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In the town of Lannisport, tens of thousands of merchants and smallfolk hid inside their homes, trembling as they listened to the chaos outside, where every sort of sound blurred together.
In the eastern district, inside a newly built two-story house, a couple in their mid-thirties hid in an upstairs bedroom with their fourteen-year-old daughter.
The husband held a wooden club as thick as a wrist and stared nervously at the bedroom door, which he had blocked with a wardrobe. His wife held their daughter in her arms, both of them curled in the corner of the room.
A loud crash came from downstairs as the front door was broken open. Then came footsteps and the clatter of things being knocked over and smashed.
Hearing the sounds below, sweat kept beading on the husband's forehead. His hands tightened around the wooden club again and again, and he looked visibly terrified.
Behind him, his wife and daughter held each other tightly, their curled-up bodies shaking without pause.
Thump, thump, thump!
Crash!
Footsteps came up the stairs. Then the bedroom door was shoved violently from outside. Because the wardrobe blocked it, the men outside failed to push it open.
Crack!
The sound of an axe chopping into wood followed. Clearly, the intruders outside were hacking at the bedroom door.
Knowing the worst had come, the husband, who had been terrified, looked back at his wife and daughter. When he turned forward again, his eyes had become firm, and his trembling hands slowly steadied.
Crack!
Under the intruders' violent blows, the wooden bedroom door was hacked apart, and the wardrobe behind it was shoved over.
The husband saw a burly figure step into the room. He swung the club with all his strength.
The club struck the man's right shoulder with a dull thud. The burly soldier bared his teeth and sucked in a breath from the pain, then turned and punched the husband in the face.
"Ah!"
The wife hiding in the corner saw her husband fall with his face covered in blood and could not help screaming.
Hearing the noise upstairs, the intruders downstairs also came up.
There were three intruders in all, all dressed like typical northern soldiers. They were large men with fierce faces, wearing standard mail marked with a sigil of two crossed longaxes guarding a black crown.
After the other two northern soldiers entered the bedroom, they began searching constantly for valuables: gold dragons, silver stags, jewelry, and gold objects.
The burly man struck in the shoulder kept rubbing it while studying the mother and daughter in the corner.
Lannisport had many collateral members of House Lannister, or poorer distant kin.
The mother and daughter clearly had the golden hair of House Lannister. Though their faces were full of fear, their fair skin and pretty features were still plain to see.
"Heh, heh."
The burly man rubbed his right shoulder hard and walked toward the mother and daughter with a leering smile.
Seeing the desire in his eyes as he approached, the mother and daughter knew what would happen. They immediately let out piercing screams.
"Hey. Remember the military law the judge read out? If you make one mistake, our whole squad will be punished with you.
"We came here to get rich. With money, are you afraid there will be no women? Do not do something stupid."
The two northern soldiers searching the room naturally heard the mother and daughter screaming. They frowned and called out to the burly man.
"Can the rotten goods in a brothel compare to these two Lannisters? If you do not say anything, who will know what happened here?
"Damn it, we win a battle and are not even allowed to vent?
"To hell with military law. To hell with the King in the North!"
Hearing them, the burly man turned and answered crudely. Then he grabbed the mother, tugging at his own breeches while tearing at her fine clothing.
Screams and sobs immediately filled the house. Seeing that their warning had failed, the other two northern soldiers exchanged a look, shook their heads, and continued searching for valuables to put into the bags they had taken.
Thud, thud!
The burly man had just loosened his breeches and torn away the woman's clothing when two heavy objects hit the floor behind him.
He turned at once and saw several soldiers in Lannister armor pulling bloodied longswords from the bodies of his two companions.
"Ah!"
As the burly man turned, a burst of terrible pain struck between his legs. He screamed and looked down.
The naked woman before him had somehow found a small, delicate dagger and driven it into him.
Then a longsword stabbed into the back of his neck, cutting his scream short.
Daven pulled his longsword free from the northern soldier's neck and pushed the corpse aside. Then he tore off the cloak from his own back and wrapped it around the naked woman.
"Lord Daven, this civilian is only unconscious. He is still alive!"
One guard checked the husband's condition and reported to Daven.
Daven nodded, then turned to the wife and said, "Nowhere outside is safe. Your house has already been turned over badly, so no one should come search it again for a while.
"Do not close the door. Hide here properly. Also, make yourself and your daughter look as dirty as you can."
"Thank you, my lord!"
Hearing the woman's thanks, Daven rose with a determined expression and led his squad of guards downstairs, continuing along the street toward the Lannisport guard headquarters.
The more than one thousand guards under his command had already broken into ten-man squads, using the streets they knew well to fight while retreating.
Lannisport was large. On foot, there was no way to escape quickly.
Daven and the others were retreating toward Casterly Rock. As a member of House Lannister, he naturally knew how strong the Rock was.
Most of Casterly Rock's guards had now been taken away by Tywin, and fewer than a thousand might remain. Given the enemy's current numbers, if they disregarded losses and attacked continuously, they might truly have a chance to take it.
But if Daven's thousand-odd guards entered that high-walled, heavily fortified stone castle and helped defend it, he believed the stone fortress that had never fallen would still stand in the Westerlands.
Yet the guard headquarters Daven was now heading toward lay in eastern Lannisport, not in the same direction as Casterly Rock to the north.
That was because Daven had not seen Stafford while fighting the enemy at the harbor. Worried about his father, he had deliberately taken a detour.
Behind the retreating Lannister soldiers, Lord Rickard and the Greatjon each led nearly fifteen hundred northern soldiers in high spirits, pursuing and killing at their heels.
Because more than a thousand recruits had also fled into the town, Lord Rickard and the Greatjon had begun splitting their troops to pursue them. They would not distinguish between guards and recruits. In their eyes, all of them were fleeing battle honors.
But as they gradually pushed deeper into the town, their forces became more and more scattered in the unfamiliar streets.
In a narrow alley, a squad of nine Lannister recruits escorted Stafford north through Lannisport. Behind them, twelve Karstark soldiers were pursuing.
"Ah!"
The young recruit at the rear was cut in the heel by a Karstark soldier. He screamed and fell.
His scream did not last long. The other Karstark soldiers quickly surrounded him and swung their swords, opening more than a dozen deep bloody holes in his body.
"This cannot go on. Let us turn and fight them!"
Seeing their comrade stabbed to death by enemy swords behind them, one recruit could no longer bear it and shouted.
"Yes, fight them! There are only a few more of them than us. We may not lose.
"If you win, I will reward each of you with five gold dragons!"
Hearing this, Stafford immediately encouraged the recruits beside him with heavy rewards.
The recruits heard the promise of gold. Since the enemy before them were men, not that terrifying giant wolf, they glanced at one another and nodded.
They immediately raised their weapons and charged back at the pursuing Karstark soldiers.
Seeing them entangle the enemy, Stafford's face brightened. He fled north through the alley alone.
Those recruits were clearly no match for the Karstark soldiers. After a brief, bloody fight, the eight recruits managed to take only two Karstark lives with them before they died.
"That noble they protected had golden hair. He must be a Lannister. That is a great prize. Brothers, catch up to him."
After killing all the enemies, one Karstark soldier looked in the direction Stafford had fled and spoke.
His words clearly won agreement from all of them. The ten Karstark soldiers immediately continued forward in pursuit.
Rip!
The three men at the front of that Karstark squad had just run out of the alley when a dozen longswords from the left and right greeted them.
Unable to dodge, the three Karstark soldiers were cut down at once. When the rest of their companions emerged, they discovered nearly thirty Lannister soldiers waiting in ambush at the alley mouth.
Even though the Karstark soldiers were better fighters, they were badly outnumbered. After killing five enemies, all of them were slain.
Seeing that the pursuers behind him had finally been killed, Stafford let out a breath of relief.
He turned to the twenty-odd guards and said, "I am Stafford Lannister, father of your commander, Daven. Escort me to Casterly Rock at once!"
"Yes, my lord!" Lannisport had fallen fully into chaos that day. In the northern and eastern parts of the town, tense and brutal fighting still continued, while the western and southern districts had become a feast for plunderers.
Although Robb had ordered the military judges to emphasize discipline before the battle, northern soldiers like the ones Daven had killed were far from rare during this feast of looting.
Crey kicked open the door of a room from which a woman's sobs were coming.
Inside lay the corpse of a male civilian. Several naked northern soldiers were pinning down a sobbing civilian woman and taking turns assaulting her.
"Violation of military law. Take them all."
As soon as Crey spoke, several fully armed overseer soldiers rushed in from outside. They first had the northern soldiers put their clothes back on, then bound their hands with prepared rope and escorted them away together.
The overseers in this battle numbered an unprecedented two thousand. In truth, they were the two thousand Winterfell soldiers Crey had led to surround Pyke.
Robb had already guessed that this sort of thing would certainly happen during the sack of Lannisport, so he had directly assigned those two thousand soldiers back under Crey's command.
After receiving Robb's order, Crey divided the two thousand overseers into small squads and had them patrol the looting districts in a wide net of inspection.
Because the King in the North had established collective punishment under military law, most northern soldiers focused on plundering wealth and were able to restrain their desires.
Even if a few could not restrain themselves, the comrades in their squads, in order to avoid collective punishment, could restrain them.
So an entire squad violating military law together was rare. But among a force numbering in the tens of thousands, even rare cases added up.
In less than half an hour of looting, seventy or eighty soldiers who violated discipline had already been caught by the overseers.
Most of those seventy or eighty were ironborn who had sailed the longships and followed the northern army in attacking the harbor.
"Lord Crey, two of our overseer squads were arresting men in the western district, but a northern noble led men in resisting them. I slipped away quietly to report to you."
Just as Crey walked out of the house, a nervous overseer hurried over and reported.
"Gather the nearby overseers. With me."
Crey's face showed no anger when he heard it. He had already expected situations like this. His tone remained calm as he gave the order.
"Yes!"
The overseer soldier nodded and immediately turned to gather men.
When Crey brought more than a hundred overseers to a fine residence in the western harbor district, the first thing he saw was nineteen overseer soldiers kneeling on the ground with bruised faces. Nearly a hundred northern soldiers surrounded them.
"Draw steel! Attacking the overseers is treason against the realm!"
Refined and handsome as Crey was, anger surged in him when he saw his men humiliated like this. He shouted the order at once.
Clang, clang!
The more than one hundred overseers behind him immediately drew their longswords and prepared for battle.
"I am Roose Ryswell, lord of the Rills and son of Lord Rodrik Ryswell.
"Your overseers attacked me first, and now you accuse us of treason?"
A disheveled young man heard the commotion outside and ran out of the fine residence, loudly questioning Crey.
"The military law of the King in the North forbids wanton killing and sexual violence. You violated military law and attacked the overseers. That is treason."
One look at the young man's appearance was enough for Crey to guess the reason behind the matter.
This Roose had certainly violated military law. The overseers had moved to arrest him, and his house soldiers, trying to protect him, had beaten and disarmed the overseers.
"Heh. My father is Lord of the Rills. My sister is Lady of Barrowton. I was named after Lord Roose Bolton... ah, in any case, I am also kin to Lord Ramsay Bolton.
"I only had my fun with a few commoners. What is the problem? You think you can arrest me?"
Roose directly threw out his background, his expression arrogant.
"I don't care about your bloodline. Good. Since you admit you violated military law, there is nothing more to say.
"Brothers of the overseers, seize him. Anyone who blocks you dies here.
"If there is any problem, I will answer for it."
"Yes!"
After Crey gave the ruthless order, the overseers tightened their grip on their weapons and formed neat ten-man battle lines, slowly pressing toward Roose and his men.
Seeing that Crey was truly willing to act over a few lowborn civilians, Roose gritted his teeth and shouted, "Kill them! Do not worry. If there is trouble, I will protect you!"
"Kill!"
The soldiers from the Rills heard Roose's words, drew their weapons, and charged the overseers.
"Help!"
Just as the two sides were about to collide, a huge figure flashed past behind the Rills soldiers. Then Roose's cry for help rang out.
Everyone turned toward the sound.
The King in the North sat on the back of the armored giant wolf. In the wolf's mouth was Roose, who had been so arrogant moments earlier. Now he was sobbing, snot running down his face, loudly begging for rescue.
"Crey, arrest them all."
Robb's cold gaze swept over the Rills soldiers, and he spoke loudly to Crey.
Under Bloodwind's intimidating, icy stare, the Rills soldiers did not dare resist at all. Besides, their master Roose was still in the giant wolf's mouth.
"I will escort them to the harbor. Crey, continue your task."
After the overseers bound all the Rills soldiers, Robb spoke.
"Yes, Your Grace!"
Theon led most of the ironborn and northern forces from this expedition to completely defeat the Lannister fleet, then brought nearly a thousand prisoners to Lannisport's harbor.
The first thing he saw was Robb mounted on Bloodwind, along with hundreds of soldiers bound and kneeling on the harbor ground. Among them were both ironborn and northern soldiers.
Beside them, most of the northern lords stood silently. None of them spoke.
"Since everyone is here, I will pass judgment."
Receiving the command, Bloodwind slowly lowered his massive body. Robb jumped down from his back and spoke loudly.
"Your Grace!"
Seeing that Robb had not asked anyone's opinion before passing judgment directly, Lord Rodrik of the Rills could not help calling out.
"Military law is iron. Last time, because everyone begged, I made one exception for Lord Jon. There will not be a second.
"In the name of the King in the North, I declare that every soldier who violated military law is sentenced to beheading."
Robb held the already unsheathed Ice and ignored Lord Rodrik completely. He walked slowly toward the kneeling soldiers as he announced the sentence aloud.
The moment his words fell, he stopped before Roose Ryswell.
Looking at the tears and snot covering Roose's face, Robb raised Ice without mercy and brought it down.
Roose's head fell to the ground and rolled to Lord Rodrik's feet. Seeing his son's head, Lord Rodrik immediately burst into tears.
Swish, swish, swish!
Robb did not entrust the beheading of hundreds of men to anyone else. He carried out every execution himself.
The harbor was terrifyingly quiet. Everyone watched Robb, now covered in blood as he beheaded one man after another, and a chill rose in their hearts.
Robb had expected the current situation. This had always been part of his plan to establish authority, one step in setting military discipline.
Daenerys Targaryen, a woman, could restrain Dothraki riders after victory and stop them from committing sexual violence. Robb believed he could do the same.
This attack on Lannisport happened to be the northern army's first act of plunder. Robb wanted to establish discipline now, before they tasted too much sweetness and became even harder to restrain.
The discipline of Winterfell's direct troops was no problem at all. After this show of authority, the northern soldiers should be manageable as well. The most difficult men were actually the ironborn led by Theon.
For them, sexual violence after victory was almost a way of life.
That was why Robb had specifically had Theon take most of the ironborn to fight the Lannister fleet. He feared that if all the ironborn violated military law, he would have to behead all of them.
As Robb raised and lowered his sword, executing one man after another, great amounts of red mist gathered toward him.
He continued adding points to Bloodwind as the executions went on. Once he had invested a total of one thousand blood pact points, The direwolf's pack attribute could no longer be increased.
Awooo!
Bloodwind suddenly threw back his head and howled, as if sensing something.
Robb turned at the sound and saw a great amount of red mist rising from Bloodwind's body. It formed a red sphere that wrapped tightly around him.
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