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"Come quickly! Ser Alliser has hit the wall and committed suicide!" Jon Snow's shout came from the cellar.
Soon, Jon's squire Pypar and Ser Jory Cassel, son of Ser Rodrik, ran down.
"What's going on?" As soon as Jory entered the cellar, he first saw Jon crouching on the ground, and then he saw Ser Alliser slumped next to him.
Jory quickly stepped forward and held the torch close to Alliser's face. Only then did he realize there was a large bloody wound on Alliser's forehead, and the ground beside him was completely stained red with blood.
"He's already dead. He suddenly became emotional and hit the wall," Jon stood up. "I wanted to save him immediately, but his injuries were too severe." As he spoke, he pointed to Alliser's blood-soaked clothes. "I tried to help stop the bleeding, but failed."
"Suicide by hitting a wall? When we captured Alliser, we tied his hands and feet. How did he do it?" Jory was mid-sentence when he suddenly noticed the untied ropes next to the body. "Did you untie the ropes on him?" Ser Jory was suddenly angry.
"I was interrogating him, and your father knew about it," Jon pretended to be dejected, "but Ser Alliser refused to cooperate. He asked me to untie the ropes and give him the treatment a captured knight deserves."
"So you did this? Weren't you afraid he would escape?"
"He doesn't even have his right hand! How could he escape?" Jon was also angry now. He raised his voice slightly to suppress Ser Jory's outburst. "I just wanted him to confess more. How could anyone think he would commit suicide?"
"But—" As the retort came to Jory's lips, he forced himself to swallow it back, because he knew very well that if Ser Luwin hadn't discovered the truth, tensions would have escalated when his father started to implement the plan. Once Winterfell showed its fangs, they might all be doomed.
"I'm sorry, Ser Jon, I'm not thinking clearly." The next moment, Ser Jory took the initiative to apologize.
"This was my fault," Jon shook his head, indicating that he didn't mind Jory's offense.
"So, what did you ask before Alliser committed suicide?"
"A very, very disturbing story," Jon gave a grim smile.
"What?"
"I think this matter needs to be reported to the Iron Throne, because what Alliser and his friends were doing is treason!"
"Treason? Isn't that an exaggeration?" Ser Jory protested. "Isn't this just where they carried out their plundering?"
"They were preparing to use the wealth they've plundered over the past few months to form an army and go to Pentos to join the remnants of House Targaryen."
"Just them? Do they really think they can use so few people to take back the Iron Throne?"
"Of course it's not just them. Alliser revealed a terrible secret under my questioning. Illyrio, the Magister of Pentos, has arranged a marriage for the Targaryen survivors. They're marrying the 'Beggar King's' sister to the most powerful Khal on the Dothraki Sea, and that Khal promises to help Viserys reclaim his throne."
"Seven hells!"
"I don't know if what he said is true, but we must report this to the Iron Throne as soon as possible. A Khalasar with a hundred thousand riders marching toward Pentos cannot be hidden. As long as His Grace can confirm this, he'll know whether what Alliser said is the truth."
"Isn't there another leader of these criminals in White Harbor? The one Samwell confessed about before—Ser Darren Grafton—shouldn't he know quite a lot? If we can catch him and force him to confess—"
"If it were you, would you admit to this crime of treason? Just now, Alliser chose to commit suicide immediately after accidentally revealing the truth, because he feared his family would be implicated," Jon explained, hoping Jory would believe his lies.
Of course, Ser Alliser couldn't have committed suicide; he was simply silenced by Jon.
And except for him, everyone else who knew that 'Jon Snow,' the bastard son of House Stark, was not who he claimed to be, would also be executed on subsequent treason charges.
"Well, where is your father? I need to talk to him about these important matters," Jon asked Ser Jory, not wanting to dwell on this issue any longer.
"Father just had an argument with Ser Bronn. Ser Bronn is the captain of the first mercenary cavalry we recruited. They've been waiting here for a week for the Blackfyre Treasure. And now..." Jory sounded helpless.
"He can't accept the fact that the Blackfyre Treasure doesn't exist?" Jon quickly guessed the reason for the quarrel between Ser Rodrik and the mercenaries.
"Yes!" Ser Jory nodded. "Ser Bronn demanded payment based on the Blackfyre Treasure's supposed value of 10,000 gold dragons. After that, other mercenary cavalry who had no grand ambitions also expressed their support for Ser Bronn's complaint.
However, the Blackfyre Treasure doesn't exist at all. What we seized in the basement of the abandoned fishing village was only eight carts: two carts of fine wine, one cart of quality furs, half a cart of velvet, half a cart of raw silk, and a pair of antlers."
"They want 1,000 gold dragons. Is the total value of these things even worth 1,000 gold dragons?" Jon interrupted before Jory could finish.
"No! Even if we transport all these goods to a market with higher prices, we could sell them for about 500 gold dragons at most. If we take them directly to King's Landing, we'd get less than 300 gold dragons." After saying that, Jory added in a dejected tone, "If we hadn't mentioned the 'Blackfyre Treasure,' we would have been happy just sharing those few hundred gold dragons among us."
"But once a person's desires grow, they're difficult to rein in. Ser Bronn is no fool. He probably just wants to squeeze out more. After all, if distributed according to the previous arrangement, each man would only get one or two gold dragons. It's a decent sum, but the gap between expectation and reality is too great." Jon shook his head.
"In that case, I'll go help," Jon's next words delighted Ser Jory. In fact, this was why he had come to the cellar.
It's a pity that Jon didn't really want to mediate. He intended to add fuel to the fire.
After all, Ser Rodrik's forces now had an overwhelming advantage over Ser Darren Grafton's caravan, which was a disadvantage for Jon's new plan.
Not only did Jon not want Rodrik and the others to capture Darren Grafton, but he also wanted to try to rescue him from the siege and gain his trust.
Because he planned to use the second son of Lord Grafton as a key prop in obtaining a new identity.