The people who entered from outside were Allister Thorne and Bowen Marsh.
"No, there's no news from Benjen yet. It's just that Bowen and I have some things we can't figure out and wanted to confirm them," Allister stepped forward two paces, coming before Old Bear. Behind him, Bowen casually closed the door.
"What can't you figure out?" Clearly, this wasn't the first time Allister and Bowen had come to talk to Jeor Mormont in the middle of the night. Jeor Mormont didn't feel anything amiss, turned and sat down in his chair, and asked.
Allister said with a grim face, "Just now I received a report from the front line. Over a hundred more brothers have died in battle against the Savage Tribes, and their bodies have been hung on the fence by the Savage Tribes."
Jeor Mormont sighed, saying regretfully, "I've seen that report too. I've already ordered the Ranger company to retrieve our brothers' bodies and bring them back to the Wall for proper burial. They were all brave men, every single one of them, and deserve respect."
"Yes, they were all brave men, every single one of them, and over a thousand such brave men have died in the past few months," Allister said, his voice full of anger, "Yet we, our brothers, cannot avenge these fallen brothers, and must even, in the future, allow those who killed our brothers to pass the Wall, give them land, give them supplies, and let them live better lives. Is this fair to the brothers who died fighting against Savage Tribes invasions for thousands of years?"
Old Bear frowned deeply and said unhappily, "I've already said this: our greatest enemy now is not the Wildlings, but the Others. They are the enemy of all life. We need to unite all forces we can unite..."
"We can just keep them North of the Wall and let them fight the Others first, to exhaust the Others' strength. Then we'll be able to deal with the Others more easily," Bowen Marsh also walked to Old Bear's side and said.
Old Bear looked at Bowen Marsh with a look of disgust and said, "Are you so foolish that you don't use your brain anymore? Doing that will only increase the Others' forces. Have you forgotten what Lord Prince Linde said? The Others can revive corpses and turn them into wights to continue serving them. The more people who die Beyond the Wall, the more forces the Others will have. It's impossible to deplete the Others' forces."
Allister said angrily, "Everything is just what Linde Terra himself said. We haven't seen it at all. He tells us what to do. Is the Nights Watch his subordinate?"
Old Bear looked at the two with a look of surprise and alarm, saying, "Are you two crazy? How dare you say such things? Don't you know Lord Lynd's importance to the Nights Watch?"
Allister said angrily, "I don't know how important he is. I only know that the Nights Watch is completely independent of the Seven Kingdoms and should not be controlled by any kingdom's lord. And now the Nights Watch is losing its independence, obeying the whims of a kingdom's noble, even abandoning our millennia-old principles because of someone else's orders, letting our enemies into our home. Commander, this is betrayal!"
"Betrayal? How dare you say such... What are you doing, Bowen?" Just as Old Bear was furious at Allister's words and was about to stand up to argue with him, Bowen Marsh suddenly reached out and grabbed Old Bear's arm, pressing him back into the chair.
Jeor Mormont was completely bewildered by Bowen's actions. Before he could react, he saw Allister suddenly draw a dagger and plunge it into his neck. His body was restrained, making it impossible for him to dodge or block, so he could only watch as the dagger pierced his neck.
Then a large amount of blood gushed from the wound, some flowing out, and some rushing into his windpipe and filling his lungs. He quickly felt difficulty breathing and eventually lost all sensation, slumping in the chair, his eyes still open, and his face and eyes still filled with a look of shock.
Until the moment of his death, Old Bear never imagined that the drillmaster and chief Steward whom he had heavily relied on would conspire to kill him. He also never expected his death to come so suddenly, so swiftly. What he understood even less was that the commotion here was not small, so why hadn't Jon and the others next door and downstairs appeared? Perhaps before he died, he was still wondering if Jon and the others were also involved in this murder.
"Is he dead yet?" Bowen Marsh asked in a low voice, ignoring the blood splattered on him.
"He should be dead." Although he hadn't used much strength just now, Allister was still breathing heavily, as if the single stab into Old Bear's neck had exhausted all his strength. He even had to lean on the table leg to steady himself.
"The things those guys gave us are really effective." Bowen Marsh stood up, turned, and looked at the Wall where the next room was located, saying, "That thing can really block all sound. Jon and the others still don't know what happened here."
"It's not over yet. We still need to clean up here before that thing loses its effect." Allister picked up a handkerchief from the table, wiped the blood from his hands, then pressed it against the dagger wound, pulled out the dagger, and at the same time stopped the blood from gushing out.
Bowen also quickly cleaned up any traces of their presence. After the two confirmed everything was clear, they turned and quickly left the room.
As the two left, Lynd saw Bowen gently remove a runic black stone from the adjacent door. He originally intended to discard it but thought it a waste and put it in his pocket.
As the two figures disappeared into the darkness of the corridor, the scene before Lynd's eyes returned to the ice cave.
------------------------
I've posted 70+ chapters in advance on Patreon.
Webnovel updates will still be daily, as usual.
It might not seem tempting right nobut who knows what the future holds?
[email protected]/TripleCrown
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"