The dungeons beneath the Red Keep.
Once the Warden of the North, former Hand of the King Eddard Stark sat on the cold ground, utterly spent.
His feet were shackled with iron chains—there was nothing he could do now. All he could do was curse each and every one of them.
Littlefinger, Queen Cersei, the Kingslayer Jaime, Grand Maester Pycelle…
He remembered the mocking words Cersei had thrown at him.
"In the game of thrones, you either win—or you die."
He began to blame himself.
"Fool!" he roared into the darkness. "You damn fool!"
Yet when he thought of his two daughters, all he wanted was to cry aloud—but no tears would fall, no matter how hard he tried.
Even reduced to this state, he was still a Stark of Winterfell. His sorrow and fury were frozen deep within his body.
Damn it!
Maester Hill withdrew his gaze and lowered his voice as he answered Lin En, "My lord, men from White Harbor have appeared outside the castle."
Lin En froze for a moment.
"Wyman Manderly's people?"
The old maester nodded. "Yes. Ser Wyman Manderly was recently elevated to Earl and remains stationed in White Harbor. Several dozen riders from White Harbor are currently observing from the northern hillside."
White Harbor was the superior city above Fishing Village Port.
For generations, it had been a bannerman of House Stark, and it was the seat of Earl Manderly.
"What are they here for? To help me drive off the pirates?" Lin En couldn't quite make sense of it.
"I believe… they are here to collect military levy and taxes," Maester Hill said awkwardly.
So they'd come knocking to demand payment—shameless!
Lin En cursed under his breath.
There was no tax to give. Not a single copper. He'd just gone bankrupt.
"They don't plan to help defend the place? If the pirates take this port, where will they collect military service and taxes from?" Lin En asked, puzzled.
Old Hill glanced at him and sighed helplessly. "My lord, they would simply retake Fishing Village Port from the pirates, then assign another lord to rule it."
Damn—so realistic.
Lin En immediately felt uncomfortable.
Still, White Harbor, located at the mouth of the White Knife River, was the largest settlement north of the Neck.
One of the Five Great Cities of Westeros, and the North's primary trade port—its strength was not to be underestimated.
For the time being, Lin En had no way to deal with those OB knights.
After all, the lord of White Harbor was a great earl, one of the major bannermen of the North. A backwater minor lord like him was nothing in their eyes.
Abandoning his useless anger, Lin En's eyes shifted as he asked Maester Hill, "Have there been any recent updates about the Northern army and the Lannisters?"
He wanted to fully understand the current situation.
White Harbor had sent people straight over to demand military service and taxes—clearly they were in a hurry.
Could it be that the frontline situation had already turned grim?
After the former Warden of the North, Eddard Stark, was imprisoned on charges of treason, his eldest son Robb immediately summoned his bannermen and marched south to rescue his father.
The North was vast but sparsely populated. Robb valued speed above all else, so he only mobilized eighteen thousand men for the southern campaign.
However, before he could even truly enter the Riverlands—
Tywin Lannister led tens of thousands of elite troops northward, battering House Tully's Riverlands until only Riverrun, the Twins, and Seagard remained standing.
Almost everything else fell into Lannister hands.
Maester Hill was clearly taken aback, unable to understand why his lord was suddenly concerned with the war between House Stark of the North and House Lannister.
This wasn't something a minor lord needed to worry about—especially with a major enemy right at the gates.
The old maester studied his lord carefully.
At an age full of youthful recklessness, he had a fair and handsome face.
His eyes shone with sharpness and intelligence, though his frame was somewhat slender.
Suddenly, Maester Hill felt that he had long underestimated the ambition hidden within this young lord.
He looked at Lin En and spoke slowly. "My lord, the latest news is that a few days ago, the Young Wolf Robb became betrothed to a daughter of House Frey at the Twins."
Lin En did not notice the strange look in Hill's eyes. He simply nodded.
House Frey was a bannerman of the old Duke Tully—Robb's maternal grandfather and the current overlord of the Riverlands—though they were hardly obedient.
The Frey family's seat was the Twins, located on the Green Fork of the Trident. The house had risen to prominence by controlling the bridge and charging tolls. Their sigil was a blue twin-towered bridge on a silver field.
After Riverrun was besieged by Jaime, and in order to split his forces and strike at Jaime to relieve Riverrun,
Robb, under the arrangement of his mother Catelyn Tully, secured an alliance with House Frey through a political marriage.
However, this also planted the seeds for the future deaths of the Young Wolf and his mother Catelyn at the Twins.
But that was a tale for later.
Had Robb's Northern army already entered the Riverlands? It seemed the Riverlands would be in chaos for some time—but that had nothing to do with him.
Lin En dismissed Maester Hill and personally led men to inspect the city walls.
Sure enough, on the northern hillside outside the walls, he saw a cavalry unit waving the banner of House Manderly—a white merman with beard and tail, holding a black trident, set against a blue-and-green field. They were indeed knights of "Lord Eel's" house.
Lin En shifted his gaze to the main battlefield.
The pirates were continuously unloading components of trebuchets from their ships.
The first one was already being assembled.
Inside Fishing Village Port, Lin En didn't even have a single decent ballista—yet the enemy had gone straight for trebuchets.
Damn it all. Looks like they don't intend to leave me any way out.
Estimating how long it would take the enemy to finish assembling all three trebuchets,
After offering a few words of encouragement to the defending retainers and fishermen, Lin En retreated back to the lord's manor.
The most urgent task now was to capture that spy and use the newbie quest's point card to exchange for a batch of equipment and supplies.
Lin En changed his mind—he no longer wanted to turtle up inside the city and wait to die.
If they let the enemy fire off a few coordinated volleys with trebuchets, the walls might actually collapse. And a bankrupt Lin En had no spare money for repairs.
Infantry commander Rodart moved swiftly, letting Lin En witness the execution efficiency of the mass-recruitment corps.
Batch after batch of suspicious individuals were sent into a small prison beside the lord's manor.
Lin En led his men to the prison.
He ordered all the suspected spies inside to be brought out. More than thirty people soon filled the gladiatorial yard outside the prison.
Seeing Lin En appear, they panicked and dropped to their knees one after another, begging the lord to give them a reason for their arrest.
"There is a spy among you. With a great enemy at our gates, you all know how I will deal with this!"
Lin En wasted no words and dropped a heavy bombshell.
Several timid fishermen and women were so frightened that they burst into tears on the spot, crying out that they were innocent.
Colluding with the enemy meant beheading—no one dared accept such a charge.
"My lord, we are not spies! My family has been honest folk of Fishing Village Port for generations! I swear in the name of the gods—"
"Shut up! Which gods would care about you? W–w– My lord, I swear in the name of the Seven! I've been wronged!"
"My lord, I swear loyalty unto death! I follow the Old Gods—"
"I swear by Allah—"
Lin En naturally didn't believe any of this nonsense.
Residents who truly felt a sense of belonging to Fishing Village Port had already been mobilized by the retainers to help at the city gates.
The ones left here were loafers who wandered the city aimlessly. Rodart had secretly rounded them all up and locked them in here in one sweep.
"Enough. Silence!" Lin En raised a hand slightly, cutting through the chaotic noise.
"Now you have one chance to prove your loyalty. Identify those who look unfamiliar to you—anyone who is not a local resident. Have them stand on the open ground to the left."
Lin En believed that since the quest required him to root out a spy, not a traitor, the person was likely not a local.
This was simply the kind of reading comprehension any seasoned gamer had when dealing with rigid game quests.
Before long, the scene descended into chaos once more.
Fishing Village Port was small to begin with—fewer than three hundred residents in total, and outsiders were even rarer.
These locals usually went fishing together in groups and mostly knew one another. Among the more than thirty people arrested, it didn't take long before only five or six were left isolated.
Seeing this, Lin En's eyes lit up, and joy surged in his heart.
This might actually work.
(End of Chapter)