Chapter 24 Todd’s Pumpkin

Garland should have made special arrangements before leaving. Linde was not assigned to the patrol and guard team. Instead, he was given a separate order to pick out a few smart ones from the team and enter. Explore various areas of King's Landing to find out all kinds of information.

During the Usurper's War, Duke Tywin's sacking of King's Landing greatly damaged the intelligence network previously deployed by the Tyrell family in King's Landing. In the following year, Lord Jon Arryn, Hand of the King, and the Chief of Intelligence Varys cleaned up all the intelligence strongholds of all forces in King's Landing, which naturally included the Tyrell family's intelligence network.

Therefore, although the Tyrell family cannot be said to know anything about the situation in King's Landing, they do not know much, and most of it is information that has been made public.

And Duke Mace Tyrell is extremely unreliable. He has never thought about actively collecting information about King's Landing during this year. For him, attending various banquets every day and making friends with the upstarts of the Baratheon Dynasty are his priorities. priority.

As a result, the current Tyrell family has no idea about the situation in King's Landing, and they don't know how to take the next step. Therefore, in addition to participating in the tourney, Garland should also follow the instructions of the Queen of Thorns to restore the intelligence network.

If Linde had not appeared, Garland could only rely on Fortimo to collect intelligence. However, as the head coach of Highgarden and the master swordsman of the Reach, Fotimo also had a good reputation in King's Landing, which made him too unpopular in the eyes of interested people. It's not conducive to gathering intelligence.

However, now there is a more suitable candidate. In Garland's opinion, Lind's ability is no worse than that of Fortimo, and Lind's reputation as a bear hunter is only spread in the Reach for the time being, and he is just an unknown one in King's Landing. He is an ordinary Tyrell soldier, so he collects information without attracting the attention of interested parties.

Garland obviously attaches great importance to gathering intelligence. He not only handed over Linde's salary for this month in advance, but also gave him an additional 30 gold dragons, 100 silver deer, and 800 bronze stars as an activity. funds, and also gave him the right to select personnel, as if he was treated as a temporary intelligence chief.

Linde was not polite. He selected ten people from the team who he thought were quite clever, including Raul. After that, he did not plan to take ten people into the city with him, but directly handed Garland to him. The activity funds were divided among ten people, and he only kept twenty gold dragons and some silver deer and bronze stars, and then asked two or three of them to enter the city from different city gates and enter different urban areas to inquire for information. , as for himself, he partnered with Raul and went to the nearest Lions Gate.

"I didn't expect to come to King's Landing again. I thought I would never come here again in this life." When passing the Lion Gate, Raul raised his head and looked at the wide gate, and then looked at the two sides of the suspension bridge. The Crouching Lion Stone Sculpture sighed involuntarily.

Lind heard Raul's sigh, and while stuffing the cut pieces of meat into his chest pocket to feed Glory, he asked curiously: "Have you been to King's Landing before?"

"Well, I came here with Baron Brinton's caravan a few years ago," Raul nodded and said: "At that time, the Mad King was still sitting on the Iron Throne, the Duke of the North had not been burned to death, and the new king was still here. Just the adopted son of Lord Jon Arryn of the Vale, the woman I love has not yet opened her arms to other men.”

When Lind heard this, he looked at Raul with a deep look in his eyes, feeling that this veteran of the Tyrell family was a man with a story.

After the two entered the city, Linde handed over the job of leading the way to Raul, who had been to King's Landing before.

However, he soon discovered that this decision was a mistake, because after Raul brought the two to a rice-shaped intersection, he no longer knew how to go.

"Didn't you say you were here a few years ago?" Linde asked with a puzzled look on his face.

Raul said helplessly: "Yes! I have been here before, but I was just walking around the Fishermen's Square in Mudmen. I have never been here."

Linde felt that his partnership with Raul was completely a mistake, but now this mistake is irreversible, so he can only bite the bullet and continue.

He glared at Raul who was smiling awkwardly, took a deep breath, suppressed the irritability in his heart, and then looked around. At this time, he saw some children playing on the street not far away, so he Walked over.

The group of children stopped playing when they saw a strange, strong man wearing a weapon approaching, and then gathered together, looking at Linde warily.

When he came to the child, Linde took out a handful of bronze stars from his pocket very directly, put it in his hand, and said: "Whoever can tell me which pub nearby has the most people and how to get there, these bronze stars will be his."

What surprised Lind was that these children did not rush to answer their questions like the ordinary children he knew in exchange for the bronze star in his hand. Instead, they looked at each other, and then all looked at one of them. The kid who wasn't the biggest or physically strongest seemed to be waiting for that kid to make a decision.

The child walked out of the crowd, came to Linde, and said, "Sir, if you want to find a crowded tavern nearby, you can go to the old cripple's insoles. The blacksmiths, cobblers and other craftsmen nearby are all like it. Go there and have a drink during the break." He paused and then said, "However, I don't think you want to go to a crowded pub because you like to listen to those people who are drunk and bragging. If you want to hear other more interesting news, I recommend you to go to the taverns and brothels on Silk Street, where the big shots in the Red Castle like to go when they have nothing to do. "

Hearing about the brothel on Silk Street, Raoul behind Linde breathed a little heavier. Even in Highgarden, the brothel on Silk Street is extremely famous, and Raoul's first wish before coming to King's Landing was to be in Silk Street. A night's sleep in a brothel.

However, Raul's hope was destined to be in vain. After listening to the child's words, Linde shook his head and said, "There is no need for a brothel. You might as well tell me which pub meets my requirements."

"Toad's Pumpkin, this is the best tavern in King's Landing. Almost all the big merchants and nobles who come to King's Landing will sit there when they have time, and then taste the fine wine from the Arbor Island and the delicacies from across the Narrow Sea. , just sitting there requires a golden dragon." The child looked at Linde and Raul, saw their clothes, smiled, and said, "Sir, you don't seem to have the ability to sit there. people."

"It's right there." Linde ignored the child's doubts about him, put the bronze star in his hand into the child's hand, and said, "Tell me how to get there?"

The child looked at the bronze star in his hand, then stuffed it into his pocket. He turned to gesture to a little girl and said, "She will take you there. I wish you a pleasant stay in King's Landing, my lord."

After saying that, he led the other children and ran away quickly, leaving only the little girl behind.

"Please follow me, my lord." The little girl nodded to Linde, and without any nonsense, she led Linde and Raul towards the eye-catching Great Cathedral of Baelor at the top of the Visenya Hills ahead.

There were already a lot of people on the streets of King's Landing, and the closer they got to the Great Cathedral of Baelor, the more believers of the Seven Gods. They prayed and walked slowly around the road under the outer wall of the Great Cathedral. Linde and the others You need to squeeze forward hard to get through these walls.

Fortunately, this section of the road was not very long. After getting out of the crowd of pilgrims, the little girl took them around the more crowded Belle Square, through the end streets of King's Avenue in the city, and entered a street with few people. The alley, then turned east and west through the winding alley. After walking for a long distance, they finally walked out of this somewhat dark alley and came to a road full of wine and wine. On the perfume-smelling streets.

"This is it." The little girl pointed to a three-story building with a gorgeous decoration and a golden pumpkin sign.

After saying that, she turned around and prepared to leave. However, when she passed by Linde, she seemed to have stepped on something. She leaned forward and bumped into Linde. However, she quickly moved away from Linde and continued Apologize.

"No need to apologize, just give me back the wallet you took from me." Linde put his hand on the little girl's shoulder and said with a smile.

When the little girl heard this, her face became a little ugly, and her eyes looked around, as if she was considering a way to escape.

Linde, who was aware of the little girl's intention, didn't smile at all, but his tone became much more sinister, and he said, "Don't try to ask other people for help, because if you make any unusual move, I will kill you immediately, and then Take out my purse from you, I don’t think even those golden robes would be able to find anything wrong with me.”

The little girl could feel that Linde was not lying. If she really messed up, she would definitely be killed by him. Under the influence of fear, she completely gave up the idea of ​​​​escape and honestly took out the handbag that had just been taken from Lin De. De took off the money bag from his waist.

Linde let go of the little girl's shoulder, took the purse, weighed it to make sure it was not missing, and then looked at the little girl in front of him.

Although he caught the little girl who stole his things, he had no idea how the little girl stole his wallet. It was only because his keen senses noticed that there was something wrong with the weight on his waist that he was sure that he had been stolen. .

Linde did not embarrass the little girl, but took out a few bronze stars from his purse and handed them to the little girl, saying: "Take your toll fee, apologize to me, and you can leave."

The little girl was stunned after hearing this. She originally thought she would be beaten severely, but she didn't expect the other party to let her go so easily and even give her travel expenses.

The little girl quickly took the toll, then apologized seriously to Linde, and ran away quickly.

"Are all the children in King's Landing so powerful now? Can they steal a purse so easily?" Raul, who was standing aside, couldn't help but said: "Lord Linde, are you going to let her go like this?"

"If you don't let her go like this, do you really want to beat her up or kill her? I just said I would kill her just to scare her." Linde rolled his eyes at Raul, then looked away and disappeared The little girl at the corner of an alley said, "And she and her companions are not ordinary children."

In fact, when those children first behaved differently from ordinary people, he had already guessed that these children were probably the little birds of King's Landing City's intelligence chief Varys, but now there is no possibility of conflict between him and the superior Varys. And he has no plans to live in King's Landing for a long time, so he doesn't care much about the little bird.

Hearing Linde's words, Raul looked confused. He didn't understand what was special about those children, and Linde had no intention of explaining it, because he couldn't explain this kind of thing at all, and he couldn't tell Raul about his feelings for the little ones. Everything you know about birds comes from books, forums and TV series from another world.

Lind gestured to Raul and walked into Todd's Pumpkin tavern.

The decoration inside the tavern is as gorgeous as the outside. Decorations from all over the world are perfectly inlaid on the walls and pillars, giving the entire tavern an exotic feel.

However, the most eye-catching place in the entire tavern is an old-looking canvas bag hanging in the middle of the hall. Although the appearance is no different from the canvas bags commonly seen by travelers, the material is not canvas, but an unknown material. The delicate materials are very valuable at first glance, but I don’t know what the purpose of hanging them here is.

Although it is afternoon and it is not the time when the tavern has the most customers, there are already many guests in the tavern. Most of these people are idle palace nobles in King's Landing, and there are also some businessmen from other places.

While Linde and Raul were looking at the situation in the tavern, a waiter from the tavern came over, saluted the two of them, and said, "Good afternoon, sirs. How can I help you?"

The waiters had obviously received special training and did not look down upon Linde and Raul at all because of their inappropriate clothing.

"I heard that this is the best tavern in the entire city of King's Landing, where you can taste the best wine and food." Compared to Raul, who was a little timid, Lind seemed relaxed and natural.

The waiter said with great confidence: "Of course, as long as you have enough golden dragons in your body, we will definitely be able to provide you with wine and food that you can imagine and cannot imagine."

Linde showed the purse containing twenty golden dragons to the waiter and asked, "Are these enough?"

The waiter smiled and said: "The top wine and food are not enough, but ordinary wine and food are enough."

"I don't have the extravagant expectation of top-notch wine and food. Generally speaking, it's enough for people like us." Linde smiled and said, "In this case, help me arrange a seat that is better, but not It will be an eye-catching location!”

"At your command, sir." The waiter bowed, and then led Linde and Raul to a relatively quiet window seat on the second floor. This position can see the courtyard in the middle of the tavern, and can also It's a good location to clearly hear and see the performances of singers and dancers hired by the pub in the courtyard.

After Linde sat down, he motioned to Raoul not to be so restrained, then threw the money bag containing twenty gold dragons to the waiter, and said: "Just serve me the normal wine and food according to the amount of twenty gold dragons." , and prepare some raw meat for me.”

"Raw meat?" The waiter held the money bag and was stunned, thinking it was Linde's special taste.

But he soon realized that he had misunderstood, because Linde took out the glory from the cloth pocket in his arms and placed it on the table. The glory that had just woken up stretched and howled. .