Humble Pawns

"I really don't know why you're throwing this fit. Is it because you didn't get to kill your enemy with your own hands? So you want to kill me? You'd even resort to spouting crazy nonsense to slander me?" Seeing that he had turned the situation around, Ian pressed his advantage. "Sorry, I had no idea the grudge between you two ran so deep. What did that guy do, sleep with your wife?"

In an instant, the surrounding laughter grew even louder.

"Thirty." Harui held up three fingers. Unable to explain himself to the mercenaries, he simply spoke to them in the language they understood best. "Kill him, and I'll pay thirty Gold Dragons."

The mercenaries' laughter stopped abruptly. Ian felt scorching gazes turn toward him, and the air filled with greed.

"Oh? You're trying to compete with a Lannister in wealth?" Ian sneered, then looked at Mercenary Captain Kammel. "Kill him. No matter how much he offers, I'll pay double."

"You can't afford—" Harui had barely gotten halfway through his sentence when he suddenly remembered that Ian had already claimed the first-kill quest. He could only clench his fists and swallow the rest of his words.

"Of course I can afford it." Ian smiled as he took over. He had intended to claim the reward through the system immediately and take the money from his inventory, but a flicker of wariness suddenly rose within him.

These mercenaries are all Harui's men. What if I take out the money, they get greedy, rob me, and kill me to silence me?

"I don't have the money on me right now." Ian wore a disdainful expression. "But my attendant will naturally bring it over shortly. A Lannister Always Pays His Debts. For thousands of years, we have never broken a promise."

No one doubted Ian's words. Whether it was his identity as a Lannister bastard or his lavishly jeweled attire, everything about him made his words convincing.

"Annie, I don't have time to log into the system right now. Can you claim the reward for me directly?" Ian asked in his mind.

"Yes. The Gold Dragon reward has been issued. As the player's storage space is insufficient, part of the reward will be carried and escorted to the player by a reward NPC."

One liter of gold weighed roughly thirty-seven jin, while three thousand Gold Dragons weighed around forty-five jin. Once the shapes of the coins and gold bars took up additional room, a one-slot inventory really could not hold that many Gold Dragons.

Still... why did this suddenly make me think of package delivery? Ian grumbled inwardly, though he knew this was not the time to crack jokes.

"When can the reward NPC arrive?"

"You have three NPC options for this selection: Children of the Warrior, Raven's Teeth Guard, and Elite sworn knight. Once you make your choice, they will set out from the nearest resource point, five kilometers away."

Hearing the three choices, Ian was genuinely stunned, because the first two unit types had long vanished into the river of history.

The Children of the Warrior were the name of an armed order of the Faith of the Seven, which had been disbanded during the reign of Jaehaerys I, the fourth monarch of the Targaryen Dynasty, known as the King Aerys I.

The Children of the Warrior were also called the Order of the Sword or the Order of the Stars. Their members were all knights anointed with holy oil. They declared that they had relinquished their titles, castles, and lands. Their duty was to protect septs and safely escort the devout along the roads, shielding them from bandits and heathens. They were roughly equivalent to paladins without the power of Holy Light—unquestionably top-tier troops.

Yet Ian rejected this option almost without hesitation, because the Children of the Warrior were dressed like walking wardrobes.

They wore rainbow cloaks bearing the sigil of a "seven-colored crystal sword shining upon a black field," donned silver-plated armor, and used star-shaped crystals as sword-pommel counterweights. They were flashy as hell. If two Children of the Warrior showed up later, no one would believe they were Lannister attendants.

(P.S. A special note for readers who have only watched the TV series: the portrayal of the "Children of the Warrior" in the show is actually closer to another armed order of the Faith of the Seven at the time, the Poor Fellow. As the name suggests, there is no need for much explanation.)

The second option, the Raven's Teeth Guard, were the personal elite troops of Blood Raven Brynden Rivers, the famous noble bastard of Aegon IV the Unworthy, the eleventh king of the Targaryen Dynasty. (That man was a legend. He served as Hand to two kings, later became Commander-in-Chief of the Night's Watch, and eventually became the Three-Eyed Crow. He was still alive even now, but that was a story for another time.)

They wielded enchanted weirwood bows. Their most famous feat was during the Battle of Redgrass Field, when they helped suppress the Blackfyre Rebellion by shooting the rival king Daemon Blackfyre and his twin sons dead from over three hundred yards away. They were likewise unquestionably top-tier ranged units.

But Ian did not choose them either, because they had no horses and could not reach this place as quickly as possible.

After choosing the least conspicuous option, though one whose stats were no worse at all—the Elite sworn knight—Ian looked up at Captain Kammel, awaiting his answer.

To Ian's surprise, after hesitating for quite a while, Kammel actually rejected him. "Turning against my employer in the middle of a job and drawing my sword on him—what kind of man do you take me for?"

I take you for a mercenary! What else would I take you for? I'm offering you money, and you don't want it? Is it not enough? Ian was utterly dumbfounded.

Harui, standing opposite Ian, let out a long breath of relief, secretly thankful that he had chosen the right man.

Ser Kymell's Mercenary Company had always been the most reputable one around Lord Harroway's Town. That was precisely why Harui had taken a liking to them at first glance. He had even paid twelve Gold Dragons—a fee several times higher than normal—to poach them from someone else.

Rumor had it that this Kammel was the eldest grandson of a certain count. But when he was still very young, his family had been forced to sell its lands due to bankruptcy. By his generation, even their title had been lost.

He had only earned his knighthood through his own efforts during King Robert's campaign to put down Balon Greyjoy's rebellion.

To restore his family, Ser Kymell had always valued honor more than life itself. And that sense of honor was Harui's greatest reliance at this moment.

True, Harui had no way to compete financially with a "Lannister bastard" who had obtained the first-kill reward. But he was still Kammel's employer, and Kammel had been a mercenary for more than twenty years without ever being accused of breaking his oath.

"So you're rejecting my offer?" Ian confirmed. "If you think it's too little, I can offer three times what he did—or any price you name that you find satisfactory."

"Mind you, any price. As long as you name it." Ian added again. He was fully confident he could satisfy the man's appetite. After all, Jaime Lannister was worth only one thousand Gold Dragons. For him, a mere bastard, two hundred would already be the limit.

All loyalty and honor in the world existed only because you had not paid enough.

"I'm sorry, Ser, but my honor does not permit me to betray my employer." Kammel seemed somewhat tempted, but his answer made Ian's heart sink halfway.

Ian knew Ned Stark was a blockhead who clung to honor, but even if he were beaten to death, he would never have imagined running into this kind of bizarre "honorable" mercenary on his very first day. Even if that mercenary had been carefully selected by another player.

If you value honor so much, why become a mercenary?

Yet Kammel abruptly changed his tone, sending Ian's heart on a roller coaster ride. "Likewise, my honor does not permit me to carry out a dishonorable murder against a nobleman. Therefore, as long as you swear here that you will not target my employer, I will let you leave."

Can you stop dragging this out? Ian pressed a hand to the left side of his chest, feeling as though his heart had nearly leapt out just moments ago.

Before Ian could speak, Harui was the first to lose his composure. He almost instinctively retorted, "What the hell kind of noble is he? He's just a bastard!" Then, realizing how absurd that sounded, he hurriedly corrected himself. "No, damn it, he isn't even a bastard. He's just a fraud!"

"Our agreement was to protect your life and help you ambush your enemy. Now that your enemy is dead, we only need to ensure your safety." Kammel's refusal was as firm as when he had rejected Ian earlier.

A surge of respect rose in Ian's heart. Probably respect, anyway. It definitely was not mockery.

"I'm your employer. I order you to kill him!" Harui was furious. If he could have seen his own expression, he would surely have been reminded of King Robert shouting, "I am the king!"

But Ian no longer wanted any further complications. His obsession with killing Harui was not particularly strong. He had already claimed the first-kill quest, and the reward for killing an early-game player now was not worth taking further risks.

For Ian, both sides leaving separately was a perfectly acceptable outcome. So he immediately pointed to the sky and swore:

"I, Ian Hill, swear before the Seven upon my father's honor and the honor of House Lannister that I will never hold Harui, Ser Kymell, or his Mercenary Company responsible for today's events. Nor will I seek any form of revenge. Otherwise, may the Father Above's judgment fall upon House Lannister."

"What the fuck does House Lannister have to do with you?" Harui gritted his teeth.

"Thank you, Ser. May the Seven bless you." Kammel gave a slight bow, then turned to Harui and grabbed him. "Let's go, Mister Harui. Ser Ian has sworn not to hold you accountable for today, so stop provoking him."

Clearly, he had interpreted Harui's words—"What does House Lannister have to do with you?"—as an insult directed at Ian's identity as a bastard.

"I..." Harui felt utterly aggrieved, but could only swallow all those meaningless explanations, because he knew that without evidence, everything he said would be empty talk.

He only felt that he had lost this round for no reason at all.

It could be said that from the moment that fake bastard appeared, he had never connected him with the possibility of being a player.

Harui simply could not fucking understand it. A noble knight riding a fine warhorse worth at least twenty Gold Dragons, dressed in a brocade hunting outfit, draped in a gold-threaded mantle, wearing a gilded belt worth no less than three Gold Dragons, with a Lion sigil sword hanging from that belt—was actually a player? And he had come to deceive and ambush him, a merchant comrade with average attributes of only five? What kind of bullshit was this?

Did he have some kind of top-up window or something? If he'd said so earlier, I would've paid too!

That guy had disguised himself as a Lannister bastard. Damn that Kammel—he did not dare lay a hand on him at all. Kammel...

For some reason, the dejected Harui suddenly raised his head and looked at Ian, a glint flashing in his eyes. "Do you think today is already destined to end in a draw?"

A draw? Yeah, sure, call it a draw if you want. I've already taken all the advantages. Thinking this, Ian nodded in complete agreement. "That's right, it's a draw. If you want to say you won, I don't mind either."

"But I'm not willing to accept that." Harui's voice was low and sinister. "I wonder if you've heard a certain saying?"

"What?"

"The one Littlefinger taught Sansa: in the Game of Thrones, even the humblest pawns have desires of their own, and sometimes they refuse to follow the moves you planned for them." Harui revealed a chilling smile.

Ian's pupils immediately contracted.