Chapter 118: Eddard's Remains

According to the Stark officers, by the time the coalition discovered the fire had started, casualties were not high, but Lord Bolton had sent many men to salvage grain and logistical supplies, and the King's Landing garrison had launched an attack.

Therefore, under Lord Bolton's orders, 2,500 Stark soldiers, over 1,000 soldiers from various Riverlands houses, and over 600 soldiers from smaller houses in the North—including Creekland, the White Knife, House Hornwood, and House Cerwyn—formed an interception line to hold off an enemy force of just over 7,000.

Another portion of the Qohor Mercenaries, having received no orders from Arthur himself, retreated directly and did not participate in the interception as Bolton had commanded.

By the time Arthur arrived, only 800 men remained on the interception line, including over 500 Stark soldiers, over 200 soldiers from various Riverlands houses, and over 120 soldiers from small Northern houses.

Fortunately, since most of the Gold Cloaks were newly conscripted commoners, the Northerners managed to kill 2,700 to 2,800 enemies at the cost of over 3,300 dead, which was a decent performance.

But the terrible part was that the nobles responsible for participating in the interception had mostly died in battle; for instance, Raymond Darry of the Riverlands, and Earl Medger Cerwyn and Earl Harys Hornwood of the North, while Harrion Karstark of Karhold was captured on the spot.

Given that the soldiers of these houses were extremely loyal to their lords, the deaths of these nobles would severely impact the soldiers' stance.

For example, in the original story, after Earl Karstark was beheaded, the Karhold soldiers on the western line dispersed on the spot, and the Karhold infantry on the eastern line defected to Roose Bolton as soon as the news arrived.

"What about Patrick of Seagard?" he asked.

"The young master was called away by Lord Bolton, who said there was some urgent matter," a Seagard soldier replied.

"That old bastard!" Arthur cursed angrily.

It seemed he also knew that the chances of survival for those holding back the enemy were slim, so he had called Patrick away to do a favor for House Mallister.

After most of the earldoms on the south bank of the Red Fork had been ravaged by the Westerlanders, the status of Seagard in the Riverlands had risen sharply, which was why Bolton had pulled such a stunt.

Roose Bolton must bear full responsibility for how the battle turned out tonight.

The Leech Lord might not be in secret collusion with King's Landing, but he certainly harbored the intention of depleting House Stark and the forces loyal to them.

Originally, the start of the Fish-Wolf Alliance had gone quite smoothly; if the eastern line had taken King's Landing in one stroke and Robb had reached the Westerlands on the western line, then with Robb having no designs on the Iron Throne, the war between the Fish-Wolf and the Lions would have basically ended.

What remained would have been the Lions and the Stags—Stannis and Renly—fighting for the Iron Throne.

But in tonight's battle, the Leech Lord fed a wave of kills to King's Landing, causing the eastern coalition to suffer significant losses.

Based on Roose Bolton's methods, even if the coalition had the strength to take King's Landing next, he could just feed another wave of kills and slip away.

Making the Fish-Wolf Alliance's advantage smaller while taking the opportunity to preserve his own strength was exactly what the Leech Lord wanted most right now.

If it were a normal war, Arthur could have influenced Roose Bolton's decisions through Sansa, but in this sudden situation, he was powerless.

After all, he was not the coalition Commander, nor was he a Northerner.

It would mean seizing upon some mistake of the Leech Lord's, then having Sansa unite with the great Northern lords to strip Roose Bolton of his command, and the newly elected Commander would still have to be a Northern noble.

And the Northern nobles on the eastern line were generally not even as clever as the Greatjon and those other "geniuses" on the western line.

"Take the wounded who can still move; we are going to find the main force."

After the soldiers had rested for a while, Arthur gave the order.

Walking nearly two leagues west along the Blackwater River, they did not reach the coalition's temporary camp until almost daybreak.

Most of the soldiers had no tents and could only lie on the flat ground to rest, while dozens of accompanying Septons and Maesters were bandaging the burned soldiers.

Fortunately, dozens of ox-carts carrying grain had been brought out, so there was no food crisis for the moment.

Arthur let the soldiers he brought rest on their own, and after having the portion of Qohor Mercenaries who had retreated first guard the still-unconscious Joffrey tightly, he walked straight toward the tent area.

"Arthur, you've come at the right time." Robett Glover was the first to spot the blood-covered Bracken. "We are discussing our next move."

"We lost four or five thousand men in this battle, and nearly two thousand soldiers are burned; we won't be able to take King's Landing, but fortunately, we recaptured Tyrion Lannister and Robert's bastard Gendry. We can consider using these two to trade for Lord Eddard's remains and his family's Valyrian Steel Sword, Ice, and then we can take our troops to the western Riverlands or head north to take Duskendale."

Robett introduced the Northern leaders' preliminary plan to Arthur.

Arthur glanced at Tyrion, who was lying in the corner of the tent; his face was wrapped in a bandage, and he appeared to be injured and unconscious.

"It's funny to say, but when we found him, he was being hunted by the Kingsguard Ser Mandon Moore; we were actually his saviors," Earl Herman Tallhart added.

He did not mention Moore's fate, but it was safe to assume he had gone to meet the Seven.

The large Wylis Manderly chuckled: "It looks like his nephew or his old sister wants him dead."

Tyrion was not Arthur's focus for the moment, so he asked with confusion: "Why do you all know that Gendry is Robert's bastard?"

"Lord Bolton told us," replied Patrick, who had survived unscathed.

He was the only remaining Riverlands noble in the coalition besides the Freys and Arthur.

Arthur looked at Bolton, who said unhurriedly: "You made such a big scene looking for Gendry, so I naturally had to check his identity. According to the recollections of the commoners from the Crownlands outside the city, around the time Gendry fled King's Landing, Joffrey sent Gold Cloaks to kill many children suspected of being the late King Robert's bastards. So Gendry's identity was quite obvious."

"But Gendry is my man." Arthur looked around and didn't find him. "I will not agree to you trading him for Ice, and besides, Ice should have already been sent to Tywin by now; it is not in King's Landing."

House Lannister originally had a Valyrian Steel Sword, "Brightroar," but it was lost abroad by a certain King of the Rock, so the Lions had no Valyrian Steel Sword.

And Tywin, who was dedicated to revitalizing his house, had always wanted to get his hands on a Valyrian Steel Sword, but no one would sell.

Because it was a symbol of a house's long history and ancient bloodline.

Moreover, Valyrian Steel had a characteristic: it could only be divided, not joined, which ruled out the path of melting several small Valyrian daggers into one greatsword.

So obtaining a Valyrian Steel Sword had become one of Lord Tywin's obsessions.

After the coup in King's Landing, Cersei, knowing her father's mind, would naturally have sent the captured Ice to Tywin.

Lord Bolton nodded. "Since Ice might not be in King's Landing, we don't have to be so cruel. After all, if we send him back, Joffrey will certainly kill him."

"But you must not block the matter of Tyrion. Lord Eddard's remains are one of the two reasons we came to King's Landing; the other is the two Stark girls. Since Lady Sansa is very certain that Lady Arya escaped King's Landing, we only need to take the remains to report back to King Robb."

Seeing that Arthur's expression was not very good, Lord Bolton spoke at length, just wanting this Bracken with astonishing combat power to agree to this point.

Arthur looked at the still-unconscious Tyrion, suddenly remembering his attempt to escape last night.

When Jaime was still in the Kingsguard, Tyrion was the primary heir to Casterly Rock and the next Warden of the West.

And Jaime and his uncle Kevan and the other Lannisters were actually quite decent to Tyrion, so the Imp was still loyal to the Lions.

Only after Tyrion was completely disillusioned by his sister and father would he truly be able to leave home.

"Fine, I agree to trade Tyrion for Lord Eddard's remains."

If there were no accidents, Arthur would still have to take Joffrey south to find Yule and the Dragon Egg to prepare for hatching the dragon.

When heading north from the Kingswood at that time, he would find a way to get the Imp out.

Even Zhuge Liang had to capture and release Meng Huo seven times; Arthur did not consider himself to have Zhuge Liang's Charisma, so he was in no rush to tie the Imp to his own chariot.

Just then, a Bolton officer rushed in, walked quickly to his lord's side, and whispered a few words into his ear.

Upon hearing the news, the Leech Lord's expression changed slightly.

"You captured Joffrey?"

Arthur Bracken admitted it quite frankly, "That's right. Since he violated the rules and ordered the execution of Lord Eddard, then I must avenge Duke Stark, and naturally, I could only capture him first."

According to the customs of the Seven Kingdoms, even the most heinous criminals have the right to choose to take the black and serve as a member of the Night's Watch at the Wall, let alone Duke Stark, whose coup had failed.

Therefore, Joffrey truly had a way of inviting his own death.

Upon hearing this, the Northmen became excited at once.

Several lower-ranking Northern nobles, such as Rona Stout, shouted on the spot that they wanted to slaughter Joffrey to avenge Duke Eddard.

Others, such as Wylis Manderly and Robett Glover, even crowded around Arthur, praising him repeatedly for a job well done.

Although these men did not say it explicitly, they looked as if they were also prepared to go out and stab Joffrey a few times.

Seeing that the situation was not right, Arthur said loudly, "Don't be in a hurry to kill him yet; he is still useful to me."

Bolton also poured a bucket of cold water at the right time, "Exactly, we haven't exchanged for Lord Eddard's remains yet, so there is no need to forge a blood feud with Cersei first."

It was no secret that Cersei doted on her three children; many great lords knew this.

Given that Cersei was the actual person in power in King's Landing, she would inevitably be locked in an irreconcilable struggle with the Fish-Wolf Alliance once she learned of Joffrey's death.

And since Robb's goal was not to contend for the Iron Throne against the House of the Lion, Roose Bolton felt that he could not easily handle Joffrey; he had to communicate with Robb and take orders from the King.

Under the two men's appeasement, the many Northern nobles began to calm down, but there were still plenty of people who wanted to finish Joffrey off.

"In that case, we can first use Tyrion Lannister to trade for the remains, then take Joffrey and head north at our leisure, and let King Robb deal with him," the Leech Lord proposed.

After all, Joffrey was Arthur's captive; without his consent, Bolton dared not make a decision so casually.

"Let's exchange for the remains first," Arthur waved his hand, "I have other uses for Joffrey."

Thus, Lord Herman Tallhart took Tyrion Lannister and one hundred soldiers to the outskirts of King's Landing, preparing to trade for the remains of their liege lord.

The rest of the group continued to discuss their next destination.

Arthur took the opportunity to slip away and found Sansa.

"Do you know the whereabouts of Ary?"

In their daily conversations, he had always called Arya "Ary" to prevent any slip-ups.

Sansa was in her tent, sewing a piece of clothing, when she suddenly saw Arthur, covered in blood, burst in.

She first asked with concern, "How did you get so much blood on you? Are you injured?"

Only then did she answer Arthur's question, "I don't know Arya's whereabouts either. Ever since the fire started and the Riverlanders were sent to intercept the Gold Cloaks, your battalion has been in complete chaos. I sent people to look, but they didn't find her."

"I'm not injured; this is the enemy's blood," Arthur thought for a moment, "Gendry should know something about Ary's whereabouts; I'll go find him and ask."

So he came out again and saw Gendry tied up in a place where the Bolton soldiers were gathered.

"Let him go."

Arthur ordered the Bolton soldiers.

An officer wearing chainmail stood up and said, "That won't do; we only take orders from our lord."

Arthur gave him a cold look, and the man immediately backed down.

"Release him, release him! Since it's Lord Arthur's word, it's practically the same as my master's order."

Not to mention Arthur's blood-soaked appearance, the giant hammer in his hand was enough to intimidate this group of soldiers.

After Gendry's ropes were untied, he stretched his limbs and walked up to Arthur to thank him.

"My lord, thank you so much."

Arthur took him back to where the mercenaries were gathered, asking as they walked, "After the fire started last night, do you remember which direction Ary went?"

Gendry clearly remembered it very well and answered immediately, "After the fire started, your soldiers were sent by Lord Bolton to intercept the enemy, and the camp was in chaos. After I got dressed, I wanted to find Ary and Hot Pie to escape the sea of fire. But that Direwolf was still locked in a cage, so Ary ran off to save that beast. Hot Pie and I were afraid of it, and the fire was closing in, so we left first."

"Later, I heard wolf howls coming from the north, so Ary and that wolf must have headed north along the Kingsroad."

Arthur nodded, indicating that he understood.

Since they were heading north along the Kingsroad, there was no need to worry.

During the Dong Xian coalition's advance, they had wiped out the Crownlands nobles along the way and left some men behind to garrison those small castles.

Therefore, the area near this road was under the control of the coalition, and Arya and the Direwolf would be very safe.

At this moment, Arya, who was being worried about by Arthur, had just finished relieving herself when she suddenly caught a glimpse of her Nymeria running toward the north.

"I know you're in a hurry to go back and see your wolf pups, but you don't have to be in such a rush."

Arya muttered as she chased after her.

The innate talent of House Stark's bloodline was the Warg.

That is, to slip into a wolf's vision in dreams, or even control the wolf's actions.

When Arya was in King's Landing, she had dreamed of this she-wolf meeting with a certain gray wolf in the Riverlands and giving birth to a litter of pups.

So she knew Nymeria's little secret, but she hadn't told anyone else.

In the small woods behind Arya, a rider wearing plate armor and a dog-shaped helmet appeared silently.

It was none other than Sandor Clegane.

(End of chapter)