We just want the truth

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chapter a little bit longer than usual...

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POV of Friedrich von Roon seventh moon 284 AC

Our movements through the city were swift, and we tried on several occasions to avoid the conglomerations of people in this city that is overpopulated by the huge numbers of peasants who migrated here.

Due to the fact that here was the center of power of one of our biggest opponents to our government in reach, the faith of the seven, since they began to notice that their income was decreasing day by day in our territories because more and more people were being reassigned to cities that were being built on the banks of the river, Mander began to take a much tougher stance, apparently they had already lost their fear of us using the valuable information we had about the corruption of the faith of the seven.

The king had been very clear that, as much as the faith of the seven, or rather their corrupt leaders, could be brought down using the information about the systematic crimes they were committing, it was not in our interest to do so.

It could provoke many people to change regions, looking for spiritual support in another faith, or the worst could happen: there would be a reformation of the faith that would be unbelievably hard on us.

And yes, the king was right. When Lord Arryn discovered what had happened between the faith and us, he began almost immediately to make reforms, although not drastic in the faith, trying to cover up the truth, as he feared that the religious scandal could also affect his king.

Removing septon who were corrupt and replacing them with new and young members of his faith, who were much more devoted to their faith than to their personal desires and at the same time were the most aggressive against us and our presence, making several calls to expel us or attack anyone who does business with us.

Fortunately, there is not much support in the upper ranks of the faith, which Lord Arryn cannot easily replace because they have too much influence and friends who made his job very difficult and who preferred to keep the peace between us.

This is where the heralds come in; the majority of the population in the city cannot read, and we cannot use pamphlets with information and images to send a message, as the brute westerosis would not be able to distinguish anything from the message. It could even be counterproductive if someone decides to interpret them from their point of view.

There is a herald at each gate of the city and one in the center, which are almost all day shouting information and news happening in the city, bribing them to speak well of us. This will do wonders for our presence in the city, which was more subtle as the surrounding eyes were not very friendly.

We were entering the main road to get to the center of town when most of the people looking at us were not showing friendly intentions.

It's better not to make a fuss, do our job, and get out as fast as we can so as not to generate more tension.

As we moved through the streets, a Teutonic knight extended his arm to catch a stone that a child had thrown at us.

''Murderous monsters, give me back my father,'' said the boy, who had badly damaged clothes.

''Orders?'' said my bodyguards as they brought their hands to their swords.

''Keep calm; blood must not flow'', I said to my men.

I approached the boy who had thrown the stone at me and simply watched as I slowly brought my hand to my sword, letting him be the one to think about what would happen.

When I noticed that the boy began to tremble with fear, I retreated to the previous mission.

''If this happens again, we will be forced to do something more drastic; we cannot appear weak against the small folks, or more of these acts could happen once more to members with less control of our men, and blood will flow, giving the septon a perfect excuse to come out and scream against us... I don't want blood, so no violent reactions'' I said to my men as we walked faster, trying to avoid colliding with the people who were getting more and more numerous.

When we finally arrived at our objective, as always, the intersection of the city streets made this place a boiling cauldron of people looking to buy as well as the despicable prostitutes who, for some damn reason, had returned to their jobs.

Nothing I did in this city to bring civilization seemed to last; it was only a month that they lived like decent people before returning to absolute decadence.

The herald was doing his job, informing the Westerosi about official information given by the kingdom about new laws or tax hikes or about places that would not be accessible during the tournaments.

As well as some recommendations of places that pay for their services, the most common were the taverns, but lately the pleasure houses have taken that new method to attract more clients.

I let the herald finish his oratory while I prepared to give him the bag with coins.

The herald finished what he was saying under the wooden structure he used to be above his listeners and began to pour himself some water. He agreed to refresh his throat and continue with his work. At that moment, I approached him to talk to him.

When the herald saw me, he looked me up and down and showed a face of disgust.

''What do you want, Prussian?'', said the herald with a lot of displeasure in his voice.

''We want your support against the terrible lies that spread like fire through the dry grass above us; we only want you to tell the truth, and you will be generously rewarded, so tell me your price'' I said as I rattled a bag with silver and some gold coins.

''It's not lies, Prussian; it's just observing what happened with the blacksmiths; you took them as slaves to kill them working... I won't accept your silver stained with the blood of our people; get lost, scum, said the herald, trying to return to his workplace.

'Damn, I didn't think this could happen'.

While I was thinking about what to do to try to solve the problem, a person approached the herald and, as if he were his friend, he put his arm around the herald's neck, and they started to talk.

I just watched as the herald's face turned pale, and his eyes would glaze over as he listened to what the man was saying, and finally, he pointed at me.

The herald was trembling and walked nervously back to me.

''What... what... what... what should I do?'' said the herald in terror.

''As I said, tell the truth, tell about some things that are happening in the city because of our presence... take it so that later you don't say that we didn't pay'' I said, giving the bag with coins to the herald.

The herald returned to his place of work, and I approached the man who had spoken to the herald earlier.

''Are you Finnish?'', I said in Finnish.

The man simply nodded and began to smile.

'An espionage mission, or are you keeping an eye on someone?'

''What did you tell him... he reacted very quickly?'', I asked the man as we walked out to a street with fewer people who could hear us.

''Tell me, friend... what would your beautiful wife Anna say if she finds out that she is a widow... or your little daughter Dalla and little Tom when she finds out that her father will never come back... if you want to avoid the terrible fate that will happen to your family after your terrible and painful death, accept the payment and obey, refuse, and you don't return home today... if you try to do something like asking for help, forget that you have a family'' said the Finnish man while giving a slight smile.

''An excellent threat from what I hear. Make sure he follows orders. I don't want the moment we move from here he forgets what we agreed'' I said to the Finn.

''I'll see what I can do... I'm on a surveillance mission of a somewhat annoying septon... he was organizing a shipment of swords to reach the local resistance, but it so happens he hasn't gotten out of bed in days it looks like he ate a bad meal... no, it wasn't us, probably an internal feud of the faith of the seven, a poison for sure, some rival for the seats in the septs that are being left empty by Arryn's purge'' said the Finn, guessing what I was about to ask him twice in a row.

''Wow... do you have any information I can use with the other gate heralds in case they refuse like this one?'', I asked the Finn.

He pulled out a booklet from his clothes and began to search for information, and after a few seconds, he tore out a few pages.

Name of family members, interests, crimes, sinful deeds... everything you need, Herr Roon'' said the finn, handing me the sheets.

''Well, keep an eye on him if you can'' I said as I returned to my mission.

The Finn stood on a street corner and remained watching the herald, glancing occasionally at the great sept of Baelor.

We moved quickly through the streets of the city looking for the heralds who stood at the gates of the city, and one by one I handed them the initial offer.

Many were wise and saw that telling the truth could bring them many economic benefits just for doing the right thing, so they just obeyed and started repeating the message.

''The Teutonic order, the brave and honest knights who protected the city, have returned and are currently near the entrance of the red keep. For all those in need of healing, clothing, or food, feel free to go and ask for help, as the honorable knights will fulfill their vows and help all who need it.''

''Hear me, hear me, new tournaments, new tournaments. The brave Prussians who freed us from the clutches of the Targaryen tyranny have funded new tournaments that anyone with the skill and courage can participate in, where generous prizes will be awarded to the skilled men who prove their worth in the tournaments.''

''Grain prices are going down. Thanks to the diligent management of Lord Hohenzollern, the reach has again produced much more grain in this harvest. It is expected that the next few weeks the price of grain will go down due to the efficient Prussian government in the reach''.

Only one other herald refused the initial offer, but this time he had all the information he needed to politely convince the herald that it was best to comply and go home with deeper pockets.

This should improve the locals' perception of our presence a bit, but it depends much more on the Teutons, who are the visible face of charitable acts in the city.

When I made sure that all the heralds delivered the message, I decided to move forward with the work to be done in the future.

The normal thing would be to set up camp in the vicinity of the tournament grounds; we should all do it, but casually they wait until the last day to do it, unless they are minor nobles who do not have a place inside the city reserved for them or great lords who brought a large retinue with them and there is no room inside the walls for all of them, unless they want to sleep in the streets.

Although the tournaments and feasts would start in two more weeks, being productive and efficient was essential, and with my men, we had almost everything ready to start setting up a camp in the surroundings of the city; we only had to begin the work.

We marched out of the city; in a matter of minutes, we had left the city walls, and I found my soldiers, who were stacking boxes of armor, swords, maces, axes, and everything necessary to arm a small army.

Organizing our logistic wagons, we started to prepare the camp. Luckily,  this area doesn't have many small people's buildings. It almost seems unnatural seeing the large number of houses around the other gates, but it must be because of the tournament camps.

We quickly started to raise tents, to build some palisades to surround us, and to give us some control over who enters and who leaves the camp. Many Maesters had tried to bribe some of the logistics officers to lose our armor and to study the designs of the joints or other features; only they would know what they wanted them for. As expected, our men remained loyal, and the Maesters were imprisoned for this attempt.

We only know that they want them and could pay thieves to get them.

By burying the stakes in the ground, we only left a single entrance to the camp and erected four watchtowers that will allow us to see all the surroundings at all times.

I, personally, saw to it that the king's tent was ready for when our leader felt it necessary to move his equipment if he wished to fight in a tournament, as well as the tents of the Teutonic knights.

After two hours of hard work, the camp was finished. They were not the large camps that stretched for kilometers as we used to, but this camp can easily hold a thousand men without problems and provide protection for our equipment while we stay in this corrupted city.

With the work finished, my men had begun to loiter, and others began to build campfires for the night.

''When you finish lighting your fires, get your sabers and protective masks. We are going to train for the fencing tournament, and you guys go get the sandbags. We need to get the preparations ready to have our training camps'' I said this to the group that was making fires and then to a group that was talking among themselves.

Almost all of them had disappointed faces; they thought we were here for a vacation.

''We are not here for leisure; we are here to crush the Westerosi, to prove once and for all the superiority of our training, but above all, our warrior mentality... I am completely sure we will win, but overconfidence is an insidious killer, and we must be ready for anything. Besides, the prizes will be very generous. More than five years of pay for being in a high position'' I said to my men, who were starting to obey very orders when they heard the prizes.

Within a few minutes, the training began, and the sound of the clashing of the sabers spread throughout the camp as we all prepared our skills for the days of the tournaments.

While having a friendly duel with Emil, I managed to give him a slight cut on his cheek, and a small drop of blood began to fall on the same cheek.

We sheathed the sabers, and I turned to look for another duel, but I noticed that there were plenty of eyes watching us intensely. At the entrance of the camp, there were several nobles and knights observing our training.

'We should have placed a gate...'

'Well, this was going to happen; we just gave the name of the tournaments; we didn't explain anything to the Westerosis, so they would have their natural doubts and maintain respect, not entering without permission, or the guards did their job well'

While I was wiping off the sweat, a person entered the camp—a Finn with his mask and wolf head.

''Roon, the king, requests your presence; he is at the bank next to Maximilian,'' said the Finn.

"Well, stop the training. You can rest for the day, I said to the very men as I prepared to leave the camp.

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