Chapter 90

The remainder of the journey after that had simply continued to go by peacefully, well, peacefully by Mountain Clan territory standards, but that was still enough for you to think a bit more about your new master. There was a certain charm to him, as if he knew exactly what he needed to say to lead the conversation while he still retained that enticingly sociable feeling about him. You wouldn't have called him irresistible from your handful of interactions, but there was also a certain limit to how much charisma one could bring to bear over this new form of communication your master had created.

If you had to put it simply, you were getting a bit worried that your liege would turn out to be one of those people you just couldn't say no to, which you couldn't imagine mixed well with his apparent lack of common sense. It would have helped if your master had something that made him just once seem human for a change, as you wouldn't have been surprised if he seriously ordered you to do the impossible in a month's time with how things had been going.

Though in all seriousness this lack of understanding you had of your liege continued to bother you even now despite the fact that you would have been fine with serving under a monster or lunatic if the situation demanded it. There reasonably was no need to fear the future with everything your master had already thrown your way, but on the other side the question became what reasonable person gave away keeps and land as if it was nothing. Everything he had demanded of you till now had been quite manageable which you would thank the gods for once you reached Nora for sure, yet despite everything working out so far you still couldn't help but wonder how long that would last.

But while it annoyed and unnerved you to no end, you still decided that your focus on things you couldn't change was just a waste that didn't get you anywhere, opposed to your companion's brisk pace that your body had struggled to match while your mind had been occupied. It was easy to forget from time to time as your body practically moved on its own on these hidden paths, but your companion wasn't the type to slow down if he wasn't prompted to do so.

You had seen all kinds of towns and castles while your master had applied the finishing touches to your training, and thus you had naturally learned to tell apart the smallest of differences to avoid clashes with the locals, but what you found in Nora was still a surprise. Each village, town, and even castle had its own set of factions it was structured around that assassins such as yourself could use for five or six coins of silver depending on the region. But there was naturally an equal number of factions that were best left alone by your kind, or that was how it should have been, Nora however had turned out to be a mess of astonishing proportions.

Your master's decision to leave your companion behind by the broken keep defending the paths of the Mountain Clans had been right, even if the reason for that was not what either of you had expected. Nora quite understandably housed far more than just its original four-thousand inhabitants, though what was less predictable was that the town had been turned into what you could only call a siege camp as the castle of House Palno was relentlessly assaulted by the commoners of Nora.

Had your companion been here with you, the whole town would have known about you two within the hour, and you didn't even want to guess how many of these people would have gotten themselves killed not to mention the aftermath as Nora would be the place the delegation of House Lannister would officially land. And once you add the merchants on top of the fact that Nora couldn't be erased from the map, a massacre by the hands of your companion here would have been an absolute disaster that might have even required a scapegoat, pretty dangerous indeed.

Well, it was what it was, and at least your task concerning those reports about the state of Nora's economy won't be needed anymore with the seemingly boundless madness running rampant in the streets. It reminded you a bit of your home, the old one of course, but your home remained just that even if you had quite a few others filled with a lot more warmth in the last few years. Hmm, opposed to the past, you would have really loved to do more than just reminisce as you had quite a few new experiences you desired to make since you could nowadays walk these streets without fear.

Such perpetual chaos and the scum it brought to the surface was hard to come by, but letting loose to take care of the scum you knew was there was sadly out of the question, doubly so because you had apparently become a noble of the Westerlands. It was annoying in the extreme, but those were the natural downsides you had albeit very grudgingly accepted as you chained yourself to your new master, perhaps your chains would loosen a bit once the Lannisters decided to move more openly, but till then killing was only allowed on the job.

The question now being what your master would want you to do in all this chaos, you could see a part of him that would be overjoyed if you managed to intensify the madness and chaos that was so happily festering in the open. Yet, from what you understood of House Lannister's greater plans, they wanted to take out House Arryn and in the long run take over a splintered but still savable Vale. Nora itself wasn't important, and neither was House Palno, but if it remained intact, the port would still make for a decent asset when the time came to rebuild.

Your poison supplies were practically non-existent, since the right ingredients to replace your losses were pretty hard to come by, as the heartland of the Vale was naturally quite the isolated place. But considering that the harbour was the only place in Nora that was still somewhat intact as trade was what kept the town alive, you were sure you could hunt down enough of the more common ingredients to open up a few more options. Options like taking care of Nora's water supply, with how even the few remaining factions that kept up the bare minimum of public order in the harbour district were more concerned with watching over the ships and warehouses than they were with watching over Nora's wells, the rebellion could be ended overnight.