CHAPTER 416: CHAPTER 416: EPILOGUE (II)

Two hundred years after the Long Night began, it finally came to an end. However, the eternal winter did not vanish with it. The continents of Westeros and Essos remained locked in snow and ice, and the frigid winds sweeping down from the north were enough to freeze everything solid.

It wasn’t until a hundred years later that the eternal winter began to ease. The clearest signs were along the southern coasts of Essos, where places like Slaver’s Bay and Volantis once again became habitable, and in Westeros, where Oldtown and southern Dorne were no longer gripped by unbearable cold.

Over the past decade or so, expeditions to Westeros became increasingly common. Not only did the Tarran royal family organize missions to explore the old continent and seek opportunities for return, but the Citadel, the Black Cave, and various churches also sent their own exploration teams across the sea.

The multi-masted fast ship now appearing before Belier and the others was an expedition ship organized by the Faith of the Seven.

"It’s the Antler, from House Baratheon," said the expedition leader, quickly recognizing the ship’s origin from its unique figurehead. "This was a fast ship Lord Robert Baratheon had specially ordered from the Davos Shipyards for Lord Ker Baratheon’s coming-of-age ceremony. Later, Lord Ker was invited to join an expedition organized by the Faith of the Seven, but he disappeared in the Old Continent. Lord Robert has long offered a generous reward for any information on his whereabouts. I didn’t expect we’d be this lucky—just arriving at the Old Continent and already finding this ship. Maybe we’ll claim that reward from Lord Robert."

"You won’t find Lord Ker just by finding his ship," an old sailor said, glancing around. "This isn’t where the Antler should have docked. The Antler River lies much farther north. We’re at the tip of Crackclaw Point now. Judging by our location, this ship likely ran aground along the Vale coast and was later pushed here by the tides."

"The Vale?" The captain pondered this for a moment and asked, "If we head for the Vale..."

Someone immediately cut in, "My lord, our mission is to build a forward camp and see if we can explore King’s Landing—not to search for Lord Ker Baratheon."

Realizing he had let his imagination stray, the captain quickly corrected himself and returned to their original plan. He no longer mentioned looking for Ker’s trail and instead split the expedition into three groups as intended: one would stay to build a base, one would patrol the surrounding area, and the third—an expedition team—would push onward toward King’s Landing and return once they had completed their exploration.

The expedition team traveled on sleds pulled by tamed Direwolves. It consisted of one hundred chosen ones, ten Silent Sisters, ten Black Cave spellcasters, and ten Maesters from the Citadel. Belier and Jon were among them.

Although they had a map of Westeros, centuries of relentless snow and ice had drastically altered the landscape. The most obvious change was the coastline, now entirely different from before. Their journey was far from smooth—they lost their way on the very first day.

Fortunately, before nightfall brought a deadly blizzard, one of the Black Cave spellcasters, a Skinchanger, spotted an ancient ruin from the air through his raven companion, giving the team a much-needed refuge from the storm.

They found a stretch of wall still sturdy enough to block the wind, and quickly set up their leather tents against it. After erecting iron stoves and lighting fires, the temperature inside the tents soon rose, shielding them from the bone-chilling winds outside.

While setting up camp, the Maesters began exploring the ruins. Belier, by sheer luck, discovered a stone-carved emblem on a weathered section of the wall.

"A white stripe and black wings—this must be Rook’s Rest," Belier said, matching the emblem to the noble coats of arms stored in his memory. He shouted toward a short-statured Maester nearby, "Maester Pav, this is your House Staunton’s ancestral home—Rook’s Rest!"

The Maester named Pav froze in place, then hurried over to Belier. When he looked up at the emblem Belier was pointing at, his face lit up with excitement.

The others quickly gathered around, congratulating him warmly.

Like most of the old noble houses that had migrated to Westeros, House Staunton had long since fallen into decline—reduced to a mere title, with a fortune that couldn’t compare even to that of an ordinary small merchant.

Pave Staunton had voluntarily given up his birthright and joined the Citadel to become a Maester because his family had too many children to support. Several of his brothers had joined the Night’s Watch.

Now, standing before the birthplace of his ancestors, Pave couldn’t help but be overcome with emotion.

"What a pity!" a commoner Maester suddenly said from the crowd, his voice tinged with mockery. "It’s a shame the bill to reward the old nobility didn’t pass in parliament. Otherwise, you’d be Lord Pave by now."

At these words, Pave’s face darkened, and his companions all looked at the commoner Maester with clear displeasure, feeling it was extremely inappropriate to bring this up at such a time.

When the climate began to warm and expeditions to the Old Continent started to rise, a member of House Lannister proposed a bill to reward the old nobility. The bill’s main purpose was to encourage the declining old noble houses to actively join the exploration of the Old Continent. If any old noble house managed to rediscover the lands of their ancestors, those lands would be returned to them along with the appropriate noble title.

Naturally, the old nobility strongly supported the proposal and worked hard to push it through the assembly. However, in the end, the bill failed by a margin of ten votes. Some believed it was sabotaged by commoner-born councilors, while others suspected it was the work of the royal family behind the scenes, since passing the bill would have significantly harmed royal interests.

There had always been deep-seated resentment between the new nobility, the old nobility, merchants, commoners, and other social classes within the empire. Organizations like the Citadel tried to keep these hostilities at bay, but most of the time, it was just wishful thinking.

Pave remained calm in the face of the commoner Maester’s provocation. He didn’t argue back, merely smiled, glanced at his family’s coat of arms on the wall, and returned to his tent.

Seeing that Pave, the person involved, didn’t react, the others felt it inappropriate to say anything more. They merely shot the troublemaking Maester a glare before going back to their own tasks.

Now that the location of Rook’s Rest had been confirmed, finding the next landmark, Duskendale, became much easier by using Rook’s Rest as a reference point.

As the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch during the War of the White Walkers, Stannis Baratheon’s life and deeds naturally became a major subject of study for historians. His strategies and tactics during the War of the Five Kings were particularly scrutinized, with Duskendale considered one of the most crucial sites.

Many believed that if Stannis Baratheon hadn’t been so rigid and poor at forging alliances, the Baratheon dynasty might have survived another generation. After he annihilated Kevan Lannister’s forces at Duskendale, he was practically halfway seated on the Iron Throne.

Thus, every document studying Stannis emphasized two major battles: the defense of Storm’s End and the annihilation at Duskendale. They also recorded that Lynd had erected a towering stone monument to honor the soldiers who died in that battle, and it was this very monument that the expedition team was now searching for.

The houses in Duskendale had originally been low wooden structures, and even the castle was merely a two-story wooden fort. Years of heavy snowfall had long buried the houses and castle beneath the snow, so from a distance, all one could see was an endless expanse of white.

The Duskendale War Memorial Stone, however, was only half-buried, with the other half jutting conspicuously from the snow, making it visible even from afar.

The expedition team rested by the stone for another night, but compared to their stay at Rook’s Rest, this night was clearly much more uncomfortable.

First, the vast open snowfield offered little shelter, and only the monument provided some protection from the wind and snow. It was impossible to set up tents properly, so they had to dig snow pits, cover them with tents, and hunker down against the blizzard.

Secondly, in the middle of the night, they were attacked by a pack of Direwolves.

Although the Direwolves pulling their sleds had been domesticated at Black Cave and were much larger than normal Direwolves, they were still tamed animals with habits more like dogs. In terms of combat ability and hunting instincts, they were no match for wild Direwolves.

During the wild Direwolves’ surprise attack, more than a dozen of the expedition’s sled Direwolves were quickly bitten to death and dragged away. Only then did the Chosen Ones, alarmed by the attack, rush in to drive the pack away. Because it was nighttime, they couldn’t determine how many Direwolves there were, but one thing was certain: the wild Direwolves outnumbered the expedition members, as each Chosen One had to fend off four or five Direwolves. Later, with the help of the Holy Sisters and Black Cave spellcasters, they finally managed to repel the wild Direwolves. Without their intervention, casualties among the Chosen Ones would have been inevitable.

And things only got worse. Shortly after the expedition set out the next morning, the Skinchangers discovered that the Direwolves from the previous night had not left. Instead, they were trailing the team from a distance, treating them as prey. A rough count suggested there were several thousand of them...

When the Skinchanger first told everyone about the number of Direwolves, many found it hard to believe. Such a large pack would surely need an immense amount of food, and from everything they had seen along the way, the environment hardly seemed capable of supporting enough prey to feed so many Direwolves.

However, this question was quickly answered. A few days later, when they arrived at Rosby, they discovered a massive herd of long-haired reindeer roaming nearby. The Direwolves had shifted their focus to the reindeer, which were easier to hunt, and thus spared the expedition team.

Because of this, the expedition didn’t linger in Rosby. Instead, they pressed on southward through the night, racing toward King’s Landing. Their urgency was driven not only by the opportunity to distance themselves from the distracted Direwolves but also by the fact that the legendary Old King’s Landing was now within reach. Excitement spurred them forward, eager to arrive as soon as possible.

After a full day and night of hard travel, they finally reached the outskirts of King’s Landing early the next morning. From there, they could see the famed Red Keep bathed in the light of dawn, and the legendary Great Sept of Baelor shimmering in the sunlight.

"King’s Landing, we’re back!" Jon Stark shouted, unable to contain his excitement as he looked at the scene before him.

"King’s Landing, we’re back!" the others echoed, their voices filled with exhilaration.

Their shouts echoed far and wide, stirring King’s Landing from its three-hundred-year slumber.

Despite their exhaustion from traveling through the night, the group paid it no mind. They drove their sleds swiftly toward the city and soon reached the Dragon Gate.

The entire Dragon Gate was nearly buried under snow, with only the stone dragons at the top barely visible. If even the Dragon Gate was in this condition, the other gates were likely no better.

Without wasting time checking the other gates, the expedition team decided to build a ladder at the Dragon Gate, climb onto the city wall, and scale their way into King’s Landing.

However, not everyone entered the city to explore. Only the Maester, the Holy Sisters, and a squad of the Sons of the Three-Eyed God ventured inside, with Beric and Jon among them.

The group quickly climbed over the walls and entered the city. The most prominent landmark in their view was the Dragonpit. Unfortunately, with no dragons left, the Dragonpit held little value for exploration, so they decided to head straight down the Kingsroad toward the Red Keep.

But as they skirted the edge of Rhaenys’s Hill where the Dragonpit stood, Jon suddenly stopped and turned his gaze toward it.

Everyone halted at Jon’s unexpected behavior, and Belier asked in a low voice, "Jon, what’s wrong?"

"I feel like something’s off with the Dragonpit," Jon said, a puzzled expression on his face.

"Something’s off?" The others looked at Jon in confusion. Then, someone suddenly said, "It really does seem off. The ground around the Dragonpit is way too clean."

As the words fell, everyone noticed it too—the snow around the Dragonpit was much thinner than elsewhere, as if it had been swept away recently.

Someone immediately made the connection and said, "Dragons! The snow must have been blown away by the strong winds from a dragon’s wings."

"How could it be a dragon?" someone objected. "As far as I know, all the dragons are in Dragonmont at the Divine Capital. None of them have ever left, let alone come this far."

At that moment, someone reminded them, "Don’t forget, there’s one dragon that’s not listed among the dragons at Dragonmont."

The Maester, quick-witted, caught the implication immediately. "You mean the Sacred Dragon, Deltos?"

Everyone fell silent at once. Then Belier spoke, his voice low, "Do you think His Majesty the Divine Emperor could still be alive?"

No one answered immediately. After a moment, someone said, "If His Majesty stayed here for any length of time, he would have left traces of his life. Maybe we can find some clues in the Red Keep."

Hearing this, everyone’s excitement became impossible to contain. Without wasting another moment in speculation, they raced off toward the Red Keep.