The name 'Flatlands' is quite common, but it perfectly describes the geographical environment here. The Flatlands are located northwest of Myr and east and south of Pentos. As the name suggests, it is a vast plain with nothing to obstruct the view.
Unlike the Disputed Lands, which have always been contested by various city-states, the ownership of the Flatlands has always remained in the hands of Pentos.
Because of its excellent geographical environment, it has become the largest grain-producing area in the Free Trade City States, with over seventy percent of all grains needed by the entire Free Trade City States coming from the Flatlands' farmlands.
And precisely because there are no natural defenses and it is a flat, open area, the Dothraki have frequently raided it in the past.
However, the people of Pentos have a unique idea, believing that matters that can be resolved with money do not require force. So, after being raided by the Dothraki, they did not think about retaliating, or building defensive fortifications, or forming powerful armies. Instead, they offered generous tributes to those Dothraki Khals, spending money to beg the Dothraki not to raid them.
The most exaggerated example was not long ago when they even planned to build a palace for Drogo in Pentos, specifically to curry favor with Drogo.
Although their actions were humble, the effect was extraordinary. After regularly paying tribute and appeasing the Dothraki, raids on the Flatlands rapidly decreased. In fact, some powerful Dothraki Khals who accepted the tributes would even actively maintain the peace of the Flatlands, warning other Khals, as if they considered the Flatlands and Pentos their own territory.
It was also because they knew the Flatlands area was relatively safe that Myr's merchants would forgo the Valyrian Road, which had paved roads convenient for carriages, and instead take a detour through the muddy roads of the Flatlands.
"Lord Onstein, just ahead is the Silver Sparrow Inn. We'll stay at the inn for a night today and continue our journey tomorrow. We should reach Pentos by afternoon." A caravan manager pointed to the road ahead, explaining the situation to Lynd, who had put on his lion armor and vest again. He then looked with a hint of awe at the carriage filled with heads behind Lynd and the seemingly endless, tightly following caravan on the road.
The heads piled in that carriage had undergone special anti-corrosion treatment and could generally last for more than ten days without decaying, but the strong stench of corpses still lingered, leaving a clear space around the carriage where no one dared to approach.
These heads all had significant backgrounds; each one belonged to a bandit who had been wanted for a long time in Pentos and other Free Trade City States.
Among the wanted bandits, the weaker ones had long been dealt with by bounty hunters and mercenaries. What remained were powerful bandits with significant influence and strength, who could not be resolved by individuals or small mercenary teams.
The Free Trade City States also found these individuals very troublesome. To eliminate them, they even hired large mercenary groups like the Golden Company and the Windblown at great expense, but the result was huge costs and minimal returns. These bandits simply would not engage powerful mercenary groups head-on; once a mercenary group appeared, they would flee far away, and when the mercenary group left, they would return to their operating territory, repeating the cycle.
Some also suggested dealing with these bandits like they dealt with the Dothraki, but this suggestion was immediately rejected as soon as it was put forward.
It was already humiliating enough to bribe the Dothraki with money; now, even a group of low-level bandits needed to be bribed. They feared they would not be able to hold their heads high when dealing with people from other city-states and nations in the future.
Afterward, they also tried increasing patrol teams to deal with these bandits, but the effect was still minimal.
Perhaps it was because they had run out of ideas, or perhaps they realized that the actual damage these bandits caused to their interests was not significant. Ultimately, they simply treated these bandits as annoying fleas, no longer paying much attention, merely going through the motions, periodically adjusting the bounty amounts, and letting mercenaries and bounty hunters deal with them.
Lynd originally had no intention of dealing with these bandits, but unfortunately, these bandits along the way were blind, seeing Lynd in his golden armor and mistaking him for a fat sheep. Instead, they faced death itself.
Along the way, there were already over a hundred bandit heads in the carriage behind him, and all these heads belonged to named individuals with bounties in various Free Trade City States. As for those without bounties, Lynd had no intention of collecting them.
It was precisely this idea and behavior of collecting bandit heads and claiming bounties that made Lynd suddenly realize that, at some point, his personality had developed some issues. These issues weren't very serious; they simply reawakened his collecting habit of 'picking up trash' from his past life when playing games.
This situation had actually appeared during the war for the Stepstones, but it wasn't very serious at the time. He merely dragged some scrap pirate ships back to the port to see if they could be reused.
But now that he had arrived on the continent of Essos, the situation was somewhat different. On the road before, he collected warhorses and items that caught his eye, but he wasn't very concerned about money. This was simply a re-enactment of playing games in his previous life.
Now, upon encountering bandits, he would cut off their heads for the bounty and transport them in his carriage. To him, this seemed incredibly strange, especially since the bounties for these bandits were so small. The bounties for over a hundred heads combined couldn't even compare to the spoils of war he had discarded from the Dothraki in the Disputed Lands.
Yet, for such a pile of worthless and troublesome heads, he felt extremely reluctant to discard them, as if throwing them away would be like discarding a huge fortune.
Ultimately, he couldn't overcome his collecting habit and could only continue his journey with these heads.
Lynd's actions naturally attracted the passing caravans. Seeing that Lynd had dealt with so many troublesome bandits for the city-states, they all unanimously believed Lynd was a powerful knight. Coupled with Lynd's lion armor, which was very similar to the Night Lion they worshipped, they took this as a sign that they wouldn't have to worry about bandit threats if they followed him.
In fact, this was true. Whenever bandits appeared, Lynd would proactively confront and slay them, without needing the caravan members to lift a finger.
However, after dealing with the bandits, Lynd would have the caravan members identify which of these individuals had bounties and which did not, and then the caravan members would be responsible for preserving the heads, without him having to do it himself.
It was precisely for this reason that Lynd did not mind the trouble and was willing to travel with so many caravans.
However, as more and more caravans joined on the road, their procession became very large. The advantage of a large procession was that the bandits no longer dared to provoke them, but for Lynd, the disadvantage was also that the bandits no longer dared to provoke them.
Although the procession did not move very fast, they still arrived at the Silver Sparrow Inn before dark.
From the flag hanging on the inn, it was not difficult to see that this inn belonged to a Prince of Pentos. Not only this inn, but also the surrounding farms and fields belonged to this Prince.
Although from the architectural style of the inn, there was not much difference between this inn and other inns he had seen on the roads of the Flatlands, the only difference was that this inn was large enough to accommodate all the caravans following Lynd.
Of course, this did not mean that everyone had a room to stay in. In fact, most caravan members could only pitch tents in the open spaces around the inn and spend the night with their horses and other livestock.
Lynd did not stay inside the inn, but instead went to a small hill outside the inn. Calling it a small hill wasn't entirely accurate; more precisely, it should have been a buried ruin.
In fact, when Lynd saw the Silver Sparrow Inn, he noticed that it was built on an ancient ruin. The buildings on this ruin had been destroyed, but the foundations of the buildings were preserved, and the material used to build the foundations was black stone, the same kind of black stone as the base of the Hightower in Oldtown.
Through the alignment of this black stone foundation, Lynd could determine that this foundation must have been part of a massive structure, and a portion of the main body of this structure was on the hill next to the inn, which is why he chose to stay on the hill for the night.
Although people were curious about Lynd's choice, they did not dare to ask too many questions, because Lynd's behavior along the way had already made them feel enough awe, and they were well aware that asking random questions would only bring trouble upon themselves.
So, not only did they not ask Lynd why he wasn't staying in a perfectly good room but was instead living on the hill, they even had people guard the area around the hill to prevent anyone from approaching and disturbing Lynd.
Who knows how many years had passed, but the main body of this ruined building was completely covered by a large amount of earth, with only a portion of the roof beams exposed.
Through the patterns carved on the beams, Lynd deduced that this building should belong to the Ghis Empire, because there were many symbols with the meaning of harpies on it, which are unique symbols of the Ghis Empire, appearing only on the beams of important buildings to indicate that the building is protected by harpies.
Before the rise of the Valyrian Freehold, the Ghis Empire was a vast empire that ruled the western part of the continent of Essos, and their object of worship was the harpy.
Just like other ancient civilizations, the Ghis Empire also built a large number of structures in the places they ruled, leaving countless ancient relics. Obviously, the ruins before him were the remains of a Ghis Empire building.
In addition, Lynd could also see many traces of high-temperature burning and melting on the surface of the stone pillars. It seemed that this building must have been destroyed by the Dragons of Valyria, and the Dragon Lords of Valyria would likely not be bored enough to burn a single building with their Dragons. Therefore, there must have been a city of the Ghis Empire on the land beneath his feet, perhaps this city was the predecessor of Pentos.
"Get out of the way! Who allowed you to cordon off this area? All the land here belongs to His Grace, the Prince of Plos..." Just as Lynd was about to use the power of the Dragon Rune to explore the ruins buried under the earth beneath his feet, to see if he could unearth some ancient and interesting things, a quarrel erupted from below the hill, interrupting his thoughts.
From the content of the quarrel, it was not difficult to tell that it was likely caused by the caravan members, who had meddled by cordoning off the hill. Although cordoning off the hill to prevent anyone from disturbing him was entirely the caravan members' wishful thinking, since a dispute had already arisen, Lynd felt it would be inappropriate to pretend he knew nothing.
So, he walked down from the hill and came to the edge of the arguing crowd.
The moment he appeared, all the caravan members fell silent, looking at Lynd somewhat awkwardly.
And beside them, seven or eight people dressed like scholars looked at Lynd in his lion armor with great surprise. Clearly, Lynd's attire had startled them.
Lynd scanned the crowd and said in a deep voice, "I'm just spending the night on the hill. I didn't ask you to block it off. Don't meddle; go back and do your own business. We still have to travel tomorrow."
After speaking, he ignored the others and turned back to the hill.
However, at this point, he was no longer interested in studying the ancient architecture below. He simply took the firewood from the carriage, piled it into a bonfire, lit it, and casually placed a beast hide blanket beside the bonfire, leaning against the exposed beam.
At this moment, the scholar-like individuals who had been arguing below the hill also came to the hilltop. Upon seeing Lynd, they appeared somewhat fearful; clearly, the people below had told them something.
"Ah! Heads!" At this moment, someone saw the carriage piled with heads nearby and gasped in surprise.
A few timid ones were so frightened they sat on the ground. Only a white-haired old man, whose long beard was dyed, forked, and braided into two long pigtails, appeared very calm.
The old man raised his hand, signaling to those beside him not to be afraid. Then he walked to the carriage, looked at the heads piled outside, completely unconcerned by the stench of corpses emanating from them.
"Blood Duck Darkfy, Wild Dog Longo, Forked Tongue Kalika..." The old man seemed very familiar with these heads, able to identify each one upon seeing them.
After circling the carriage once, the old man walked to Lynd's bonfire, sat down very casually, and said, "Not counting the heads buried inside, just this outer layer is worth over fifty God-Chosen Gold Dragons. It seems you've had a bountiful harvest, Your Excellency!"
Lynd had not paid close attention to these foreign scholars earlier, but now he carefully observed the old scholar. His gaze swept over the man and landed on the golden button on the old scholar's cuff, saying, "A Golden Scholar of the Sphinx Academy."
The old man followed Lynd's gaze, also looking at the button on his cuff, and chuckled, "These clothes belong to my good friend. I am not yet qualified to wear gold ornaments." As he spoke, he revealed a silver necklace around his neck with a silver badge hanging from it, and said, "I am merely a Silver Archmaester."
The Sphinx Academy was built over two hundred years ago by a Prince of Pentos who had once studied at the Citadel. He wanted to create an academy similar to the Citadel, even imitating the Citadel's three ranks of Novice, Archmaester, and Maester, by establishing three ranks: Golden Scholar, Silver Archmaester, and Iron Student.
Although the concept was good, and indeed for a period, the Sphinx Academy became the academic center of the Free Trade City States, with the passing of that Prince of Pentos, his successor had little interest in knowledge and stopped investing in the bottomless pit that was the academy. Other Princes were also unwilling to take over, causing the Sphinx Academy to quickly decline.
However, over the past two hundred years, some Pentos merchants have still been willing to donate funds to support the normal operation of the Sphinx Academy, allowing it to continue collecting and studying various fields of knowledge.
The reason Lynd knew about the Sphinx Academy was because several of his officials were Silver Archmaesters from the Sphinx Academy. Compared to the Archmaesters of the Citadel, these Silver Archmaesters from Pentos were more adaptable and very skilled in matters of trade, making them very convenient for Lynd to employ.
However, the real reason Lynd wanted to learn about the Sphinx Academy was that Moroa had once mentioned that the Sphinx Academy collected many books on the mysterious ancient civilizations of Essos. The quantity of these books might not compare to the Citadel, but their depth was not much worse than the Citadel's, and they could complement the Citadel's related books.
Therefore, Lynd specifically came to Pentos this time, also wanting to visit the Sphinx Academy.
However, what he didn't expect was to encounter people from the Sphinx Academy even before reaching Pentos.
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