Capítulo 5: Chapter 5: Fight of the Flower Knights I
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Looking at Maggy's dead body my hand went towards a small pouch in my waist and I took out a cloth and started cleaning the short blade that I had used to kill Maggy.
Her dead eyes were still open in shock and seemed to stare out into open space. If it wasn't for the slit throat and the slow coming paleness of her face, one could have mistaken her for alive.
'Maybe she was alive?' I wondered but knew that Blood Magic was dangerous and in this world, people could be revived.
I knew the woman down in front of me would never see the light of day again. Her death would be absolute, and her body would be burnt. I wasn't taking any chances on the matter.
None of that mattered now, but what did matter was my next step. Should I go to the Vale? There would be Eddard Stark and Robbert Baratheon, it would be good to meet the young men soon to establish a good relationship.
No, it would be too soon to do something like that, this year wouldn't be the best either. So instead, I should go South.
I need to go south to The Reach, the place where knights prance around in Tourneys. Will have to win me some glory there too before I start enacting a main plan to power.
Also, the Reach is the place where if a couple of people went missing, no one would notice. After all, everyone is distracted by the tourneys.
Having learned the most theoretical part of Blood Magic, now I need to get down to the practical part, and that requires the sacrifice of life and flesh. Something that I wasn't willing to do in this place, after all, Tywin isn't a good target to get on the bad side of.
…
( General POV )
It took Arthur Frey two weeks to reach the Riverlands, he had decided to go on a little detour of the lands.
The first detour he took was to the Riverlands, after all, that was the place where his father's banner's rested. He would never call the place home, but it still was the land that he knew the best.
Arthur knew the people here, they were all a little not learned in his eyes, fighting for a land that will always be in the middle of the conflict.
If the small folk knew of the lands outside their villages then they would go and live in the Reach, where food is plenty and no real war will take place on their lands. Unlike the Riverlands, where every single major war had ruined the lands.
Still, though, the political side of things and the suffering of people other than him didn't matter. Though if they were his people, then he wouldn't let them suffer, because who knew when the next war came around… or a revolution. Being needlessly cruel to those below you was stupid.
People in power could never understand how the weak fought. That was the weakness that Arthur wanted to avoid at all costs. Thankfully, in his previous life, he always had been at the bottom of society. Only due to his shrewdness was he able to climb up the social ladder.
As he rode toward a walled city, he smiled. "C'mon boys, we have arrived at Stoney Sept."
Arthur lets his men go and rest while calling over the healer. "Let's go to a tavern. There has to be some news about the happenings around here."
The healer Lyon nodded and came with him. "Yes, m'lord."
"No need to speak like the small folk here and no need to call me lord either," Arthur said as he walked in tow with his healer. Usually why he had his subordinates talk with small folk so no bandits would attack them at full power.
After all, not only do Lords have riches, but they also had trained men. So anyone attacking those kinds of people would be able to kill Arthur's entourage without difficulty.
But while in cities, he didn't like his subordinates usually calling him Lord. Because that would attract all different kinds of attention, plus it wasn't like bandits were forbidden in town.
Most of them were unknown since they killed anyone who saw them. Also seeing some Lord with so few guards might give men enough bravery to attack him for his riches.
Still, though, he entered the tavern and acted as if he belonged there. "Can I get a mug of ale and a chicken?"
"Yes sir-" he waved the serving girl off before she could say anything anymore. He knew that while most inns worked like normal inns, the real profit came from the prostitution on the side.
Usually, the owner's daughter or wife would spread her legs for some no-name knight that might visit this place.
It wasn't a good life, so what? At least they earn some money from this instead of the knight breaking his daughter's face and then raping her.
The world wasn't kind, Arthur knew that. So living in this world as a good man is like playing a game in hell mode. There was no place for needless kindness.
Though stupid cruelty was also not a smart thing, you don't want people to hate you so much that they would give their lives to kill you.
Still, though, Arthur amongst all the noise around him concentrated on any useful news the men were talking about.
"Didn't you hear? Some men have been forming a bandit group around here. The Lord has declared that he will capture them before the Night's Watch comes around in the next cycle," said one of the men in the tavern. His hoity voice showed that he was drunk.
"Seems like the Night's Watch will get its new group of thrives and rapists."
"Well, Lord Smallwood doesn't have a lot of time for that, a week at best."
"Peh! They are just some bandits in rags and kitchen knives, I doubt they could even last a day against well-armed knights."
"So what? Even a knight in full armor can be killed with a kitchen knife if the blade stabs in the right place!"
Hearing this Arthur immediately thought of adjusting his plans. But that wasn't a desirable outcome. Also, he planned to have some Blood Rituals done soon, he couldn't dwindle around here anymore.
Still, though, he knew when a dangerous situation was about and how to dodge these pitfalls in life.
After all, if he went and recklessly traveled, just one wrong move and he would die. Unlike movies where enemies attack one by one, in reality, they all attacked at once and humans didn't have eyes on the back of their heads.
Even the best swordsman could be killed by four competent men. They don't even have to be good at using weapons, just be competent with them.
That's why Arthur had plans for a Blood Ritual to be made soon. Because while it wouldn't make him someone unbeatable, he hoped that this would help him at least not die a dumb death for some dumb reason. Like a drunk farmer suddenly butchering him with a pitchfork.
Still though, with these thoughts in mind. Arthur couldn't just roll over and let things happen slowly. After all, there were benefits to be had here.
"Excuse me, good sirs," Arthur interfered to two of the men talking on a table in a slurred manner.
Showing that they were drunk already. They looked at him with annoyance, but Arthur's friendly smile seemed to wash away any annoyance they might have. Or maybe it was the nasty long sword on his back?
"Sorry for interrupting your drinks. I will buy you two mugs of ale as compensation." He half-heartedly apologized while offering them men new drinks.
This made the rugged-looking me smile a little. "That's good of yah."
"I guess polite men aren't a thing of legend anymore." Said the other man, while this one seemed rugged too, as Arthur looked closer he noticed that this man had experience dealing with nobles.
"What can I say? Momma raised me to be polite to strangers. Who knew, maybe they would be polite to you too," Arthur mentioned. "If the good people of the seven aren't here to help each other out. Then this world would surely be a bleaker place."
"Hahahaha, ya right there lad," said the drunk rugged man.
"Well, so can you be polite to me for another two mugs of ale. I am sure the serving girl can accommodate." Arthur smiled. "I am quite curious about these new bandits and how the town planned to deal with it. Did the Lord say anything about it?"
The other less rugged drunk man chucked. "Lords? They couldn't give a rat's arse for
happens down here. Those Lords think of themselves so high in the sky that they can't even see the little folk like us. Sometimes it's good for certain businesses."
"And small-time bandits like this thrive on these blinded Lords, right?" Jokingly added Arthur, making the men chuckle. "Still though, I heard that some kind of local militia was being formed to combat the bandits. What's that about?"
"Oh, you know, the town people have rallied together to kill the bandits. Still, though, I wouldn't trust these two-bit people with forks to go about killing bandits. One of those scrums could get rid of the whole of them."
Arthur chuckled at the mention of the joke. He knew that the man before him didn't know shit about battles, yet had the balls to insult others. Small folks, no matter how untrained, can be dangerous once you put a sword in their hand. Anyone can be dangerous with a weapon though.
…
It took about ten minutes for Arthur to get the information that he wanted out of the drunk man. It was quite tiring. But he needed the info so he wouldn't go into any situation blindly.
Going in without a strategy was what got people killed. But still, Arthur thought about what he should do when he thought about looking for a pet shop around here.
It didn't take long for him to find a pet shop, it had dogs, cats, owls, even ravens, and other birds.
Arthur wasn't interested in any other thing and instead looked for a hawk, one that he easily got. It was a normal brown color and nothing seemed special about it. Well, it didn't need to be special for what Arthur had plans to do with it.
Still, though, such things require meticulous planning and must be kept under wraps. As Arthur planned all of this, his eyes shone with malicious intent, a plan slowly forming in his mind on how to use this situation to his advantage.
He looked around and saw many beggars on the streets, something that wasn't uncommon in any city. Especially in a medieval world like this, many war veterans were maimed and couldn't support themselves.
So Arthur, with a smile on his face approached the men.
"Excuse me, I have a friend who is writing a book about war. He is willing to pay 10 coppers for any injured veteran of war, so who would be willing to take the offer? We even have bread, don't worry we will offer you all salt and bread as your guest rights."
…
A couple of hours later and corpses of homeless men were skewered in the outskirts of the town, in an abandoned warehouse.
Arthur had surveyed this place over a dozen times and even bribed some of the guards to be a little laxer on their patrols for the day and they could go and get some ale with the money he gave them.
Arthur didn't care about guest rights or any other tradition of a savage world. He would rather look after himself and make a situation beneficial by abusing these people's naive following of tradition.
The corpses were over a dozen and there was barely any light in the warehouse. A strange pattern had been drawn on the ground by using the blood of the corpses. It looked like a star with a reverse question mark in the middle with a circle encompassing them all.
Arthur then put the hawk that he had put to sleep in the middle and whispered under his breath in a strange language.
The blood then floated from the corpses, turning them all into empty husks, with no blood left in their bodies as it floated away from their cut necks.
The blood all floated towards the hawk and seemingly got absorbed by the creature, which turned slightly larder. Its feathers turned red and its beaks black as coal. The hawk's eyes suddenly opened and they were white and looked at Arthur.
But he on the other hand was standing still and his eyes were closed. Currently, while Arthur could still move his own body, no longer was he seeing from his own eyes.
This ability was similar to skin-changing, though Arthur didn't have the talent for the Northern magic skill that was inborn in one in a thousand people. Still, though, that didn't change anything for ambitious people like Arthur as an ability useful like this wouldn't be able to escape his grasp.
And once he opened his eyes… Arthur's smirk widened even further. Finally, he had something to call a special ability. A skill that could give him an advantage against other people and usable in a fight.
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