Ch 60 The Final Surprise... Part 2

"So I am not calling you a spy, but... I AM calling you a Traitor!"

Startled gasps rang through the crowd at the unexpected reversal by Jon.

This whole evening had been filled with more ups and downs than these people had seen in their lives, but this one... this one took the crown as even people who were anticipating something like this were shocked.

"A-Are you insane, you bastard!" shouted someone from the crowd with an indignant look on his face, "How can you just call our commander a traitor?"

"Yes! He has been with us for so many years. How could he be a traitor?"

"B-But everyone else he had called out as spies already confessed, didn't they?" came a retort from one of the smarter ones in the crowd, earning a lot of nods and agreements from his neighbours, "So maybe he could also be..."

"Yes, Yes, we should wait for him to present the evidence before deciding—"

"You cunt!! Are you calling Commander Rickard a traitor!!" shouted the first man angrily.

Rickard had been in the company for many long years, and during these years there have obviously been those he had favoured and who had profited due to him. And now was the perfect opportunity for these people to show their loyalty.

"T-Then, are you saying that everyone else from before was also not spies, huh," his opponents were also not backing down, "Are you saying that the man Commander Gared called is a liar? Are you calling our Commander a liar?!"

"Y-You— You bastard!! Do you wanna have a go?!"

"Do you?!"

"ENOUGH!!" Gared bellowed silencing the crowd before the commotion could grow any further. He glared fiercely at the rowdier people in the crowd making them back down before finally turning towards Rickard.

Gared took a long hard scrutinising look at his second in command who stared back with a completely unchanged expression, before he finally turned towards Jon and asked, "What proof do you have, Jon?" Gared's eyes were like chips of ice by now, not giving away any hint of emotion in them.

"The same ones that got everyone before him to confess... letters," Jon said while taking out the final bunch of parchments, that had been carefully tucked in his breast pocket, "The proof is in these letters..." he said waving them in front of the crowd.

"What is in them?" Gared asked with a frown on his face.

"Well... these letters are the sole reason that your son was kidnapped," Jon said calmly, making Gared's eyes widen in wrath, and without wasting a single second he snatched those letters from Jon's hand to read.

"They were written to the sellswords company, Gallant Men... Telling them when and where they could find the commander's son, to easily capture him for ransom," he supplied helpfully for the sake of the anxiously waiting curious crowd.

"But...why are all of them addressed with the name Rattlesnake?" asked Gared without looking up from the letters.

"Oh...Because that is the nickname he chose..." he said while pointing his thumb towards Rickard whose eyebrow twitched irritatedly at the rude gesture, "he probably wanted to remain hidden in case these letters ever got into the wrong hands... very smart and cautious of you, Commander Rickard,"

"Rickard! You—"

"Is that all the evidence you've got," Rickard scoffed at Jon while interrupting Gared before he could jump at Rickard with his question, "A few vague letters written not by me but some imaginary person... Is that all the evidence you've prepared to accuse me?"

"Of course—"

"And even if we assume that these letters or any more of them you produce are the real deal. How did you even get your hands on them," Rickard had kept a calm expression on his face from the very start unlike the others and while there was a little sweat on his forehead indicating the pressure he was under, he was still the most composed out of all the accused today, "Because I don't think that the people in Gallant Men were kind enough to just hand them over to you on a silver platter when you asked them... So how did you them?"

That was also the burning question on everyone's mind.

From the very start, Jon had been producing evidence after evidence as if he were a magician. He knew things about people that no one knew about, he knew secrets about spies that no one was supposed to know.

And now that they finally got the chance, the crowd was just dying to know the how behind it all... 

"Oh... That is something that shall remain a secret," Jon said with a shrug, unbothered by all the curious stares on him, "But there—"

"Do you know that I think?" Rickard once again loudly interrupted Jon, not letting him take even a little bit of the lead, "I think... that you have been sent here by one of our enemies to sow discord in my company... Maybe all the ones before were really not spies, maybe... some of them were just your pawns... pawns that you planted to get to me, they were just your ruse to destroy an important pillar of this Company, so tell us, who paid you to do these things or do you have proof that you're not a spy?"

Almost instantly the atmosphere had completely changed, from people being doubtful of Rickard being a spy, they were now becoming sceptical of whether Jon had been telling the truth all along. Making it so that it was now on Jon to prove that he was not a spy instead of the other way around.

The way Rickard had handled the situation and turned the tables on him had impressed even Jon, but... in his haste, Rickard had forgotten to take one thing into consideration. He forgot who Jon was.

"My name is Jon Snow. My father's name is Eddard Stark, the Lord of Winterfell, Warden in the North. My very blood is enough proof that I would never stoop so low as to anyone's bidding," He said in an eerily calm tone while looking down at Rickard with the air of someone whose very gaze commanded respect. It made everyone in the crowd suddenly feel very uncomfortable and forced them to look away from his eyes.

"But... we are not here to discuss me, are we?" Jon suddenly smiled and with that, the atmosphere abruptly vanished as if it had never been there, making everyone breathe a sigh of relief, "We are here for you... and I knew that you would be the hardest one to crack, so I prepared something very special just for you," he said with a meaningful look at that Rickard that filled his stomach with dread, "Men!! Bring them out!" Jon shouted while turning half of his head towards the fire that was still going strong.

Almost immediately as if they were just waiting for it, two men clad in decent quality armour, that some people recognised as Commander Gared's personal guards, came from behind the fire while herding amidst them two male prisoners with their hands tied and heads bowed down in shame.

They came to stand in front of the fire and roughly shoved the prisoners back to make them kneel.

"Tell me, Rickard, do you recognise—"

"Him!! Him!" Bran's sudden exclamation interrupted Jon's question, "I-I remember him, Father, he was the one who told me about that bounty on the lion cubs," he told Gared while jumping and pointing towards one of the caught prisoners.

"Oho! That is indeed a very pleasant surprise," Jon said with an amused expression on his face before turning towards the scowling second in command, "So tell them, Rickard, do you remember them—"

"I've never seen them in my life," Rickard said indifferently. He was sweating profusely by now but was still trying to maintain a nonchalant expression on his face.

"Commander?!" the prisoners shouted in shock simultaneously with betrayed expressions on their faces.

"Oh don't worry too much," Jon said sympathetically to the two regretful prisoners, "Even if he doesn't recognise you, he will surely recognise the one he sent you to kill... won't you, Rickard?" he asked while turning towards the second in command, who for the first time had pure horror on his face, "Men! Bring out the healer!"

And finally, the last surprise of the evening was brought from behind the fire in the form of the missing healer.

The healer looked as if he had seen better days, his face was badly bruised and he had a long wound on his face that looked as if someone had tried to cut him.

The moment the ageing healer came out and saw Rickard's face, he immediately went nuts, his eyes turned red in anger and he began screaming, "Y-YOU—YOU FUCKING CUNT!! After all that I did for you—All the things you made me do! You paid me back by sending these wretches to kill me, You Ungrateful Vermin!! I will kill—"

"ENOUGH!!" growled Gared finally looking up from the crumpled letters with a chilling look in his eyes that immediately killed all the words in the healer's throat and made him shrink in terror, "I will deal with you later," he said to the healer in calm tone making him shiver before abruptly turning towards Rickard.

Gared abruptly took a slow and heavy step towards Rickard making him flinch back in fear. As the commander walked towards him, Rickard's mind was working furiously trying to come up with any way to get out of this situation but no matter how hard he tried he was coming up empty, "I-I can exp—"

SMACK

The slap from Gared was so powerful that it immediately sent Rickard flying straight into the ground and made everyone there, including Jon flinch at the sheer force it contained and the loud clap it produced.

Half of Rickard's face was red because of the massive handprint from Gared's hand on his face while the other half was red from the humiliation of being slapped in front of all the soldiers... soldiers who, before today wouldn't even dare to look in his eyes.

"My father spared your life, he took you in, he clothed you, taught you how to fight," Gared said with a forced look of calm that concealed boiling wrath just underneath the surface, "He took you into the company, gave you a place at our hearth. And I... I honoured you like my brother, gave you a place by my side, trusted your counsel, and gave—"

"OH! SHUT THE FUCK UP!! YOU GAVE ME SHIT!! YOU DID NOTHING FOR ME!! IT WAS ME!! IT WAS ME WHO HELD THIS COMPANY TOGETHER!! YOU WOULD BE NOWHERE WITHOUT ME!! YOU FUCKING BRUTE—"

It was only when he was done did Rickard realise what he had done... his eyes slowly widened in horror as he looked around and realised that, it was all... It was all over.

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