GOT : Battle Royale[ An ASOIAF Fanfiction]

"Now, Lannister, who must pay his debts, has proposed a new deal," Ian announced, his voice ringing out clearly as he held up a gleaming gold bar. "I have a gold bar in my hand. It weighs over two pounds and is worth 150 gold dragons. Who among you can cut off Harui's head? It will belong to whoever brings it to me. In addition, that person will become my new squire, and I will personally make him a knight within three years."

Harui's ominous premonition had come true.

Ian's words struck a heavy blow to his heart. Harui roared at Ian, "Asshole, you broke your oath!" Then, he frantically looked around at the few Kamel cronies still with him.

It was only at this moment that he realized he had severely underestimated Ian's ambition. He had initially thought that Ian's payment to the instigated mercenaries—framed as 'remuneration'—was simply a tactical retreat, a way to force a draw.

But he hadn't expected that while Ian was retreating to advance, he was also 'killing their spirit.'

He was killing the spirit of Kammer's cronies.

No sooner had Harui finished speaking than a mercenary beside him yanked him from his horse. His portly body hit the ground with a heavy thud. When he managed to raise his head, he saw the cold glint of a dagger.

The person who had acted was one of Kamel's own cronies. He had pulled Harui off his horse and, in a swift motion, slit Harui's throat with a knife.

In his dying moments, Harui felt an unspeakable regret.

He saw it so clearly now: if only he had accepted Kammer's suggestion at the time, he and the bastard could have parted ways peacefully.

Why had he been the one to take the lead in alienating Kammer's mercenaries? No one else had even considered defying Carmel's orders.

He was the one who had shattered the window first, and then the bastard had found the opportunity to smash his entire fortress to pieces.

After the mercenary who killed Harui succeeded, he quickly distanced himself from Kammer and the others. As he retreated, he shouted to Ian, "It's me, sir! I killed him!"

"What I said was, whoever gives me his head," Ian responded coldly. The moment Harui died, he had heard the notification sound from his auxiliary system.

Now that he had achieved his goal, he was ready to make his escape. But before he could, he still needed to cause a little more chaos.

As soon as he finished speaking, all the mercenaries sprang into action. They first hacked to death the servants around Harui with their swords, then rushed towards the corpse, joining in the brutal fight for his head.

Kammer stood amidst the crowd, furiously trying to stop these men, but his efforts were in vain.

Because Ian shouted the next moment: "Lannister must pay its debts!"

Then, he threw the gold bar he held. The instant the gold bar struck the crowd, most of the mercenaries immediately abandoned the fight for Harui's head and instead pounced on the gold bar.

After all, the knight of the Lannister family had already paid the money. The lord didn't care who ultimately took it.

Since this is how money is to be gained, why shouldn't it be me?

Watching all this unfold, Ian's racing heart finally began to calm. He turned his horse's head and ordered the knights beside him to leave. "Let's go."

"Just leave like this?" The green-armored knight sounded a little surprised.

"What? Is there a problem?"

"Look at all this," the knight moved his gaze to the corpse on the ground. "There's a massacre going on here, and the Tully family's investigation team will be here soon. I don't know your status within the Lannister family, but if it's not too high, I believe the Lannister family won't risk a conflict with the Riverlands over an illegitimate child. You'll be wanted."

Ian was stunned by this. After all his meticulous calculations, he had truly forgotten about the legal aspect. After all, this was a world resembling the Middle Ages, where killing people seemed to be a normal occurrence.

But Westeros had not yet plunged into war. Given the security of the Riverlands, it was entirely possible that the massacre in this salt mine would attract the attention of the Duke. And so many people had seen their image—the Lannister bastard's face.

It was true that all he needed to do was abandon his false identity as 'Lannister bastard' and melt the lion's head from the hilt of his sword. In an era where people relied solely on portraits for wanted posters, it would be a fool's errand for any law enforcement team to catch him.

But the problem was that he hadn't traveled alone. There were nearly a hundred players in this land. How many possibilities could be created against him by the flaw he had exposed in this matter?

Ian's heart skipped a beat. He took a deep breath and asked the knight beside him, "How certain are you if we were to kill all these people?"

He didn't want to gamble.

"Seven-tenths," the knight shook his head gravely. "If we join the battle now, they'll quickly see through our intentions, and they'll probably stop fighting among themselves and reunite. And the terrain here isn't conducive to mounted combat. If we dismount, we'll be besieged. Although most of them are lightly armored, there are simply too many people, and a few good soldiers among them."

After speaking, the knight added, "Of course, as long as you give the order, we can resolve everything."

"No," Ian immediately shook his head. These two knights were his biggest assets right now, and he didn't want to risk them unless absolutely necessary.

What was the difference between a 70% chance of success and simply giving them away?

So, Ian looked at the mercenaries not far away again.

At this moment, Kammer had already killed the guard who had just killed Harui and the old mercenary Adam who had initially caused the trouble. He now led his remaining guards in a confrontation with the mutinous mercenaries.

The mercenary who had accidentally snatched the gold bar stood trembling in the middle of the two groups.

"After all, he's an old captain with high prestige, so he can still control the situation," Ian couldn't help but comment, then shook his head. "It's too risky for us to enter like this."

"Sir Carmel, it seems you still have a lot of things to deal with, so I won't bother you any further. See you later!" Ian deliberately shouted loudly, and after giving Carmel a provocative look, he clapped his reins.

The two knights obviously didn't understand what Ian intended to do, but they still followed Ian's lead, riding out and soon reaching the King's Road.

The three of them had only ridden two miles before Ian reined in his horse and stopped on the King's Road. He then turned his horse's head to look back in the direction of the salt mine.

The two knights also halted.

"I thought you wanted to kill them all," the green-armored knight said immediately.

"Of course I want to, but not recklessly," Ian shook his head and explained. "I just instigated those mercenaries to kill Harui, ruining the reputation that Kammer has built over the years. And then, I instigated internal strife within his mercenary team, almost destroying the power of his men and his hopes of regaining his grandfather's title."

"Now he wants to peel my skin and eat my flesh; he won't let me go. When he sees us running away, he will soon chase us. But they only have five horses, and the old horses from Harui's caravan can't run at all, so the maximum number of people chasing us will be five."

"We need to deal with Carmel here first, and then go back and deal with the remaining defeated generals."