In this war to suppress the rebellion, how many major and minor supporting characters from the Ice and Fire World gathered at this joint army headquarters?
Countless.
Due to time constraints and social status, Aegon simply didn't have the time or conditions to visit and get to know these people one by one. Not to mention others, he truly hadn't met the two famous warriors, the "Red Viper" Oberyn Martell and "Brienne the Beauty" Brienne Tarth, yet.
The former was because his status was too high to meet, while the latter was probably missed because her tent was too inconspicuous.
Since he had encountered them now, he naturally couldn't miss the chance to take a look. Even if he couldn't get to know them, he should at least be able to recognize them if he ran into them again—taking the irrepressibly excited Casey with him, Aegon approached the sparring circle.
Hundreds, even thousands, of people were crowded here, surrounding the sparring circle so tightly that it was difficult to approach. He used a lot of effort to squeeze into a spot where he could see the situation in the field.
"Beautiful!"
"Beauty, take him down!"
Amidst the cheers and shouts of the surrounding soldiers, Aegon saw the two warriors facing each other in the field. The taller one, covered head to toe in blue armor so that even his eyes were unclear, was facing a man with a long spear, black hair, and black eyes, whom Aegon guessed was Oberyn Martell. Compared to his opponent, the Red Viper seemed almost unprotected—besides greaves, armguards, gorget, cuirass, war skirt, and a helmet without a faceguard, he only wore soft leather and smooth silk underwear. A layer of shiny copper scales covered his mail, but together they didn't cover more than a quarter of his body.
Aegon wasn't familiar with the Tarth sigil, but based on the shouts of the surrounding soldiers, he confirmed that the person the Red Viper was facing was "Brienne the Beauty" Brienne. After taking a few more glances at this "Blue Knight," he couldn't help but exclaim in admiration: Damn, this woman is really tall!
Oberyn stood before the armored Brienne, who was wearing battle boots, and seemed to only reach her chest. But now, the Red Viper, who was at a disadvantage in both height and equipment, was tilting his head with a smile, provoking his opponent.
"Keep going, girl. I admit you're the toughest woman I've ever faced. You're not out of strength already, are you?"
...
Under the urging and shouting of the crowd, Brienne roared and charged at Oberyn again. Her longsword drew an astonishing arc of light, falling directly and without hesitation towards the Red Viper.
After all, Aegon had been a Ranger for a year and wasn't entirely an amateur in swordsmanship. With just this one sword strike, he immediately saw that "Brienne the Beauty" Brienne's skill was by no means undeserved. His roommate at Castle Black, Gared, who had held a sword for forty years, might be able to exchange a few blows with her. As for himself, under such powerful and rapid attacks, if he were to fight back with conventional defense and counterattack tactics, he would lose within a few moves.
Amidst the jeers of the surrounding soldiers, Oberyn Martell gracefully spun and slid to the side, avoiding the sword's edge. With perfect composure, he twirled his spear—without even looking back, he casually poked Brienne's armored lower back with the butt of his spear, making the female swordsman stumble and nearly fall into the crowd.
(Brienne was completely no match for Oberyn.) Aegon could see that if she took off her armor, Brienne might have a slight chance—but without protection, if the Red Viper were to smear anything on his spear tip during a life-or-death duel, the outcome would still not change.
"I—surrender!" Before Aegon could think further, the tall blue knight angrily threw down her longsword in front of everyone, removed her helmet with her hand, and after saying that, she pushed through the crowd and left the sparring area without looking back. A large group of men were pushed around, unable to stop her.
***
Is that it? Surrendering after just one move, that doesn't seem like the character of "Brienne the Beauty"... Aegon was stunned for half a second, then quickly understood the reason: Before he squeezed into the crowd, Brienne must have already fought with Oberyn for a while, probably having been teased countless times in various ways. Seeing that victory was hopeless but the opponent wasn't ending the bout cleanly, she felt humiliated and thus angrily threw down her sword, surrendered, and left.
The audience booed, but the Prince of Dorne's martial skill was indeed astonishing, and surrendering to him was not shameful. Watching "Brienne the Beauty" leave, Oberyn chuckled lightly and said loudly, "Dorne's spear fighting is the best in the world, does anyone disagree?"
The voices in the crowd quieted down significantly. Many people urged each other to step up, but after a lot of pushing and shoving, not a single person came forward. Aegon snorted inwardly with disdain. In this joint army camp, those who could duel Oberyn were either by the side of their respective liege lords or guarding the King's side in white cloaks. For someone of Oberyn's extremely high status to come out and fight with lower-ranking knights was truly beneath him.
Having achieved the goal of meeting the Red Viper and Brienne the Beauty, Aegon was preparing to leave and see if there were any other nobles he hadn't visited yet. Just as he turned around, his sleeve was suddenly grabbed: "Wait, isn't the 'Otherslayer' here? Let him step up and exchange a few moves with the Prince, so we can also see the Night's Watch's style!"
...
"Otherslayer! Otherslayer!" With a target for their jeers, the commotion and shouts of the onlookers suddenly grew louder, mixed with cries of "Night's Watch!" "Chief Logistics Officer!" and so on. Aegon was suddenly held down by several soldiers around him. Before he could even resist, he was shoved into the sparring arena.
***
It's no exaggeration to say that Aegon was famous now.
"The Night's Watch's Bizarre Adventure" had been released for several weeks. Although its sales were far from matching other "special publications" released at the same time, people couldn't possibly read smut all day. In this joint army camp, there were many illiterate peasant soldiers, but with nobles and elite troops from the Six Kingdoms gathered, the literacy rate was actually much higher than anywhere else in Westeros or even the entire world, possibly reaching one-tenth, or even more.
Furthermore, even illiterate people could learn about the novel's content through the mouths of those who could read.
As one of the first novels to appear on the market, "Adventure Journey," whose protagonist was not a knight and whose content was refreshing, easily became popular. After being spread by word of mouth, Aegon's "own story" successfully circulated in this way.
As the protagonist, Aegon initially hoped that through this novel, he could let the world know that he was a visitor from outside Westeros, who was forced to join the Night's Watch due to a misunderstanding caused by language barriers; and incidentally, to vindicate the Black Brothers who were confronting the Wildlings and White Walkers on the front lines, improving the Night's Watch's image in people's minds... However, reality and ideals always diverge. For some reason, readers and their listeners all ignored the novel's true focus and instead enthusiastically spread the part about "winning a hand-to-hand fight with White Walkers in the Haunted Forest"... As a result, the release of this novel ultimately had an unintended effect:
Not only did the Night's Watch's image in people's eyes not change, but they also gained a reputation for boasting. Aegon himself became a legendary Night's Watchman, but unfortunately, this "legend"... was in quotation marks.
In a novel where 99% of the content was fictional, people instead took the only 1% that was real as evidence that it was untrue. Aegon didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
In the real world, this would be a typical public relations failure and improper public opinion guidance... Fortunately, the protagonist's name was not written in this book, and the cover also stated that it was purely fictional. Although it had some negative effects, compared to the fame it brought Aegon and its own sales and profits, it wasn't a loss.
...
Aegon originally comforted himself this way, but when he was pushed into the sparring arena and faced one of the best warriors in the Seven Kingdoms, his fame suddenly became a burden.
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