Chapter 219 Sharpshooter

Just like Myr, Lind also stayed in Pentos for two days and then left by ship.

During these two days, he introduced Xiufu to Illyrio and asked the two to cooperate in handling matters in the Sphinx Courtyard.

At the same time, he also secretly met his men who were ambushing Pantos and helped them solve some minor troubles.

However, for the dignitaries of Pentos and some of the controllers of underground forces, the past two days have not been easy, because their people were assassinated one after another, which made them panic, and they all speculated that their opponents hired the Faceless Men to do it. of.

As a result, an undercurrent began to surge in Pantos, and everyone could feel that the atmosphere was becoming tense.

Illyrio is considered one of the insiders, and can even be said to be one of the participants, such as providing some lists, etc. This allows him to make arrangements in advance and let him have a share in the chaos that will follow in Pentos.

When Lind left, Illyrio also tentatively mentioned the Targaryen brothers and sisters. What surprised Lind was that Illyrio did not bring the Targaryen brothers and sisters to his manor, but just secretly Observe this brother and sister.

At first, Linde thought that the other party was worried because of himself. After all, he was the one who sent people to bring the siblings over, thinking that he might have some plans for them.

But he soon realized that his guess was wrong. It was not because of himself that Illyrio refused to contact the brothers and sisters, but because he felt that the brothers and sisters had not suffered enough, so he did not touch the brothers and sisters after they disembarked. It didn't take long for him to let people steal the money from the brother and sister, returning them to poverty.

The reason why he tentatively mentioned this matter was because he was worried that his actions would annoy Linde.

In this regard, Lind didn't say anything, nor did he intervene to change the fate of the brother and sister. He had already intervened once when he met the brother and sister on Blackstone Island, giving them something to change their fate. Will Daenerys... It's not his concern to take out the necklace and use it. Even if it is not used, everything will just go back to the starting point.

The ship Linde took when he left Pentos was just an ordinary merchant ship. Because of the rampant pirates in the Narrow Sea, the ships sailing in this area were composed of seven or eight merchant ships traveling together, and sometimes there were more than a dozen ships. A fleet of ships.

However, even so, it is still inevitable to encounter pirate attacks. Most of the attacks occur late at night, and when pirates attack, they will not target all ships, but only one ship.

The advantage of this is that it can reduce the resistance of other ships. After all, not every ship owner has the awareness of death, not to mention that the ships that were attacked were relatively isolated ships in the fleet, so Linde guessed There should be pirate agents in the fleet who mark ships suitable for robbery.

Through conversations with people on the ship, Linde learned that in fact not only the people from the Free Trade City had tried to encircle and suppress these pirates, but even White Harbor and Dragonstone on the Westeros continent had also tried to encircle and suppress them. After all, once the pirates As a result, King's Landing and White Harbor were also affected.

However, the effect of their encirclement and suppression is not much better. These Narrow Sea pirates have learned from the failure of the Stepstone Islands Pirate Alliance and will never fight against the encirclement and suppression fleet. Once they see a patrol fleet appear, they will Run away immediately.

Because the pirates' ships are all speedboats, they are very fast, and the armed ships of the patrol fleet cannot catch up at all. In addition, late at night, it is difficult to see the situation on the sea clearly, and they are often led to unfamiliar places by pirate ships. The ship ran aground in the reef area and capsized.

Therefore, after losing some ships, Dragonstone Island and White Harbor gave up on encircling and suppressing pirates, and instead patrolled the waters along the Westeros coastline. Although they were not able to solve the problem of pirates robbing merchant ships, it was better than nothing.

Perhaps it is because Dragonstone and White Harbor have also given up on encircling and suppressing pirates that the Free Trade City-States want to station the Miracle Fleet in each port city-state and be responsible for the security of the Narrow Sea. Although this will cost some money and transfer some rights, But for the Free Trade City, which is dominated by merchants, this is a good deal.

From Pentos to Braavos, because we follow the ocean current, the speed is quite fast, and it is estimated that it will take six days to sail.

The merchant ship Linde boarded belonged to a Tyroshi Chamber of Commerce. The goods carried on board were all high-end tinware produced in his territory and were valuable. In order to avoid accidents, the ship owner not only joined a temporary fleet, but also hired Ten mercenaries were hired to protect the ship, and Linde boarded the ship as a hired mercenary.

Since leaving Pantos, the fleet has been heading north along the coastline. The position of the ship is always in the sea area where the coastline can be seen, and it does not dare to go too deep into the depths of the narrow sea.

At first, the scenery of the coastline was very attractive, but as time passed, the same scenery became boring, so the mercenaries and sailors on the ship began to play games, such as hand-to-hand fighting similar to boxing, etc. .

However, not everyone was interested in fighting. A mercenary wearing leather armor and a long bow walked up to Linde and asked, "Li, are you interested in competing?"

When leaving Pentos, Lind did not continue to wear Onstein's vest, but left the Lion Knight armor in Pantos. He disguised himself as a mercenary who was good at bows and arrows. His name was the last name of his previous life, which was also his. The Chinese character on the sword hilt on the family emblem.

"How do you want to compete? An Gai." Linde looked at the young mercenary with red hair and freckles on his face and asked.

After boarding the ship, Linde noticed that the shipowner hired this mercenary, because in addition to being equipped with bows and arrows, all mercenaries also wore long swords. Only he was only equipped with a bow and only had one melee weapon. A knife for handling prey.

Later, after learning the name and origin of the mercenary, Linde gradually determined that the mercenary should be the marksman Angei who won the archery competition at the King's Landing Tournament a few years later.

However, the most famous thing about this marksman is not his magical shooting skills, but that he spent the tens of thousands of gold dragons earned from the competition in a few months. You must know that most of the lords in Westeros spent a few months. The territory tax does not necessarily have to be 10,000 gold dragons.

"Use an hourglass to see who shoots the most petrels." An Gai looked at the petrels on the cliffs of the distant coast and said.

"Okay." Linde nodded and said, "What is the lottery?"

"I want your bow." An Gai pointed to the bow hanging on Linde's waist and said.

An Gai has been eyeing Linde's bow since Linde boarded the ship. He has been looking for an opportunity to get this bow. Now that the opportunity has come, he will not let it go.

"What about you? My prize is a bow, what is your prize?" Linde smiled, pointed at the long bow on An Gai's back, and said, "Did you tell me that you were also going to take it from yourself?" The bow is used as a bonus, right?”

An Gai was stunned when Linde pointed out his idea. He didn't know how to answer for a while, because as Linde said, he really wanted to use his bow as a bonus to make a small gain.

The people watching the excitement could see his thoughts from An Gai's expression and booed one after another. Everyone could see that the value of An Gai's bow and Linde's bow were very different.

"What kind of prize do you want?" An Gai was still a little thin-skinned. After hearing the boos, his face turned red and he looked at Linde and asked.

Linde said solemnly: "I'm looking for someone to work for me. Your shooting skills are good and you are qualified to work with me. If you lose, you will have to work for me for one year. After one year, you can decide whether to stay or not."

An Gai hesitated for a moment, nodded, and said, "Okay, let's use this as a lottery ticket."

Then, the two of them found a sailor on the ship as the commander. They each found a position to stand firm, then took off their respective bows and placed arrows on the bowstrings.

The selected sailor held a small hourglass and stood in front of the two people. While giving the order, he also turned the hourglass upside down on the bucket in front of them.

An Gai opened his bow and shot an arrow first. He looked extremely confident, and the arrow he shot shot straight towards the petrel in the sky.

However, Lin De, who was one step behind, also shot an arrow, but his arrow was twice as fast as An Gai's arrow. He directly caught up with An Gai's arrow and intercepted An Gai's arrow. Then he continued to fly out, accurately penetrated the heads of three petrels, and landed on the sea.

Although not every mercenary on the ship is a sharpshooter like An Gai, they are still proficient in archery and have very good eyesight. They can naturally see clearly what the arrows are about, and each one of them suddenly let out a startled expression. voice.

They had never seen such miraculous shooting skills. Not only did they come from behind and shoot off the opponent's arrows, but they also shot three petrels.

While the mercenaries on the deck were still amazed at Linde's shooting skills, the lookout standing on the mast also saw the situation clearly and couldn't wait to shout out what he had just seen.

The sailors who didn't see the situation clearly but heard the lookout's shout were all stunned, feeling like they were hearing some fairy tale.

For a moment, everyone's eyes fell on Linde who looked calm and composed. Even his opponent An Gai looked at Linde in surprise, as if he were looking at some kind of legendary monster.

As a marksman, he knows better than others how difficult it is to achieve the scene just now. Not only does he need excellent equipment, but his shooting skills must also reach a higher level. At least he can be sure that he will never be able to do it now. This kind of thing cannot be done even with a better bow.

"Aren't you going to continue? You are already behind three petrels, and there will be not enough time." Linde ignored the gazes around him and pointed to the half-way hourglass on the bucket and said.

Although An Gai knew that Linde's archery skills were much better than his own and that he was destined to lose, he still did not give up. After regaining consciousness, he opened his bow and shot with great concentration. Before the hourglass completely leaked out, he shot ten arrows. Six arrows, each of them extremely accurate, but all returned in vain.

Because, every arrow was intercepted by Linde without exception, and Linde's arrows were able to shoot down three petrels at the same time after each interception, and all three petrels were also shot in the head. .

The sailor who was selected as the starter couldn't wait to announce the results when the hourglass was completely gone, shouting: "At the end of the game, Li shot 17 arrows and hit 51 prey, An Gai shot Seventeen arrows failed to hit the prey, and Li won."

Everyone gathered around Linde and praised Linde's shooting skills. Even the ship owner was alarmed and walked out of the cabin. After understanding the situation, he expressed his willingness to pay a high price to hire Linde for a long time.

At this time, An Gai on the other side looked a little lonely, but there was not much frustration on his face. On the contrary, he was a little relieved. Then he saw him shooting his bow casually without looking at it, as if venting his depressed emotions. He shot an arrow into the air.

Without any interference from Linde's arrows, this arrow shot straight into the sky and accurately penetrated the target. One arrow shot through five petrels before falling into the sea.

Linde, who was surrounded by everyone, saw this scene. He knew that after this contest with him, Angai's self-confidence was not only not affected, but because of his constant pressure, his potential that was slowly developing was reduced. The child was stimulated, which greatly improved his shooting skills.

Judging from the arrow An Gai shot just now, if the two of them used the same bow, it would be difficult for Linde to intercept the opponent's arrow as easily as before without using the power of some dragon runes. Arrow.

"I am willing to admit defeat. I am now your subordinate. What should I call you now? Boss, or master?" An Gai put his bow behind his back, pulled out the people blocking the way, walked straight to Linde, and asked.

"Call me Sir!" Linde said solemnly.

"Sir?" An Gai was stunned and said with a smile: "I didn't expect that I was so lucky that I actually followed a noble."

Everyone looked at An Gai with envy upon hearing this. For mercenaries, being appreciated by a noble and becoming their subordinates was definitely the best destination for them.

As for the fact that Lind is a noble, it does not cause any strangeness, because there are many nobles from Westeros traveling in the Free Trade City, the most famous of which is naturally Prince Oberon of Dorne, the Red Viper. Linde is just one of them.

And they didn't shamelessly get in front of Linde, trying to get him to accept them, because judging from the contest between Linde and An Gai just now, they knew very well that they were not qualified, so there was no need to get in front of him. disgrace.

After the captain learned that Linde was a noble, his attitude towards Linde also changed a bit. He no longer mentioned hiring him and arranged a small room for Linde in the cabin. He did not have to be like other mercenaries. Stay out on the deck, out in the sun and rain.

After experiencing this episode, the ship returned to calm and sailed into the evening just like the previous few days. The fleet found a suitable bay to dock and wait until dawn tomorrow to continue sailing.

When late at night, a piercing horn sound alerted everyone on the ship. Everyone quickly realized that they were being attacked by pirates, and they all picked up their weapons and went to the deck.

Under the moonlight, four or five pirate longships could be seen on the sea in the distance, approaching at an extremely fast speed. They could vaguely see a dozen pirates on each longship. .

All the shipowners immediately ordered the ships to come together and connected all the ships together with prepared planks, preparing to defend the enemy together.

"Compare again, who can kill more pirates?" Linde stood by the side of the ship, looked at the pirates approaching at high speed in the distance, turned to An Gai, and said.

"Okay!" An Gai nodded without showing any signs of weakness, quickly nocked his bow and shot an arrow, taking the lead and shot an arrow towards the pirate ship.

From the screams, it was not difficult to guess that his arrow had hit the target.

When Linde saw this, he smiled, took out the arrow, and placed it on the bowstring.