Fotimo had Jon wait in the guardroom by the entrance, then led Linde inside alone.
"Lord Fotimo, what's going on? Why are the outsiders..." As they passed the entrance to a hedge maze, a middle-aged man in armor emerged from the maze, asking sternly as he walked.
Because of a corner at the maze exit, the middle-aged man only saw Fotimo walking ahead and did not see Linde and Glory following behind. Only when he rounded the corner did he see them.
The middle-aged man's reaction was then identical to Fotimo's just moments before; he instantly froze, swallowed the words he was about to say, and placed his hand on his weapon.
"Lord Aegon Reville, allow me to introduce you. This is Bear Hunter Lind Terra, whom I mentioned earlier." Seeing the middle-aged man's panicked expression, Fotimo smiled, then stepped aside to introduce them: "Linde, this is the Duke's Captain of the Guard. All of Highgarden's castle guards and personal bodyguards are under his command. He and Ser Roger separately manage Highgarden's two armed forces, inside and out, and he is the Duke's most trusted subordinate."
"Bear Hunter Lind?" Aegon Reville looked at Linde, dressed in splendid armor, with surprise, then at Glory, still not fully recovering his senses.
"Lord Aegon." Linde bowed in greeting.
"Lord Linde." Aegon Reville quickly realized he had been somewhat impolite and immediately returned the bow. It was clear he was a very traditional knight.
"Weren't you over in the garden? Why did you come here?" Fotimo asked, puzzled.
"What else could it be for?" Aegon Reville pointed to the castle gate and said, "A guard just reported that a large crowd has gathered in the plaza outside the castle gate. It feels like a riot."
"A riot?" Fotimo couldn't help but laugh, then turned to Linde and said, "You caused a riot on your first visit to Highgarden. This is unprecedented and will certainly be recorded in Scholar Moras's Highgarden Chronicle."
Fotimo teased Linde while explaining the events outside the castle to Captain Aegon, who listened in utter astonishment.
Although he knew that the hunter of bears song was very popular in Highgarden, he never expected it to cause such a commotion. Even when the Duke returned to Highgarden for his parade, it didn't cause such a stir.
"You go explain over at the garden! I'll take him to see the Duke." Fotimo added.
"Hmm." Aegon then remembered that the ladies and young misses in the garden were still unsettled by the misunderstanding caused by that guard and needed to be informed of the truth to calm their emotions.
So, he immediately turned and re-entered the maze, taking a shortcut towards the castle garden.
Fotimo continued to lead Linde up to the castle. Many of the surrounding guards and servants looked at Glory, who was following behind, with fear, and they whispered cautiously as they passed.
Fotimo suddenly said, somewhat seriously, "The commotion you caused today is simply too great. Someone will certainly use this as an excuse to attack you. You don't need to pay attention to them; they are just jealous of the achievements you've made in Tengshi Town recently."
"I understand, Lord." Linde nodded.
"From the situation just now, it's not hard to see that you have a high reputation in Highgarden, though only temporarily. But it will definitely displease the Duke and make him wary. So, after completing this escort mission, you will likely be sent back to Tengshi Town immediately to continue the bandit suppression mission. And even if you complete the mission, the rewarded manor and village will probably not be near Highgarden," Fotimo suddenly stopped, turned to Linde and Glory, and said meaningfully, "This should be the outcome you hoped for, right?"
Linde smiled and said, "Everything is according to the Duke's arrangements."
"That's very true. Everything is according to the Duke's arrangements." Fotimo nodded and continued to lead Linde forward.
The two quickly arrived at Highgarden's inner ring wall. This circle of walls was taller, thicker, and more beautiful than the outer one, as it was covered in climbing vines, and countless red roses and golden roses were planted at its base. Approaching the wall, one could smell a strong, fragrant scent, making it feel more like a garden than a wall meant for defense against outsiders.
At this time, the guards responsible for the safety of this wall stood ready at the entrance. Their eyes held clear fear when they looked at Glory, but they tried their best to maintain serious expressions.
Fotimo motioned for Linde to wait a moment, then went forward to talk with the guards.
Linde, like anyone seeing this wall for the first time, looked around curiously. In reality, the Peace Envoy's memory influenced him, making him search for the castle's weak points the moment he saw it, and his mind began to simulate the process of attacking the castle.
Since acquiring the Lost Country Knight's memory, the Lost Country Knight's memory had become the dominant force among the foreign fused memories, but the influence of the Peace Envoy's memory had not disappeared. Some habits generated by those memories still affected Linde, such as instinctively considering how to breach a castle upon seeing it.
At the gate, Fotimo's negotiation was not smooth. Although Linde's identity was not an issue, Glory was simply too terrifying. The guards worried that Glory might enter the inner city, suddenly go mad, and harm the nobles there. So, they only allowed Linde to enter, and Glory had to be chained up and kept in the outer ring area.
However, Fotimo knew very well that allowing Glory, such a massive beast, to leave its master's side was the most dangerous thing. Moreover, he had seen Glory bite through an iron cage when it was still young. Now that it had grown so large, he did not believe that ordinary chains could restrain it. If it wasn't restrained and bit through the chains, and then went mad from being confined, biting people all over the outer ring area, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Because the noble ladies and young misses of Highgarden were currently strolling in the garden in the outer ring area, if a rampaging Glory were to injure them, even he would likely be held accountable.
"Wait here for a moment. I'll go see the Duke first." Fotimo said to Linde, pointing to a small garden nearby specifically for visitors to rest, signaling him to sit there for a while, and then entered the inner ring city through the opened small gate.
While thinking about how to breach the wall before him, Linde led Glory to the small garden, found a marble pavilion, and sat down. Glory also lay bored beside Linde, occasionally rubbing its head against Linde's thigh, wanting him to pet it.
After sitting for a while, Linde suddenly heard a commotion from the hedge maze behind him. Then, he saw a three or four-year-old little girl, like a doll, crawl out from a gap at the bottom of the hedges, her face filled with triumph.
However, when she saw Linde sitting in front of her, she couldn't help but freeze, a hint of embarrassment flashing across her face. Then she quickly brushed off the dust and fallen leaves from her clothes and performed a standard noble young lady's bow to Linde, saying, "Good afternoon, Ser."
"Good afternoon, young lady." Linde nodded to her.
The little girl was about to walk away, holding her skirt, when she saw Glory lying at Linde's feet. Unlike the panic and fear others showed when seeing Glory, her face was filled more with pleasant surprise and curiosity.
Then, the little girl very boldly leaned in, wanting to reach out and touch Glory. But Glory seemed to sense it, immediately twisted its body, avoiding the little girl's hand, then turned its head, baring its teeth threateningly at the little girl and letting out a low growl.
The little girl was not at all scared and still wanted to reach out and touch Glory, and Glory's violent nature also made it want to bite the little girl.
However, Linde promptly reached out and pressed down on Glory's head, while simultaneously blocking the little girl's hand with his other hand, saying, "Glory doesn't like to be petted; it makes it feel very uncomfortable. When a beast feels uncomfortable, it will want to bite people."
The little girl nodded, half-understanding, and did not force herself to touch Glory again. Instead, she sat down beside Linde, looking at Glory curiously, and asked, "Is its name Glory?"
"Yes." Linde replied casually.
The little girl then asked, "Is it a Shadow Lynx? I once saw a stuffed Shadow Lynx that Ser Barnes gave to Velas, and it looks a lot like it, but much smaller, and its fur color is different."
"Yes, it is a Shadow Lynx." Linde answered the little girl's question while looking at her with a hint of deeper meaning in his eyes.
From her address of Velas Tyrell in her previous question, Linde could already confirm that this little girl was very likely Little Rose Margaery Tyrell.
In forums of his previous life, there were many similar polls for favorite Game of Thrones female characters. The top three were mostly Daenerys, Little Rose, and Brienne, and Little Rose even topped Daenerys, the absolute protagonist of Game of Thrones, more often.
However, Linde didn't particularly like Little Rose. The reason for his dislike wasn't because Little Rose was keen on power games, but because he always felt that a person like Little Rose was very artificial. Her words and actions were very artificial, as if her movements, language, attitude towards things, etc., were all pre-designed, all for the purpose of allowing her to sit on the queen's throne.
However, in a sense, Linde's previous actions were not much different from Little Rose's. The hunter of bears song, the martial arts tournament, Tengshi Town, and so on, were all for him to gain higher power. The difference was that all of this was led by himself, while everything about Little Rose seemed to be manipulated, and the manipulator was the Thorn Queen.
"Can I see your helmet, Ser?" A child's attention is easily diverted by other things. When the little girl saw the Lost Country Knight helmet tucked under Linde's arm, she couldn't help but ask curiously.
Linde handed over the helmet. The little girl held it with both hands, trying to lift it, but it was too heavy for her to pick up, so Linde had to hold it for her to look at.
"Is this a dragon?" The little girl pointed to the flying dragon crown on top of the helmet and asked.
"Yes." Linde nodded.
"The craftsman you hired was very careless; he even made such an important crown wrong." The little girl said seriously, "This dragon has four legs. Real dragons have two legs. I saw a picture of a dragon in Scholar Moras's collection of books."
Linde did not refute the little girl's words, because she was right. Dragons in this world indeed only had two legs, while in the Lands Between where the Lost Country Knight resided, dragons had four legs. Two-legged ones could only be considered wyverns. The difference between the two was like the difference between humans and monkeys; they were completely different species.
Seeing that she had discovered an error and pointed it out, the little girl's face showed a triumphant expression.
"Margaery, you're cheating! We agreed to go through the maze to see who would come out first, but you cheated and crawled through..." Just then, a little boy ran out of an exit not far from the hedge maze, looked around, and saw the little girl sitting in the pavilion. He immediately ran over, loudly accusing her, but as he got closer and saw Glory, he instantly froze, swallowed the words he was about to say, and his eyes filled with fear.
"Come quickly, Margaery, it's dangerous there! Come quickly!" Although he was already extremely scared, the little boy still plucked up his courage, took a few steps forward, and anxiously waved at the little girl.
"It's alright, Loras. As long as you don't touch Glory, Glory won't bite." The little girl acted as if she and Glory were very familiar, waving at the little boy. Seeing that he wasn't coming over at all, she said disdainfully, "Loras, you're such a coward."
"I am not a coward!" The taunt worked well on the little boy. He suppressed the fear in his heart, walked step by step into the pavilion, then stood between the little girl and Glory, then puffed out his chest like an adult and bowed to Linde, saying, "Good afternoon, Ser."
"Good afternoon, Young Master Loras." Linde returned the greeting.
Perhaps feeling that Glory truly wouldn't harm anyone, the little boy's fear quickly dissipated, and he was immediately captivated by Linde's Lost Country Knight armor set, asking several questions about the armor, and also determined that when he grew up, he would definitely commission an armor set even more magnificent than the Lost Country Knight set.
"Ah!" Perhaps because the little boy and little girl hadn't appeared for a long time, the servants responsible for them anxiously came looking for them. The moment they saw Glory, they cried out in alarm, but then, fearing they might disturb Glory, they immediately covered their mouths.
Next, a group of noblewomen, led by servants, came to the area and also saw the scene in the pavilion. Their reactions were similar to the servants', except for one noblewoman with silver hair and elegant attire who showed no sign of panic. Being observant, she noticed Linde sitting to the side and seemed to understand something.
After signaling everyone not to panic, she walked towards the pavilion. Although the several noblewomen who had been by her side felt fear in their hearts, they followed closely behind her and walked together towards the pavilion.
"Good afternoon, Ser Linde. I just heard Lord Aegon mention you, and I was curious how big the giant beast he spoke of was. I didn't expect to see it so soon." The noblewoman said very gracefully to Linde when she arrived at the pavilion.
"Mother." The little boy and little girl both spoke to the noblewoman in unison at this moment.
Linde immediately understood the noblewoman's identity, stood up from the stone bench, and, using the etiquette he had learned in King's Landing, bowed to the noblewoman, saying, "Good afternoon, Duchess."
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