Chapter 22 Passive Promotion

 When Lind returned to the camp, it was already late at night. The reason why he came back so late was entirely because he had just been lost in the forest.

  Logically speaking, it was impossible for him to get lost in the forest with his ability, but he was indeed lost, and the process of getting lost was a bit inexplicable. It always felt like the entire forest was moving with him, which also made him He couldn't help but wonder if Sparks, the Son of the Forest, was teasing him.

  As for why he teased himself, he thought it might be because he had coveted Hua Hua's potion before and let Hua Hua sense it in some way, so Hua Hua wanted to teach himself a small lesson.

  However, no matter what, Linde did not suffer any injuries, he just lost a little bit of physical strength, and he also hunted a few hares on the way to feed the little guy in his arms.

  Along the way, the little guy in his arms was very honest and did not move. He seemed to use Linde's clothes as a sleeping bag.

  With nothing to do, Linde also named the little guy Glory.

  "You're finally back. I'm going to send someone to look for you in the forest." The scout captain learned from the night guard that Linde had come back and hurried over. He also blamed Linde's colleagues who came back too late. After taking a look at Linde, he found that Linde was not injured, and then his tense face relaxed a little.

  In his opinion, Linde should not have hunted the shadow lynx. Otherwise, he should have been more or less injured, and he should have carried the body of the shadow lynx back.

  "It was too dark and I got lost in the forest." Linde explained simply.

  The scout captain didn't care whether this explanation was reasonable or not. He patted Linde on the shoulder and said, "Sir Garland and Lord Fortimo are waiting for you in the tent in the hall. You'd better go over immediately."

  Linde was stunned when he heard this . He was stunned, and without asking the reason for waiting for him, he came to the hall of the inn house under the leadership of the scout captain.

  Because there were several bonfires in the hall, the dampness and coldness of the rainy day were completely dispelled. The nobles and knights each found a clean place to sleep. Only some attendants remained awake, waiting for the call of their masters at any time.

  In addition, there was also fire swaying in the very conspicuous tent in the hall, and people's shadows could be seen projected on the tent's cloth. It seemed that the people in the tent had not rested yet.

  After seeing Lind, the attendant sitting next to the tent stood up immediately, then signaled Lind to wait for a while, turned around and got into the tent, and whispered to wake up Garland and Fortimo who were dozing.

  "Lind, come in!" After clearing his mind a little, Fortimo said on behalf of Garland.

  Linde heard the sound, opened the curtain and walked in, but the tent was covered with carpet. The rainwater on his clothes dripped down his body and fell to the ground, leaving puddles of water stains on the carpet, which made him stop involuntarily. , stood on the edge of the carpet to avoid getting the carpet even more wet.

  "Don't worry, I didn't want to lay this carpet in the first place. Those guys insisted on laying it, so it doesn't matter if it gets dirty." Garland rubbed his sleepy eyes, and then looked at the situation on Linde's body, with a slight expression on his face. He said with disappointment: "Looking at you, you probably didn't catch the shadow lynx."

  "No, I caught up with it." Lind replied: "But I didn't kill it."

  "Didn't kill it?" Garland He was stunned for a moment.

  At this time, Fertimo saw something in Linde's arms, which seemed to be alive and moving, so he pointed at Linde's arms and asked, "Is this what you gained from tracking the shadow lynx?" "

  Yes." Lin De nodded, then took out the albino shadow lynx cub sleeping in his arms, and said, "This little guy was given to me by his mother, the shadow lynx I was tracking."

  Garland and Fertimo was stunned when he heard this, and looked at the lynx cub Guangrong that Lind took out and said nothing for a long time.

  In the early morning of the next day, the rain had stopped. Although the ground was still a little muddy, it was much easier to walk than yesterday. As usual, the scout team went ahead to check the situation, but what was different from usual was Lin, who was the core of the scout team. There is a shadow lynx cub beside De, and this cub is an extremely rare albino cub.

  Last night, the people who went hunting with Linde returned to their respective queues and told others about Linde's pursuit of the shadow lynx, and also publicized the misunderstanding of the ten hunting trials. come out.

  However, Linde did not come back for a long time, and many people speculated whether something would happen to Linde. After all, the place he was in now was the Royal Forest. No matter how high Linde's swordsmanship was, he would not be able to fully display it in such an environment. What's more, the shadow lynx is far more dangerous in the forest than in other places. It can approach its prey silently under the cover of trees and grass, tear out the prey's throat with its sharp claws and sharp teeth, and kill it with one blow. , even formal knights may not be able to escape the shadow lynx's sneak attack, so when the time reaches late at night, more and more people feel that the bear hunter may die in the royal forest this time.

  However, Linde came back unscathed, and there was no trace of any battle on his body, so everyone in the camp felt that Linde had not tracked the shadow lynx this time.

  But not long after, new news came from the lobby of the inn. It turned out that Linde tracked the shadow lynx, completely defeated the shadow lynx in a non-injury way, and then captured it alive. However, when Linde was about to kill the shadow lynx, When the lynx was brought back to the inn, they found that the shadow lynx was a female beast with several cubs beside her.

  When Linde was a hunter, he had an unwritten rule, which was not to capture female beasts with cubs, so he let go of the shadow lynx. But when he was about to leave, the shadow lynx blocked his way. And he took an albino cub in his mouth and gave it to Linde.

  At first, when everyone in the camp heard the news, they all thought that the person who spread the news must be talking nonsense, because they had never heard of a shadow lynx being tamed, let alone being humane to repay a favor.

  However, when Lind came out of the inn hall, holding an albino shadow lynx cub in his arms, everyone's expressions were full of shock, and the eyes looking at Lind became more and more awe, because like This kind of thing can only be seen in those legendary stories, and it only happens to those legendary heroes, so that Lind also has the shadow of some legendary heroes in their hearts.    

  In fact, this is the effect that Lind hopes to achieve. He deliberately concealed the children of the forest and the faceless men, and slightly adapted the process of obtaining the glory of the cub. In his opinion, killing a shadow lynx will only make people feel uncomfortable. He is a powerful hunter, but having Shadow Lynx automatically sacrifice his cubs feels like something that only happens to a legendary hero.

  And more importantly, he doesn't need to promote it himself. Others will take the initiative to help him promote it. This kind of thing narrated through the mouths of others is far more convincing than what he takes the initiative to tell.

  So, in the early morning of the next day, the entire Rose family team knew about the shadow lynx. Many people who were curious ran to the scout camp to read the story before Linde set off. The albino shadow lynx cub in the room, and those who were still doubtful about the rumors had all their doubts dissipated after seeing the glory of the lynx cub clinging to Linde's side and showing its teeth at others.

  However, even so, there are also some jealous people among these people. These people are almost all the nobles and knights of Highgarden who traveled with the team this time. In their view, people like Linde have a low status. Don't deserve such a legendary experience.

  It's just that because of Fortimer, they didn't dare to belittle Lind too deliberately around Garland. They could only slightly question the authenticity of Lind's story, but when Garland asked them the reason for their doubts, they couldn't tell them. , all kinds of things made them feel that Linde was like a hedgehog, unable to start.

  In the end, they could only attack Linde in his glorious albino form, because albino beasts have never been auspicious in Westeros. They are just like human deformities and are discriminated against. Even albino beasts are described in many folklores. The beasts are described as evil beasts that devour human souls. People who die from the mouths of albino beasts will not be led by strangers, and will wander between life and death forever, eventually turning into evil ghosts.

  Although Garland did not believe this absurd legend, and he had no discrimination against either animal deformities or human deformities, he had to take into account the thoughts of other people around him.

  But he didn't want to do anything to Linde because of the jealousy of these people, so when he was repairing it that night, he asked his servant to give Linde a collar made of reins, which was a sign of his attitude.

  Linde had originally planned to make a collar to restrain Glory, because apart from being particularly close to him, Glory maintained the wild nature of a beast towards others. Even Raul was inadvertently bitten off a small piece of flesh by it. Therefore, Linde had to put the plan to train the shadow lynx on the agenda, and until he trained Glory to a satisfactory level, he would restrain it with a collar and rope to avoid hurting people again.

  On the other hand, Glory didn't know that its hard days were coming soon. Instead, it felt that the collar Lind put on it was a gift and a toy, and it had a great time playing with it.

  The journey after that became very smooth, and it didn't rain again. After starting from the inn, it took another three days to finally walk out of the Royal Forest and arrive at the end of Rose Avenue. This is also the end of Tongmen Avenue and King's Avenue. The three avenues converge. it's here.

  What's interesting is that this is the intersection of three avenues and is also located at the exit of the royal forest. Behind it is the Blackwater Bridge connecting the southern border and the royal territory. Logically speaking, it should be a very critical military location, not to mention that it was built here. It is a fortress castle. At least a military camp should be built here, and some troops should be stationed here to guard the key points.

  But in fact, there is only an abandoned military camp here, and this military camp was temporarily built for the purpose of crusade against the Kingswood Brotherhood. After the crusade against the Kingswood Brotherhood was completed, it was completely abandoned. Now Robert Baratheon sits After taking the Iron Throne, no military fortress was built here, but the original temporary military camp was still left abandoned here.

  As for the reason, it is very likely that he believes that the Bronze Gate Road leads to Storm's End, and Storm's End is the territory of his Baratheon family, and there is no need for him to waste manpower and material resources stationed here.

  However, when the Rose family team came to this intersection, a group of people walked out of the abandoned temporary military camp. This group was only about a hundred people. These people were wearing dark armor. , wearing a dyed gold cloak behind them, which looks both eye-catching and impractical. The only things that are still practical are the hammers hanging on their waists and the iron-headed spears they hold in their hands.

  "They should be the golden robes of King's Landing." Raul came closer to Lind at this time and whispered.

  Lind listened to Raoul's prompts, and his eyes swept over the golden robes, and finally landed on the man leading the golden robes.

  I saw that this man was tall and handsome, with thick long golden hair, a pair of green eyes full of confidence, and the slightly upturned razor-edge lips made him look extremely proud. In addition to his appearance, his clothes were also Very prominently, a piece of extremely gorgeous armor is put on the body, a white cloak hangs from the shoulders, and a beautifully decorated long sword is wrapped in the cloak, swaying slightly as the body shakes, looming under the cloak.

  "Kingslayer Jaime Lannister." With such an outstanding appearance, coupled with the armorer's obvious lion emblem, Lind easily recognized this man's identity.

  Not only did Linde recognize this man's identity, but everyone else in the team also recognized this man's identity. However, after they recognized the identity of the Kingslayer, they all couldn't help but show disdain and disgust. Even Garland, who had received special training, could not hide his disdain.

  In the past, no one could be sure who was the most shameful knight in the entire Seven Kingdoms, because everyone had their own standards of measurement and could not be unified. But after the Usurper War, this most shameful knight The knight was deservedly blamed on the regicide Jaime Lannister, because he broke his oath and killed the Mad King Aerys he was supposed to protect.

  As the person involved, Jaime Lannister seems to have become accustomed to this kind of contemptuous and disdainful gaze. A year ago, he might have been angry about it, but now he has no fluctuations, because he knows very well that no matter how he explains it, he can't No one would believe him, and no one would listen to him quietly. The only thing he could do was to keep his head high and not let the crown on his head fall off.

  However, just when James' eyes swept over the soldiers of the Rose Family in front of him, he discovered that among the countless looks of contempt and disdain, there was one person whose eyes were extremely calm and did not show any negative thoughts towards him. Emotion made him couldn't help but pause on that person for a moment, and then quickly moved away, landing on Garland Tyrell who had already walked to the front of the team accompanied by Fertimo.

  "I have heard of you, the brave Garland." James drove the horse to Garland, looked up and down at Garland on the horse, and said in a very frivolous tone: "Are you serious? I don't know about bravery, but judging from your figure, it can't be compared to bravery."

  Jaime Lannister's casual tone of teasing Garland made the knights and nobles of the Rose family feel dissatisfied. Teemo even dropped his hand on the hilt of the sword without leaving a trace.

  James seemed to be unable to feel the dissatisfaction of the Rose family, and the contemptuous smile on his face became more and more obvious, and he did not take the threat shown by Fortimo to heart at all.

  (End of chapter)