Triggering a Quest

"Wouldn't such continual raids affect the income of their territories?"

"The knights' lands are scattered anyway, and they don't have the right to tax passing merchant caravans. As long as the Ghosts of White Wall City don't attack their manors, they're basically unaffected. If either Castle Darry or Harrenhal still possessed even a fraction of its former power, these bandits wouldn't be able to run rampant here." Dorian gave a mocking smile.

What a terrible era. When the fiefs of minor nobles were being raided, the higher nobles generally turned a blind eye unless the local nobles took the lead in petitioning them.

If a particularly responsible lord received a complaint from a raided caravan, he would deal with the matter.

Unfortunately, Duke Hoster Tully of the Riverlands was now gravely ill, while Jon Arryn, Hand of the King, had been poisoned to death by his own wife at Littlefinger's instigation.

As a result, there truly was no one who could rein in the Ghosts of White Wall City.

"All right." Ian sighed. "Can you think of anything else? Anything at all."

"Now that you mention it, I remember overhearing Mountain Weasel discussing something with my adoptive father before."

"Who is Mountain Weasel?"

"One of the mercenary group's squad leaders. He was the one responsible for our group's search for the Blackfyre treasure."

"Where is he?"

"I don't know. He's been searching for the Blackfyre treasure around White Wall City lately." Dorian shook his head. "But he returns to the camp every so often to report his progress to my adoptive father."

"Don't the Ghosts of White Wall City attack your treasure-hunting party?" Ian asked curiously.

"Never!" Dorian hurriedly shook his head. "It once made my adoptive father suspect that they couldn't find the treasure themselves and deliberately let us in because they wanted to use our strength to search for it."

"That's not impossible. By the way, what was it that you overheard?"

"A week ago, I happened to hear my adoptive father and Mountain Weasel mention that mole. They seemed to know who the mole was, but when I asked my adoptive father about it, he told me to stop meddling. He said everything would soon be over."

"Good thing you remembered." Ian shook his head with a faint smile. "I don't know what it means yet, but I have a feeling the key to uncovering the truth lies in those words."

"You mean... that mole killed my adoptive father?"

"That's a simple but shallow guess. You can't draw any valuable conclusions from it, can you? Given what we know now, we can only say your adoptive father's death may be connected to the mole. As for more information, I need time to sort it out and think. Before that, though, we need to find Mountain Weasel."

"Even if we find him, he won't serve us. He only serves the mercenary group's captain," Dorian explained.

The mercenary captain? In that instant, Ian had a bold idea. Could he use Dorian to seize control of the Black Falcon Mercenary Group?

He couldn't place much hope in a band of mercenaries' loyalty, but before they showed signs of collapse or became dissatisfied with the division of spoils, they could still be put to use.

"So why don't you try competing for the captain's position? You're Black Falcon's adopted son, aren't you?" Ian decided to put the idea into action.

"It isn't a noble title. There's no such thing as inheriting your father's position." Dorian looked somewhat embarrassed.

"But I told you before that you would become the new Black Falcon." This time, Ian's tone was more certain.

"Ser? You mean... you'll help me?" Dorian finally understood what "Ser Lucian Lannister" meant, and his emotions immediately surged.

But Dorian quickly calmed down again. "But Ser, you don't understand. Running for grand captain requires nominations from at least four Mercenary Captains. I have only one supporter, and I'm confident I can persuade at most one more."

"With him, that makes three." Ian pointed at Gransen. "As for the fourth, and however many more are needed to get you elected captain, Gold Dragon will help us persuade them."

"You're going to sponsor me?" Dorian asked delightedly. Mercenaries usually had few principles; as long as there was money, persuading them was hardly difficult.

"Isn't that obvious?"

"Then what's the price?" Dorian was not foolish and asked at once.

"Loyalty."

"Black Falcon is a mercenary group, Ser. No one can trust a mercenary's loyalty. Even if I obtain the position of grand captain, I can't lead a mercenary group into pledging loyalty to you. But I personally can swear loyalty to you if you uncover the truth behind my adoptive father's death and avenge him. I will also do everything in my power to maintain the mercenary group's loyalty to you."

Ding! Just as Ian was about to answer, the system, which had been silent for so long, suddenly reacted to his surprise.

"Deal." Ian hurriedly answered Dorian, then immediately closed his eyes to inspect it.

Triggered quest discovered: The Truth of Black Falcon's Death

Quest description: Black Falcon was attacked in the middle of the night by a Heavy Military Crossbow in the room of a knight suspected to belong to the Grafton family. His adopted son, Dorian, hopes you can uncover the truth behind Black Falcon's murder and help him avenge it.

Quest reward: Dorian will swear loyalty to you

Additional reward: Unknown

Accept (Consumes 1 point) Reject

A quest at a time like this?

After giving it some thought, Ian found the common point between the two optional quests that had appeared so far: a native formally made a request of the player and promised a specific reward.

Without hesitation, Ian directly selected Accept. Now that he was flush with points, he had no need to save such a small amount.

The quest interface quickly changed.

Optional Quest 1: The Truth of Black Falcon's Death

Quest objective: Uncover the truth behind Black Falcon's death and avenge him.

Quest reward: Dorian will swear loyalty to you

Additional reward: Unknown

Current remaining points: 13

Looking at the refreshed quest interface, Ian could not help feeling somewhat disappointed.

It had merely changed the quest description into a quest objective, without providing any clues beyond Dorian's account. The additional reward still displayed as "Unknown," meaning Ian could not judge the quest's difficulty through its contents.

This meant the system had not left players even the slightest loophole to exploit.

Wait, no! Who said there were no loopholes to exploit? Ian suddenly thought of an excellent way to confirm whether the Blackfyre treasure existed.

Although quests would not provide players with any additional information, if a quest involving the Blackfyre treasure appeared, that at least proved the thing existed, didn't it?

Of course, this was not the time to test it. He still needed to continue discussing the Black Falcon Mercenary Group with Dorian.