While King Robert and others who saw Linde's battle report assumed that Linde, trapped in Fairy City, must be in a terrible situation, the reality was that Linde was very relaxed; rather than being trapped on the island, he was more like on vacation there.
After learning of Linde's situation, the Iron Islands reacted decisively by sending the Iron Fleet to Fair Isle. When the Iron Fleet appeared, Linde promptly dragged all the longships docked at the pier ashore, preventing the Iron Fleet from destroying them.
Although the Iron Fleet sent over a thousand Ironborn to land on the island while besieging Fair Isle, hoping to completely destroy the longships in Linde's possession and trap him on Fair Isle, the result was that all thousand-plus men were annihilated by the prepared Linde, with not a single one escaping.
The current situation is less about the Iron Fleet trapping Linde on the island and more about Linde holding the Iron Fleet in Fairy Island Strait.
Because if the Iron Fleet were to leave, they would worry that Linde would use those longships to directly attack the Iron Islands, or even if he didn't attack the Iron Islands, Linde would use the longships to return to the Westerlands and take all the plundered treasures they had stored in Fairy City.
To be honest, Linde was surprised by the treasure trove he discovered when he dealt with the Ironborn in Fairy City and inspected its interior.
He never expected that all the wealth plundered by the Iron Islands from the Westerlands during this period had not been sent back to Pyke but had been concentrated in Fairy City.
Linde could not yet precisely calculate the total value of this wealth in Gold Dragons, but according to Jon's statistics, there were hundreds of thousands of Gold Dragons piled up in the warehouse alone, not counting other gold and silver jewelry, precious artifacts, and so on; a rough estimate would put the total at over a million Gold Dragons.
No wonder the Iron Islands immediately dispatched the Iron Fleet to besiege Fair Isle upon learning that he had recaptured it; they were clearly worried that Linde would transport away their spoils of war.
Linde naturally would not refuse this windfall of wealth. He immediately sent someone overnight to Lannisport to notify the Glory, which was docked there.
He instructed the Glory's captain to await the outcome of the naval battle in Fairy Island Strait. Once the Iron Throne's royal fleet was victorious, the Glory should immediately sail to Fairy City to transport the treasures plundered by the Ironborn back to Tengshi Town.
Before departing from Tengshi Town, Linde had already notified Rhys Farwell, who was conducting trade in Oldtown, to send someone to sail the Glory, following the Oldtown and Arbor fleets, to Lannisport and await his next instructions.
Originally, this was just a precautionary arrangement he made, and now this arrangement happened to come into play. What was even more fortunate was that the people he sent had barely left when the waters around Fair Isle were blockaded by the Iron Fleet.
Fair Isle Castle is located on a prominent headland. Standing on the balcony of the castle lord's study, one can take in the beautiful scenery of Fairy Island Strait.
However, what Linde saw in his eyes now was not beautiful scenery, but hundreds of Ironborn longships and warships covering the entire sea, looking extremely imposing.
Among these ships, several were much larger than the others. These ships all used black sails, with Kraken patterns drawn on them. Undoubtedly, these were Greyjoy warships, and the largest among them had a Kraken figurehead and a ram like a guillotine. This should be the Iron Fleet's flagship, Victarion's Invincible Ironborn.
At this moment, Linde was not wearing armor but a casual robe, with some freshly served food beside him. He leisurely ate while watching the Iron Fleet anchored on the sea.
Nameria walked up to Linde, holding a cup of water, and handed it to him, asking, "Are we just going to stay here and do nothing?"
Linde took the water, took a sip, swallowed the food in his mouth, and said, "We have done enough. If we do any more, we will be resented by everyone participating in this rebellion suppression."
Just as Linde said, the lord-nobles in the rebellion suppression army were all waiting to achieve merits. He had already recaptured five castles and annihilated twenty thousand rebels. Such achievements were already enough to make many people envious.
If he were to annihilate the Iron Fleet again, or capture Pyke, then not to mention those lord-nobles, even King Robert would probably be very displeased and even have some misgivings about him.
For Linde, repelling the Iron Fleet was not difficult. He could secretly infiltrate the ships of the fleet leaders at night and carry out decapitation strikes, leaving the fleet leaderless, and the Iron Fleet would naturally retreat.
Alternatively, he could use the plundered treasures in the castle to lure the Iron Fleet ashore and deal with them.
In fact, when Warwick was recaptured, Nameria had already suggested directly attacking Pyke, because the Ironborn on Pyke did not yet know the situation in Warwick. They could disguise themselves as Ironborn under the cover of night, land on Pyke, and directly capture Pyke.
Although Linde was somewhat tempted at the time, he ultimately did not heed this advice.
At this moment, Jon knocked on the study door, entered, and said, "My Lord, a message has arrived from Lord Paxter. He and Stannis have led the royal fleet to the waters near Ketche Town and are expected to reach Fairy Island Strait late tonight."
"Did it mention anything we need to do?" Linde inquired.
"Only to take care of the lighthouse," Jon shook his head.
Linde smiled, looked at Nameria, and said, "See! They are already afraid of us stealing their Glory."
"Hmph!" Nameria snorted disdainfully. She had never much liked Stannis in the Red Keep courtyard in King's Landing.
Linde turned to Jon and said, "Although they don't want us to do anything, we can't do nothing. Have someone prepare the longships. If the battle goes unfavorably, we will provide support. If the battle goes smoothly, we will salvage prisoners."
"Yes, My Lord," Jon replied, then turned and walked out.
In fact, Linde's preparations were completely unnecessary. Duke Stannis and Earl Paxter's naval combat abilities were very strong, far surpassing those of the Greyjoy Iron Fleet.
The royal fleet did indeed arrive at the entrance of Fairy Island Strait late that night, but they did not enter the strait. Instead, they stayed at the entrance overnight, as if concerned that the darkness of night would hinder a naval battle and potentially harm friendly forces during combat.
In reality, the royal fleet had already split into two routes. Earl Paxter had already led the Arbor fleet from the waters near Ketche Town, Bypass Fair Isle from the outer sea, and arrived at the northern end of Fairy Island Strait.
At this time, Stannis was leading the fleet, primarily composed of Oldtown ships, and had arrayed his forces at the southern entrance, attracting the attention of the Iron Fleet.
The result was very successful; the entire Iron Fleet's attention was drawn to Stannis's side, and they moved from the waters near Fairy City to the southern strait entrance, confronting Stannis's fleet on the sea.
When morning broke the next day, a sea fog coincidentally rose, and the Iron Fleet could not see the Arbor fleet led by Earl Paxter attacking from the north. They were caught off guard, and Stannis in the south also seized the opportunity, launching a pincer attack from north and south.
When the dense fog on the sea dissipated, the Iron Islands' fleet had been utterly crippled. Two of the Greyjoy's black-sailed ships had sunk, and less than twenty percent of the other longships escaped the battlefield. It is no exaggeration to say that after this battle, the Iron Islands no longer had any chance of recovery.
Although Linde had led Nameria and his forces to the south of Fair Isle, near the sea where the two sides were engaged, very early on, hoping to witness this great naval battle, which was extremely rare in the history of the entire continent of Westeros—with thousands of large and small ships fighting in this area—it would also be of great benefit to Linde for building his own fleet in the future.
However, the dense fog spreading over the sea completely dashed Linde's expectations; until the end of the naval battle, all he could see was a thick fog.
This also raised a question for him: in such dense fog, how did the internal communication and coordination between the two fleets occur, and how were they able to avoid friendly fire?
This question was later answered by the Ironborn prisoners of war: they distinguished between friend and foe and transmitted information through different horn calls, which felt somewhat like Morse code.
After the naval battle, the royal fleet did not stay at Fair Isle, nor did they greet Linde, as if completely ignoring that there was a friendly force in Fairy City. They led the remaining fleet and sailed north, seemingly intending to directly attack the Iron Islands.
Linde's previous preparations now came into play. The royal fleet had left too hastily, without time to clear the battlefield, and the longships Linde had prepared served perfectly as battlefield cleaners.
Hundreds of longships were seen moving back and forth in this sea area, searching for allied soldiers who had fallen into the water and for Ironborn prisoners of war who were still alive. However, Linde was more interested in the damaged but not yet sunken ships floating on the sea.
Although these ships were no longer navigable due to damaged sails and other reasons, their hulls were still largely intact, especially several large ships whose keels and most of their hulls were undamaged, with only a few holes in the hull.
So, Linde used ropes to hook these damaged ships to the shore, then had his surrendered Ironborn and the Ironborn prisoners of war rescued from the sea repair these ships. He didn't aim for them to be fully repaired, just enough for them to navigate normally on the sea and not sink.
As a result, after some repairs, Linde unexpectedly gained four large ships, a dozen armed merchant ships, and hundreds of longships. Adding those Ironborn longships he acquired from Sea Frontier City, Warwick, Shear Rock City, and Fairy City, his total number of ships instantly expanded to over two hundred, which was already considered a large fleet, even if most of them still required major overhauls to be fully operational.
With such a large amount of resources in Linde's hands, he naturally wouldn't let them go. When Rhys Farwell arrived at Fairy City with the Glory to transport the treasures, Linde also had Rhys take the large ships, armed merchant ships, and over a hundred relatively intact longships with him, leaving only seventy-odd damaged longships capable of transporting people to the opposite shore of Fair Isle.
Additionally, Linde also had Nameria lead the Tengshi Town army, his personal guard, the First and Second Cavalry Divisions, and most of the surrendered Ironborn not from the Iron Islands to depart with the ships, responsible for bringing the treasures back to Tengshi Town.
Nameria had no objection to this, as this batch of treasures was simply too important, and no amount of careful protection would be too much.
Although Linde now only had three cavalry divisions and some surrendered Ironborn left by his side, Nameria was not worried about Linde's safety.
After Nameria and his group left, Linde stayed in Fairy City for about another half a month, and then he saw the Iron Throne's fleet slowly approaching from the north. The number of ships in the fleet had not only not decreased but had even increased.
As the fleet passed the waters in front of Fairy City, a dozen slightly larger Iron Islands longships separated from the fleet and sailed to Fairy City's dock, whereupon an acquaintance of Linde's jumped off one of the ships.
"Lord Joel, long time no see." Linde smiled upon seeing the arrival and walked forward to greet him.
The person who arrived was none other than Joel Flower, who had brought Linde out of White Village years ago. Compared to over a year ago, Joel Flower had not changed much, except for a few new and old scars on his face.
Joel looked at Linde, who was in exquisite armor, and couldn't help but exclaim, "You are truly remarkable! When I heard the name Chosen of God Linde, I thought it was someone with the same name. I never expected it to actually be you. Who would have thought that the young hunter from White Village over a year ago would become such a legendary figure?"
Linde smiled and said, "You flatter me. In front of you, I am still Linde from White Village."
Joel smiled and reached out as if to pat Linde's shoulder as he used to, but then realized it was no longer appropriate and withdrew his hand.
Then, he stepped aside and introduced the person following him to Linde, saying, "This is Lord Corind Lannister. He is here to take over Fairy City this time."
Linde looked at the somewhat aged-looking young knight in front of him and asked, "I remember Fair Isle seems to be Faman's territory, and there is still a Miss Janie Faman alive. Shouldn't she be the one to take over Fair Isle?"
The young knight stepped forward and proactively explained, "Miss Janie Faman has married me under the witness of King Robert. It's just that the war has just ended, and there are still rogue Ironborn pirates on the sea, making it unsafe. So, I have been sent here first to take over Fair Isle on behalf of Miss Janie. Once everything settles down, Miss Janie will return to the castle to inherit the Faman's territory."
Upon hearing the young knight's explanation, Linde understood that the Lannister were using this marriage alliance to annex the territory of Fair Isle, and Janie's wishes were simply irrelevant.
Linde merely smiled at this, reached out and patted the young knight's shoulder, then led him into the castle to handle the various item transfers.
The entire process went smoothly. This young knight seemed unaware that this had once been the main warehouse for Ironborn plundered wealth, and he also didn't seem particularly concerned about what valuable items had been there before. After a brief inspection, he completed the handover ceremony with Linde.
Afterward, he led the Lannister soldiers who had disembarked from the ships into the city, while Linde led his own people onto the ships and headed to Lannisport to attend the victory banquet that King Robert was about to hold.
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