The Mountain of Ice and Fire

The Red Keep's secret passages?

Varys recalled the night Littlefinger waited for him in his bedroom. Did Littlefinger report the secret passages to the Mountain? Or did the Mountain learn about it through the 'blood sorcerer'?

But that no longer mattered.

The secret passages were complex, a maze connecting all the buildings within the Red Keep.

Entering the passages allowed free access to the White Sword Tower of the Kingsguard, the two-fireplace bedroom of King Maegor in Maegor's Holdfast, the sept behind Maegor's Holdfast, the Maidenvault, the Hand's study and bedroom, the Throne Room, the Small Council chamber, the dungeons, the Courtiers' Hall, the woods by the Blackwater Rush, the Blackwater Rush's underground drainage outlets, the alley of the pyromancers' guild, and an abandoned stone house in Flea Bottom. The passages were also connected to the city's underground drainage system, with branches of the secret passages of Chataya's brothel not far away from each other.

If the Mountain knew about these secret passages, the city gates would be meaningless to him if he wanted to riot or plan any military action. He could enter the city through at least three places. The filth of those entrances would not be an obstacle to the Mountain's brigands.

The Mountain saw Varys's eyes flicker.

He slowly drew the short sword from his waist.

The Mountain's short sword was not short at all, its blade gleamed with a snowy light, incredibly sharp.

Varys decided to honestly draw out the secret passages; he still wanted to live.

One thing that could be determined at the moment was that the Mountain had not told his secrets to the Lannisters, otherwise he would already be dead. The Mountain himself was plotting something, which was a point of doubt that Varys could not figure out.

Varys also suspected that after the Mountain extorted money from Illyrio, he would report it to Tywin.

He had carefully considered the relationships of all the powerful figures in the country, missing one seemingly insignificant person: the Mountain!

This oversight seemed to be the most fatal!

*

Knock, knock, knock!

Someone knocked on the door very politely.

Donna opened the door, and standing in front of her was Mother Deborah, the head of the orphanage.

Donna snorted coldly, about to slam the door shut with all her might, but a hand stopped the door, preventing her from closing it.

Donna was about to burst into curses when a copper star, shimmering with golden luster, appeared before her eyes, and a voice said, "Madam, we would be grateful if you would stop dumping your excrement in front of the orphanage."

Mother Deborah did not come alone this time, but with a total of five people. One of them, a fellow not much taller than a dwarf, looked very unapproachable. The other three tall men had unfriendly faces, wearing the coarse gray robes of the orphanage staff, with unfamiliar faces.

One of the three tall men was holding a copper star in his hand, standing in front of Donna, the door was held by him and could not be closed. Behind him, one fellow was carrying a brand-new wooden bucket, and another fellow had his arms crossed, squinting at her in a gangster-like manner.

The orphanage had never been taken seriously by the nearby residents.

They were all used to dumping their bucketed excrement out of the window at dawn every night, right in front of the orphanage's gate.

It wasn't that Donna liked to do this; the residents of Flea Bottom basically all did this. Other parts of King's Landing weren't much better. Stink Alley was another name for King's Landing. People who came to King's Landing for the first time could smell the stench of this big city outside the city. But after living there for a while, you would get used to its stench and fall in love with the extravagant, corrupt, and colorful life hidden under the stench.

Donna was a fat commoner with a very fiery temper. The people who lived in Flea Bottom were not good people, otherwise they could not live happily here.

Donna snorted coldly: "Headmaster Deborah, did you find some hooligans to show off your power?"

Before Headmaster Deborah could speak, the kid who was not much taller than a dwarf opened his mouth: "Madam, as long as you stop dumping garbage in front of the orphanage's gate, this copper star and this new chamber pot are yours. Every morning, someone will pull a cart to collect chamber pots on the street, the fee is not high, one copper penny per time."

A copper star was worth one hundred copper pennies. (ps: No specific conversion, sorry)

Donna really wanted this copper star, but going downstairs to the street every morning to carry the bucket and pay a copper penny was far less straightforward and convenient than opening the back window and dumping the excrement.

"Dwarf, what if I don't!" Donna glared her bull-like eyes.

Pa!

Donna immediately took a punch to the mouth. This punch was so heavy that Donna crashed into the house. Donna was furious. Both of her sons were hooligans on this street, usually gambling and collecting usury. They used to be under the command of Rorge and Biter in the underground arena. After Rorge and Biter were arrested and put into the Red Keep's dungeon, the two brothers found a new boss.

Moreover, the two brothers were just sleeping at home today and had not gone out to work.

Donna fell to the ground and shouted: "Boss, second boss, don't get up and kill them!"

Unfortunately, she only made one syllable before she took two more punches to the mouth, knocking out all her teeth, and almost biting off her tongue.

Donna couldn't shout anymore.

Bang!

Another punch came, hitting Donna's temple. She saw golden stars, her vision went black, and she felt a rain of heavy punches on her body. There was a stampede of horses in her ears, and she fainted.

When Donna woke up faintly, she found that her two invincible sons were tied to the wooden pillars in the room, one with a chamber pot on his head, covered in filth.

Donna sat up, her body aching, her teeth almost gone, blood and broken teeth all over the ground and her chest. At the gate, there was a brand-new chamber pot and a brand-new copper star.

*

The next day, Donna got up and habitually opened the back window, ready to dump the family's excrement from last night out of the window, and then she saw standing at the gate of the orphanage, the short man who looked very unapproachable yesterday, not much taller than a dwarf.

The dwarf man was looking up at her.

Donna really wanted to smash the chamber pot in her hand on the dwarf's head from the window on the third floor. But she found herself taking back the bucket and closing the window heavily.

A few minutes later, Donna, the fat and hot-tempered woman, came to the street. There was indeed a long wooden cart on the street, with a dozen chamber pots on it. More than a dozen neighbors had brought their chamber pots here and took away a clean chamber pot.

Donna put the bucket on the wooden cart and exchanged it for a new clean bucket. She looked at the man pulling the cart, it was Fifth Choi, a neighbor.

"Fifth Choi, how did you start doing this?"

"Mother Deborah, the head of the orphanage, found me and gave me five copper stars a month. I'm not stupid, why wouldn't I do it?" Fifth Choi said unhappily.

"I didn't bring a copper penny today," Donna said.

"It's okay to settle every ten days, Donna. It's okay if you don't give it to me. Bernie from the orphanage said that if you don't want to give a copper penny, he'll double my payment."

"Bernie?"

"Yes, a little dwarf. Some relative of Headmaster Deborah, very unapproachable." Fifth Choi looked at Donna's scarred face and almost toothless mouth. "I believe that Bernie has killed people, and more than one."

"Who hasn't killed anyone?" Donna shouted irritably, "Don't let him fall into my hands, damn it!" Tat-tat-tat, Donna went away in a rage.

"The duck is dead, still talking tough!" Fifth Choi curled his lips.

*

Pa!

A very loud slap knocked the middle-aged man to the ground, and the short sword at his waist fell, making a clang. The man immediately grabbed the sword in his hand, pulled it out with a whoosh, and shouted: "Whoever dares to come up, I will stab him to death."

The short sword was pointed at several people.

Among them were two orphanage children, a boy and a girl; the orphanage's language (writing) teacher; the teacher was a very thin, gentle middle-aged man. He took two children out today for another practical exercise, stole something from a noble's house, and then met this middle-aged man in the alleys of Flea Bottom. The things on them were robbed, a ledger, some gold and silver, three gold dragons, a dozen silver stags, and a small bag of copper stars.

The orphanage's life was not easy. Even the soldiers of the garrison had a chance of dying when patrolling Flea Bottom at night, let alone the orphans living in the orphanage in Flea Bottom.

It was not a big novelty for them to suffer some small bullying that did not endanger human lives, for little girls to be groped, and for them to be beaten by street hooligans.

But recently, a new batch of staff came to the orphanage, and the leader was about the same height as a child. His name was Bernie.

Bernie immediately took the writing teacher and two orphans to find this middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man was not difficult to find, because he was somewhat famous in this area, named But the Gambling Addict.

Butt was a gambling king who dared to do anything except good things. He used to be in Rorge and Biter's underground arena.

Faced with Butt's sharp knife, Bernie whistled, and there were three strong fellows in the orphanage's coarse gray robes beside him. One of them immediately stood up and walked towards Butt.

Butt's face turned cold, and he stabbed his opponent's chest with a knife. The other party didn't even move his eyelids, suddenly flashed, let the short knife pass, reached out and grabbed Butt's wrist, twisted it hard, and there was a crisp crack. The wrist bone made a sound of fracture, and Butt screamed loudly like a pig: "Ouch, ouch, ouch, let go, let go, if you dare to move me, do you know who I am!"

With a clang, the short knife was snatched and thrown on the ground. Pa pa pa pa, four slaps, hitting Butt dizzy and bleeding from his mouth.

Pa pa, another gray-robed man kicked Butt's leg twice, kicking him to his knees on the ground.

The third gray-robed man picked up the short knife from the ground and was about to stab it into Butt's stomach.

Butt was shocked. The two orphanage children watched with glee. This was so satisfying. Their companions often suffered from these street hooligans, and some older girls were bullied in the street. The teachers never had any effective solutions.

Although everyone was used to it, the resentment was squeezed in their hearts for a long time.

Since Bernie came to the orphanage, the children liked him more and more, and he never let the children down - like today.

Although the backstage boss of the orphanage was Varys, Varys was an invisible person. He only took action to clean up those who threatened the lives of the little birds, and he did it unknowingly, very secretly.

Seeing that the gray-robed man from the orphanage was about to stab his stomach, and it was definitely coming for real, Butt was so frightened that he exclaimed: "Stop, stop, haven't you heard of the Mountain? I am his relative. Yes, the Mountain, the number one in the Seven Kingdoms, I am his brother, good friend, relative and elder."

The tip of the gray-robed man's knife rested against Butt's stomach, turned his head and looked at Bernie.

Bernie smiled and waved his hand, and the three gray-robed men stepped back together.

"Butt, you said you are the Mountain's relative?"

"Yes, Bernie, can you give Lord Mountain some face? I know I was wrong. From now on, the little brothers on this street will never embarrass the children of the orphanage again."

"I am also the Mountain's relative, how come I have never heard of you," Bernie sized up Butt, "You are lying, no one can save you this time. Brothers, cut off his tongue."

"No, no, no!" Butt was shocked and shook his hands desperately, "My son-in-law is Ser Polliver Clegane, my daughter is Esther, my father is Buzz. I am really the Mountain's relative."

Bernie glared at Butt. He remembered that Polliver Clegane's wife was indeed Esther, a timid girl, and her grandfather was indeed called Buzz.

One of the gray-robed brothers said: "Bernie, Mrs. Esther and Master Buzz did sell brown soup at the crossroads of Flea Bottom."

"Yes, yes, yes, brown soup. Lord Mountain found me in the arena and gave me a sum of money, so I sold my daughter Esther to Lord Mountain. I am really Lord Mountain's relative, brothers, if you do me today, Lord Mountain will know about it sooner or later, and then, hehe! The orphanage will be leveled by Lord Mountain."

Butt became smug. He could see that Bernie and his gang were very afraid of the Mountain, which was easy to handle!

Damn, the Mountain's name is so useful!

"So you really are Lord Mountain's relative," Bernie's eyes rolled around, "How about this, Butt, are you willing to pass a message to the bosses of the dozen or so hooligan gangs in Flea Bottom?"

There were too many hooligans in Flea Bottom. Bernie didn't want the children to be harassed every time they went out, especially the girls. Some older girls were even more dangerous, and rapes happened from time to time.

"What message? Damn, I am Lord Mountain's relative, you want me to give a message to you, a little dwarf?" Butt stood up, touched the scars on his face, "Speak, how much are you going to compensate?"

"Compensate for what?"

"Look, your brother almost broke my wrist, and slapped me a few times, compensate me!" Butt said carelessly, "Don't mention Lord Mountain, even my son-in-law Polliver will make you unable to walk around."

Bernie smiled: "Brothers, beat Butt up first, and then I'll tell him what's what."

So, a beating, Butt was severely beaten by three brothers, two children, and a writing teacher. Although he didn't break any bones, he would have to lie in bed for a few days before he could get up.

Ser Polliver Clegane's father-in-law Butt was knocked to the ground and groaned!

Bernie squatted down and lifted Butt's hair: "Butt, the Mountain's name let you avoid the knife, and didn't break your bones, now I want you to pass a message to the bosses of the dozen or so hooligan gangs in Flea Bottom: Bernie from the orphanage tells them, respect the orphanage's children and staff when they go out and come back, otherwise, they will all be in trouble."

And so, Bernie got what he wished for. The next morning, the orphanage courtyard was packed with over a hundred hoodlum brothers, including seventeen gang leaders. Only a few of them carried longswords—gang leaders weren't exactly flush with cash, and longswords were quite expensive. Most of the gang leaders carried knives. They had come to see Bernie, to see just how many knife wounds Bernie's desired respect could withstand.

ps: Just this one update today.

Thanks to [Chau534] for the reward, much appreciated, handshake!