Foreign Knights

The large room contained nothing but straw mats, so after having Roar pile most of them into a corner, Ian went outside and carried in a table and three stools.

The conditions here were rather terrible. The smell inside even made Ian wonder whether the straw mats had ever been replaced.

Still, it was normal even if they had not been changed. This place was meant for farmers traveling between the nearby villages and castles. A night cost only one Copper Penny, less than one-eighth the price of a standard single room—practically free—and people who freeloaded usually had high tolerances.

After all, if you had money, you could stay in a single room.

Of course, Ian had not chosen such a large room to save money. He simply felt safer sharing a room with two knights.

What he was unwilling to admit was that the shadow cast by the battle and massacre in the salt mine had yet to fade.

Once they had arranged everything, the innkeeper, Martha, came to Ian's door.

"Ser, your food is ready." Her voice sounded quite weary. Ian guessed she had plenty of complaints about being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night to cook.

"Come in," Ian replied. He did not care whether Martha had complaints. He only cared about the cooking Catelyn Tully had praised in the original work, as well as the ale Tyrion Lannister had praised at this inn.

After all, the day's journey had left him utterly exhausted and ravenous.

With Ian's permission, Martha and two serving girls pushed open the door to the large room.

Before long, a lavish meal of whole-wheat bread, bacon potatoes, onion beef soup, roast lamb, roast quail, and malt ale was set on Ian's table.

Ian did not immediately dig in. Instead, he looked at Martha, who had remained in the room rather than leaving.

"My lords."

"We do not require any other services, thank you. You may go rest." Ian roughly knew what she wanted to ask, so he dismissed her first.

But Martha hurriedly shook her head. "That is not what I wanted to ask. My apologies, my lord."

"Relax. Take your time." Ian set down his fork and looked at Martha.

"Thank you, my lord." Martha nodded hurriedly, composed herself, and said, "You are knights of House Lannister, aren't you?"

"Yes." Ian admitted it directly. He had dealt with everyone in Kammel's Mercenary Company, so for the time being, he had no intention of giving up his false identity. Neither had he hidden the Crested Sword.

The innkeeper had probably noticed the lion's head on Ian's sword and asked because of it.

Upon receiving Ian's confirmation, Martha beamed, revealing teeth stained red from years of chewing tobacco. "Then you came from King's Landing?"

"How did you reach that conclusion?" Ian tore a leg from a roast quail and asked as he ate.

"Hehe, I've run this inn for so many years that I've seen knights from nearly all the Seven Kingdoms." Martha pointed at Roar. "That knight's black armor has elaborate patterns. That style can only be found in King's Landing or Highgarden. And you are a knight of House Lannister, while King's Landing is half Lannister territory, so I guessed you came from King's Landing."

"Correct, you guessed right. I am Ser Lucian Lannister, and they are my subordinates." Ian raised a brow, continuing to stuff food into his mouth before taking a large swallow of thick soup. "So, what did you come to us for?"

"Oh, it's like this. If you are not in a hurry to travel—"

"As it happens, we have plenty of free time these days." Ian nodded at once. His instincts told him Martha's words would trigger a quest.

And conveniently, he had been planning to test the trigger mechanism for optional quests.

According to the organizers, they would not interfere in any way after the game went live. That meant so-called triggered quests were most likely generated automatically by the system according to some preset mechanism after natives asked players for help.

In a real world like this, if the quest-triggering mechanism was fixed, then Ian, as a former game designer, could say responsibly that as long as it was handled properly, there would definitely be bugs to exploit.

Of course, that was something to consider only after he had tested the complete trigger mechanism.

For now, he only wanted to test the simplest question—would a quest be triggered whenever a native asked a player for help?

"So," Ian continued, "what can I help you with?"

"It's like this, Ser Lucian. Recently, a band of brigands has appeared nearby. They rob homes and commit every kind of evil. Since their hideout is near the former White Wall City, we call them the 'Ghosts of White Wall City.'" Only after receiving Ian's assent did Martha explain.

"Ghosts of White Wall City." Ian repeated Martha's words, searching his memories for relevant information. Unfortunately, he found no information on such a band of thieves. He had not even heard the name before.

That meant neither the original Ice and Fire novels nor their spin-offs had mentioned anything like this.

"You've heard of them?"

"No, never." Ian shook his head. "But if they are brigands, then I assume you want us to help wipe them out?"

Wandering bandits. Ian chuckled inwardly. What medieval game with a quest system could possibly lack a bandit-clearing quest? It was the most traditional filler-arc formula.

"No." To Ian's surprise, Martha denied it. "Not me. Actually, it's Ser Veld and the others."

"Them?"

"They are an alliance formed by the landed knights around here. They are the ones who need help."

"You mean the landed knights nearby formed an alliance to deal with the bandits you mentioned?" Ian was somewhat confused.

"No, the alliance has always existed. But this time, they have indeed gathered to deal with the Ghosts of White Wall City."

"How many men do they have?"

"Including Ser Veld, Ser Viri, Ser Karn, and the others, there are seven landed knights in total. Naturally, they also have their squires and guards."

This was completely beyond Ian's expectations. In his mind, since the original work had not mentioned the so-called Ghosts of White Wall City in even a single word, they should have been a small band of insignificant thieves.

He had thought Martha would directly give him a triggered quest, after which he could recruit a group of mercenaries on the spot and wipe them out. Yet he had not expected the local landed knights to have already formed an alliance to deal with them.

"Since so many sers are already preparing to handle them, why are you looking for us?" Ian could not help feeling speechless.

"It's like this. Ser Veld is worried they do not have enough men, so he asked me to keep an eye out for reliable foreign knights passing through here these past few days. He hopes to receive your help."

"Foreign knights?" Ian's eyes narrowed.