The Mountain of Ice and Fire

Black stones, black roads, black trees – in Maester Harry's eyes, everything was black.

Even the air was black.

He couldn't see anything, forced to rely on his horse to lead the way.

He truly didn't understand how the Mountain and his four killers could see clearly in the woods.

On the Golden Road, it was manageable, but from the moment they turned off onto the mountain's dense forest path, he completely lost his sense of direction, time, and sight.

Leading the way was old Thomas Mann, the guide for their party.

Originally, they could have reached the Shallot family's Silver Hall directly via the Golden Road, but the Mountain wanted Thomas Mann to take them to the mine garrison first.

Old Thomas Mann was once a miner and knew these roads well.

"Who's there?" A shout suddenly erupted from the darkness.

"It's me, Old Stick!" Thomas Mann's voice was calm.

Maester Harry immediately shrank down and lay prone on his horse, remembering a knight saying that this was the best technique for avoiding arrows in the dark.

"Old Stick?"

"Yes, I'm here to deliver wine and food to Lord Alvar."

"Oh, so early today?"

"Afraid your lord might be impatient." Notebook's voice suddenly chimed in with a chuckle. Before he finished speaking, Maester Harry heard an extremely brief 'ah' sound, as if Notebook had slit the other man's throat.

Maester Harry realized he was trembling slightly.

He looked around; it was all darkness. He didn't know what kind of terrifying creatures were hiding within. He felt threatened everywhere. His well-trained horse continued to follow the horse in front steadily.

Gregor's party consisted of seven men and ten warhorses.

Warhorses were not ordinary horses. They were trained for battle, knew the roads, could march quickly in the dark, and could carry heavy loads. Even on mountain paths, warhorses could climb. Because of his enormous size, Gregor Clegane had three of the best warhorses. On ordinary patrols, two warhorses carried Gregor's armor, and one carried his greatsword and shield. In battle, Gregor would be fully armed, and the other two warhorses would be available for replacements.

When they turned from the Golden Road onto the mine garrison's camp, Gregor put on his armor and hung his greatsword.

A faint smell of blood drifted in the air.

Did Notebook kill someone?

Maester Harry couldn't be sure if that unlucky sentry was dead or not.

If they were here to reason, they had the absolute advantage, but if people started dying, things changed. They would become the unreasonable party.

But Lord Mountain was always the reasonable party. His reason was his fists and his greatsword. Except for Tywin Lannister, the Mountain feared no one.

Suddenly, piles of firelight appeared ahead – unknowingly, they had finished traversing the mountain road and reached a flat area.

Rows of houses appeared ahead.

The trees on both sides of the road disappeared, and the starlight appeared in the sky. The clouds dispersed, and Maester Harry's eyes could see things several meters away.

"Be careful of the mine shafts," Thomas Mann's voice came.

On both sides of the small road, there were black, giant-mouth-like mine shafts, right next to the road.

The horses' hooves walked on the edge of the mine shafts. Looking down, it was dark and unfathomably deep.

Small stones rolled down, and it took a long time to hear any echo.

Maester Harry heard his own heart pounding.

Fortunately, everyone passed safely through this ground covered with 'big mouths' and arrived at the open space in front of the rows of houses.

Everyone dismounted. The entire mine garrison was asleep.

Thomas Mann pointed to a door. The Mountain walked up with a thunderous tread and kicked the wooden door to pieces with one foot.

Bang!

A loud noise.

The sound startled the sleeping mine garrison.

The three sentries who were warming themselves by the fire jumped up from the ground. Then, they saw several gleaming swords pointed at them: Sweetmouth Ralph was grinning; the executioner Dunsen's eyes glowed green like a cat's; the fanatic Polliver's left hand trembled slightly – not from fear, but from excitement; and Notebook's face was filled with a longing cruelty, his sword still stained with blood.

The young Maester Harry clumsily drew his sword – Lord Mountain had ordered him to participate in the battle. He walked forward tremulously, his steps faltering, his trembling sword pointing at a mercenary's throat. Feeling it was inappropriate, the sword tip slid down, pointing at the other man's chest. Feeling that was too cruel, the sword tip slid down again, pointing at the other man's abdomen. His eyes flickered: "…Don't move…" He said nervously in a neurotic tone.

The Four Great Kings looked at Maester Harry and laughed.

Thump!

A figure was thrown out of the room.

Boom, boom, boom!

The Mountain walked out of the room like a giant beast, his greatsword drawn. The man who had been smashed to the ground and was almost unconscious immediately recognized him: "Lord Clegane!"

His voice was filled with fear.

More than a dozen garrison soldiers who had rushed out of the room with swords in their hands stopped at once. Inside the rows of houses, the company soldiers who were scrambling to find shoes, clothes, sword belts, and weapons all heard Alvar Shallot's miserable howl: Lord Clegane!

Everyone was shocked!

"Where is my daughter Julie?" The Mountain roared, startling the tree birds far and near, causing them to cry out and fly away.

Gregor's giant foot stepped on Alvar's chest, and his greatsword pointed at his head.

Caught off guard, a stench of feces and urine wafted out.

Tiger's most beloved seventh son – the sharpshooter Alvar Shallot – had been scared into soiling himself. From then on, his knightly honor would flow eastward like water, never to return.

In extreme fear, the body's muscles would lose control. If certain key muscle groups lost control, the physiological phenomenon of simultaneous defecation and urination would occur.

"…Lord…Lord…" Alvar's mind was blank. His chest was being stepped on by the Mountain's giant foot, like a huge stone pressing down, and his throat could not breathe. "…Julie…Who is Julie…" His voice was weak.

Lord Mountain has a daughter?

No one had ever heard of it.

The Four Great Kings and Maester Harry didn't know that the Mountain had a daughter named Julie.

But the horse soldier Thomas Mann knew that the Mountain was using Julie being his daughter as a pretext to attack the Shallot family, which made it justifiable. Because Julie had become a noble.

Gregor had decided before setting off that Julie was his daughter. As for what kind of daughter she was, he hadn't decided yet. In short, Julie was not an ordinary poor family's daughter. This was being unreasonable while still being reasonable, commonly known as a 'scam'.

Taking any small thing from the pre-transmigration Hua country civilization would be enough to make this Shallot noble suffer. Those swindling methods of 'not daring to help the elderly' on the streets: slander, fabrication, unreasonable arguments, shameless begging plus physical violence, taking any one of them would see how you could cope.

"Ten days ago, your garrison passed by my Clegane Keep and captured a girl in the poppy field. Her name is Julie, and she is my daughter," Gregor roared.