Chapter 27: Components of Renly
King's Landing, The Red Keep, Cellar
"What are you people doing here?"
Just as Jon, disguised as Jory Cassel, hesitated before the cellar of The Red Keep, a questioning voice directly reached his ears.
As Jon and the other Northern guards turned around, they saw a figure in white robes and several men dressed as Red Keep guards.
Alek Oakhart was one of King Robert's seven Kingsguard, a fellow who never even showed his face in some poorly written tv series.
"Respected Ser, we are here to assist under the orders of Lord Eddard, the Hand. Ser Barristan Selmy asked us to inspect the condition of the cellar."
"Is that so? But I haven't heard of any such arrangement?"
Alek Oakhart was a handsome young knight with light brown hair, hailing from Old Oak in The Reach.
The Oakhart family had a very long history, being the largest power in the northwest corner of The Reach. Due to their prominent status, and because Southerners generally looked down upon Northerners,
these Kingsguard and Red Keep guards didn't particularly like Eddard and his men. This wasn't really strange.
Although the Seven Kingdoms were unified, due to backward transportation methods, there was relatively little interaction between the lords, nobles, and common folk across the various regions.
Coupled with human xenophobia and the centuries of deep-seated feuds accumulated across the Seven Kingdoms, it wasn't that strange that these men looked down on Jon and his group.
"Please rest assured about that. Besides our Lord Eddard, no one else would jump at the chance to do such thankless work!"
Facing Alek Oakhart's suspicion, Jon showed no signs of displeasure, and he didn't forget to throw a small jab at Eddard Stark at the end of his sentence.
"Uh... very well then, we'll leave the investigation here to you. We'll head to the armory!"
Alek Oakhart only then realized that the other party was actually helping them lighten their load, and his own words seemed a bit too aggressive.
"Jory, why are you being so polite? These Southerners are truly disgusting. I should have just stayed in Winterfell."
After watching the Kingsguard leave, a guard couldn't help but complain.
Under Eddard's governance, Winterfell was very harmonious, so the guards and servants of Winterfell did not have such a strict hierarchy between superiors and subordinates.
"No need. It's better to have one less trouble than one more. These masters of King's Landing are used to speaking this way; the more you resist them, the more satisfaction they get."
Jory Cassel was usually humble and kind, so no one found his reaction strange.
Normally, everyone thought he acted a bit timidly, but after hearing Jon's explanation, everyone couldn't help but admire his meticulous thinking.
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Although few people visited the cellar of The Red Keep, the Master of Coin, Ollier Buckwell, often sent people to clean it, as it was sometimes used to store food.
However, because the continent of Westeros had been experiencing a long summer for years, many supplies were abundant, so over time, the cellar gradually fell into disuse.
But this ancient cellar wasn't entirely abandoned, as the skeletal remains of the dead dragons belonging to the Targaryen Family were still displayed here.
"Hoo-hoo..."
Amidst the wailing sound from the cellar vents, Jon walked near the dragon skeletons, while the other guards had been assigned elsewhere.
The main reason Jon went to such great lengths, turning the entire Red Keep upside down, was for these dragon skeletons in the cellar.
After experiencing that dreamlike scene, the system within Jon's body seemed to have sprung back to life, and several new functions appeared consecutively.
This upgrade finally allowed Jon to understand how his 'Dragon Lord' class differed from other system classes.
Among these, the most surprising feature for Jon was the template function in the shop, which included weapon forging, item crafting, item synthesis, and class conversion.
The resources required for these functions were still Soul Energy. After completing the 'King's Mind' and 'Cellar Exploration' quests upon arriving in the King's Landing Instance,
Jon gained another 2000 points of Soul Energy. Combined with the points he had previously accumulated, Jon now possessed nearly 5000 points of Soul Energy.
5000 points of Soul Energy might sound like a lot, but when calculated practically, this amount was only enough to allow 10 people to change class to system warrior.
Balerion, Meraxes, Vhagar, Vormisole, Silverwing, Dreamfyre, Meleys, Caraxes, Syrax... these dragons were proof of the Targaryen Family's former glory. As for the last one, the 'Last Dragon,' this dragon was only slightly larger than a calf.
Jon walked slowly, finally arriving before an immensely huge skeleton. The color of this dragon skull looked similar to dark iron.
When Jon stood before it, he was only as tall as its eye sockets; this was the famous Balerion the Black Dread.
Balerion was a dragon that survived the Doom, possibly even having witnessed the Valyrian Freehold in its prime.
There were also rumors that its true cause of death was encountering some terrifying entity in the ruins of Valyria, because after disappearing for a period, it returned to King's Landing covered in wounds and subsequently died in the Dragonpit.
The reason Jon chose this one was because he sensed an extremely powerful energy emanating from the dragon bones, a special ability granted to Jon by the Dragon Lord class.
Normally, Jon could use this ability to see through the intensity of the Soul Energy contained within others; this ability turned Jon into a mobile Soul Energy monitor.
However, the power contained within this specific set of dragon bones was not true Soul Energy, but a very peculiar type of force.
"Acquired 5000 points of Dragon Soul Energy..."
"Acquired Dragon Soul Energy..."
...Amidst a series of notification sounds, a new category appeared in Jon's attribute panel: Dragon Soul Energy. After Jon touched all the dragon bones in the cellar.
The dragon bones here seemed to have rusted; layers of blood-colored substance appeared on the surface of the black bones. The odor in this area also became somewhat strange due to the appearance of this layer, as if iron had truly rusted.
After collecting so much Dragon Soul Energy, Jon discovered that his Dragon Soul Energy option now held nearly 100,000 points.
Calculating at this rate, the ruins of the Valyrian Freehold could probably yield hundreds of millions of points of Dragon Soul Energy.
"Jory, hurry up and look, we found it!"
Just as Jon was excitedly preparing to use this Dragon Soul Energy for synthesis, a somewhat agitated voice suddenly reached his ears.
Wyl was a very young guard from Winterfell, born in Winter Town. Due to the shortage of grain, he had been abandoned near Winterfell when he was very young.
It was Lady Catelyn's kindness that allowed him to survive, so he was extremely loyal to House Stark. He and another guard named Hyber always stayed by Eddard's side.
The other's appearance calmed Jon's excited mood. Only then did he realize that this was not the place for him to conduct experiments.
Although the two most well-connected figures in The Red Keep had already been tricked by Eddard and Renly working together, the contingency plans they left behind were still closely monitoring this castle.
If the incident of the dragon bones rusting today were discovered a few days later, the likelihood of Jon being suspected would be minimized.
But if he were here, and any effects or changes occurred during the synthesis experiment, the events of the last two days might very well be linked back to Eddard.
"Alright, I'm coming. There's nothing to see here either!"
As soon as Jon entered this area, he had carefully scouted the location using his Dragon Lord ability before beginning to study the dragon bones.
When Wyl saw Jon emerging from the area where the dragon bones were stored, he didn't notice anything strange.
"Hurry up, let's map out this area first, and then consider whether to seal it off."
As Wyl spoke, he walked straight up to Jon and pulled him away without another word, heading into the distance.
Frankly, he just wanted to finish his task here quickly and return to Eddard's side. This guard of House Stark had been entrusted by Lady Catelyn when they departed.
Wyl was very obedient to Lady Catelyn, who was like a mother to him. Although he didn't fully understand why Eddard was heading south.
He did know, however, that protecting Eddard was his primary responsibility now; protecting the King or the royal family truly had nothing to do with him.
After entering an opened secret passage, Jon saw a damaged mechanism, and in a corner of the passage, Jon also spotted a skeleton.
The passage here was narrow and low, and somewhat muddy in places, but the ventilation was excellent. The oil lamps held by Jon and the others never went out, indicating that the air in this area was circulating.
"Clank... clank..."
After walking for more than ten minutes, the sound of clashing armor suddenly appeared at the corner of the intersection.
"Clang clang..."
"Who goes there!? Identify yourselves quickly, we are the King's Kingsguard!"
The other party had clearly discovered Jon and the others as well. Amidst the sounds of swords being drawn, their sharp questioning rang out.
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