found that this throwing ability can exert extraordinary effects whether in single combat or in group battles on the battlefield. The only change he needs to make is not to throw the melee weapons in his hands, but to throw the small weapons and hidden weapons such as throwing knives, short axes, and short spears that he carries with him.

Unfortunately, among the people accompanying the team, there were only cobblers and no blacksmiths. Linde was unable to make throwing weapons according to his own ideas. He could only borrow a few daggers and short axes from the warriors in the team for practice.

Although it was already night and there was no fire around, but because there were no clouds in the sky and the moonlight shone down, Linde could still see the surrounding situation clearly, which had no impact on his practice, not to mention that he could also practice night fighting by the way.

After continuously hitting the marked positions on the trees in front of him with his dagger and hatchet, Lind felt that continuing to practice like this was ineffective. He needed to increase the difficulty, such as throwing moving targets and so on.

Just when Linde was thinking about the next step of training, he suddenly heard a burst of footsteps not far away.

Since meeting the faceless man, Linde has consciously trained the sensory abilities of various organs in his body, instead of passively enjoying the talents produced by the physical changes after rebirth. Although the training time is still short, it has already Initial results have been achieved.

With the help of this period of training, Linde quickly judged the general shape of the person through the weight and frequency of the footsteps. Then he turned his head and looked towards the place where the sound came from, and saw the height and shape of the person he expected. When the estimates were consistent, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

There were only two people coming. One was a guard warrior of the Tyrell family named Raul. Recently, he often practiced swordsmanship with Linde and was considered one of the people who had a good relationship with Linde.

The other person was wearing the uniform of a Kuqiao guard. He was very tall, half a head taller than Lind. He was not too old, and should be about the same age as Lind. However, his body was very strong, with arms and upper body. The muscles tightened the clothes. In addition, in order to make himself look more mature, he grew some beards, but these beards were very sparse and looked more like baby's lanugo hair.