Chapter 214

Weier dismounted glumly, shoved aside a servant who was preparing to take off his armor; the servant could only lead his horse to the nearby stable. Other cavalrymen removed their helmets, handed their warhorses to the waiting guards, glanced at Weier, then together walked toward the corridor and looked up at the wolf girl there.

"If it were a real battlefield, I would choose to launch a direct charge!" Wil shouted loudly at the wolf girl looking down from above, "Even if I didn't charge, I would never lose."

"If it were a real battlefield, you would have to follow Credos's command." The wolf girl sheathed her long sword, glanced at the red warrior beside her, then gave a half‑smiling sneer: "And if you lost, your handsome head would be cut off by Ailiang, who would decide whether to keep it as a souvenir for his daughter. Then you could say to his daughter, 'I wish I had just gone straight in at the start!'"

The nearby rough men burst into laughter.

"I won't leave his head for my daughter; he's prettier than my daughter, but clumsier in combat and command." Ailiang and his command training team also approached at that moment, "Your Highness, the infantry officer training is complete; I present the report……"

"If it were a real battlefield, where would this senseless wall come from! Without this lousy wall, how could we be defeated by your bunch of infantry!" Wil flew into a rage, cutting off Ailiang's words.

"Anyway, you lost!"

"If you dare, let's do it again!" Wil tore off his helmet, fuming.

"You certainly won't lose, after all Wil isn't that stupid—if your cavalry can't win, you can run, compare speed, we can't catch up, and besides we're far worse with words."

"Lord Ailiang, your training is not bad, I approve the results." The duchess cut off Wil, who was about to keep speaking, "Starting tomorrow, you cavalry officers will also have to undergo the instruction corps' battle formation training."

The drill battle inside Winterfell began quickly and ended just as fast.

"Do you have something?" the duchess looked at him.

"Scholar Roland entrusted me to deliver two pieces of news to you." Earl Chail laughed as he handed over the two scrolls, "One comes from the Iron Islands, to be precise from Haijiang City; the other is from the Academy City. Both are important."

"Why doesn't he deliver it himself?" the Winterfell duchess did not take the letter, "Since you've read it, just tell me the news directly!"

"Hehe, Scholar Roland said he couldn't find you, so he entrusted me to pass it on." He straightened the two scrolls, then stacked them in his palm for later filing, "You refuse to dismiss Scholar Odali, so he finds it hard to be pleased."

Chail carefully looked at the young scholar standing nearby, brought by Scholar Odali.

They had been taken in by the duchess as clerks. In fact, the only reason they would deign to take such a post is because the duchess promised to build them a 'Heaven-Reaching Tower' in the north.

How long this 'Heaven-Reaching Tower' will take to build, only the gods know. After several months, they haven't even finished clearing the debris in Shoubao's ruins, let alone demolish that colossus and erect a tower.

"Whatever," the wolf girl chuckled lightly, "You're my council chief; it's reasonable for him to hand the letter to you, but next time he should pick a better excuse."

"Then you have to tell him yourself, otherwise he won't care about lying."

"Oh? Even my council chief, the earl, won't do?"

"I'm afraid not," Chail said.

After the duchess returned to Winterfell, he quit the clergy, was formally appointed by her as council chief, and was given the honorary title of 'Earl of Whiteblade River'.

Thinking that even a fisherman's son could achieve something, he marveled at the gods' handiwork.

"Ah, he said he would build an intelligence network for me, yet he never leaves the academy tower—does he also want to learn how Soros gathers intel from fire?"

"I think that red‑robed monk is just afraid of the cold, so he spends all day huddling by the fireplace," Lahelo's faith is a cult, so when it comes to the following sentence, Chail had to adopt a serious tone, "The Red God or something else might randomly show vague fragments in the fire to some believers; you must never regard them as revelations. These are ladders built by demons; once you step on them, they become real and will carry you……"

"Don't worry." The duchess waved her hand, clearly uninterested, "His 'prophecies' have long been proven unreliable. He said he saw Shansha return to Winterfell, but in fact it was just Miss Boneier; he said he saw me kill Ruiken, which is outright nonsense…… If Lahelo truly had such divine power, wouldn't it be better for it to dream on its own? Tell me, what news exactly did the scholar bring?"

"The Earl of Haijiang City apologized for his earlier mistake and forwarded Asha Greyjoy's reply; Asha said she had already arranged reliable people to escort your sister Shansha back to the north. Strangely, however, she also mentioned in the letter the 'maidens' Cole, Jos, Gabriel, and her brother Theon, etc."

"Oh, why? Did she ask for remains in the letter?"

Chail felt somewhat helpless; if the duchess would take the parchment and spend a minute on it, everything would be clear—why would he need to explain?

"She said, 'You killed the most important person beside her and treated their corpses brutally; she, on the other hand, is willing to send back the 'prisoners' and even arrange personnel to accompany the escort.' She said, 'You should be grateful for her generosity.'"

"Ha, it looks like Shansha is already on the road." She clapped happily, "Too bad, I can't arrange many soldiers to meet and escort her."

"The route from Kalin Bay to Winterfell is still fairly safe; you just need to send a cavalry unit." Chail sped up his speech, wanting to get past this news quickly, "The Academy City sent a message to Scholar Roland: the message says that Valyria has been utterly destroyed by that dragon queen; in the city, nobles, commoners, and slaves alike—no one escaped. Moreover, Daenerys rode her dragon and burned the whole city to white earth—alas, what a pity, it is said to be the greatest city of the Eastern Continent."

"Burning it to white earth is indeed a pity, but whether it is the greatest is something you should ask your Seven Gods."

The duchess straightened her sword, then said, "Earl, do you know the geography of the Eastern Continent? This dragon queen set out from Mi Lin, captured Xiongcheng; if she really burned this city to white earth, clearly she does not intend to stop at Valyria, so will she march on Westerlands? I heard her nephew has done something big in the Stormlands!"

"My knowledge of the Eastern Continent naturally falls short of the Whiteblade River, and of Your Highness," he spread his hands in helplessness, "Her attack on Valyria is probably to free the slaves or simply take revenge—but why she would slaughter everyone regardless of identity is unclear—the three sister cities all practice slavery, so she will likely continue westward; as for whether she will enter Westerlands, we can still wait and see. With this Scholar Roland, the Academy City's releases to the Northern Marches are more frequent and timely." Chail couldn't help laughing, "As Scholar Roland would say, this after all costs money; though the Academy City has declined, it never skimps on coin."

"What a pity, these southern messages are important but not urgent." The duchess immediately turned grave, "Now the most pressing matter is to survive the winter. The statistics are done; if we calculate according to the current rate of food consumption, even if we could continually obtain food from abroad, we could not last a year. If we follow Qiongen's advice and gather the wildlings beyond the Wall, the time we could hold out would be even shorter!" She sighed deeply, as if making up her mind, "Qiongen still refuses to quit the Night's Watch and return to Winterfell to help me—that's impossible—but once Shansha returns to the city, no matter what, I will launch an attack on Roose Bolton."