Lannisport is the largest city in the entire Westron, and also one of the five major cities on the continent of Westeros.
It is located on the coast southwest of Casterly Rock, and the entire city is built against the mountain.
The city's buildings extend from the seaside docks all the way to the top of the hills, covering the entire slope, right to the foot of Casterly Rock's massive stone.
Compared to other large coastal cities like Oldtown, Lannisport's docks are somewhat small, and the ships moored there are very uniform, almost all of them trading in precious metal items like gold and silver.
Everyone on the continent of Westeros knows that the Westron is rich in gold and other precious metals, but after these precious metals are mined, they are not directly sold externally.
While some are cast into gold dragons and silver stags, the vast majority of other precious metals are crafted into various exquisite jewelry and vessels.
Lannisport gathers the best goldsmiths, silversmiths, and jewelers from across the continent of Westeros.
The gold and silver ware and jewelry produced here are not only popular among the nobility of Westeros, but even people from Essos enjoy them.
Nearly half of the ships at Lannisport's docks belong to gold merchants from Essos.
It is precisely because of the immense wealth gathered here that Lannister has to maintain a standing city guard of three thousand men, and every guard is equipped with the best leather armor and weapons, with a uniformity that surpasses the regular armies of all lords on the continent of Westeros.
Therefore, some people jokingly say that the Gold Cloaks of King's Landing are fake, and the Lannisport City Guard are the true Gold Cloaks, because they are covered in gold from head to toe.
Complementing the three-thousand-man city guard, Lannisport also has a large fleet, specifically dedicated to guarding the security of Lannisport.
However, in stark contrast to these well-equipped defensive forces are their battle records.
Lannister's fleet has been destroyed at least twice since its establishment, and the number of times it has been crippled is incalculable.
Lannisport is also frequently plundered by Ironborn, so much so that people in the Seven Kingdoms joke that Lannisport's defense forces are just a bunch of toy dolls piled up with money.
But if anyone truly underestimates Lannister's strength because of this, then they will ultimately be the ones to suffer.
Unlike Lannisport, which has been repeatedly invaded and destroyed, Casterly Rock, located right next to Lannisport, is incredibly strong.
Since the day it was built, this castle has never been breached, not even by dragons.
As a result, anyone who sees this castle, carved directly into the rock, will sincerely exclaim that it is a miracle of the gods.
Lynd was also very interested in the structure of this castle, especially under the influence of the Peace Envoy's memory.
The moment he arrived by boat outside Lannisport and saw Casterly Rock in the distance, he began to think about how to breach it.
However, he searched through all the methods in his mind, but none could breach Casterly Rock from the outside; it seemed only breaking in from the inside was the only way.
However, Lynd did not give up on studying Casterly Rock.
During his days at Casterly Rock, besides attending those boring banquets, he spent most of his time possessing Glory, sneaking into Casterly Rock to examine the castle's structure and look for weaknesses.
After these days of exploration, Lynd's understanding of the entire Casterly Rock structure even surpassed Lannister's own.
He not only knew every overt and covert sentry in Casterly Rock like the back of his hand, but also the patrol routes of the Casterly Rock guards were incredibly familiar.
Glory often did not even need to hide its form and could move freely in and out of Casterly Rock.
Therefore, he did indeed discover a weakness in Casterly Rock that was not exactly a weakness.
Casterly Rock itself was originally a converted mine, and the giant rock beneath Casterly Rock was itself a mine.
For thousands of years, Lannister has continuously dug downwards, forming countless mine tunnels below.
Some of these tunnels have been abandoned for many years, and even Lannister itself does not know about them.
Lynd discovered a hidden tunnel through Glory.
Judging from the ventilation at the entrance, it should lead outside the Casterly Rock mountain, but this tunnel is very small, only children can crawl in.
It looks like it might have been secretly dug by some illegal miners in the past.
There should be many more such tunnels, but they are difficult to find, and no one is willing to look for them, because these tunnels are like a maze; once you get lost, it is hard to find a way out.
The reason Glory does not get lost is because the scent it leaves behind can help it find its way out.
Although these tunnels could be a way to capture Casterly Rock, the prerequisite is being able to deal with the soldiers and traps ambushing in the tunnels beneath the Casterly Rock castle.
While Lynd was leisurely admiring Casterly Rock and looking for its weaknesses, his subordinates were anxious for him.
It had been more than ten days since Greyjoy surrendered and the rebel-suppressing army returned to Lannisport.
News about the rewards for the participating lords and nobles had already started to come out from the King's camp, just waiting for everyone to arrive in a few days for the celebration banquet to officially begin, when they would be announced.
Only Lynd's reward had no news whatsoever, and instead, various rumors unfavorable to Lynd kept spreading from the mouths of various powerful figures.
For example, Lynd had personally embezzled all the wealth plundered by the Ironborn in the Westron.
Another example was that in the Fair Isle naval battle, Lynd not only failed to support the Royal Fleet but also, while the Royal Fleet was heading north on its mission and had no time to clear the battlefield, he privately took the Royal Fleet's spoils of war for himself.
If these two charges were proven, they would absolutely cancel out Lynd's achievements in suppressing the rebellion, and he might even be punished.
It was precisely for this reason that other unfavorable rumors, such as privately recruiting Ironborn captives and forcibly demanding lords to send troops, were largely ignored.
Everyone was focused on how much profit Lynd had gained this time.
Some even brought out Lannister's records of losses related to this Ironborn invasion, claiming that Lynd's profits this time might amount to several million gold dragons.
For a time, countless people cast envious glances at Lynd, and the nobles of the Westron even ran to Lynd's camp, demanding that Lynd return their plundered wealth.
Lynd did not respond to these rumors and attended all the banquets he was supposed to.
At the banquets, apart from a few who were willing to befriend him, most people kept their distance.
No matter how they discussed and slandered Lynd behind his back, in front of Lynd, they did not dare to show any disrespect in their manners.
After all, Lynd's one-against-a-thousand combat power had confirmed his identity as a Chosen of the Seven, and disrespecting him was almost equivalent to disrespecting the Seven Gods.
With the Seven Gods Church supporting him, even the great lords dared not show any disrespect when they met Lynd.
It is also for this reason that there is a rumor outside that even if Lynd's embezzlement of spoils of war and other matters are excessive, he will not be severely punished, as the Iron Throne also needs to save face for the Seven Gods Church.
This rumor is not groundless; some people have already observed the attitudes of top great lords like Westron Protector Tywin Lannister and Northron Protector Eddard Stark towards Lynd, and it can be seen that they all seem to be consciously befriending Lynd, rather than rejecting him.
However, no matter what the rumors outside are, the most important thing is King Robert's attitude, and so far, King Robert has not responded to any of the rumors about Lynd, nor has he mentioned anything about Lynd's reward.
Everyone did not know that Lynd already knew what kind of reward he would receive, because a few days ago, when King Robert and his ministers discussed the military merits and rewards for various noble knights, his military reward had already been decided and communicated to the Small Council and several great lords.
Although some people objected during the process because the reward given to Lynd was too generous, King Robert forcefully approved it.
He learned the entire discussion process from Tywin Lannister, but Duke Tywin did not tell him personally.
Instead, Glory secretly infiltrated Casterly Rock and obtained the information by eavesdropping on Duke Tywin's conversation with his brother Kevan Lannister from the roof of Duke Tywin's study.
After discovering the location of Duke Tywin's study, Lynd would often send Glory to infiltrate and eavesdrop on Duke Tywin's conversations with the Westron ministers, thereby learning about some future deployments in the Westron and some unknown little secrets.
For example, Lynd just overheard Duke Tywin's true reason for being so eager to have his family occupy Fair Isle.
In fact, Duke Tywin was not truly interested in Fair Isle itself; he was genuinely interested in the nautical charts Alyssa Farman had hidden on Fair Isle.
Lynd was somewhat unfamiliar with the name Alyssa Farman, but judging from the fact that what she left behind were nautical charts, she must have been a navigator, and likely a great one, otherwise Lannister would not be so concerned about her.
However, Lynd was not familiar with matters of navigation; he only knew a few navigators, such as Corlys Velaryon, or Euron Greyjoy, who was currently also a captive of the Iron Throne and would soon be expelled from the Iron Islands.
As for the name Alyssa Farman, he had never heard it at all, so he decided to research this person thoroughly when he had time, to see why Duke Tywin valued her so much.
"My Lord, Lord Tyrion is here. Would you like to see him?" Jon's voice came from outside the tent as Lynd was about to continue eavesdropping on Duke Tywin and Kevan Lannister's conversation.
Lynd exited the shared vision state and motioned for Jon to bring Tyrion Lannister over.
Tyrion was one of the few people who, despite the rumors, were willing to actively befriend Lynd.
One thing was certain: he had not learned from Duke Tywin what reward he was about to receive, so his friendship was not driven by Lynd's power.
Although Tyrion was also in King's Landing during the martial arts tournament, he must have been greatly affected at the time, and did not participate in either the tournament or the banquet afterward, so Lynd did not get to see this interesting person.
This meeting between Lynd and Tyrion was also an unexpected one.
After returning to Casterly Rock from King's Landing, Tyrion was appointed by Duke Tywin as the Quartermaster of the sewers of Lannisport and Casterly Rock, specifically responsible for leading people to clear and repair the sewers.
The sewers of Casterly Rock were those mine tunnels, and ten days ago, when Lynd was exploring the underground mine tunnels of Casterly Rock through Glory, he happened to encounter Tyrion, who was inspecting a sewer valve.
At that time, Tyrion was terrified by Glory and even thought he was going to die.
However, while waiting for death, he found that Glory had walked away and did not attack him.
Having survived, he naturally investigated the origin of the giant beast in the sewer and finally confirmed that the terrifying giant beast he saw was Glory.
So, the next day, he went directly to Lynd, which led to their friendship.
What was interesting was that he did not tell Duke Tywin about seeing Glory in the Casterly Rock sewers.
Perhaps he thought Glory had just accidentally stumbled into the mine tunnels, or perhaps he felt that given his standing in Duke Tywin's eyes, anything he said would be useless.
"That big fellow isn't here again?" Tyrion walked into Lynd's tent with small steps, saying somewhat disappointedly.
Although Lynd's legendary experiences and miraculous combat power also piqued Tyrion's curiosity, in front of Glory, he still took a backseat.
It's unclear whether it was Tyrion's inherent interest or a reactive response after being frightened by Glory, but he seemed particularly interested in giant monsters, and whenever he came to chat with Lynd, he would talk about giant monsters mentioned in myths and history, such as giants and dragons.
"He went out to play." Lynd looked at Tyrion and asked with a smile, "Did you find a new giant beast legend somewhere again?"
Tyrion walked over to Lynd, made himself comfortable, sat down on a chair, and said, "No, I just saw your cavalry captain, Daisy of the Mormont family, beat up Baron Royce Corbray of Coldwater Burn in the Vale, and it was quite severe, I heard his leg was broken."
Lynd was stunned when he heard this, and immediately called Jon in, asking, "Didn't I order that no one was allowed to leave the camp without permission? How did Daisy get into the city?"
Jon replied, "Someone just came to tell Captain Daisy that her mother, Lady Maege, has arrived in Lannisport, and she wanted to go see her mother."
Lynd ordered, "Have Baelon and Roso go investigate what caused the conflict, and bring Daisy back as well."
"Yes, My Lord," Jon replied.
As Jon turned to leave the tent, Lynd added, "Remember to bring more men."
"Understood, My Lord," Jon replied and quickly walked towards the soldiers' camp.
After Jon left, Tyrion casually picked up some snacks from the table and put them in his mouth, eating as he said, "Aren't you worried about your subordinates? When I came here, I saw that the port guard had already rushed over."
Lynd shook his head and said, "If it were before the Ironborn rebellion, I might be a little worried, but after the Ironborn attack, so many veterans of the Lannisport City Guard died.
Now the guard is full of new recruits, and their combat power is almost the same as ordinary peasant soldiers, so what do I have to worry about?"
"Hey, hey! I am a Lannister, and for you to speak of Lannister's guard like that in front of me is too embarrassing. I thought we were friends."
Tyrion said, picking up a cup and pouring himself some water, he swallowed the food in his mouth, then frowned and said, "I really don't understand you.
You have fine wine to drink, but you insist on drinking this bland, tasteless water."
Lynd looked at Tyrion and said, "You should just tell me honestly what you came here for.
You said we are friends, there's no need to beat around the bush."
Tyrion pursed his lips, remained silent for a moment, and then said, "I hope you can take me with you when you leave Casterly Rock."
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