Chapter 20 Decisive

  "Mercenaries," Harui suddenly shouted, "your captain refused to kill the bastard in front of you for his honor because he did not dare to offend the Lannister family. He wants to revive his family, take back his grandfather's castle, and live in Westeros."

  Harui knew that he could not prove that Ian was a fake, so he simply admitted that he was the illegitimate son of the Lannister family.

  "But you don't have to. I'm offering a bounty of 80 gold dragons on his head. With this money, you can sail far away, leave the days of licking blood on the edge of a knife, and go to Essos to live a prosperous life." Harui held his money bag high; this was considered a complete trump card.

  In an instant, the mercenaries who had been quiet due to Sir Carmel's order became restless again.

  80 gold dragons are a huge amount of money that these mercenaries had never seen in their lives. In the face of such temptation, what is the honor of a captain? No matter what the threat of the Lannister family represent can they chase them to Essos for a bastard son.

  "He is a piece of meat on the chopping board now. Don't look at your companions. Just do it. The fewer people who do it, the more money you will get." Harui encouraged again, then looked at Ian proudly, but Ian's expression made Harui freeze.

  Because Ian was also laughing.

  Harui turned around in surprise and found Carmel glaring at him angrily. Only then did Harui realize that he had crossed the line by directly trading with Carmel's mercenaries.

  But so what? With Carmel's dedication to honor, could he still kill his employer?

  "You will still protect me, right? You swore to me." Harui smiled confidently, with a hint of madness on his face, "You won't become an oathbreaker, right?"

  Carmel turned his face and did not answer but acquiesced to Harui's words.

  "Hahahaha!" After getting the satisfactory answer, Harui's laughter became even louder, and he looked at Ian again.

  You. You. You bastard! You are still laughing! Why are you? Why are you laughing? Why do you have such a mocking expression on your face? You are richer than me, but what's the use?

  I can use money to incite these mercenaries to kill you because they can kill you, but you can't let them kill me, let alone double it, so what if you offer ten times or a hundred times the price? With Carmel and his soldiers protecting me, those instigated mercenaries won't hurt me while iam under the protection of their captain, there is no option to kill me!

  I'm invincible! And you will be killed by me, victory and defeat has been decided!

  "Protect me and wait for my attendant to arrive later. I will pay you the same reward as him." Ian said lightly to the mercenaries surrounding him, then looked at Harui and responded with a joking expression. smile.

  Then, Harui's smile froze directly on his face. It took him about half a minute to understand the meaning of Ian's words, and then he suddenly felt that he had not lost unfairly.

  Because if it were him, he would definitely not be able to respond so perfectly.

  There are at least two important points in the counterfeit illegitimate son's response. First, he just wanted to save his life, but did not want to instigate these mercenaries to kill him.

  If the condition for the fake illegitimate son to the mercenaries was to kill him, then the mercenaries would not dare to take it even if he offered ten times the price due to Carmel's strength and long term prestige.

  It's a pity that the fake bastard took retreat to advance and gave up killing himself, thereby avoiding a direct conflict with his biggest supporter Sir Carmel. Carmel had planned to let that Ian go, as long as he didn't pose a threat himself, Carmel will definitely not embarrass him.

  The second point of the fake illegitimate son is that he clearly wanted to pay a 'ransom' to save his life, but he did not directly offer to take money in exchange for his life, but instead offered to pay these people to 'protected' him. The mercenary receive this ransom in the form of 'remuneration'.

  From 'ransom' to 'remuneration', a small change in name completely changed the nature of the action.

  If he offered to pay a ransom in exchange for his life after being threatened by the mercenaries, then the relationship between the two parties is hostile, and the mercenaries need to worry about retaliation from the Lannister family even if they get the money.

  And by paying the ransom in the form of 'remuneration', he defined his relationship with the mercenaries as 'employment cooperation', which was equivalent to giving up the reason for revenge.

  In this era where everyone pursues 'claim rights' the act of the fake illegitimate son is tantamount to giving the mercenaries a reassurance.

  "It's an honor to serve you." Sure enough, a mercenary who originally planned to attack Ian began to bow and swear an oath.

  "My sword belongs to you." The mercenaries surrounding Ian turned their sides one after another. Even the mercenaries who were originally hesitant and did not participate in the siege of Ian also came to Ian's side to swear an oath.

  For the mercenaries, this is a choice that does not need to be considered because taking Ian's money not only complies with Captain Carmel's previous decision to 'let Ian go', and there is no need to worry about the Lannister family taking revenge.

  Traveling away from home without even having to do anything is almost tantamount to having a stroke of luck.

  But taking Harui money would involve risking revenge from the Lannister family and becoming wanted criminal's.

  So soon, only five personal guards were left around Carmel, and everyone else gathered around Ian.

  "The form has been reversed." Ian snapped his fingers and looked at Harui with a smile.

  "I thought this move was a sure win, but there's no such thing as a reversal of the situation, right?" Harui had already admitted defeat in his heart, but he still tried to regain some face for himself, "For me, the worst result is just a draw, right?"

  Ian did not answer, just looked at Harui quietly.

  "What, do you still want to kill me?" Harui was immediately angered by Ian's obvious contemptuous attitude, and he looked back at Carmel beside him.

  "Sir Ian, you swore an oath." Carmel failed to understand the conversation between his employer and the Lannister bastard, but he still reminded Ian aloud.

  "Yes, I swore an oath, on the honor of the Lannister family." Ian nodded, looking coldly at the end of the dirt road from the salt well to the town.

  The setting sun gradually cast a thin shadow on the ground through the treetops. Two knights riding side by side appeared in people's sight.

  They were both wearing full plate armor, one was light green, and the other was pure black.

  The knight in light green plate armor wore a closed helmet, and the visor was lifted above his head, revealing a bearded face, which looked particularly intimidating with his strong physique.

  He was riding a horse with a red hood. The tall war horse in robes carries a thick iron clad round shield on its back.

  The other knight is a bit stronger than the knight in light green plate armor. He is more than seven feet tall and carries a five and a half foot long two handed giant sword on his back.

  He has no helmet on his head and has a light brown head. He has long hair hanging down his head, sharp eyes, and his overall facial features are very handsome for a person of his size.

  "My attendant is here." Ian smiled and said to the mercenaries around him, and the mercenaries followed his gaze and looked toward the end of the road.

  "No one noticed that Ian clenched his fist slightly, retracted his fingers into his palm, and even his breathing gradually became faster.

  "Servant?" Hearing Ian's words, the old mercenary Adam, who had been pretending to be the foreman just now, looked at the approaching two knights in full armor and said, "Seven Hells! Are all your attendants wearing full-body plate armor?"

  "I heard that a set of that thing costs at least ten golden dragons."

  "There is no way. I am an illegitimate child. If I don't be more generous to my subordinates, how can anyone be willing to follow me?" Ian quickly adjusted back to his state. He shook his head, pretending to be bitter, "After all, I am a bastard with no status or honorable title. I only have a lot of money."

  "The money is good."

  "What did you say?"

  "Nothing, nothing." The old mercenary shook his head quickly.

  Soon, as the two knights approached, the mercenary team entered a state of alert.

  They originally thought that the attendants Ian was talking about were two ordinary ten or fourteen year old children, so the sudden appearance of these two heavily armored knights gave them a deep sense of oppression.

  "Relax, I said those are my attendants; they brought everyone's commission," Ian said loudly while looking at the old mercenary Adam.

  "Put down your weapons!" the old mercenary said quickly to the people around him, "Sir Ian is our employer, what are you talking about?"

  Obviously, Adam's reputation among this group of young mercenaries is not high. After what he said, although the mercenaries were still wary, they at least put back all the weapons in their hands.

  Upon seeing this, Ian nodded to the old mercenary, then raised one hand above his head and made a stop gesture. He shouted to the knight five meters away: "Just stop there."

  As expected, the two knights stopped where they were.

  "That old dog, throw 80 gold dragons over here, pay attention, it's throwing," Ian ordered, knowing that the two knights now carried more than 80 gold dragons.

  The two knights looked at each other for seven seconds before they finally decided who was the old dog.

  Then the 'old dog' wearing light green plate armor untied the bag hanging by his leg and started counting the golden dragons.

  "That knight?" The old mercenary wanted to say 'knight.' After all, the knight counting the gold coins looked a bit too majestic, but he quickly stopped and changed his words, "The squire's name is... old dog?"

  "The son of a humble family, he followed me before my father took me back to the castle. This is his nickname," Ian explained. "he is a bit stupid, but he is strong and very loyal. When I get my surname back, I'll look for an opportunity to canonize him."

  "Canonize the son of a cook?" The old mercenary couldn't believe his ears.

  "Loyal service will be generously rewarded. This is my principle, and illegitimate children will never despise others because of their origins, because from the beginning, we are not nobler than anyone else," Ian smiled self-deprecatingly.

  "He is so lucky to meet a gentleman like you."

  "Haha, actually, I'm just thinking about it now. After all, it might take more than half a year for my father to recover from his injury and marry my mother. After that, I can become a real Lannister," Ian waved his hand.

  Then, Ian turned to the green armored knight who had already counted the gold coins, nodded to him, and motioned for him to throw the gold coins over.

  The green armored knight grabbed the gold coins and divided them three times before throwing them all out. The golden dragons scattered on the ground immediately attracted a rush of mercenaries.

  "Lannister has paid off his debt; farewell to you all." Ian took the opportunity to mount his horse and then ran in the direction of the two knights.

  Ian glanced back at Harui halfway through, and that look made Harui feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

  Harui didn't know why; he just felt an unknown premonition rising from his heart.

  "Captain Carmel, I want to leave; take me away now! Now!" Harui said hurriedly.

  "Don't worry, Ser Ian has sworn that he—"

  "He is no Lannister at all!" Harui roared.

  "Here you go again." Carmel was a little helpless. He didn't understand why his employer kept struggling with this issue.

  "Anyway, I'm leaving now," Harui gave up the plan to continue explaining and climbed onto an old horse in a hurry.

  Due to his poor riding skills, he tightly held the horse's neck with both hands and urged again.

  " go, go!"

  Upon seeing this, Carmel did not insist anymore but gave the order to the guards around him to set off.

  But to his surprise, none of the cronies around him moved. They all stood there, staring blankly at the direction of the setting sun.

  Carmel was suspicious and followed the gazes of the mercenaries. He saw Ian, who had already come to the side of the two knights, holding a gold bar high above his head. The red gold was particularly dazzling under the setting sun, exuding the intoxicating halo like a fairy tale.