The Mountain of Ice and Fire

In the 298th year of Aegon's Conquest, it was the ninth year of the long summer in Westeros.

March. The Westerlands. Lannisport.

Lannisport, though called a port, was in fact a large city. A branch of House Lannister garrisoned the area, and the port handled ninety percent of the Westerlands' foreign trade. Within the port was also a Westerlands fleet to deal with pirates and the Iron Islands.

Lannisport, along with King's Landing's Blackwater Bay harbor, Oldtown's port in the southwestern corner of the continent, the Vale's Gulltown, and the North's White Harbor, were collectively known as the five major ports of Westeros.

Oldtown's port was the largest in Westeros, and also the oldest—built by the First Men long before the Andals invaded. The Andal invasion from across the Narrow Sea occurred six thousand years ago.

The second largest port was Blackwater Bay outside King's Landing, the current capital of the Seven Kingdoms, while Lannisport was the third largest. Gulltown, belonging to House Arryn of the Vale, ranked fourth, and White Harbor in the North ranked fifth.

Not far southwest of this famous Lannisport stood a small stone castle.

It was considered small because, compared to the castles of other nobles, it was indeed somewhat unimpressive. But compared to ordinary homes, it naturally appeared spacious and wealthy.

This stone castle had three floors and a dozen rooms of varying sizes. The castle had a large courtyard, in the center of which stood a large straw man for practicing sword strikes, a suspended leather target for practicing lance charges, and three archery targets with painted red bullseyes evenly spaced on the southern stone wall.

The courtyard seemed quite large, enough for riding horses, but it appeared shabby compared to the courtyards of truly great nobles. The castles of great nobles had huge training grounds specifically for guards and knights, several times the size of this courtyard.

Such a stone castle truly seemed meager among the wealthy Westerlands nobles.

However, throughout the entire Westerlands, among the hundred or so noble houses, no one dared to underestimate this small stone castle.

Atop the castle keep flew a large banner, the sigil upon which inspired dread: three black dogs on a golden field.

The black dogs were evenly arranged from top to bottom on the banner, baring their fangs and claws. The top and bottom dogs were roaring and lunging to the left, while the middle dog was roaring and lunging to the right.

This was the sigil of a newly risen noble house in the Westerlands: House Clegane.

The origin of this sigil was that Tywin Lannister, Lord of the Westerlands, had personally granted it to House Clegane, a great honor, to recognize the bravery of Clegane, Tywin's kennelmaster.

The kennelmaster Clegane accompanied his master Tytos on a hunt when Tytos, riding quickly, rode alone into a dense forest and lost contact with his guards. He wandered around in the forest, encountered no prey, but suddenly came across a fierce lion and was knocked to the ground by it, his warhorse injured and fled. At that critical moment, the kennelmaster Clegane arrived with three black dogs, who, under Clegane's command, fought the lion, each dying in turn, but also severely wounding the lion. When the lion lunged at Tytos again, Clegane stepped forward, stood in front of Tytos, and fought the lion, driving it away and saving his master's life at the cost of one of his legs.

As a reward, Duke Tytos knighted the kennelmaster Clegane, granted him a small piece of land, a small tower keep, and took his son as a squire.

Clegane, who rose from kennelmaster to noble, was illiterate and unable to create a motto or design a sigil for his house. So, Duke Tytos's maester designed the family crest for House Clegane—three black dogs on a golden field. The golden field represented the Westerlands, which was rich in gold, with many gold mines in the mountains, hence the golden land. The three black dogs represented the three black hounds who had fought to the death with the lion to save Duke Tytos. As for a family motto, what more could a common kennelmaster need after becoming a noble with family lands, a castle, and a family crest?

Tytos did not care that House Clegane had a coat of arms but no family motto, and the maester was unwilling to bother helping. The illiterate knight Clegane did not have the confidence to ask the maester to come up with a motto for the family. Many of the small nobles across the country did not have family mottos, so it did not seem shameful for the new landed knight Clegane to not have one either.

After the death of Clegane, the founder of House Clegane, the title passed to his son, who was his squire. After his squire son died in a very bizarre accident in the forest, breaking his neck, the title passed to his eldest son: Gregor Clegane.

Gregor Clegane was born in 266 AC, making him thirty-two years old this year. He was over eight feet tall, nearly three meters, shaped like a giant from legends, and immensely strong. When he was twelve, his height exceeded that of ordinary adults, and his strength surpassed that of ordinary people. By the time he was sixteen, he had grown into a super giant who was unmatched with a two-handed greatsword.

In 283 AC, the seventeen-year-old Gregor Clegane followed Tywin Lannister in the Sack of King's Landing. He slaughtered the men and women of House Targaryen, smashed Prince Rhaegar's infant son Aegon against a wall, violated Princess Elia Martell, and finally crushed her skull, earning the infamous title of the 'Mountain That Rides'.

Gregor's height goes without saying; ordinary knights were like half-grown children in front of him. His shoulders were as wide as walls, and his arms were as thick as small tree trunks. In battle, he wore the heaviest and thickest armor in the Seven Kingdoms. The armor was extremely heavy, so heavy that ordinary people could not even lift it, let alone move quickly and nimbly in battle. Underneath the armor, he also wore chainmail and boiled leather armor of the highest quality.

His helmet was a flat-topped greathelm, and to prevent the harm of stray arrows, his visor was also thick and dense, leaving only breathing holes for the mouth and nose, and a narrow slit in front of the eyes to observe the outside. The decoration on the top of the helmet was an iron fist pointing straight at the sky.

His two-handed greatsword weighed dozens of pounds, requiring the most valiant knights to wield with both hands, but he could easily wield it with one hand, as if it were a small dagger.

Gregor's greatsword was six feet long, longer than the height of the tallest knight in the Seven Kingdoms. Coupled with the fact that he used this greatsword with one hand, his attack range was very wide, comparable to a long spear, and with just one sword strike, he could cleave a person in half, armor and all. He used an extremely thick oak plank as a shield, bound with iron, and painted with the Clegane family's sigil of three black dogs.

Such a brave and fierce man, whose evil reputation spread far and wide, also had his own 'unspeakable secret'. At this moment, in the famous Clegane Keep, this fearsome giant was lying on his huge stone bed: "Rafford, Dunsen, Polliver, get in here."

His three officers immediately scurried in.

"Find some strong rope and tie me up tightly. What are you waiting for? If you don't want me to twist your heads off, hurry up!"

The three officers were greatly startled, but although they didn't understand, they didn't dare disobey and hurried to find the rope.

"Damn it, I'm a geeky engineering student, and of all things to transmigrate into, I end up in the body of this heinous bastard, surrounded by debts and enemies everywhere, damn it!" The standard Mandarin complaint from another world was filled with gritted teeth.