Chapter 18: What Brotherhood?
After a bounty is completed, there's a delay in notifying other players. Even if I steal his kill, he won't know I'm a player.
They certainly wouldn't dare kill a Lannister easily, especially one on a mission for someone powerful.
Besides, as a Lannister bastard with a potential bounty of 3,000 gold dragons on this hunter, why should I worry about not being able to turn these sellswords?
"Brotherhood!" Ian thought of an excuse the moment it came to him. In a sudden surge of rage, he rushed forward before Harry could slit the Brotherhood Hunter's throat with his dagger, driving his blade through the prisoner's chest in one thrust.
Harry's eyes widened, and he looked at Ian in shock. The sellswords around him were also stunned, confused by Ian's actions.
The chime of a quest completion notification in his mind brought Ian out of his momentary frenzy. He couldn't believe he had actually done it.
At the same time, he found the tension in his heart finally releasing.
It turned out he wasn't afraid of killing, but simply of dying.
Ian raised his trembling arm to wipe the blood from his face. The scorching heat and rich, coppery smell made his stomach churn.
It was the smell of iron, the smell of blood.
But he had to suppress the urge to vomit, knowing his performance wasn't over yet.
Ian knew that in this winner-takes-all system, he couldn't afford to show weakness, and the frantic pace of the competition didn't leave him much time for moral awakening or character development.
From the moment he crossed into this world, he was no longer Jake Carter, but Ian Hill, and he could only be Ian Hill.
Drawing his sword from the body that leaned against him, Ian glanced around at the crowd with bloodshot eyes. Then, pushing the body forward, he swung his sword at the neck. Unfortunately, the blade only penetrated the shoulder a few inches, failing to sever the head as he had hoped.
"Ser, what are you doing?" Harry demanded, suppressing his anger.
"Member of the Brotherhood Without Banners!" Ian said furiously, with endless hatred in his tone. "If it weren't for these bastards, I wouldn't be a bastard now!"
Ian turned to the sellswords beside Harry and snarled, "My father's lawful wife is dead! If they hadn't ambushed my father and gravely wounded him, my father would have married my mother long ago, and I would have been a trueborn Lannister! Not a lowly Hill!"
The sellswords retreated one after another. They were shocked by Ian's intensity. If there was no need, who would be willing to cross a vengeful Lannister?
And now, there was clearly no need for them to intervene. After all, their employer, Harry, had hired them to kill this dangerous enemy. Now that someone else also had a blood feud with him, letting him strike first wouldn't have any impact, right?
The employer himself couldn't bring himself to do it anyway, right?
"The Brotherhood Without Banners?" Harry's face instantly turned vicious. He roared, "Kill him! Kill him!"
"Take him alive, and I'll double your pay!" Harry roared furiously, waving his dagger in the air. It was clear that if his average stats weren't only 5, he would have rushed in and killed Ian himself.
Ian was startled. How is this possible? How could he be so decisive? I'm a damn Lannister! He wouldn't hesitate to order my death?
This absurd order stunned the surrounding sellswords, and they all looked at the same person—their captain.
Seeing this, Ian suddenly realized that he had forgotten that the Traveling Merchant started with 100 gold dragons! Unlike poor bastards like himself who could only recruit sellswords individually, the traveling merchant had ample funds and could directly hire entire mercenary companies through his servants!
Since players appeared out of thin air in this world, Harry only needed to confirm with the sellsword captain that there were no new recruits recently to eliminate the risk of players infiltrating the mercenary company!
"Are you mad? You want to make enemies of the Lannisters?" Ian looked at the sellswords around him, watching with hungry eyes, and forced himself to remain calm. "Kill me, and from now on the Lannisters will hunt you to the ends of the earth. No matter where you hide, you will be found and destroyed! A Lannister always pays his debts, whether it's gold or blood. House Reyne of Castamere is the best proof of this!"
(Note: House Reyne was once the second richest and most powerful house in the Westerlands. Because they rebelled against the Lannisters, Tywin Lannister exterminated them and destroyed their seat, Castamere. The famous song "The Rains of Castamere" tells the story of the Lannisters' ruthless suppression of the rebellion.)
"Fuck your Lannister lies! You're such a fraud! Good performance, kid! If I hadn't known the Brotherhood Without Banners was founded after the Mountain raided the Riverlands and Lord Eddard Stark sent Lord Beric and Thoros of Myr to hunt him down, I might have been fooled!" Harry glared at Ian with a cold smile. He wanted nothing more than to flay the man who had tricked him.
"This guy isn't a Lannister bastard, he's a fraud! Kill him! Camel, I command you, kill him!" Harry ordered the sellsword captain again.
Damn it! How could I have forgotten that? This must be the developers' fault! Who told them to start with Robert's march north and include the Brotherhood Hunter as a starting class? Otherwise, I wouldn't have made this mistake!
Ian's heart sank. Harry was surrounded by 15 sellswords, a third of them cavalry. There was no way he could escape unscathed.
Too much talk leads to mistakes. I've studied A Song of Ice and Fire for so many years, and I didn't expect to trip over a minor timeline error. Wait... timeline?!
"Ridiculous!" Ian suddenly laughed out loud, trying to mask his fear. "What are you babbling about? The Mountain raiding the Riverlands? When did that happen? Ser Gregor may have a fearsome reputation, but when I left Casterly Rock, he was still in service to my lord father. Don't you dare accuse our bannerman of crimes he hasn't committed!"
The sellswords burst into laughter.
"And Lord Stark is still in his frozen Winterfell! When did he become responsible for the Riverlands? Are you drunk or mad?" Ian continued to scoff.
"No, I mean..." Harry was at a loss for words. He hadn't expected this fake bastard to exploit his weakness with the same tactics.
Misremembering the timeline was a fatal mistake for players, but this was no way to convince the sellswords. To them, the players' talk of "the future" was nothing but madness.
How could Harry explain this to the sellswords? Could he tell them, "You are just NPCs, and we are players who know the future?"
(End of Chapter)
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