Timett Son of Timett was swinging his longsword.
He directed his clansmen as they climbed and attacked a section of wall that was about to fall.
The clansmen climbed up one by one, scrambling onto the wall.
Suddenly, he heard a powerful, prolonged blast from a horn, sounding from all directions.
His heart sank.
He spun around and looked toward the woods to the east.
A cloud of dust rose from the eastern woods, blotting out the sky.
His gaze seemed to pierce through the dense forest.
It was as if he could see thousands of spears and banners.
The more he looked, the clearer they seemed to become.
He could almost make out a vast army of Flatlanders.
Countless Flatlander Iron-skins.
"Flatlander reinforcements!... So many of them!... There really are so many!!!" he murmured, disbelief filling his eyes.
There were at least two thousand of them!!!
"Ah——" Timett Son of Timett swung his longsword and let out an angry roar. "Everyone! Get down! All of you, get down!!"
"Go!!!!"
"Follow me!!!!"
He had been deceived!
The Flatlanders had deceived him!!
Rage filled his chest!!!
He was furious with the Flatlanders from the Vale who had tricked him.
And with the stone house before him!!
The stone house had been on the verge of falling!
He wanted to order them to keep attacking.
But he knew the tide had turned.
Once the army in the woods arrived,
his own forces would be caught between two Flatlander armies!
Then the Mountain Clans would truly be finished!!
The Wildlings who had already made it onto the wall heard the order to retreat.
They looked at the dust in the distance and understood what it meant.
Their heads had cleared.
They scrambled down from the wall.
Lofor, Lord of Valleydeep, and his soldiers did not dare stop them.
They could only watch the Wildlings leave.
"Reinforcements are here!! The reinforcements are here!!" On the wall, one soldier was the first to cry out in delight.
"They really are reinforcements!!"
"We're saved!!"
The desperate defenders erupted into earth-shaking cheers.
Lofor, Lord of Valleydeep, and Heluo of Valleydeep stood atop the wall.
They stared, dumbfounded, at the dramatic turn of events.
"Father... Whose army is that?" Heluo of Valleydeep's voice trembled, full of both excitement and confusion. "There are so many of them!!"
Lofor, Lord of Valleydeep, shook his head. He had no idea either.
But he knew that Valleydeep Town was safe.
It was a miracle!
"Should we charge out and pursue them, Father!!" Heluo of Valleydeep asked, barely able to contain his delight.
Lofor, Lord of Valleydeep, sheathed his sword. "No."
Something about this felt strange to him!
Suleiman's army was in the woods.
They raced back and forth, wildly scattering dust.
They were carrying out Lord Suleiman's strange orders.
They ran repeatedly through a designated patch of woodland.
Each man carried a huge bundle of dry grass, desperately stirring up the dust they had gathered from the ground.
Roslyn shouted beside the troops, "Faster! Get all that dust up into the air!" He, too, clutched a bundle of dry grass and waved it with all his strength.
The soldiers panted and coughed nonstop, their noses full of swirling dust.
Sweat soaked their crude armor, mixing with the dust they kicked up.
It caked their faces and bodies in mud.
They looked as if they had just climbed out of a muddy field.
They did not understand why they were doing this.
But Lord Suleiman had just led them to an unbelievable victory.
He had used a flood to drown an enemy many times their number.
They would carry out any order he gave, no matter how strange.
Besides the men, the group included some livestock rounded up from nearby.
They had burned every village in the area earlier.
They had killed all the livestock.
So now they had to stir up the dust themselves.
There were too few animals!
The soldiers herded the animals with their weapons, whipping and striking at them.
The creatures ran in terror through the woods, bleating and braying.
Their ragged cries mingled with the soldiers' shouts, footsteps, and the sound of dust flying.
Together, they created the illusion of a vast, chaotic force.
"My lord... What are we... cough, cough... doing?" Lushen came up beside Suleiman, his face and body just as dust-covered.
His voice was hoarse from breathing in too much dust.
He kept coughing.
Bronn came over, too, leaning against a tree.
He had just survived a near-fatal battle and was still wounded, but he was in surprisingly high spirits.
Perhaps the heads of the three tribal chieftains had given him something to brag about in Westeros.
And then there was the pay Suleiman had calculated for him.
He was in a good mood and happy to explain.
Bronn spoke as if teasing a fool. "Idiot! Your lord is making a show to scare the Wildlings!"
"The Wildlings think we have a huge army! So we have to make them believe we're strong and well-equipped!"
Lushen blushed at the teasing, but instead looked at Bronn gratefully.
If he wanted to follow Master Suleiman, he had to learn these things.
He couldn't be a fool.
Suleiman turned and glanced at Bronn. "You don't think this is clever?"
"Clever?" Bronn sneered. "All I see is a bunch of people working themselves to the bone and mistreating some poor animals."
"If I were a Wildling, I'd keep attacking the town!"
"Then I'd find out you were bluffing! And then—hey!"
Suleiman glanced at him. "A reasonable person wouldn't do that."
Bronn stopped laughing. He knew Suleiman's plan was working, so he decided to stop joking around.
"What if the defenders of Valleydeep Town come out to pursue the Wildlings? What will you do then?" Bronn sneered. "Or what if the Wildlings head straight for us?"
Now Suleiman looked at him as if he were a fool.
"If they come out, what does that have to do with me?"
"If they come for us, we just retreat."
Bronn: ...
Bronn considered it.
If the young man could really break the siege of Valleydeep Town this way,
his name would surely ring throughout the Riverlands, and perhaps even farther afield.
He had led three hundred farmers.
They had beaten the Mountain Clans again and again, despite numbering more than thirteen hundred.
They had killed half the enemy and even broken the siege of Valleydeep Town.
And he, as the Wildling Chieftain Hunter, would surely rise to fame alongside Yang Ming.
The young man had delivered on everything he had promised him.
Money and fame.
With that, Bronn got up and headed off into the distance.
Behind him, Suleiman watched Bronn's retreating figure. "Where are you going?"
"Off to hunt a chieftain!" Bronn tossed his dagger in his hand a few times.
"Come back! I have a job for you!" Suleiman barked.
"Clink!"
The dagger hit the ground. Bronn turned stiffly and looked at Suleiman.
"You know the terrain around Valleydeep Town, and you understand the Wildlings' habits." Suleiman looked at him. "I want you to take some men and get ahead of the Wildlings!"
"Keep making a show of force around them! Make it seem as if our vanguard is right on their heels!"
"That way, they won't turn back!"
"Once they've gone far enough, you can come back!"
"By then, even if they realize what's happening and try to return, it'll be too late!"
Bronn frowned. "What if the Wildlings charge me and I get caught up with them? I'm not responsible for your men!"
"I trust your abilities, Bronn!" Suleiman smiled strangely. "You always find a way to escape when things get dangerous, don't you?"
Bronn pursed his lips, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
He could tell.
Suleiman had been teasing him, but also threatening him.
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