"I always feel like something is wrong with this matter." After the Wildling King left, Nameria reminded him with a serious expression.
"Of course, something is wrong," Lynd said with a hint of disdain, "To agree to such a big matter as dissolving his tribe and pledging allegiance to me, after only a slight thought, without even going back to discuss it with the elders and leaders of his tribe, he clearly never considered fulfilling this promise."
Nameria thought about the Wildling King's reaction just now, and nodded in agreement, then said, "Since he never intended to keep his promise from the beginning, is it possible that his plan is a trap, a trap set in collusion with the Lord of Weil City?"
Lynd thought for a moment and said, "It's possible, but not very likely."
"Why?" Nameria asked, puzzled.
Lynd said in a deep voice, "Because his hatred for Hylan Veil is real, not a disguise. He truly wants to kill Hylan Veil."
"Do we still need to help him get revenge?" Nameria asked.
"Of course, we do. If Hylan Veil doesn't die, Hylan Veil's daughter will be useless." Lynd nodded, then changed the subject, saying, "However, we won't participate personally. The Wildling King is Hylan Veil's bastard son. His actions would be patricide. How can I, as the Chosen of the Seven, allow such an evil act as patricide to happen?"
Nameria asked, puzzled, "If we don't participate, how can we help the Wildling King get revenge?"
Lynd replied, "Wildlings' affairs are to be resolved by Wildlings."
Nameria was stunned, then quickly understood Lynd's meaning and said, "You want to use those Savage Tribes?"
Lynd nodded but did not elaborate further.
Nameria then asked, "Who are you planning to have marry Hylan Veil's daughter?"
"Why would I want her to marry someone?" Lynd asked with a smile.
"Of course…" Nameria had just shown a puzzled expression, but upon seeing Lynd's smile, she realized something and said, "You never intended to take Weil City?"
"My current territory is already large enough; it requires a lot of time and effort to govern well. Adding Weil City would only increase my troubles and bring me no benefits," Lynd said calmly. "Instead of directly controlling Weil City, it's better to find a suitable lord for Weil City."
"Will that woman be suitable?" Nameria questioned.
"Whether she's suitable or not isn't important, as long as she's not too bad, it'll be fine," Lynd said dismissively. "Besides, no matter how bad she is, she shouldn't be worse than the Wildling King."
"The Wildling King? What does this have to do with him?" Nameria was stunned. She didn't understand why the Lord of Weil City was now connected to the Wildling King. Although the Wildling King was a descendant of Hylan Veil, he was a bastard and a Wildling. No kingdom would ever allow a Wildling to become a lord.
Lynd smiled at Nameria and said, "Tell me about the Wildling King's appearance."
"He's very tall, with blue eyes, brown hair…" Nameria stopped after mentioning just three features, unable to recall any other distinct characteristics.
"Only one of the three features you just mentioned is correct; he does indeed have a pair of blue eyes." Lynd smiled and corrected, "His height only appears tall; in reality, his boots were elevated. His height should be similar to Rossos. Additionally, his brown hair is dyed with a special potion; if you look closely at the roots of his hair, you can see that his hair is red."
"Why would he do that?" Nameria asked, puzzled.
Lynd slowly said, "Think about it, if Hylan Veil dies, and we bring his daughter to Weil City to demand that his daughter inherit the title and territory, what would it look like if a man suddenly appeared, claiming to be Hylan Veil's son?"
Nameria froze, looking at Lynd in surprise.
Lynd continued, "Since Hylan Veil could secretly raise a daughter, what's so strange about him secretly raising a son? And that man could even claim that the daughter was merely a decoy created by Hylan Veil to protect his son."
Nameria also showed a look of realization and said, "Shaving off all body hair, appearing in one's true form, plus changes in height and hair color, if you hadn't told me beforehand, even if he stood right in front of me, I probably wouldn't recognize him." She paused, then added, "This means he must also have a set of evidence to prove his identity."
"Exactly, and it's genuine evidence." Lynd said in a deep voice, "The evidence he prepared for that woman is probably fake, or rather, problematic."
"No." Nameria shook her head and said, "I think the identity evidence for that woman might also be real."
"Why?" Lynd asked, puzzled.
"After the items are given to us, we will certainly verify their authenticity. Falsifying those documents is extremely difficult, and once exposed, it would not only affect his plan but also lead to our attack," Nameria picked up the kettle and poured Lynd a cup of water, analyzing, "We can then directly hand over the items and the person to Weil City, which would cause him to lose his greatest support. I think the Wildling King, being clever, would also consider this point, so the identity evidence he produces must all be real, without any loopholes."
Lynd took a sip of water and hesitated, "In that case, how will he seize Weil City's territory and title?"
Nameria smiled and explained, "It's simple, as long as his own identity proof is also real, and he outranks that woman in the order of succession, that's enough."
Lynd also realized that he had fallen into a thinking trap just now, only considering the authenticity of the evidence and overlooking that the right of inheritance was the most important. Clearly, compared to his earlier speculation, Nameria's inference should be more accurate.
The appearance of the Wildling King slightly altered Lynd's plan. The next day, he moved his men from the temporary camp below Great Wind Tower to a village not far from Bone Bridge.
This village had been completely burned down by the people Weil City had sent earlier. All the villagers had been driven back to Weil City's territory, with a few individuals hiding in cellars or on nearby mountains escaping the calamity.
When Lynd and his group arrived at this village, these people were terrified, thinking that Weil City's garrison soldiers had returned.
It wasn't until they saw Lynd's red-bottomed longsword banner that they realized they weren't from Weil City, and also discovered that Lynd's army hadn't done anything frightening, so they gradually emerged from their hiding places.
These villagers were not very old; the oldest were only teenagers, and the youngest was still an infant, held in his older sister's arms.
Lynd temporarily took them in, and recruited a few of the older ones. Then he had Roso take these few people and a cavalry squad, and travel along the coastline to find all the villages previously established by Weil City, announce Lynd's status as lord and the ownership of this land, and instruct all village chiefs or elders to come to Bone Bridge for a territorial meeting.
While Lynd and Nameria were discussing the meeting content and how to integrate these villages, Daisy suddenly ran in from outside, panting, "My Lord, the people on the other side of the bridge have withdrawn."
Lynd and Nameria were both stunned, then looked at each other and smiled in unison.
Weil City's reaction indeed surprised Lynd. To be honest, when he uttered those threatening words on the bridge that day, he never expected Earl Hylan Veil to meekly comply and give up Bone Bridge and Snake Tooth Tower on the other end.
For this, Lynd had already prepared for war, and calling together the village chiefs and elders was precisely to consolidate the rear, to avoid being dragged down when going to war with Weil City.
But what Lynd never expected was that Hylan Veil would agree to such harsh terms, and act so quickly, executing it in less than a day.
Considering the distance between Weil City and Bone Bridge, it's likely that the messenger knight only returned to Weil City this morning, and Weil City probably issued the order directly via raven, seemingly fearing that they would miss the deadline, causing Lynd to think he wouldn't yield and declare war on Weil City.
This undoubtedly also indicates that the loss of over a thousand men earlier had severely crippled Weil City.
Lynd and Nameria led their people to the other side of Bone Bridge again. Just as Daisy had said, all of Weil City's garrison soldiers had left, and even Snake Tooth Tower next to Bone Bridge was empty, with many household items left behind, not having been taken away in time.
"Clean up the camp and have the stonemason master inspect the terrain. I want to build a bridgehead here." Lynd briefly surveyed the situation here, then ordered Jon.
"Do you want to build it immediately?" Jon asked.
"First, build a simple one out of wood. Once the affairs in the territory are settled, then build a formal one." Lynd pointed to the area around Bone Bridge and said, "First, plan out the foundation. Hire some people from those villages on the other side. Remember, it's hiring, not directly grabbing people to work."
"Understood, My Lord." Jon nodded.
Afterward, Lynd and Nameria walked around the area again before returning to the village camp on the north bank.
"Where is Glory? I haven't seen that big fellow since last night?" The observant Nameria asked, puzzled.
Lynd replied, "It went on a mission. It probably won't appear for the next few days."
"On a mission?" Nameria hesitated, then guessed, "The Wildling King?"
Lynd smiled and nodded.
Since last night, Glory had been tracking the Wildling King under Lynd's command, watching them bypass Black Harbor's watchtowers and fortresses via an extremely narrow, dry mountain path, arriving in a valley.
Inside the valley, hundreds of tents were densely pitched, with adults and children moving among them, totaling several thousand people. Judging by the totems erected next to the tents, the tribes occupying this valley were all from Wildling King Hamil's Stone Mountain Tribe.
Everyone thought the Wildling King and his subordinate tribes were currently in the mountains near Summerhall, confronting the tribal alliance, preparing for a great battle that would determine the future of the Red Guard Clan.
Who would have thought that the Wildling King had already led his Stone Mountain Tribe through Black Harbor's layered defenses and arrived in this valley not particularly far from Black Harbor City.
It's no exaggeration to say that if the Wildling King were to launch a surprise attack on Black Harbor right now, even if Black Harbor's castle wouldn't be breached, the town below the castle would likely suffer heavy losses.
Glory stopped outside the valley camp, then found a relatively high vantage point and determined the location of the Wildling King's tent within the camp.
After nightfall, Glory, whose fur color had turned black, slipped into the shadows, silently avoiding the patrolling Wildling warriors, and infiltrated the camp, quickly arriving next to the Wildling King's tent.
At this moment, Lynd also sensed the mental message transmitted by Glory, and possessed Glory's body, using Glory's eyes and ears to eavesdrop on the movements inside the tent.
At this time, inside the tent, the Wildling King was gathering his subordinates to assign tasks. Because they were speaking in their own language, Lynd couldn't understand the content of their conversation, but from their tone and expressions, they seemed to be arguing about something.
And in the language they used, there were also some words similar to the common tongue. Through these words, Lynd could barely make out that their argument was related to migration. The Wildling King seemed to intend to migrate the entire Stone Mountain Tribe to the unclaimed land west of Bone Road called Vulture Ridge.
Not all of the Wildling King's subordinates were willing to migrate, but all opposing opinions were suppressed by the Wildling King, which shows that the Wildling King had considerable prestige within the Stone Mountain Tribe.
The migration matters were quickly ordered, and the Wildling King dismissed all his subordinates, leaving only a few trusted confidants.
Then, to avoid being overheard by people in the tribe, he switched to the common tongue and ordered those few confidants to immediately return to the other tribes near Summerhall that had pledged allegiance to him, bring back those who were still loyal to him from those tribes, and abandon all the remaining people, letting them continue to confront the tribal alliance.
After all the instructions were given, the Wildling King took out a bottle of potion from a box and applied it to his head and all visible skin on his body.
Afterward, he picked up the wine jug on the table and drank heartily, while also taking out some parchment scrolls from a nearby box and flipping through them.
Having traveled for a day and a night continuously, and painstakingly explaining things to his subordinates, his body was already extremely tired. Coupled with the effect of the alcohol, he soon became sleepy. Perhaps feeling safe here, and knowing that his Wildling subordinates were illiterate, he didn't put away the parchment scrolls. He simply drank all the wine in the jug, then lay on the bed and fell into a deep sleep.
Lynd did not immediately have Glory sneak into the tent, because through Glory's eyes, he observed that both the Wildling warriors guarding outside the tent and the Wildling King sleeping inside were still in a state of light sleep; any slightly loud movement would awaken them.
By dawn, except for the patrolling Wildlings who remained awake, everyone else had fallen into a deep slumber.
Only then did Lynd command Glory, under the cover of shadows, to sneak into the tent and approach the parchment scrolls.
He quickly confirmed that these parchment scrolls were the documents proving the Wildling King was a descendant of Hylan Veil, and even included a document designating Stephen Veil as the heir to the lordship of Weil City.
Although he didn't know how the Wildling King obtained these documents, it could be deduced from their content that if Hylan Veil died, then with these documents and the witnesses mentioned therein, the Wildling King had a very high chance of inheriting Weil City.
However, now that Lynd had discovered his little scheme, he naturally wouldn't let him have his way. So, he used the black light on Glory's body to corrode a few key spots on the parchment scrolls. When the time came, these corroded spots would naturally play their role.
After all this was done, Glory quickly left the Savage Tribes camp, but it did not return to Lynd's side. Instead, under Lynd's command, it sped towards the north, in the direction of the Wildling alliance.
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