Chapter 28: Red Keep

When it was completely dark, Jon saw the vermilion Red Keep.

The Red Keep was built on Aegon's High Hill. It was a fortress established by Aegon after he landed on the continent of Westeros. Later, with the expansion of the empire, it was gradually renovated and became the power center of the Seven Kingdoms today.

But despite this, the Red Keep is not very large, but it has the most buildings, and the environment and structure are very complex. Not to mention that Jon has not been able to enter the Red Keep yet, even if he did enter, he would be completely in the dark and would not be able to find his way.

So he now faces two problems: one, how to enter the Red Keep, and two, how to find the Hand of the King's Tower.

Of course, how to convince Ned and how to send Ned out of King's Landing are two big problems.

Fortunately, Jon was not completely ignorant of King's Landing. After all, he inherited the experience of the original Jon who had lived in Winterfell for more than ten years.

So he had heard something about how some things in the castle worked.

For example, servants who are specifically responsible for cleaning work would mostly do it at midnight, when the "noble masters" would have fallen asleep and would not appear to be "unsightly".

At around two or three in the morning, the chefs in the kitchen start to get busy preparing ingredients for the day.

Around four o'clock, servants who were responsible for cleaning and replacing the nobles' toilets would go out of the city to dump excrement and other waste.

As a bastard when he was young, Jon did not receive the same treatment as Robb, Ned and others. He had to clean his own toilet most of the time, so he knew all this.

Just as Jon looked up at the dozens of meters high Aegon's Hill and the magnificent Red Keep ramparts, several people pushing wheelbarrows slowly walked out of a small door in the night.

Jon decided to follow and see. He saw them leaving the Red Keep, then walking down a path from the high hill, and finally coming to a waterway that seemed to be washing something.

When Jon walked in, he found that these people were all children around twelve or thirteen years old, and the one who looked like the leader was only about fourteen years old.

Although the light was not very good, it was still possible to see that these children were not malnourished. This was completely different from the time when Jon entered the city and saw some children with big swollen bellies.

Moreover, the clothes they wore were relatively clean and tidy. If one saw them from somewhere else, one would definitely think that they were children from wealthy families.

If you look closely you'll find that their clothes don't fit them well, some have sleeves that are too long, some have lapels that are too tight.

I saw them taking out wooden barrels from the cart and washing them in the waterway. It was no longer summer and it was already night. Although the water used to wash the barrels was a little cold, they still worked very hard.

These wooden barrels are actually the 'toilets' used by the nobles in the Red Keep. Of course, the high-ranking servants in the Red Keep are also the ones they serve.

The leading child put his hands in his sleeves and looked very mature. His name was Rune. As the leader of this group of children, he naturally didn't have to work. When the other children finished flushing the toilet, he was responsible for checking.

"Joey, do you still want to do it? You're always the slowest! You're the one who makes everyone else suffer from the cold here with you!"

Rune walked up to a skinny kid and said dissatisfiedly

You know, for the children of ordinary people, being able to enter the Red Fort to wash toilets is a "good job". First of all, food will be distributed every day, and sometimes they can even get bonuses. In this day and age, not being hungry is already a blessing.

Rune lives at the King's Gate. He was recruited by the Spider Varys and is responsible for the sanitation and cleaning of a part of the Red Keep.

Even though he only saw Wallis a few times a month, he had several jobs like this, which were enough for him to experience what power was!

With this, he has become the "king" of the children, and even some adults come to curry favor with him in the hope of putting their children in his arms.

This allowed him to place himself above these 'slugs' early on.

As for Joey who was just "scolded" by him, he was the earliest friend to follow him, but he had just been chosen by Varys, so he was very loyal to bring his friend with him.

But as time went by, he found that what his 'little brother' could bring to him was too limited, so he wanted to drive him away.

In fact, Little Joey's movements were not slow, it was just that this guy named Rune was making things difficult for him.

When Jon saw what they were washing, he knew his chance had come, so he bent slightly, smiling, and prepared to go up and talk to the leading child.

But when he saw Jon walking towards him, a hint of impatience flashed in his eyes. He didn't know who had recently revealed to others that he would take them out at this time every day to clean the toilets, and there were always people squatting there and asking for a job.

You have to know that the food Wallis gave him was limited, and he could only get paid if he let the least number of people do the most work, so Rune had already limited the number of people to about ten.

"We are no longer recruiting people here, go back!"

When Rune said this, the others looked at Jon with a hint of hostility and a sense of crisis. The guy in front of them looked very strong, and if he was taken as a scapegoat, it would mean that the burden on their family would increase.

Some of them would even take the things distributed to them by Rune back to subsidize their families. Once they leave here, it will be a big blow.

So these children are very much involuted with each other.

Unexpectedly, Jon walked towards the child who looked like the leader with a smile and stuffed half a silver deer into his hand.

Considering that it would arouse suspicion if he could take out a whole silver deer, he just secretly broke the silver deer into two halves.

"Sir, I really want this job, and I'm very strong, so it will be faster if I can lift the toilet!"

Jon activated the skill [Bribery]. His voice seemed to have an irresistible magic, and just the sound of it falling into Rune's ears made him lose his mind.

As he spoke, Jon snatched the toilet cleaning tool from the kid named Joey and started cleaning it quickly.

This was the first time someone bribed him, and Rune could hardly bear it. He touched the half of the silver deer that was still warm, and felt a little dizzy.

He looked at Jon again and found that although he was a little thin, he was indeed very strong.

After thinking for a while, Rune pointed directly at Joey.

"Put on his clothes and follow me."

Jon nodded happily and was about to take off the clothes of the child named Joey.

Joey was obviously a little resistant, he certainly didn't know that Jon was just going to do the job and leave, and he suddenly became 'unemployed' and felt a little dizzy.

However, Jon did demonstrate his strength advantage by lifting Joey up as if he was tearing open the packaging of something, then stripping off his clothes and putting them on himself.

A distraught Joey watched Jon follow Rune and the others into the red envelope. His whole body was shaking, and suddenly he could no longer hold back his tears and they flowed out uncontrollably.

He and his mother depended on each other for survival. His mother was sick and couldn't even afford medicine. Now she couldn't even eat. Joey felt like the sky was falling.