When Stannis returned to Zivinie, it was a sea change from when he left.

For example, the entire castle has been turned into a large barracks.

It was winter, but the snow on the ground had long since disappeared from the trampling of people, revealing the pitch-black mud beneath the ground, and most of the people here were new faces, Stanis did not know them, and they had never seen the lord.

"Hey, that guy looks like a stunned young knight, should we blackmail him?" Rocha, a veteran of the Black Dog Mercenary Regiment, bumped their battle captain, Kloby, on the shoulder, and looked at Stannis with interest.

Kloby, who has a terrible scar on his face, has been serving in the Black Dog Regiment for ten years, and most of the people who joined the regiment with him earlier were killed or escaped, and he relied on luck and seniority to get the captain of a twenty-man combat team.

"Don't think about Rocha, although that guy looks like a rookie, do you see those two swords on his waist?"

"See, what's wrong?" Rocha didn't know.

"Which of those two swords didn't suck the blood of thousands of people? So I advise you to dispel this idea as soon as possible, otherwise you will be beheaded, and I will not help you collect the body." ”

"You're a fucking coward!" Rocha reluctant, knowing that there was nothing wrong with following this guy.

Carefully avoiding the disgusting mass of excrement at the main entrance of the castle, Stannis finally returned to his castle, looking like his army and hired reinforcements had been gathered, but fortunately he was not in the territory, otherwise the tedious nonsense and diplomacy alone would have made his head heavy.

"Your Excellency, why did you leave the territory at such an important time, do you know that we have been looking for you for several days!"

As soon as he entered the castle hall, Master Lomon, who was standing next to the lord's seat, shouted angrily, and his granddaughter was standing behind his grandfather and waved his hand at him secretly.

Stannis also stuck out his tongue at the little girl, but in the face of Master Romon's angry eyes, Stannis still coughed twice and pretended to be serious: "I have been looking for a way to destroy the Divine Seal in the past few days, but because the incident happened suddenly, I didn't have time to tell you." ”

Hearing that the original lord was leaving with this important purpose in mind, Bachelor Romon's brows furrowed, "Then Your Excellency, have you found the answer?"

Stannis walked past him triumphantly, kicked Robert down from the earl's throne, then sat down with a sigh of relief and replied, "Of course I found it, it turns out that only my own dragon roar breath can destroy the divine seal." ”

"That's great!" cheered everyone in the hall.

"When are we leaving, my lord? Korodov, who was heavily armed, looked eager to take the plunge, after all, it was the first time he had personally participated in a war of this magnitude, and the whole person became active.

Stannis wasn't too anxious, and now with each day of postponement, more people joined him, "As soon as the mage arrives, we'll go." ”

Master Romon hurriedly leaned up and whispered to him, "Vincent has arrived at the castle yesterday, and he is now in the small dark room, and he is already a little impatient, and I have not revealed the information about his cooperation with us to outsiders, for fear of causing unnecessary panic." ”

Knowing that he was speechless, Stannis quickly nodded and said, "Of course, of course, I will go to see him after the War Council has convened a combat meeting." ”

Soon, the castle's war hall was full of life, and it had been a long time since it had seen so many people standing in it.

In addition to Stannis's men, there are also various lords and their knights, the chief and deputy head of the Black Dog Mercenary Regiment, and Lieutenant Vladdy, who is the commander of the Imperial Army this time, should be called a captain now, and Stannis is disappointed that the stupid big sister of Charaki did not come.

As the moderator of the meeting, Barrow I motioned for everyone to be quiet, and then nodded to Stannis to indicate that he was ready to speak.

The young lord took a step forward, and before he spoke, he actually looked around the faces of the people in the hall, there were people he knew, some he had never seen, and not so long ago he had even slashed swords with the people among them, but now they stood here for the same purpose, and that was to save humanity.

"Ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I thank you for coming, and I won't say the opening polite words, but you also know that the enemy we are attacking together this time is not human, so there is no loot to capture. ”

The Black Dog Gang made a sound of annoyance.

"But I can assure you that if you win this battle, your descendants and all of your descendants will be infinitely grateful to you, because you fought so hard for their existence!"

Stannis left the War Council after a short speech, domineering did not look back, and the next step was for Korodov to deploy the battle plan, because this time it was a feint to buy time for Stannis's approach, so there was no need to think about what ambushes and the like, and as soon as they came up, they were going to attack unreservedly, attracting the attention of the Divine Seal, making its surroundings empty.

Most people have no objection to this, in fact they don't even know what they are up against, but as knights they are determined to fight for supreme glory.

After the meeting, the knights and mercenaries went back to prepare, and the departure date was set for the day after tomorrow, and Stannis specially instructed his two corps to have a day off tomorrow, so that they could go back and reunite with their relatives, no one knew how many people would return after this decisive battle.

And in order to prevent being **, Stannis also asked Hillier to stay in his territory with Randall, and if there is an emergency, they can also resist for a while.

After all this was arranged, Stannis went with Lady Romon to meet Ecente secretly in the dark room.

"That's right. As he walked along the road, Stannis finally remembered why he felt a sense of loss as soon as he returned to the castle.

"Where's Aya?"

As the two of them stood at the door of the small black room, Stannis finally couldn't help but ask.

Maester Romon opened the door, and then said in a voice that did not irritate him.

"I'm sorry to tell you this unfortunate news, Your Excellency, Miss Aya disappeared the day after you left. ”