Chapter 203: The Westerlands Volunteers
Escort Arya home? Egger wanted no part of that task and raised a stern protest to Robb on the spot. However, he relented after the latter offered a deal: those hundred soldiers could remain under Egger's long-term command once they reached the North, serving until the Wildlings and White Walkers were defeated.
A hundred trained soldiers were a massive boon to the Night's Watch. To endure a bratty child for a few extra days in exchange for that was a bargain Egger couldn't refuse.
...
Arya spent a day with Robb. Egger had no idea if she actually went to see her fiance during that time. Regardless, when he led the Logistics Department column out of the Harrenhal gathering grounds the next morning, the hot potato was back in his hands, accompanied by a hundred Stark soldiers. It was a situation that left him feeling quite helpless.
Those hundred Northern soldiers were not from Winterfell and did not recognize their liege lord's daughter. Arya maintained her disguise as Egger's personal squire, so the risk of exposure remained low. Leaving the chaotic encampment of Harrenhal, which teemed with soldiers and laborers, Egger spent two days traveling to Lord Harroway's Town.
Time flies. Egger still remembered the first time he arrived at this junction of the River Road and the Kingsroad. Back then, he was a nobody on his way south to King's Landing. Tyrion was the only person outside the Night's Watch who knew and appreciated him. He had been filled with a resolve to meddle as little as possible with the plot, his mind split between worrying about reaching the capital and agonizing over how to solve the impossible tasks Mormont had set for him.
The second time he came through, his status had shifted to Robert's Night's Watchman in the royal retinue, heading east to the Vale's entrance to participate in the King's suppression of the Alliance of the Righteous. By then, the Night's Watch industries were flourishing under Tyrion's management, and history—due to Egger's presence—was showing a violent butterfly effect, spiraling in a completely different direction...
And now, for the third time, he had been requested by name to head west to the Golden Tooth—to collect Tywin Lannister's son, the legendary Kingslayer, and bring him into the Night's Watch. Whether he liked it or not, Egger was now a celebrity with genuine influence in Westeros, inextricably caught in the surging tides of history.
He had transitioned from an observer to one of the drivers of change.
Sentiments aside, there was no time to waste. After spending a night at the familiar inn in town, Egger ordered the supply wagons to wait. Taking most of the Logistics soldiers and the hundred Northern men, he set off west along the River Road.
With the local fighting over and the weather holding fair, it took him four days to reach Riverrun. He left Arya to wait at her mother's ancestral home and continued west into the Westerlands with his men.
...
Land that has just emerged from war is a scarred landscape; the Riverlands were bad, but the West was even worse. As they traveled west on the River Road, the path became noticeably wider—the wealthy rulers of the West clearly did not skimp on infrastructure. However, the scenery along the way was far from pleasant. Bodies hung from trees, fresh mounds of earth marked new graves, fields were reduced to scorched earth, and villages were picked clean... In the story of Game of Thrones, House Stark is undoubtedly a heroic faction, but that didn't mean their armies or those of their allies were any more refined or gentler than any other force in the Seven Kingdoms. Amidst his pity and lamentation, the accompanying Northern soldiers told Egger a surprising fact: most of these scorched fields had been burned by the Westerlands' own army.
Scorched Earth—a tactic used by rulers of any era only when facing a powerful enemy under extreme disadvantage. While the war in the West was raging, Egger had been busy in King's Landing filling the massive management vacuum left by Tyrion's departure. He hadn't known the specifics, but seeing these blackened fields made him realize just how close his divine teammate and best partner's family had come to total annihilation. Even as an outsider, Egger felt a chill run down his spine.
With over a hundred soldiers in tow, the journey was unimpeded. Five days after leaving Riverrun, Egger arrived before the heavily fortified walls of the Golden Tooth. The battle scars from when Robb Stark took the castle were still visible, but the Golden Lion banner flew once more atop the walls. Despite having just suffered successive defeats and having their homeland pillaged, the morale of the Westerlands soldiers seemed better than expected. Leaving the hundred Northern soldiers to wait outside, Egger declared his purpose and entered the fortress with his Logistics men.
He had expected Tyrion to be waiting for him, and Egger had even prepared to discuss topics like outpost construction in the Gift, post-war recovery of the West, and the future trends of the Seven Kingdoms. However, the Red Cloak guiding him explained that the dwarf lord had not come to the Golden Tooth. Instead, he was in Lannisport, working day and night on the operations and liquidity of the Lannister Bank.
He didn't see the Little Lion, but the Old Lion was waiting in the hall. Led by a Red Cloak officer, Egger soon came face-to-face with the legendary Tywin Lannister.
"Chief Logistics Officer." Tywin sat at the end of a long table, looking at Egger with an expressionless gaze. "Even as far as the West, I have heard of your legendary experiences and heroic deeds. On behalf of House Lannister, I welcome you. I thank you for arriving so swiftly—please, be seated."
"You are too kind, my Lord." Egger thought. As expected of the man famous throughout the Seven Kingdoms for his iron will; even his pleasantries were cold. Fortunately, the current situation was one where the other party needed him. Egger calmly pulled out a chair and sat down. "I thank you for the welcome and hospitality, but I am still on official business. I ask that you keep this brief and bring forth Ser Jaime, so he may accompany me north to the Wall and fulfill the agreement."
"He will go with you," Tywin said, tapping his fingers on the table. "But before that, I wish to understand in as much detail as possible the current state of the Wall, and the treatment my son will receive once he joins the Night's Watch."
"Ask what you will, my Lord. I shall hide nothing."
...
Regarding his son's future and the family's legacy, Tywin did not hold back. The questions were relentless. Servants brought wine and snacks as the two talked for quite a while.
Egger spoke truthfully about the conditions at the Wall and his own assessment: Jaime Lannister had a high probability of directly becoming a Ranger Captain, beginning his life at the Wall as a middle-ranking officer. As for his quality of life, Egger assured him as Chief Logistics Officer that Jaime would not live any worse than Egger himself.
"Do the Rangers need to go out on patrol frequently?" Tywin asked with a frown. "The news of the walking dead and White Walkers beyond the Wall—is it a rumor spread by the Night's Watch, or is it true?"
"It is true. Because the Ranger casualties have been so high over the past year and the Wildlings have already reached the foot of the Wall... generally speaking, the probability of Rangers going out on patrol has dropped nearly to zero. You need not worry about that, my Lord."
Despite Tywin hiding it well, Egger could feel it: for a man as proud and powerful as the Lord of Casterly Rock, being forced to personally send his son to the Night's Watch was deeply galling. Yet, as a father, his words betrayed a desire for his son to live well at the Wall. Once the general situation was understood, the Old Lion asked in a very veiled manner about the possibility of using means to get Jaime out of his vows in the future.
Egger immediately recalled what Tyrion had said to him nearly a year ago when he convinced the Night's Watch leadership to let him go south.
The far-sighted dwarf had asserted back then: "If anyone wanted to buy Ranger Jaime Lannister out of his vows, even selling Casterly Rock wouldn't cover the ransom."
When Tyrion said that, he was trying to make Egger feel better about being worthless. If he knew he had accidentally made a self-fulfilling prophecy, Egger wondered what he would think.
...
"There is no historical precedent for a Night's Watchman setting aside the black. In the current political climate of the Seven Kingdoms, the possibility of safely extracting someone like Jaime—whom everyone is watching—from the Watch without consequence is nearly zero," Egger said bluntly. "As for the future... who can predict what the future holds?"
Receiving the expected negative answer, Tywin's face remained unmoved. He moved on to another question: "That detachment of Stark soldiers outside the walls—what is the meaning of that?"
"Sent by Robb Stark, to ensure Ser Jaime reaches the Wall safely along the River Road and the Kingsroad."
Tywin was silent for a few seconds, staring at Egger as if searching for a hint of a lie. After a long while, he spoke again: "That Stark boy... I mean Robb Stark... has he truly agreed to let Jaime take the black?"
"The Night's Watch is impartial, Lord Tywin." Egger fully understood the Old Lion's concerns and looked up solemnly. "If I had not received a definitive answer from Robb Stark, I would never have come here today."
"Can you guarantee Jaime's safe arrival at the Wall?"
"I cannot. In these chaotic times, I can't even guarantee my own safe arrival with 100% certainty. But my Lord, I can guarantee that we will face no attacks authorized by Robb Stark along the way. As for common bandits and outlaws, the Logistics column is more than capable of handling them." Egger never overpromised. "If you are truly uneasy, you are welcome to keep Ser Jaime by your side until both Kings provide written guarantees—but if I may be so bold: once the struggle between the two stags is decided, the victor may very well change his mind."
...
Tywin sighed, shook his head, and stood up from his chair. "I will not wait. This disaster was of Jaime's own making; the risks on the path to atonement should be borne by him, not the family. If anyone truly dares to strike at my son, that is Jaime's fate. I will not waste words; I will only prove through action that a Lannister always pays his debts."
Seeing his host stand, Egger also rose from his seat. But instead of Jaime Lannister appearing, he received another surprising piece of news: "There are many fine young men in the West who have heard of the crisis facing the Wall and have volunteered to join the Night's Watch to defend the northern border... Since you are here, take these men back to the Wall with you."
Volunteers? With the appearance of the wights in King's Landing, actual volunteers were starting to crop up; Egger already had a few in his column. But why would a Great Lord like Tywin personally handle such a thing?
With doubt in his heart, Egger followed his host to the courtyard behind the hall. He was stunned by the sight: dozens of soldiers dressed in black stood in disciplined ranks, their expressions resolute. Their uniform plate armor felt instantly familiar to Egger, who had dealt with Lannister guards—this was clearly standard Lannister-issue armor, with the family crests and red paint ground off and replaced by black dye.
Looking at the way these men were trained and the murderous aura they exuded, Egger had no doubt: in any situation, they could wipe the floor with the hundred soldiers Robb had assigned to him. These weren't fine young men volunteering; these were the bodyguards Tywin had arranged for his son!
"They are also joining the Night's Watch?"
"Yes. Like Jaime, they will take the black and swear the vows, becoming Night's Watchmen just like you—genuine and true."
(What a grand gesture.)
Egger couldn't help but marvel inwardly. How much talking had he done, how many benefits had he promised, just to recruit a similar number of security guards to follow him north? And they were only external aid for the Logistics Department, not bound by oaths and free to leave at any time. Yet Tywin, with a wave of his hand, had the same number of even more elite soldiers accompanying Jaime to that frozen hell, swearing that god-forsaken oath to be bound for life.
In terms of fame, Egger was now on par with the Great Lords... but in terms of vision and actual resources at his command, he was still far behind. He wondered how much time it would take after establishing the Queenscrown base to possess the same strength as the Old Lion before him.
"In addition to these young men, I will also be donating a small batch of weapons, armor, horses, and grain to the Wall. My logistics officer is currently taking inventory. Spend the night within the castle, my Lord. When you depart tomorrow, Jaime will join you along with these volunteers and a caravan laden with donated supplies."
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