"You have shamed the Karstark name!"
"Father, the Mountain was too strong, I couldn't defeat him."
"Then you should have fought to the death! To the death! Just like your two brothers! Not become a captive!"
Harrion saw his father, Rickard, with his white beard bristling like a lion's mane, chasing him with a longsword.
Harrion suddenly sat up in bed, gasping for air, and reached into his clothes. The fireplace was out, but he was drenched in sweat.
Ever since the Battle of the Green Fork, Harrion often had such dreams: he was imprisoned in a Lannister POW camp, and then his father, Rickard, suddenly appeared, wanting to cleanse the family name.
"It's a good thing Jon is here." Harrion turned his head towards the Tower of Dread, but unfortunately, it was blocked by the Tower of the Wailing, where Roose Bolton was stationed.
Just as Harrion was about to get dressed and go see the Mountain's corpse again, he suddenly saw a raven tapping on his window with its beak.
'Jon's raven.'
Harrion quickly recognized it. Sure enough, he saw a small bronze message tube on the raven's leg. Untying the bronze tube, Harrion poured out a small piece of paper from inside.
"What a clever raven, how was it trained?" Harrion unfolded the small piece of paper while looking at the raven still at the window.
Ravens in Westeros seemed only able to remember routes between castles; a raven like Jon's, able to find his room directly, was truly rare.
Opening the paper, he saw the contents: 'Warriors from the Mountain Clan Tribes and your men have had some conflict. This is my order: put on your inner armor and make the matter even bigger. Burn after reading.'
"Make the matter even bigger?" Harrion pressed his thick fingers on the paper and moved it to a brighter spot, thinking he had misread it.
Confirming it was 'make the matter bigger' and not 'suppress the matter,' Harrion pondered for a moment, then casually tossed the small piece of paper into the fireplace.
With a flash of fire, the small piece of paper ignited, and soon only ashes remained.
Harrion turned to the raven and said, "I understand, it's burned."
The raven spread its wings and flapped away.
Harrion put on his inner armor, covered it with his clothes, and just as he was about to leave, he suddenly turned his head to the windowsill.
"My heavens, Jon's raven can hear me?" But he didn't dwell on it, just scratched his head and prepared to go see.
The raven, halfway through its flight, also did a loop, realizing it had been a bit careless just now.
Harrion quickly arrived at the military camp and saw a group of people fighting from a distance.
Although they were dressed similarly to his own men, judging by their accents and demeanor, they seemed to be the wildlings from Jon's Mountain Clan Tribes.
'Make the matter bigger.'
If it weren't for Jon's letter, Harrion would certainly have thought there was some misunderstanding, and he would have first controlled the scene and then sent someone to inform Jon.
Although he didn't know Jon's intentions, he must have his reasons for doing this. Harrion cleared his throat and roared at the front:
"Stop it, all of you! You sons of bitches, what are you doing? Do you want me to chop off your heads?!"
Harrion's big beard trembled with his shouts, looking exactly like his father, Rickard, in his younger days.
"My Lord," at this moment, a Karhold soldier stepped forward to explain: "My Lord, these wildlings withheld our meat rations, and they all have the smell of meat in their mouths!"
"What? Meat!"
Harrion frowned, looking at the clan warriors who had come to distribute their rations. Sure enough, many of their beards were stained with grease residue, as if intentionally displayed for them to see.
He saw one person among them who looked very familiar.
That fellow looked strong and powerful, with faint scars on his neck, appearing quite wild.
That person was Harken, who had come to 'cause trouble as ordered' by Jon.
Remembering Jon's instructions, Harrion shouted at Harken: "Wildling, leave what you stole behind!
Otherwise, don't even think about leaving today!"
"Who are you calling a wildling? We've given you enough of what we owe you. If you're not satisfied, go find Lord Jon, you captive!" Harken said, showing no weakness, deliberately emphasizing the word 'captive.'
"What did you say?!" Hearing someone say that about him, Harrion immediately flew into a rage.
"I said you're a stinking captive!"
"We are all Northern army, don't push your luck!" a Karhold soldier angrily said. He had been rescued from the battlefield by Jon along with Harrion.
"What if we push our luck?! Harrion Karstark, you are a stinking captive!" Harken, following Jon's instructions, specialized in hitting where it hurt.
Harrion suddenly realized that he didn't even need to deliberately escalate the matter; a wildling daring to speak to him like that was simply intolerable!
But he still maintained a minimum of rationality, unbuckled his sword from his waist, threw it to the ground, and strode towards Harken.
Harken also casually tossed the longsword tucked into his lower back aside, and the two quickly approached each other.
"I'm going to knock out your teeth today!"
"Then I'm going to pull out all your beard!"
Almost in the blink of an eye, the two started fighting, punching each other with full force, showing no sign of faking it. Fists slammed into faces with a slapping sound, and the two rough men only attacked, never defending. Soon, their noses and mouths were bleeding, and their heads looked like blood-soaked gourds.
And the soldiers on both sides, seeing their Lord and leader already fighting, naturally did not want to be left behind.
Soon, the Mountain Clan Tribes warriors and the Karstark soldiers were wrestling together, fists and helmets flying, teeth and spit dancing, and the scene became even more chaotic.
Some of the smarter soldiers ran back to rally more people.
Although there was a group conflict of soldiers here, it was nothing compared to the vast Harrenhal.
On the other side, Meici Severn was enjoying his breakfast.
He suddenly saw a raven with a bronze message tube in its beak.
'Jon's raven.'
Meiqi Saiwen also recognized the raven's owner at a glance.
He ate his food while pouring the paper out of the message tube, and when he saw the contents of the paper, he even stopped chewing.
'There's a fight under the Tower of the Wailing, go quickly, burn after reading.' Meiqi Saiwen calmly crumpled the paper into a ball, but he didn't burn it as requested, instead hiding it deep in his clothes. Suddenly, he noticed the raven seemed to be observing him, but he didn't pay it any mind, opening the window and letting the raven fly out on its own.
He quickly tidied up and ran over to watch the commotion.
Soon, Wendel Manderly also recognized Jon's raven and received his letter. He likewise did not destroy the letter.
Then came the Lord of House Hornwood, who chose to destroy the letter.
Soon, a group of nobles arrived at the Karstark camp one after another. By the time they arrived, the battle here was already nearing its end.
This was Karstark territory after all, and Harken's group was quickly defeated. They all lay on the ground, groaning in pain.
Everyone's face was bloody, looking quite disheveled. Meiqi Saiwen stepped forward to inquire what had happened, and Harrion truthfully explained.
"Alas, how could Jon let these wildlings distribute supplies? It's a wonder nothing went wrong!" In Meiqi Saiwen's view, Jon was the type of cautious young man who shouldn't make such a mistake.
But then he remembered the letter brought by the raven earlier and thought he might have done it intentionally.
Meiqi Saiwen looked at the others, realizing that these people had probably also come to join the fun according to Jon's wishes.
He just didn't know what his intention was in doing so.
Just as everyone was wondering, a Karhold soldier suddenly shouted, "Look! Those wildlings are coming again!"
Everyone turned to look, only to see a large group of fierce-looking soldiers approaching them. Many of them were even carrying weapons! This was no longer just a simple fistfight.
Next, people might die! However, upon closer inspection, everyone noticed that Jon was also in the group.
Jon came to Harken and the others. Harken, who was already lying on the ground, tugged at Jon's sleeve and pointed at Harrion and the others, saying, "My Lord, these fellows, they beat us because they thought we distributed too little food, and that noble, he hit me the hardest!"
A group of soldiers all began to complain to Jon. Harrion quickly stepped forward and said, "Jon, it's not like that! They withheld our supplies, we…"
Jon looked at the big man, realizing he was fully 'in character' and had forgotten their agreement, but that was fine, it made it harder to expose them.
"Then let Lord Bolton arbitrate," Jon said.
"Arbitrate? Jon! Your men were unreasonable first! Besides, why would we look for that old man Bolton?!" Harrion still seemed to not understand.
Listening to their conversation, Meiqi Saiwen and the others also found it strange. Although this conflict was not small, they could resolve it internally.
Besides, no one here thought highly of Roose Bolton.
But Jon insisted on finding Roose Bolton, which left everyone bewildered.
And taking advantage of the conversation, everyone noticed that Jon had soldiers carrying stretchers. The injured soldiers had already been placed on the stretchers.
Each pure white stretcher placed on the black muddy ground looked particularly conspicuous.
"Jon, do you really have to do this?" Harrion looked at Jon in confusion.
"Yes, I cannot let my soldiers be injured for nothing!" Harrion's voice was loud, and Jon also feigned anger.
However, he quickly turned his body, blocking the others' view, and whispered in Harrion's ear: "Weapons are hidden in the stretchers, don't ask too many questions, follow me!"
"Weapons—"
Harrion swallowed, subconsciously touching the inner armor hidden beneath his clothes.