Murderer Harrison (Part 1)

Roar pinned the rat he had just caught outside the walls to the ground, grabbed his hair, and forced his face toward Ian.

"Could you tell me why you came here, Guardsman?" Ian held the torch less than three centimeters from the rat's face. He had already recognized him as the guard who had gone inside to report earlier.

"Ser, it's a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding! I only came to see if you needed anything else! Hiss! Move that thing away from me, please, move it away! I'm begging you, move it away!" As Ian brought the torch closer to his face, the guard immediately began to howl.

"What were Ser Harrison's orders?"

"Ser Harrison? No, he didn't— Ah! Mmph!" This time, Ian pressed the torch directly against the guard's face. Just as the guard was about to scream, Roar clapped a hand over his mouth from behind.

"What were Ser Harrison's orders? I will not ask a third time."

"H-He told me to keep an eye on you. If there was anything unusual, I was to report it to him," the guard said, trembling.

"That was all?"

"That was all, Ser. Ser Harrison seemed very anxious at the time. He only said that one thing before urging me to leave," the guard hurriedly explained, afraid Ian would not believe him.

"What did you see after entering the castle?"

"I didn't see anything, nothing at all," the guard said, shaking his head frantically. "I didn't even see Uncle Kaili, who had gone in before me. Ser Harrison came down to the first floor to see me himself."

"Thank you for your honesty. May the Seven forgive you."

"Oh, you truly are a kind-hearted—"

"Send him to meet the Seven."

"No!"

The moment Ian finished speaking, Roar snapped the guard's neck.

"Move out." Ian offered no explanation and directly gave the order to Dorian, the "Adopted Son."

"Follow me." Dorian did not dare waste any more time and headed straight for the gate leading to the back courtyard.

The group rode toward the northwest of the estate, where Dorian's trusted men were stationed.

"So what exactly did you discover just now?" Dorian rode beside Ian.

"Harrison killed the Lame, then killed the old guard who first went in to report."

"What did you say? Harrison killed the Lame just to fight for the captaincy? How is that possible? Doing that would make it impossible for him to win over my adoptive father's former followers! Everyone will avenge the Lame!"

"Impossible?"

"Of course it is. If the Lame is dead, then my adoptive father's men should all come under my command instead!" Dorian spoke with certainty; clearly, he had confidence in this.

"Then it makes sense."

"What?"

"The reason Harrison has stayed in the castle without making his next move... Ser Harrison killing the Lame was probably an accident. Whatever caused it, Ser Harrison clearly had not prepared for it.

Only after killing the Lame did he realize that a civil conflict would follow. That was why he hid anxiously in the castle to think of a solution, until the old guard who was reporting in barged inside."

"Then why didn't he trick me into going in and kill me too? That would have left our faction in complete disarray. Without anyone to lead these mercenaries, they might abandon revenge and scatter on the spot."

"You think he never considered it? The reason he did not invite us into the castle was because of me. Harrison is a landed knight. His lands and properties are all here, so of course he cannot attack a member of House Lannister like me.

That was why he wanted to place me in the guest rooms in the back courtyard first. He intended to settle this matter tonight, then meet me tomorrow."

"Then isn't he afraid I'll use this chance to gather everyone and expose his crimes?"

"How could he know that we have already discovered his crime?"

Dorian froze.

"What we are exploiting now is this information gap. Before he realizes we know his secret, we find your supporters first, then gather the mercenaries from your adoptive father's faction and announce Ser Harrison's crimes."

"Ser Harrison is a landed knight directly invested by the Iron Throne." Dorian felt certain Ian had gone mad.

"All the better. It would be troublesome if he were the sort of knight loyal to a local great lord. As for the Iron Throne? I doubt Robert will notice that one landed knight has disappeared from the edge of the Crownlands even after he gets gored to death by a boar."

Harrison paced back and forth through the narrow hall, sighing at times and covering his face at others.

The current situation had completely exceeded his expectations. Though this was his estate, of the nearly hundred mercenaries currently within it, more than half had once belonged to Morgan of the Black Falcon.

Under normal circumstances, that would not have meant much. Though he and Morgan disagreed on many matters, Morgan was a fair man, and their actual relationship had not been bad.

But things were different now. Boss Mogen had gone out only yesterday, and today that bastard the Lame had returned with news of Boss Mogen's death.

Naturally, Harrison could not easily accept it. Boss Mogen had gone out with ten men, yet now the Lame was telling him that everyone else was fine and only the boss had died. How could he believe there was nothing suspicious about that?

Thus, Harrison and the Lame had argued. During the quarrel, Harrison mentioned the spy Boss Mogen had spoken of before. To his surprise, that actually enraged the Lame.

While demanding to know whether Harrison was implying that he was the spy, the Lame drew his sword and thrust it at Harrison.

The Lame's attack came so suddenly that, after barely dodging it, Harrison almost instinctively grabbed a dinner fork from the table and stabbed at the Lame. The metal spike plunged straight into the Lame's neck.

By the time Harrison came to his senses, the Lame had already breathed his last.

There was no way he could explain that scene. The Lame had died to a dinner fork. How could he make the others believe that the Lame had attacked him first, and that he had only killed him in self-defense?

Anyone would think he had suddenly ambushed the Lame with a dinner fork and killed him while the man was drunk.

First Boss Mogen had died under strange circumstances, then Boss Mogen's closest brother and the mercenary company's second deputy captain had died in his castle. Harrison simply could not imagine any reason that would prevent those mercenaries from mutinying.

Harrison walked to the window and briefly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that everything outside appeared normal.

Since Crooked Hat had not returned with a report, that meant Dorian, who had brought back some Ser Lannister, had not noticed anything amiss or caused any trouble.

That was crucial to Harrison. He needed time to think of a way out of his current predicament. Though he had thought for a long time already, he still had no clue.

Harrison was a capable fighter, but he had never been good at using his brain. Otherwise, he would not have been willing to remain beneath Morgan as his deputy captain.

What should I do? Harrison asked himself.

Fighting was out of the question. His influence within the mercenary company had already been weaker than Morgan's, and now he also bore suspicion of murdering the Lame. What was more—

"Could those people also pin Boss Mogen's murder on me?" Harrison suddenly thought, absurdly.

If that happened, even the mercenary captains who had originally been under his command would have to reconsider their positions, wouldn't they?

"Revenge for Boss Mogen!"

"Murderer!"

"Murderer Harrison!"

Suddenly, Harrison heard shouts coming from outside the window.

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