The road from Stonebridge Village to Pink City is a winding path that trudges through a vast and dense forest.
Scattered low shrubs and sparse tree stumps dot the sides, but this vegetation brings little life to the road; instead, due to lack of trimming and maintenance, it appears somewhat chaotic.
The road surface is uneven, riddled with potholes, and occasionally a few protruding rocks emerge from the ground. Especially in this weather, the soil is exceptionally soft, leaving deep footprints with every step, and the hoofprints of horses kick up clouds of dust that blot out the sun.
The distant sky is overcast, as if a torrential downpour is imminent. A faint scent of grass and trees fills the air; apart from the occasional bird flying by and the distant roars of beasts, almost no other sounds can be heard.
On this rugged road, a small detachment of eleven cavalrymen and twenty-four infantrymen was escorting nearly a hundred men, women, and children captured from Stonebridge Village toward Pink City.
Beside the leader at the front of the column, a cavalryman in tattered chainmail and a half-helmet, noticing the slow pace, whispered to his commander, "Sir Kent, this pace is too slow. If we don't reach Pink City by tomorrow, 'The Mountain' will surely punish us."
Sir Kent was a young man in his early twenties. Although he wore a suit of armor made of chainmail and leather, and tried to maintain a serious expression, he couldn't hide his youthful appearance.
The thought of "The Mountain"—Ser Gregor Clegane, that towering, mountain-like brute—sank a heavy shadow over Sir Kent's heart, and his sparse mustache twitched slightly.
He turned and asked, "What should I do? These farmers are moving so slowly; I should have chosen a closer village."
The cavalryman then suggested, "The Mountain's mission for us is to capture one hundred healthy adult men and women to use as cannon fodder in the siege. There are seven or eight children among the prisoners, being carried by their parents, and they're slowing the procession down. Why don't we kill them all? That should speed things up."
Ser Kent hesitated. "But I promised them that as long as they follow me obediently and don't resist, I won't kill anyone else."
"Oh dear, my good sir," the cavalryman said anxiously, exasperated, "What time is it now? If you don't kill them, the Mountain will kill you."
"It shouldn't be that bad—Clegane and I are both under Lord Tywin's command."
"What do you say? Kill you, and Clegane will simply report to Lord Tywin that you failed to carry out orders, and that will be the end of it."
Hearing this, Kent realized that in Lord Tywin's eyes, a nobody like himself was no different from the prisoners behind him. He gritted his teeth, spurred his horse around, and shouted sternly at the prisoners behind him:
"Listen up, you Stonebridge villagers! My orders are to get you to Pink City by tomorrow morning. But at your current pace, even in three more days we won't reach our destination.
I'm telling you, we must be halfway there by the time the sun reaches its zenith today. If you can't, I will kill all the children in the group. If you want them to live, you'd better hurry!"
The prisoners immediately erupted in commotion, and a middle-aged man carrying a child stepped forward: "Sir, have mercy! We've been driven out since the night before last, and we haven't had a proper meal in two days. You might be able to endure it, but the children are starving. Please, give us some time to have a good meal, and we promise we'll walk faster."
Ser Kent looked at him and beckoned behind him; then a long spear was handed to him. He gripped the spear tightly with one hand and suddenly charged forward in a short sprint. The sharp tip of the spear pierced the child in the man's arms and the man's chest, snapping with a crisp "click." Father and son fell silently to the ground, without a sound.
A woman beside him collapsed onto the man, wailing loudly, before being stabbed to death by another soldier.
Ser Kent threw the remaining half of the wooden spear on the ground with a thud and asked, "Any objections?"
None of the surrounding villagers uttered a sound.
Ser Kent nodded in satisfaction. "Very good, it seems you understand what I mean. Now, everyone quicken your pace. Don't think I'm sparing your lives because I'm hesitant to kill. I only need one hundred men, and you have one hundred and thirteen. If you don't want to be one of the extra thirteen, run faster."
After this intimidation, the group's pace increased significantly, and soon only the lonely corpses of a family of three remained on the road, unattended.
About half an hour later, Ethan and his group caught up from behind. Upon seeing the corpse on the ground, Ethan quickly dismounted, turned the body over to reveal its face, and then turned to the little girl Naomi, who was sitting on another horse, and asked, "Naomi, do you know these people?"
Naomi nodded gently, her voice tinged with sadness. "Yes, this is Uncle Fred and Aunt Molly, and little Jon. Their pumpkins are the sweetest in the village."
Hearing this, Ethan squatted down, gently rubbed the blood flowing from Fred's chest with his fingers, then stood up, his face grave, and said, "They just died recently. It seems they haven't gone far." As he spoke, he wiped the blood off his hands with the dirt by the roadside, and then instructed his brothers, "Let's go around from the hiding place below the road and try to take them down in one fell swoop!"
So Ethan and his group avoided this small Westerlands squad, traversing through the mountains and fields, and finally ambushed them in a dense forest beside the road ahead.
Considering the vast disparity in numbers, Ethan decided before the pursuit to plant the Seed of Light in the twelve warriors who had followed him out of the Northern Army, hoping to enhance their combat capabilities.
However, regrettably, only five of the twelve who had the Seed of Light planted successfully awakened the power of light: the freemen Morse and Martha, the scout Tran, and the spearmen Mu and Aldiba from the Mountain Clan.
As for those warriors who received the Seed of Light but failed to awaken, they were the five freemen: Aiolia, Shakar, Mino, Beth, and Lennar.
Ethan, though filled with regret, had no time to investigate the reasons for this difference. He could only instruct these five: "During the charge, you must do everything you can to save yourselves. Wounds are acceptable, but sacrifice is not. Our goal is victory, but more importantly, we must ensure that everyone lives to see that day."
Meanwhile, under the threat of Ser Kent's death, this mixed contingent of prisoners and soldiers had to increase their pace.
However, this acceleration came at the cost of several exhausted prisoners being abandoned on the road, their bodies rendered cold.
This scene caused Ser Kent considerable inner turmoil; he hesitated whether to find a place to feed these prisoners. But then he realized it would be a waste of food, as these prisoners, once sent outside Pink City, would be used to fill the moats outside the city; food would be a futile consumption for them.
Just as Ser Kent was caught in a dilemma, a sudden turn of events shattered the monotony of their march.
Several arrows whistled from the roadside forest, one striking Ser Kent but deflecting off his armor. His cavalrymen were less fortunate; one was struck and fell from his horse, while the other two barely managed to withstand the arrows thanks to their armor.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!" Ser Kent shouted, raising his shield as he spotted several figures fleeing rapidly into the depths of the forest.
Clearly, the enemy was few in number, but if they were allowed to escape and continue to pursue and harass with arrows, Ser Kent's army would face dire consequences, at least causing a significant further slowdown in their march.
After a brief moment of deliberation, Ser Kent swiftly made his decision: "Robert, take the cavalry and follow me!"
Robert, Ser Kent's trusted standard-bearer, immediately waved the flag and commanded ten cavalrymen to break away from the ranks, following Ser Kent into the forest to pursue the fleeing attackers.
The remaining twenty-odd infantrymen held their ground, responsible for suppressing the restless prisoners. Just then, a fierce battle cry erupted from the depths of the forest, but quickly subsided.
Soon after, a troop of cavalrymen in unfamiliar armor charged out of the forest, each carrying a severed head. The tall knight at the head carried the head of the young Ser Kent, his eyes blazing with fury.
The knight in brass armor slowly walked to the front of the column, slammed Ser Kent's head to the ground, and coldly declared to the remaining infantry, "Lay down your weapons, kneel and you will not be killed."
His cavalry echoed his words, their shouts rising and falling like drumbeats, shaking the hearts of the opposing soldiers. Moments later, an old soldier in the column, gripping a lance, roared angrily, "To hell with you! Brothers, kill them!"
But before he could finish speaking, an arrow pierced his throat. The remaining soldiers, seeing this, charged furiously at the enemy, but the cavalry did not engage. Instead, they retreated a few steps on their horses and continued to fire arrows from their saddles.
The Lannister archers swiftly retaliated, hitting several cavalrymen. But shockingly, the wounded soldiers quickly pulled the arrows from their bodies, seemingly unharmed, and remounted to join the battle.
After a fierce exchange of arrows, the Lannister archers fell one after another, leaving only thirteen or fourteen spearmen and swordsmen remaining. Seeing this, they immediately charged from among the prisoners, quickly forming a dense battle formation.
However, the arrows from the opposing cavalry's mounted archers rained down like a torrent, and the dense formation turned the Lannister soldiers into sitting ducks, unable to dodge or escape.
In this critical moment, an old soldier with a shield brandished his sword and shouted, "Brothers, if we don't charge now, they'll wear us down! Follow me!" The remaining Lannister soldiers mustered their courage and charged toward the enemy. However, even with only a dozen or so infantrymen lacking ranged weapons left in the Westerlands army, the cavalry did not engage. Instead, they led their horses back another dozen meters and continued firing arrows.
After the last dozen or so Western Army soldiers were far from the prisoners, several cavalrymen suddenly charged out of the forest with lances. Although they were clumsy, they successfully crushed the formation of the remaining dozen or so infantrymen.
After killing the last few Westerlander soldiers who tried to escape, Ethan quickly arranged for a few men to clean up the battlefield. Then he turned to the prisoners who stood frozen in place, announcing loudly, "All right, the Westerlander soldiers who captured you are all dead. You are free."
From among the trembling prisoners, an older man stepped forward, knelt on one knee before Ethan, and respectfully asked, "My lord, whose unit are you? Please allow us to know your name so that we may pray for you before the Seven Gods!"
Ethan tilted his head and thought for a moment, then replied, "I was once a subordinate of Robb Stark, King in the North, but now I am merely a mercenary without an employer. Yesterday, I passed through your village and met Little Matt and his sister. Little Matt hired us for two eggs to rescue you."
Just then, Martha and Beth emerged from the forest carrying two children. From the crowd, a disheveled couple cried out, "Matt, Naomi!"
The two children immediately broke free from Martha and Beth's embrace and ran to hug their loved ones tightly. Only then did the survivors of Stonebridge finally muster the courage to weep aloud.
Not long after, by a stream far from the road, the surviving captives found their food—once belonging to them—on the Westerlands army's wagons transporting spoils.
They gathered branches from the forest floor and began cooking with the stolen pots and pans; soon, the hidden forest was filled with the aroma of food.
By the stream, Ethan brushed the blood off his horse, Lightning, while asking Jon Snow, who was in charge of logistics, "How much spoils have we collected?"
Jon Snow replied, "Seventeen chains of chainmail, three sets of leather armor, nine bows, nineteen infantry spears, seven shields, and thirty-one short weapons including long and short swords and short-handled axes, as well as some money, arrows, and food."
Although there was a lot of stuff, Ethan was currently short-handed and couldn't use the equipment right away, so he had to store it in the wagon for the time being.
He ordered, "Have the brothers pick some to wear, and pile the rest on the wagon. We'll figure out what to do with them after we get these villagers back. Also, have Martha come here for a moment."
After Jon left, Martha quickly arrived and asked, "Commander, you wanted to see me?"
Ethan nodded and asked, "How do you feel since becoming a Sunwalker?"
Martha replied, "It's strange, Commander. It feels like there's something inside me—a feeling that's unfamiliar to me, and I don't know how to describe it."
Ethan comforted her, "After a while, the power of light will become a complete part of your body. Take Beth to check on these villagers; see if anyone is injured and treat them."
Martha hesitated and asked, "Will I be charged?"
Ethan thought for a moment and said, "Forget it, the money they had has already been looted by the Westerlands army and then ended up in Jon's hands. If we give it back now, we won't be able to tell who owns it. Let's just give them free treatment as compensation.
If you run out of magic, find someone else to help you. Anyone can use it; just say it's my order."
🪽✨🪽✨🪽✨🪽✨🪽✨🪽✨🪽✨🪽
Read Extra Chapter Visit My Patreon
I have only 1 tier
19$ Tier – Access to 40 advance chapters
patreon.com/Lempil
patreon.com/Lempil