"I know nothing about Asshai, so you'll have to find information about it yourself." Maester Aemon could only shake his head when asked about Asshai, then asked Lord Linde what his next question was.
"The winter horn," Lord Linde said directly. "My purpose in going to the Eternal Winter Land this time is to find the winter horn and bring it south of the Wall. If the winter horn can truly collapse the Wall as legend says, then it shouldn't remain so close to the Wall. The South should be its final resting place."
Maester Aemon was stunned for a long time before saying, "Lord Linde, your question makes me feel like I've gone back thousands of years. Why do you believe such a thing as the winter horn exists?"
"Because the Wall truly exists," Lord Linde said in a deep voice. "Do you think humans could build a structure like the Wall? Not to mention the barbaric era of the First Men, even now, gathering all the people of the Seven Kingdoms would absolutely not be able to build such a magnificent structure. Since the Wall, which humans cannot build, exists, why shouldn't the winter horn exist?"
Maester Aemon was silent for a moment, then asked, "So you also believe all those legendary stories are true, such as the Others."
"Yes," Lord Linde admitted truthfully. "People in the South believe the Wall is meant to defend against the wildlings Beyond the Wall, that's because they haven't seen the Wall. If they had seen the Wall, they would know very well that it's absolutely not meant to defend against humans. Only non-humans would require such a massive and magnificent defensive structure, so the Others in the legends should be the target of the Wall's defense."
"That's why Lord Velas keeps sending criminals to fill the Night's Watch vacancies," Maester Aemon said in a deep voice.
Lord Linde said, "Lord Velas personally saw the Others gathering in the frozen lands of the far North, and the leader of the Others is a female. I guess this female must be the legendary wife of The Night King."
"He saw it himself?" Maester Aemon was somewhat puzzled.
Lord Linde explained, "Some entity took him flying over the Wall to the frozen lands of the far North."
"Is it the Green Seer?" Although Lord Linde spoke vaguely, Maester Aemon quickly made a guess. He then fell into deep thought, and after a while, he slowly said, "I remember a book once mentioned the winter horn."
As he spoke, he reached out and fumbled around, grasping a rope, and then tugged it.
After a moment, a Night's Watchman knocked and entered, saying, "Maester, what are your orders?"
"Go to the library and bring me a book titled 'Ranger Roshaw's Patrol Diary'," Maester Aemon instructed.
The Night's Watchman turned and left after hearing him.
"Today's events are truly incredible! I never thought I'd be involved with myths and legends one day," Maester Aemon muttered with a smile, then took a bottle of wine from under his desk and fumbled for a wine glass.
Lord Linde walked over and placed the wine glass on the table next to Maester Aemon's hand, pouring him a glass of wine.
Maester Aemon tilted his head back and drank the entire glass of wine, as if it were water. He then asked Lord Linde, "Won't you have a drink, Lord Linde?"
"No, thank you. I never drink alcohol," Lord Linde declined Maester Aemon's kind offer.
"That's a good habit," Maester Aemon nodded. He was silent for a moment, then said, "Lord Linde, while the book hasn't been found yet, could you tell me what happened at Summerhall?"
"I can, but can you bear it?" Lord Linde inquired.
"Please rest assured, I have lived long enough and seen too many people and things. You don't need to worry about me not being able to bear it," Maester Aemon said with a smile.
Seeing Maester Aemon say this, Lord Linde no longer tried to dissuade him and then recounted the vision that occurred in the ruins of Summerhall, with some modifications. When Lord Linde spoke of Aegon V and Ser Duncan the Tall being crushed by falling boulders, Maester Aemon could not help but show a sad expression. He then picked up the wine bottle, intending to pour himself another glass, but put it back down, sighing deeply.
"Aegon loved hearing Queen Alysanne's stories of riding Silverwing throughout the Seven Kingdoms, dispensing justice, ever since he was a child. He also used to say that he would ride a dragon throughout the Seven Kingdoms," Maester Aemon said with emotion. "He never gave up on his ideals until his death."
At this moment, footsteps were heard outside the door. The Night's Watchman from before entered, carrying a book, and placed it on Maester Aemon's desk.
"Jo, you may go," Maester Aemon picked up the unfinished wine on the table, handed it to the Night's Watchman, and said, "Take this bottle of wine and drink it! I don't need it anymore."
The Night's Watchman happily took the wine bottle and left the room, gently closing the door.
Maester Aemon turned the lamp on his desk to its brightest setting, then opened the book and almost pressed his face against the pages, reading the content.
He read very quickly, knowing after only one or two lines that the page didn't contain what he was looking for, then turned to the next page.
After flipping through about dozens of pages, his turning speed slowed down, and he read more carefully. After reading a few pages, he flipped back a few pages, read a few lines, and a smile appeared on his face, saying, "I remember, I remember."
"Have you found it already?" Lord Linde inquired.
"Yes," Maester Aemon turned the book on the table around, pointing to the open page, letting Lord Linde read it himself.
For the past two years, Lord Linde had been continuously learning languages and writing, because he found his ability to learn languages to be exceptionally good, at least many times better than his past self. So, various variant common tongues, Dothraki, High Valyrian, Low Valyrian, etc., as long as he thought he might use them in the future, he would learn them from Moroa.
And Moroa also enjoyed teaching Lord Linde languages, because she found that Lord Linde learned languages incredibly fast. He could usually master reading, writing, and speaking a language in just one or two months. She really wanted to test the limits of Lord Linde's language learning ability.
The author of this book used a variant of the common tongue common to Northerners, adding some unique prepositions in the middle of each sentence. Someone unfamiliar with this variant would find it very difficult to read, but those familiar with it could clearly distinguish the main points of the entire text through these specific prepositions, thereby speeding up their reading.
The entire page of content, simply summarized, contained only two things: one was that this Ranger named Roshaw and his companions discovered the true tomb of Joramun, the King Beyond the Wall from the mythical era, and found the winter horn in the tomb.
The other thing was that when they returned to the Wall, they encountered an attack by the Others. They fought and retreated, finally setting up an ambush at the Fist of the First Men, which allowed them to kill the Others who had been pursuing them.
However, they all eventually died in battle. Roshaw buried his companions at the Finger of the Fist of the First Men and also buried the winter horn there.
After reading this page, a puzzled expression appeared on Lord Linde's face.
In terms of content, the descriptions above should be true, because it mentioned the Fist of the First Men, which matched Lord Linde's memory, and it also clearly stated that the burial place was at the Finger, which saved Lord Linde the time of searching everywhere.
But the problem was that this page, or rather, this entire book, had very contradictory points.
Maester Aemon seemed to sense the confusion in Lord Linde's heart, so he asked, "Is there anything you don't understand? Do you need me to explain?"
"Maester, who wrote this book?" Lord Linde inquired.
Maester Aemon explained, "Isn't the title clear enough? The original author of this book was Ranger Roshaw. This book now is a re-edited version by later maesters based on Ranger Roshaw's diary."
Lord Linde questioned, "The content here mentions, explicitly mentions, that all the Rangers died in battle at the Fist of the First Men, and Roshaw should also be among the fallen. How then could he bury his comrades at the Fist of the First Men, and how did this book come to be left behind?"
Maester Aemon was silent for a moment, then said, "Perhaps later people made a mistake in writing, and Roshaw actually didn't die in battle."
"That's even more incorrect," Lord Linde shook his head and said, "If Roshaw didn't die in battle, why would he bury the winter horn at the Fist of the First Men? Why wouldn't he bring it back?"
Maester Aemon was completely stunned. When he read this book, he hadn't thought so deeply or in such detail. Now, hearing Lord Linde say this, he realized that there were indeed contradictions. He carefully recalled the entire content of the book and found that the first half of the book was fine, but from the Fist of the First Men onwards, the book's content became chaotic. He had previously thought it was a problem with the later compilers, but now it seemed that the book itself might have inherent problems.
"Maester Aemon, is there the original version of this book?" Lord Linde inquired again.
Maester Aemon thought for a moment and said, "Possibly, but we'd have to look for it in the library."
Lord Linde smiled and said, "It just so happens that I'll be staying here for seven days. This time can be used for reading. The Night's Watch should have many ancient books not found elsewhere, right!"
"It certainly won't disappoint you," Maester Aemon also nodded, then rang his bell again, summoning his steward, and asked him to take Lord Linde to the library.
For the next few days, Lord Linde spent most of his time in the library, poring over the various books collected by the Night's Watch over the years. Old Bear, seeing this, simply moved Lord Linde's quarters into the library.
The vast majority of the Night's Watch's collection consisted of Night's Watch diaries, which were the best source of information for Lord Linde, who was about to travel to the Eternal Winter Land.
It should be known that among these diaries, the furthest record concerning the Eternal Winter Land was at Thenn, which is the northernmost point of the Frostfang Mountains, the source of the Milkwater River, almost covering the entire region Beyond the Wall.
Because most of these diaries contained the trivial personal affairs of their writers, the content truly useful to Lord Linde was not particularly abundant, so Lord Linde read very quickly. In just two days, he had finished reading all the diaries. In terms of his written understanding of Beyond the Wall, perhaps he was already on par with any old Ranger.
Afterward, he continued to examine those very ancient books, among which there was even a rune book written in the ancient language of the First Men. The entire book was made of metal resembling copper plates, inscribed with ancient runes. Although thousands of years had passed, the book still shone like new. Lord Linde even wondered if there was magic in the book, but neither he nor Glory could detect any magical power on it.
Because this book was extremely valuable, and it seemed that no one was reading or studying the ancient language of the First Men within it, Lord Linde sought out Old Bear, wanting to buy the book and take it back for Moroa to study.
At first, Old Bear was unwilling to sell, but after hearing the price Lord Linde offered, he relented, because the Night's Watch was truly in dire need of money.
In the past, when the Night's Watch was smaller, it wasn't an issue. With the various outputs from The Gift, they could live quite well. But with a large number of criminals being sent here to serve in the Night's Watch, their funds had become severely insufficient. The previous Commander of the Night's Watch had already borrowed a sum of money from Stark to barely maintain the Night's Watch's daily expenses, but this could not be sustained long-term.
This time, another seven hundred men joined the Night's Watch, and the required expenses surged again. The current finances were already precarious, and a large sum of money was urgently needed to fill the deficit. So, when Lord Linde offered a very high price, Old Bear simply couldn't resist. It was simply too much money.
Lord Linde had no particularly good solution for the financial predicament the Night's Watch was currently facing.
Although the Night's Watch had many rare items seldom seen in the South, and also many excellent timber resources, the Wall was simply too far from Lord Linde's territory.
Indeed, establishing a trade route with the Wall and selling its special products in the South could certainly make money, but the time it would take for his fleet to make one trip to the North would be enough for three or four round trips across Across the Narrow Sea, earning far more money. Therefore, he could only offer his sympathies regarding the Night's Watch's financial problems.
As for stopping Velas from sending criminals to the Wall, not to mention whether Velas would agree, even the Night's Watch wouldn't agree, because they finally had so many men they could deploy, no longer struggling to make ends meet. Patrols north of the Wall also encountered far fewer attacks and dangers due to the increased numbers. They absolutely would not want to return to their previous state of fearful patrolling.
Therefore, they only wished for more Night's Watchmen, and absolutely would not wish for fewer.
As for the lords of the Seven Kingdoms, they likewise would not allow the Night's Watch to stop accepting criminals. Tradition was one aspect, but more importantly, where else was there a more suitable place to deal with those troublesome individuals who could neither be killed nor released? On this point alone, they would absolutely not allow the Night's Watch to refuse to accept criminals.
So, the Night's Watch's current financial situation was definitely a dead end. If not resolved quickly, it could potentially lead to internal strife within the Night's Watch.
Old Bear was also well aware of this, but he had no solution either. And the solution Lord Linde offered was to expand territory. Since they couldn't expand south, why couldn't they expand north? Build fortresses and occupy land in the Ghost Shadow Forest, which is closest to the Wall. The trees and other wild resources there would be enough for the Night's Watch for a very long time.
Old Bear did not give any response to Lord Linde's suggestion, clearly not taking it to heart. Perhaps only when he was at his wit's end would he remember Lord Linde's suggestion again.
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