The king on the Great Wall

Soon, the guardian of the northern border met the eyes of Iger, who was very conspicuous in black. He immediately said something to the guards around him, and a group of people approached here with light reins, and finally stopped at the door .

"Lord Stark." Iger still greeted him neither humble nor overbearing. At this moment, he was acting as a loyal night watchman logistics officer. Only for this point, the other party would not embarrass himself.

-

Chapter 63 Irreconcilable Conflicts of Interest

"Well." Ed still nodded steadily, as a greeting, he sat on the saddle with the rein in his hands and did not dismount, observed and looked at the Night Watchman's Office, which was taking shape, and showed a rather interesting smile: " It looks pretty decent, when will the conscription start?"

"In two or three days, I will do it as soon as possible." Iger replied: "This office not only has to undertake the function of conscription, but the food, equipment and funds donated by the nobles and commoners of the Seven Kingdoms to the Night Watch will also be transferred and counted through here in the future. Record it and send it to the Great Wall."

"Well—" Ed pondered for a while, "Where did you get the money to buy these things?"

"Lord Tyrion Lannister's funding, he also sent me an attendant to help." Iger replied without thinking, and introduced to the Prime Minister: "This is Jack."

Seeing that he couldn't escape, the young attendant had no choice but to stand up and say hello to the Prime Minister. Contrary to Iger's calmness, he was quite nervous-no wonder, everyone knew that the Stark family and the Lannister family were not related. How about it.

Ed was wondering why there was a red robe here just now. Now that he was puzzled, it was naturally impossible for him to lower his identity and show his face to a servant. He glanced at Jack, nodded in response to the other party's greeting, and then turned his head to look at the attendant. He turned to a short man behind him: "The savages outside the Great Wall are restless, and the Night Watchmen are facing a difficult situation. Even if the treasury is short of funds, they have to give some symbolic support. Go and raise a sum of money for the Night Watchmen, which will be included in the national defense expenditure."

"My lord?" The little man didn't expect to be thrown together here, and immediately put on an innocent face, "The kingdom's finances..."

"There is no room for negotiation. This is a serious matter of defending the kingdom. You can even raise the prize money for the tournament. What's the difference? Minister of Finance, isn't that what you want to do?" Ed didn't let go. "I won't make it difficult for you, just dozens or hundreds of golden dragons will help the night watchman gain a firm foothold here, and the rest will be up to him."

"Well, since this is the Prime Minister's order, I can only think of a way."

Ed ignored the other party's teasing, and turned to the other side: "Jory, you take Arya to stay here and wait for us, while Lord Baelish and I go to do something."

"Yes!"

"What, you clearly agreed to take me out for shopping, so you can do whatever you want! I'll go wherever you go!"

A crisp protest sounded, and Iger noticed that there was a little girl in the group. She could guess without careful identification. This was the second daughter of Duke Stark, Arya Stark.And the little man who Ed ordered to raise a fund for the Night Watch before, if he guessed correctly, is the biggest shit-stirring stick in Game of Thrones, Littlefinger Petyr Baelish who regards chaos as a ladder!

Due to some discrepancies with the image in the TV series, Iger didn't recognize this guy before Ed called Littlefinger's name. Now that he knew his identity, he couldn't help but take a few more glances—first he understood that the other party got this foreign name. The reason for the number, and then I was terrified like waking up from a big dream: these two days I was so busy thinking about Melisandre’s words and busy with my own affairs that I almost forgot that the plot of the original story is still rolling forward like a wheel on a slope!

……

"The place I'm going to accompany the Prime Minister is not suitable for children." The short man gave Arya a smirk and winked: "Especially girls."

"I'm not a child!"

"Be obedient, I will come back later and take you to continue shopping. And Iger, work hard and don't cause trouble."

Ed comforted his daughter with a smile, then instructed the night watchman meaningfully, took Littlefinger and the rest of the guards, and rode away from the night watchman's office along the street.

***

The big leader has a lot of things to do every day, coming and going quickly, a group of people left as soon as they said, and quickly disappeared at the end of the street.Arya complained angrily about her father's inconsistency, while the captain of the prime minister's bodyguard who remained tried to comfort his angry lady... only Egger, looking at the direction in which Duke Stark was leaving, fell into deep thought.

Keep yourself out of trouble, are you implying that you don't talk about Joffrey's "assassination" of Bran?He asked Littlefinger to raise a sum of aid funds for the Night Watch Corps. In addition to taking care of the defenders of the Great Wall, did he also mean to give himself a hush money?

No, these messy things are irrelevant. With Ed Stark's gentleman temper, let alone "saved" Bran, even if he knew that Joffrey's assassination of Bran was fabricated by himself, there is no need at all. Afraid that he would kill himself without saying a word.More importantly, what was Littlefinger doing with him now?

According to the conversation I heard just now, Iger tried to restore what happened: Arya couldn't bear to be bored and clamored to go out to play, but Ed Stark's daughter finally agreed to take her shopping. Littlefinger, after some exchanges, changed his mind and decided to go with him first.

……

In the original plot, there was no plot of Ed taking his daughter out shopping, but now the story has changed.The Stark family did not blame the Lannister family for Bran's fall and assassination, nor did Catelyn sneak to King's Landing and catch Tyrion on the way back to cause a conflict between the lion and wolf... So James did not go either Dueling with Ed, the fifty guards of the Stark family are all alive and well.Eddard may have quarreled with Robert about the assassination of Daenerys Targaryen, but it didn't affect the deep bond between the two, so he was still here as Prime Minister.

Under such a peaceful appearance, as a father, while investigating the cause of the death of the former prime minister, it is understandable to find time to take his suffocated little daughter to go shopping....And what can make a father abandon the agreement with his daughter and temporarily decide to go with him must be business. What "business" can Littlefinger do when he finds Ed?

***

"They seemed to be going in the direction of our hotel."

Just thinking about it, Jack's words reminded Iger, coupled with what Littlefinger said to Arya with a smile...

What places are not suitable for children, especially girls?He recalled the reason why Tyrion insisted on staying at the Albatross Hotel on the day he first arrived in King's Landing—"The Red Castle is too far away from my favorite brothel"!

It took him a few seconds to come to a conclusion: "They should be going to Silk Street!"

"Huh?" As Tyrion's attendant, Jack certainly knew what Silk Street was for, and he even spent money there with his master.But suddenly, he hesitated again: "But... Lord Stark really doesn't look like someone who would go to a brothel."

"Going to a brothel doesn't necessarily mean prostitution." Iger's pupils dilated, and suddenly more plot details flooded into his mind, and he remembered what was going on.

……

The ultimate goal of Littlefinger is to cause chaos in the Seven Kingdoms and profit from it. This top player in the Game of Thrones can find opportunities from any unexpected situation and accident. He will not shelve his ambitions and big plans just because Caitlin didn’t come to King’s Landing , even without that silly woman from the Tully family, he still managed to get in touch with Ed.

Without Caitlin's false guarantee, Ed's initial trust in Littlefinger will inevitably be greatly reduced, but for a full-level Game of Thrones player: as long as you dare to talk to me, I can deceive you!

Now, the biggest shit stick in King's Landing is taking Ed to Silk Street, leading him to one of Robert's illegitimate sons - by pretending to help the latter track down the death of the former Prime Minister, Littlefinger finally got Ed Stark "discovered" the true origins of Cersei's children.

Then, the upright Ed killed his brother Robert and himself, Renly escaped from King's Landing with his boyfriend and returned to the fief to fight for the throne, Stannis was determined to defend his "legitimate" rights, Robb was still a child Hastily pushed to the fore and became the king of the North, and foolishly let go of Theon, the hostage of the Greyjoy family... thus began the War of the Five Kings.

Iger has full confidence in the success of the Night Watchman's bond, one is because of Tyrion's joining, and the other is because the greedy nature of human beings is not affected by culture and the times... But wars can completely destroy the survival of finance, including financial scams Soil, imagine, when the flames of war are raging and the situation is precarious, no matter how high the rate of return you offer, who will have the mind and courage to hand over the money to others?

In this city of King's Landing, no matter if it's the stupid Robert, the stupid Joffrey or even the vicious Cersei, a Night Watchman can always hide if he can't be provoked...but only the one Petyr Baelish intends to create No one can escape or hide from chaos and war.

His own plan needs peace, and an ambitious man like Littlefinger... has such an irreconcilable conflict with his own interests that he must destroy his plan!

-

Chapter 64 Guarding the Peace?

The noisy voices brought Eglar back to reality, and he realized that it was not the time to think about things. He led the horse for Ed Stark's guard captain, and invited two guests, one big and one small, into the unopened vigil He was seated in the office, and then he secretly continued his thinking.

It's kind of funny to think he has to try to be a peacekeeper in order to keep his deception alive.But Iger couldn't laugh, this is a very serious and troublesome matter, to stop the War of the Five Kings... just thinking about it has a sense of sight to stop Bran from falling.Is this war another god wants to start?

Wait, if you think about it like this, there will be no results. Forget about those damned extraordinary beings.There is no doubt that killing Littlefinger and Varys... these two conspirators is the best way to get rid of the fire once and for all, but it is a pity that I can't do it.With the help of external force, Iger quickly thought of Jaqen Hegar again, but when it came to this guy, he had a headache again.

The scab on the wound that was bloodletted by Melisandre a few days ago has not yet fallen off, and he remembered the existence of such a faceless man that night.The delay in recruiting is not because I forgot, but because I really can't think of a good way.

***

Jaqen was from Braavos, and there was more to Braavos than just having an iron vault.The city across the narrow sea is a place that is quite beyond the times: a multi-racial immigrant city-state, a free land built by slaves and permanently abolished slavery, a maritime port with developed trade, loose and free multi-religion and culture, financial resources The Iron Bank, which has unfathomable political power, the Faceless Men, an elite assassin organization with a strong reputation of "duty to kill", and the Braaavos upper echelons from all citizens according to a mysterious and incomprehensible process The elected official ruler, Neptune... There have been several large-scale foreign wars in the history of this city-state, and it has never been defeated. Even the same free trade city-state has many old brands, and the paper data is much stronger at the beginning of the conflict. All the Pantos were defeated by this younger generation, and were forced to publicly announce the abolition of slavery...

The battle must be won, and none of the opponents is a soft persimmon. This amazing ability to win is no accident. To be able to win a war of this magnitude is very important for the coordination, mobilization and integration of internal resources, organizations and armed forces. High requirements - the Neptune, the Iron Bank, and the Black and White Institute in Braavos are by no means independent and independent existences. There must be certain mutual assistance agreements and even strategic partnerships between the high-level behind-the-scenes parties. Maybe it's the same group of people directly.

Iger even ventured to speculate that what the House of Black and White plays in Braavos is an organization responsible for training spies and assassins—responsible for collecting intelligence and eradicating hostile important figures who threaten the interests of Braavos!

In a word, the House of Black and White, as the core organization of Braavos, belongs to the ruling class, and Jaqen, as a high-ranking Faceless Assassin who has the right to accept apprentices, and a great spy from across the Narrow Sea, how can he? How could De He Neng subdue this guy and let him kill for himself?

How could a terrifying guy with an organization he served, a loyal belief, a wide range of knowledge, and a killing spree end up in the prison in King's Landing?Was he hitching a ride with Yoren to the Wall by accident or on purpose?Did he come to Westeros to kill someone, or was he on some other mission?

……

If you don't know anything, how do you go to talk to others?This high-ranking faceless man is currently in the dungeon, and he has expressed his willingness to join the night watchmen to Yoren. Iger imagined creating an accident and pretending to rescue him to make him owe him favors. It simply cannot be done without confidantes and reliable accomplices.

***

It is not advisable to kill people to break the situation violently, so they can only try to suppress the chaos and help Ed win the game of King's Landing, at least not lose badly.

Against Littlefinger?Iger doesn't think his level of intrigue has reached that level, not to mention that there is another eunuch who, although having a different purpose from the former, but also wants to disrupt the situation at this stage, is still a temporary ally of the shit-stirring stick. When the ability to acquire is extremely unbalanced, the advantage of knowing the plot is nothing at all.The two high-players on the opposite side are doing things wholeheartedly, and I am a novice who has to try to stabilize the situation while working on night watchman bonds.

Not to mention, all I know is the plot before the change.

The failure to stop Bran from falling left Iger with lingering fears. He really didn't want to go into battle and directly intervene in the plot. How did he finally get out of the mess in Winterfell in one fell swoop?

[Secretly inform the Stark family. 】

The successful cases in the past suddenly gave Iger inspiration, just like you don’t have to deal with the assassin yourself if you want to get rid of Bran’s assassination, and you don’t have to play against Littlefinger yourself if you want to help Ed. The actual ruler of the northern border, Iger has his own power and thinking ability, as long as he can separate Ed and Littlefinger, so that Ed will not be led by the nose!

……

"Iger, my lady is talking to you."

A male voice suddenly interrupted Iger's thoughts again. He raised his head, and a young face was in front of him.

"Ah, I'm sorry, I was thinking about conscription, what do you want Miss Arya to tell you?"

"Are you the Egger that Jon said?" Arya pouted and repeated what she said just now: "The Night Watchman Ranger who killed the White Walker?"

"Yes."

Iger glanced at the Prime Minister's Chief of Guard Jory, whose face was full of disbelief, and admitted with some helplessness that it was really weird to feel a little guilty about telling the truth.

"Is the White Ghost very powerful?"

"Very powerful, Gary and I played two against one, and almost got double-killed."

"But you still killed it in the end, your sword skills must be very good!" The girl's eyes shone brightly, "Come here, I have something to tell you."

"Don't follow!" The girl yelled at her father's guard, and then dragged the confused Iger to the "Chief Logistics Officer's Office" in the inner room, closed the door, and said mysteriously: "Can you teach me With a sword?"

"Huh?" Iger was a little strange, counting the time. At this stage, shouldn't Ed have invited her a swordsmanship instructor, who seems to be from Braavos, and his name is Leo... What's the matter with Leo? "Why don't you ask your father to hire you a coach?"

"How could he agree, are you stupid! I'm a girl!"

***

This is a bit strange, what plot change made what was supposed to happen not happen?Iger understands that all of this is probably caused by himself. The characteristic of the butterfly effect is that a small disturbance in the initial conditions can drive a long-term and huge chain reaction in the entire system: it may be that he framed Joffrey's whistleblower to make Ed change his mind. , maybe Arya carefully hid her sewing needles from her father... The specific reason is irrelevant, now that I am as busy as a ghost, how can I have time to care about this little girl of the Stark family?

"I'm very busy, sorry miss." I'm busy saving your old man, Iger said in his heart, but shook his head politely: "Go find your father's guard."

"My father did you a big favor just now, why don't you even agree to this little thing!"

It was your father who helped me, not you. Iger smiled wryly. Arya is undoubtedly an important character. If there is nothing else, a good relationship with her can be included in the list of idle chess... But if she can be useful to me, she must I'm afraid it won't work until the faceless man training is completed. At this stage, this girl is useless to me.

It is undoubtedly utilitarian to evaluate others by "whether it is useful or not", but Iger is in the situation now, and he really can't be romantic. He shook his head resolutely, and organized his words of rejection under Arya's threatening glare. But at the last moment, he suddenly had some other ideas.

-

Chapter 65 "Blood of the Running Wolf"

In all fairness, Arya is a lively, lovely and lovable child like his younger brother Bran. She is not as good at dressing as her elder sister Sansa, which makes her give people the impression of "average" in comparison, but Iger has a From the eyes of modern people... Judging from the shape of her face and bones, this little girl is also a beauty.

Obviously someone agrees with his judgment. If Iger remembers correctly, some people in the original plot said that Arya looks like Aunt Lyanna, and also has the same wolf blood as the latter.

……

Haha, Iger wanted to laugh.

[The Blood of the Wolf contains the pursuit of ultimate freedom, mellow and poisonous romance, and unwavering wildness.Carriers of this kind of blood can be satisfied only by short-term travel and unrestrained love, endless adventures, thrillers, novelty and fun. 】

It is also the ability of a Western fantasy author like Martin to explain "willfulness" and "playfulness" in such a literary way.What did Arya's aunt do to make her "famous"?Eloped with Prince Rhaegar, who has a wife and child while being engaged to Robert Baratheon!

Indeed, the marriages of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen were arranged by their parents, and it was a family marriage for the benefit of the family. Maybe they met each other at the Harrenburg Tournament and found that the other party was true love. So he decided to do something stupid.From the perspective of a modern person, Iger may have to support them for political correctness.

But that stupid girl with the "blood of running wolf" shouldn't, she can't just run away without leaving a letter. Iger himself knew when he was six years old that he had to tell his parents where he went when he went out to play. A teenage girl doesn't even understand this truth, so who is to blame for the accident?

The daughter of the Stark family eloped with the prince of the Targaryen family and became the lover of the latter. This was originally a scandal involving the royal family, the Stormlands, and the Lords of the North. The marriage fell through, and Prince Rhaegar would bear another stain on his reputation, and he had to pay some price to settle the disaster he caused.

But because of Lyanna's stupidity and ignorance, the wrong spring began. Her father and brother thought that Rhaegar kidnapped and kidnapped their daughter, chased him to King's Landing to demand someone, and even spoke rudely to the king. As a result, he ran into the mad king Elis and was in a bad mood. Both were burned to death, and then the Duke of the Vale, Jon Arryn, refused to hand over Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon's two adopted sons, and instead raised the flag of rebellion—the vigorous War of the Reavers began.

In the end, one of the elopement parties died and the famous dynasty was destroyed, and the other died because of dystocia after killing her father and brother, and the living people could only recall her beauty from the statue... It was as if she and Robb violated the marriage contract in the future and caused blood. Weddings are exactly the same.

This is a world of ice and fire, if you die, you will die.

***

Of course, they are also self-willed and spoiled. There are still some differences between the children of the Stark family and the Joffrey brought out by Cersei. Simply put, the children of the Stark family can still be saved.They at least know how to be polite, at least they have cultivated the shining points of kindness, integrity and loyalty.If it wasn't for troubled times, Iger would be very willing to choose these northerners if he just made friends and found friends, but now, what he needs are rich and powerful allies and intelligent partners, and at this point In fact, Starks who are good at cheating friends and family members are not the first choice.

Not to mention, Arya is only ten years old now, and this "running wolf" is still young. Unless Iger is a pedophile, who would be interested in her?

His initial thought was very simple, keep a good distance from these Starks who have their own buffs, and don't give them a chance to implicate themselves when they die.My own swordsmanship is mediocre, and it may be enough to teach Arya, a little girl, but if I take over the class of the chief swordsman of Braavos, and then inherit his fate in the original plot, that would be bad luck big.

……

But if you think about it carefully, even if this little she-wolf has no skills for the time being, her identity as a child of the Stark family is still enough to bluff people. She went to find Ed to cheat a certificate, which is usually convincing enough. But if clients can often see a Stark girl when they go in and out of the Night's Watch office, wouldn't the confidence in the bond be stronger?

In addition, although I haven't thought of the best way to separate Littlefinger and Ed Stark, no matter what plan I adopt, if I can win over a Stark child, the plan will definitely go much easier.

"Hmm..." After a brief psychological struggle, Iger touched his chin pretending to be embarrassed, and let go: "It's not completely impossible, but there are conditions—since you want me to teach you how to use a sword, then I will teach you how to use a sword." It's your master, you have to listen to me."

"Okay, master, I will listen to you!"

"Hmm." Iger continued to think, and suddenly thought that the faceless person he had been unable to find a way to recruit seemed to happen to have something to do with the girl in front of him in the original plot?

There is a saying that people have similar tastes, just like Egger and Tyrion, even if the former is not in Winterfell and tries his best to get close to the latter, as long as there is a chance to meet and work together in the future, they will definitely still be able to get along. to a block.So is this suitable for Arya and Jaqen, who are old and young?

After thinking about it, he felt that the idea of ​​recruiting Jaqen through Arya was just nonsense, so he finally decided to take it one step at a time, let's bring these two guys together to see what happens: "My first command, From now on, don’t dress up like this boy and come to me, learn from your sister, take care of yourself like a girl, and then come to fencing lessons.”

"why!"

"Dress like a boy and use a sword like a boy. What's so special about it? Being a rose with thorns is a challenge, isn't it?"

The above statement is just a casual drawing. Letting girls wear women's clothing is actually just out of Iger's personal thoughts: I am already too busy to turn my head, and I have to teach a tomboy swordsmanship in my spare time. How boring?But if the other party is a girl, even if you can't eat it, at least it can be good for your eyes and relax your body and mind.

"It makes sense." Arya thought hard for a while with her little brain, and was attracted by the idea of ​​thorny roses, so she agreed, "Then I'll come over tomorrow?"

"It's up to you. If there are no accidents, I will stay here for a long time in the future." Iger shrugged: "The second requirement is to tell your father or his guards before you come out, and find someone to see you off... Although The Red Castle is not far from here, but you are not necessarily safe as a child."