Ch 61 The Cats... Part 1

"—IT WAS ME!! IT WAS ME WHO HELD THIS COMPANY TOGETHER!! YOU WOULD BE NOWHERE WITHOUT ME!! YOU FUCKING BRUTE—"

The infuriated screams of their second in command echoed in the training ground, reaching every single person present there and leaving them shell-shocked as they finally saw the true face of Rickard for the first time.

There was a tense silence for a few moments during which Jon realised, after seeing the infuriated eyes of Gared, that the following conversation didn't need to be a spectacle for the viewing pleasure of the crowd, as it could seriously hurt the commander's prestige in the long run.

So, Jon immediately turned to Bran who was standing nearby and whispered in his ears, "Make the crowd leave... Now!"

"Huh? Ah, Y-Yes!" Bran only took a second to understand what Jon was implying and immediately took action, "G-Guards! Come with me!" he ordered his father's personal guards, who only hesitated for a few seconds before following after him.

"Men! It's time to leave now," Bran shouted as he went to stand in front of the crowd along with the guards and began gesturing for them to empty the grounds. He tried to emulate his father's tone and posture as much as he could while confronting the crowd, "Go on! Go to your camp! It's time to sleep, now. We have a busy day tomorrow, so don't dawdle anymore. Move!"

The crowd grumbled a bit but didn't resist too much and slowly began to move towards the exit all the while chattering with each other.

"Ah! I wanted to see more of that..."

"What?! Are you serious? How could you want more of that?"

"He's right. I was so relieved when it was finally over..."

"Relieved?"

"Y-Yes. I was scared the whole time that my name was going to be called in next and—"

"What? Why? Did you do something—"

"N-No, of course not. It's just I have a brother in the Company of the Cat, so I thought... Anyway, who would have thought that the commander Rickard was a traitor, huh?"

"I don't think anyone did. He was always such a smart man."

"I did! I knew from the start that the man was a cunning snake, who shouldn't be trusted—"

"Oh! Shut up, Carl, everyone knows how you licked his ass when you accidentally lost your sword..."

"I did not!"

It took a while but the training grounds were almost empty a few minutes later. And only when all the irrelevant people had left or were out of their earshot, did Gared finally break his silence and ask, "Why... Why did you betray me?"

"Betray you?! Don't make it sound like I was your subordinate. Because I was not." The red handprint on his face still stung something fierce, and the humiliation Rickard was feeling was making him lose all control over himself, "I was I, who was your superior before, and It was I who was supposed to be the commander, the only reason you even became one was just because of your cunt of a father—"

"Just for that? Just because of that, you wanted to throw it all away? Just because of a fucking title, you wanted to have my son killed!!"

"If your son was stupid enough to fall for a simple ruse like that, then I only did you a favour by removing his stupidity from this world," Rickard had lost all semblance of his usual calm by now and didn't even seem to care about it. He knew that there was little chance that he was going to be left alive after today, so he thought that he may well let out all the vitriol he had been bottling up until now.

"But you didn't just go after my son, did you? You also went after your own daughter, your own blood? You sick monster! She is the last piece of my sister left in this world and you decided to poison her—"

"Who the fuck cares!! I wanted a son from her! A Son! And you whore of a sister couldn't even do that! It's good that she died while giving birth to the second one, otherwise, I would have killed her myself—"

Smack

Gared angrily slammed down his fist and in his wrath he didn't hold back in the slightest, making Rickard's head jerk sideways with a crack so loud that everyone assumed him dead.

But a quick pulse check confirmed that he was just unconscious, and not dead... which didn't mean much as Jon only needed a single look at the fury blazing in Gared's eyes to predict that none of the accused were going to have a good end...

...

Jon's prediction turned out to be correct two days later, as every single spy and traitor was executed in front of the whole company. And in keeping with his roots, Gared himself was the one to execute them... including his own brother-in-law, Rickard.

Jon had been especially worried, that there would be some drama involving Lea, the girl Sam had saved when she found out about her father being executed.

But it seems that he was overthinking, as it turns out that she didn't feel too much about her absentee father, whom she had only conversed a handful of times with in all her life, being a traitor. '

So that matter was resolved quite peacefully...

About two hours after the executions, Jon entered Gared's tent to find him drinking all by himself with a huge jug by his side.

"I am not disturbing, Am I?" Jon asked with a raised eyebrow while remaining at the entrance.

"No, No, Come on in," Gared said eagerly waving Jon in, "I was craving some company anyway. After all, alcohol tastes far better with a friend than all alone," he jested while pouring another mug for Jon.

Jon wasn't too fond of alcohol, especially the cheap variety this world had to offer, but considering the current situation he felt that it would be too much of a hassle to reject it so he just silently took the offered mug and began drinking.

Only the sound of slurping and pouring drinks rang in the tent for the next few minutes as they both silently drank. Before finally, Jon decided to break the awkward silence... with an awkward question, "How do you feel?"

"Argh! I feel fine," Gared grunted while slamming his mug on the wooden table before he looked up and noticed Jon's sceptical look, "No, I really do. It was unpleasant business, no doubt, but it had to be done... and I am very relieved that it was done so quickly and so cleanly. It feels like I've cut off a rotten piece of me and can now finally walk unburdened..."

"That's good then because I was afraid that you were going to be depressed and that I was going to have to cheer you up..." Jon said the last part in a teasing tone.

"Depressed? Ha! I don't even know what that word means!" Gared guffawed loudly while filling up his mug once again.

"Ah! That makes sense..." Jon said nodding his head sagely as if he understood what he was talking about.

Gared burped a little before a reflective look appeared on his face, "Aah! Jon, my friend, I don't know how I'll ever repay you... I didn't even repay you for helping my son previously and now you've gone and done such a huge favour for this company... The debts are piling up and becoming too heavy my friend,"

"Oh, don't worry about it so much. It's only debt if you don't consider me a friend," Jon replied nonchalantly while waving his hand, "Besides, you know what to do if you want to repay the favour so much..."

"What are—Ah! Are you talking about that contract you offered?" Gared asked with a startled expression, "Because if you are then you don't need to worry about it... the moment I am done with my current contract with Myr, I will gladly join you on your ships, and heck I'll even throw in friends and family discount..."

"Oh! I am not too worried about the money, it's just that..." Jon trailed off with a frown on his face, "I'm in a bit of a hurry here, so It would be perfect if there's a clause in your contract that allows you to cancel it in advance with some monetary penalty..."

"I am afraid there's no such thing in the contract, but.." Gared hesitated for a few seconds before his eyes firmed up, "But if you really are in such a hurry then I could forcibly cancel the contract unilaterally without caring about those nobles in Myr..."

"But...that would ruin your reputation wouldn't it?"

"A little bit," Gared answered with a shrug downplaying it. He also didn't mention the fact that he would probably be blacklisted by most of the Magisters and Nobles in the free cities after the news about his breach of contract got out.

"Then that would leave a bad taste in my mouth..." Jon murmured with an annoyed expression on his face, "...How long did you say your contract was going to last, again?"

"About five more months, I think..." Gared answered with a scrunched-up face, "Ah! Unless of course, we somehow manage to achieve the primary objective for which we were hired, then the contract would be over immediately," he added as an afterthought with a chuckle as if the very notion of it was ridiculous.

"Primary objective? What's that?" Jon asked with a gleam in his eyes as his back straightened and he gave Gared his full attention.

"The same one that every company here got— To conquer more land..." Gared replied as if it were obvious.

"To Conquer land?"

"Yes, That's what we're all here for, Aren't we? To steal land from the opposite side," Gared explained before he noticed that Jon still had a frown on his face so he decided to elaborate.

"Here, Imagine that all of the Disputed Lands is an apple pie," He cleared a portion of the table and then drew an invisible circle using his finger, "Now if we divide the pie into three, they could all be the three portions of this land that are occupied simultaneously by the three cities of Myr, Tyrosh and Lys," he drew three lines in the circle, separating it into three triangular pies, "Now, we—are here at this border on Myr's side," He pointed his finger along the line separating Myr and Tyrosh.

"I knew all that. I just want to know about the primary objective part... because as far as I know, your main task was supposed to guard the lands occupied by the three cities..."

"You're not wrong but the guarding is just our secondary objective, and the main reason Myr hired us or any other sellswords company for that matter is to steal the land from the opposite side," Gared explained before shrugging, "But of course, that doesn't happen too much because none of the sellswords company wants to take too many risks for a little more gold when they could just compromise and earn a little less for a long time..."

"Hmm..." Jon thought about what Gared said for a moment before he looked up and asked the most important question, "Who are the ones on the other side? I mean the sellsword's company guarding the opposite border of Tyrosh?"

"Hmm... There are about five companies out there, I think," Gared said after contemplating for a while, "But most of them are little-known smaller ones, and don't have anything more than hundred to one-fifty warriors, and the only big one among them is the very famous company, Company of the Cat, with almost three thousand personnel."

"...And what about on our side?"

"Well, the big ones on our side are the Windblown led by the Tattered Prince, with about 2500 members and oh, of course, our own...."

Jon fell silent for quite a while after that. In fact, he was silent for so long that Gared assumed that the conversation was over but just when he was about to get up to get another jug of alcohol, Jon abruptly jolted awake from his deep-thinking expression and said in a determined voice, "Let's do it!"

"Huh? Do what?" Gared asked with a bewildered expression on his face.

"Your men are still training for that non-existent battle against the Gallant Men right?" Jon asked instead of answering.

"Yes..."

"Then let's give them the fight they are waiting for..." Jon said while standing with a bright smile on his face.

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