Beast Slayer Online: Initialization
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 141: The Bell Above Deadwater
After a brief silence, the king’s tent exploded into a buzzing storm of whispers.
“A Trial by Combat ... over a wolf?”
“How’s she planning to fight? Poke someone with that little sewing needle of hers? Hah!”
Disbelief mixed with ridicule. Northern lords might be ancient high nobility, but there were too many people present tonight. Nobody could trace which sneering remark belonged to whom.
“Arya!”
At last Eddard Stark forced his way through the crowd and reached his daughter, gripping both her shoulders.
“Arya, I know you’re upset about Nymeria, but this is already the best outcome we could hope for. You...”
Eddard understood the situation far better than Arya did.
In the eyes of everyone present, House Stark had already come out ahead. If they pushed further and formally demanded a Trial by Combat using one of their own men as champion, people would call it greed. And if they hired an outsider...
Who would risk reputation and life in a Trial by Combat over a beast?
Right or wrong hardly mattered. Honor did.
To knights and nobles alike, reputation often outweighed life itself.
Eddard was already preparing to apologize to Robert and drag his troublesome daughter away when a large hand wrapped in Studded Leather Gloves caught his wrist.
Instinctively, Eddard pulled back.
And froze.
He could not move it.
The Lord of Winterfell was no weak noble softened by feasts and carpets. His reputation across the Seven Kingdoms had been forged personally on battlefields. Yet the grip holding him now did not budge in the slightest.
The strength behind it exceeded his own by an entire level.
Startled, Eddard looked up directly into Lannor’s easy smile beneath that silver hair.
“My lord, according to the agreement between myself and your daughter, you may begin collecting unusual Flora and Fauna Materials now.”
Before Eddard could process that absurd sentence, Lannor casually stepped past Arya.
On the way, he lightly tapped the girl twice on the forehead with two fingers, a silent warning against her tendency to get carried away, then strode directly toward King Robert.
Years of peace, drink, and indulgence had bloated Robert badly. Even fastening his clothes looked difficult for him now.
Yet beneath the fat, Lannor could still see the frame of a brutal warrior, thick muscle left behind by younger days, and a face that had once looked carved from stone.
The man resembled a warrior far more than a king.
Lannor unfastened the straps securing the scabbard across his back and planted the longsword before him.
Following the rules Arya had explained along the road, he spoke in a deep, solemn voice.
“I am Lannor, a man of no name and no title. I offer myself as champion for the Trial by Combat declared by Lady Arya Stark.”
The murmuring throughout the tent gradually faded beneath the rise and fall of his voice.
After absorbing so many fragments from the Emperor’s Children memories, Lannor understood very well how to make an oath sound grand and sacred.
A silver-haired warrior stood at the center of the tent now, handsome as polished steel beneath the torchlight. His expression was grave, his voice rang like thunder, and for a moment he truly looked like a man driven by justice and duty alike to defend a noble young lady.
No one present could dismiss that resolve anymore.
Not even Robert.
The king straightened visibly and bellowed toward the queen and prince.
“One champion has stepped forth. The Trial by Combat is lawfully declared. Does the opposing side accept? If not...”
The latter half was pointless.
No one in Westeros had rejected a Trial by Combat in many years. To do so invited accusations of cowardice, guilt, and dishonor.
And strangely enough, both the queen and Joffrey looked rather pleased by this sudden turn.
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