Chapter 18: My Lord, Where Are You?

As a farmer from Riverbank Village, Daren had never imagined that he would be able to spend the night in the Lord's castle.

In the past, even a distant glance would have earned him a scolding from the patrolling soldiers.

Although the soldiers' reason was to prevent people from sneaking in after becoming familiar with the castle, Daren stubbornly believed it was the soldiers' arrogance.

Now I am also someone who has lived in a castle, was the first thought that crossed Daren's mind after waking up.

Although it was just a makeshift communal bed on the floor, sleeping alongside many other villagers.

He felt that his life was almost complete.

If his pregnant wife gave birth to a son, then he would have no regrets in this life.

Daren's life was the typical life of a Riverlands Peasants.

As a child, he played in the countryside with friends who had no surnames, and he did not receive an education like the children of Knights.

They did not even have clothes that fit; they were either too small or too large—because he grew too fast, and his parents had no money to buy him new clothes every so often.

Once he was old enough to pick up wheat stalks, Daren began following his parents into the fields to work.

Not only did he work on their own land, but he also had to work on the Lord's land.

When he was young, he did not understand: since they both owned land, why did the Lord not have to work?

Why did the Lord live in a beautiful castle?

After growing up, he understood that this was life.

By the time he understood this truth, his parents had found him a wife.

She was also a wild girl from the next village, who had grown up in the countryside just like him.

Being commoners, they only needed a godfather to witness the marriage; there was no need to report it to the Citadel.

Relatives helped build a few wooden rooms, and his small family with his wife was established.

After marriage, he received a small plot of land from his parents; although the food produced by this fertile land was enough to support him and his wife, it was only just enough to eat.

If there were a child, adding another mouth to feed, the small family would be broken.

There was no help for it; his parents also needed to eat and could not give him more land.

Fortunately, the Riverlands had enough small workshops specifically producing all sorts of small items for the nobles in King's Landing, so he joined a workshop and started working.

He began saving money for the child who would join his family at some point in the future.

Saving money so that the child would have a better life in the future.

Their workshop made wooden beds with exquisite reliefs; the master craftsmen with skills did the fine carving, and he and several villagers were responsible for helping out.

He could not imagine what kind of person would sleep on a wooden bed that could be called a work of art.

At the very least, he, Daren, would never sleep on such a bed in his life.

The price of dozens of Silver Stag was not something a small farmer could afford.

Every time a bed was finished, he and three strong farmers would carry it to the village's small pier and then load it onto the boat that had been waiting there.

A very large boat, the largest Daren had ever seen in his life.

Then they would get off the boat and watch it sail away, heading to King's Landing, a place Daren would never reach in his life.

It was said that the boat first followed the Red Fork downstream, all the way to the mouth of the Trident, then rounded the Crab's Claw Peninsula to the Narrow Sea, passed by Dragonstone to Blackwater Bay, and finally arrived at King's Landing.

It was said that in King's Landing, there were thousands of such boats, coming from different regions like Oldtown, White Harbor, Lannisport, Gulltown, and so on, and even ships from free trade ports across the Narrow Sea like Pentos, Volantis, Myr, and Braavos.

These complex names were spat out by a master craftsman and then took root in Daren's heart.

He was not thinking of going to these towns and harbors to take a look—he knew that was impossible for him—but rather thinking of remembering them to tell his child in the future.

Although they had not yet met.

Thinking of his child, he remembered his newly bought axe.

After being stolen by bandits, it had been retrieved by the Lord.

That axe was one he had prepared to buy to chop wood.

Chopping wood was to get timber, and the timber was to make a small bed for the child.

Daren had also secretly learned some skills and felt he could let his child sleep on a bed with exquisite reliefs.

One he made himself.

Daren could not make his own life better, but he could make his son's life a little better.

Let his son receive some education and recognize more characters than just his own name.

Let his son wear some decent clothes and look respectable.

Let his son understand some things about the outside world, know that the Red Fork was a tributary of the Trident, know how prosperous King's Landing was, and know that there were places like Pentos and Braavos.

It would be even better if his son could travel to these places after he came of age.

If his son had been there, it would be as if he had been there.

"Come out quickly, they are here again." The soldier's shout interrupted Daren's reverie.

He stood up, picked up his axe, and followed the soldiers to the city wall along with the villagers.

Some of the Blackwood House soldiers had left last night at dusk, and now they were back.

"It looks like they've captured people," the soldier standing at the front looked out and said to the farmers.

Daren could not see what was happening under the city wall because his status was low, and he could only stand at the back.

"Open the gate quickly, or I will kill her." A rough voice came from below the castle.

"They've captured a woman," the soldier continued.

"Your Lord has already run away, why haven't you opened the gate yet?" the rough voice asked.

"It is not permitted to open the gate until he returns; this is the Lord's order," Hui Pao Amber replied.

Daren recognized him; this was the Steward of the Lord's castle, who sometimes represented the Lord in coming to the village to collect taxes.

"I don't want to kill or fight either, but you aren't cooperating. If there is the slightest mishap to young master Brynden, my whole family's lives won't be saved. We are all commoners, why make things difficult for me?" the rough voice continued to persuade them to surrender.

Hui Pao Amber remained unmoved; he turned around to give orders, sending some men to the east and some to the south, carrying bows and Crossbows.

Half of the men took their orders and left, and the ground on this section of the wall suddenly became spacious.

"This is what you chose; it wasn't me forcing you," the rough voice sounded quite impatient.

Then, a woman's scream rang out.

It seemed this poor woman was suffering something terrible, and Daren prayed for her silently.

He had been assigned to stay here, and after hearing the scream, he stepped forward to look over the wall just like the soldiers and Hui Pao Amber.

"Susan, why is it Susan?"

Daren took one look, and his heart instantly panicked.

Tied up below the city wall was his wife, seven months pregnant, that honest woman from the Riverlands.

"Let her go, don't touch her!" Daren shouted excitedly.

The officer wearing silver Chainmail—the owner of the rough voice—sneered upon hearing this and brought his raised horsewhip down fiercely.

Susan screamed again.

Daren's heart throbbed violently along with the scream.

He thought of the lord who had cut down the bandit leader with three strikes of his Dawn Sword.

If the lord were here, these scumbags would surely not dare to act like this!

My lord, where are you?

PS: Seeking recommendation votes and monthly tickets.

(End of this chapter)