Super Tool

If I just told her the traits, she could give me leads on anyone who entered this area?!!

Damn!

Wasn't this exactly the network I wanted? Why the hell should I care about some optional quest anymore?!

Until now, Ian had only a rough idea of how to hunt at the Crossroads Inn. He had yet to figure out how to handle many of the details.

For example, how was he supposed to find reliable mercenaries? How could he make them keep secrets? And how would he explain why he was capturing people here?

Or, when they encountered someone whose equipment seemed suspicious, how would they determine whether that person was a player?

More importantly, if they made a move against someone suspected of being a player, how could they avoid being noticed by other players? And how could they stop other natives from witnessing the fight and spreading the news, alerting their target?

Ian had no clue about any of those details yet. He had planned to think them through slowly later on.

Yet a super-useful pawn had just delivered herself to his doorstep? Ian stared at Martha until goosebumps rose all over her skin.

"Ser Lucian? What about my proposal?"

"Oh, Martha, my friend." Ian smiled and shook his head. "Compared to something as minor as gathering information, I think you can help me with something much bigger."

"Something bigger?" Martha did not understand.

Of course something bigger. You knew the local mercenaries and could recruit a group of capable men for me.

You had your own information network and could monitor the entire area, identifying every unfamiliar and suspicious person who checked in or merely passed through.

You were the innkeeper. You could drug the food and quietly knock out unsuspecting players, avoiding any unnecessary alarm.

You were a fucking treasure.

"Of course, something bigger." Ian shoved the Gold Dragons on the table toward Martha. Just as she reached out to grab them, he covered them with his hand again.

"You said that as long as anyone entered this area, you could give me leads on them. How much exaggeration was there in that statement?"

"Exaggeration? You think I was lying? Oh no, Ser, I absolutely wasn't lying!"

"How would you do it?"

"I know someone—Morgan the Black Falcon. He has a mercenary company under him. From Harrenhal to Thousand Isles Crossing, mercenaries and thugs all along the northeastern shores of Gods Eye Lake have good relations with him. If you want to track down someone who entered this area, asking him will definitely get you an answer."

Morgan the Black Falcon? Ian frowned. This was the second one!

First, there had been the so-called Ghosts of White Wall City. According to Martha, that bandit gang had established its lair near White Wall City. They robbed and murdered without restraint, so the local landed knights had banded together to deal with them.

But the knights feared they did not have enough men, so they had asked her to recruit passing knights from elsewhere at the inn. It was clearly a bandit gang with considerable strength, yet it had never appeared in the original story.

And now there was another mercenary leader with enormous influence on the northern shore of Gods Eye Lake who had never existed in the original story.

That was highly unusual.

There was only a little over a year left until the outbreak of the War of the Five Kings. Once war began, bandit gangs of that scale and formidable mercenary leaders should have been impossible to overlook.

Yet neither had appeared in the original story!

"Tell me about this Black Falcon."

"What would you like to know?"

"Everything."

"I actually don't know much about him," Martha said with an embarrassed smile. "He came here seven years ago. During a drunken dispute, he killed the twin brothers who had previously led the mercenaries in this region, fighting two against one. That made his name, and he became the new leader."

"That's all?"

"That's all, Ser. How would I dare hide anything from you?"

Then what was your relationship with him?"

"An ordinary business partnership. He used my inn as the base for his mercenary company. I provided them with alcohol and food below cost, and they protected my inn from being looted by bandits."

Your inn still ended up being looted, Ian thought.

During the War of the Five Kings, Lord Tywin personally led an army of twenty thousand Lannister soldiers here. He made this inn his headquarters and casually had you hanged in revenge for standing by when Tyrion was kidnapped by Catelyn.

Even if your Black Falcon were the king of heaven himself, he would never be able to protect your inn against that kind of force.

On second thought, could the reason this man had not appeared in the original story be that Tywin had casually hanged him too? Or had he feared retaliation from House Lannister for standing by during Tyrion's kidnapping and fled long before then?

If that was the case, then his absence from the original story made sense. Given Tywin's stature, he would not bother specifically mentioning a mercenary he had casually hanged or scared away.

Wait. Although this Black Falcon was nothing in front of Tywin, he was still a force that neither the local knights nor the Ghosts of White Wall City could ignore. So why would Ser Veld rather seek help from knights outside the region than approach this mercenary leader?

Could it be because he could not afford the price?

Or was that bandit gang Black Falcon's work from the beginning? After all, mercenaries could only find work if bandits existed. There was no war going on—what else would they eat?

If that was true, both suspicious points could be explained.

First, after Black Falcon was hanged by Tywin—or frightened into fleeing—the Black Falcon Mercenary Group and the Ghost of White Wall City vanished at the same time, never appearing in the original story.

Second, since most local mercenaries were connected to Black Falcon, Ser Veld had insisted on finding "knights from elsewhere" to prevent news of the operation from leaking.

But what role did Martha, the innkeeper, play in all this? She worked with Black Falcon on one side while helping Ser Veld recruit men on the other, and neither side suspected her?

How was that possible?!

"Ser Lucian?" Seeing that Ian had not responded for a long time, Martha began sweating heavily.

Only when Martha called out did Ian emerge from his thoughts. He gave an awkward laugh. Why should I care so much about them? As long as Black Falcon's mercenaries and information network can work for me, I should stay out of their secrets.

"Where can I find this Black Falcon?" he asked.

"Boss Morgan is staying at our inn. He arrived this afternoon."

So that was why you had said you could give me an answer by noon tomorrow? "Can you persuade him to work for me?"

"Well..." Martha hesitated. "That may be difficult. He's a very arrogant man. We can ask him for help, but getting him to—"

"Look at this first." Ian interrupted her as he slowly lifted his right hand from the Gold Dragons on the table. "Look at these Gold Dragons. Look at them. I'm guessing you've never seen this much money all at once, have you?"

"No, never." Martha's gaze was instantly drawn to those glittering little objects like a magnet.

Of course she had never seen so many Gold Dragons at once. Although the Crossroads Inn stood on a major route, in this era of underdeveloped transportation, she rarely had the chance to host nobles.

Most of those who stayed here were either dirt-poor mercenaries or miserly Traveling Merchants. The former spent freely, but had barely any money to begin with. The latter had money, but were reluctant to spend it.

Over time, any girl with even a little beauty had gone to King's Landing to seek her fortune. Only worn-out women remained at the inn, making the income even harder to talk about.

What? Normal business? How much money could food and drink possibly make in this era? Those meager profits also had to cover taxes to the local lord and support certain mercenaries who ate and drank for free. Breaking even was already good enough.