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"So, are the traces of the camp recent? Was it just abandoned, or has it been empty for a long time?" Jon Snow asked.
"It was abandoned not long ago. When our cavalry first arrived, the bonfire was still smoking."
"That doesn't seem right," Jon frowned. "You said after the patrol team from Taman Village reported to you, you immediately sent out a light horse team to investigate, but they found only an empty camp. Even if the enemy had a spy among you, they shouldn't have been able to evacuate so quickly and so neatly, right?"
"Apologies," Sir Wilder said with an awkward smile, "When I said 'immediately,' I was speaking loosely. In truth, after receiving the report, it took some time before we actually sent out the riders."
"How much time? I need an exact answer."
"About an hour. Yes, around an hour," Wilder said, feeling as if he was being questioned by a superior.
"That's still too short," Jon shook his head. "The mole would have needed time to pass on the message, then the enemy would need time to pack up and leave, and they had to be gone before your cavalry even arrived."
"They used a raven," Sir Wilder explained. "At the time, we held a war council to discuss the situation. Sir Simon believed they used a raven to send the warning."
"A raven?" Jon understood immediately. If the spy used a raven to send messages to the enemies at White Wall City, then the timing made more sense.
And if the men from White Wall City were truly searching for the Blackfyre treasure, it wasn't surprising they could find someone literate who knew how to raise ravens.
"You haven't found any of their camps since then?" Jon pressed.
"No," Sir Wilder replied. "We thoroughly searched the area but found nothing."
"Wait a moment. You call it a 'thorough search'? With just five hundred men? In such a large area?" Jon's voice turned sharp. "That's thousands of square kilometers!"
"Well, it wasn't just us," Wilder quickly added. "We had help from patrol teams and hunters from over twenty nearby villages. Many of them are fiefdoms of our allied houses—like my own Felan Village, Wolf Village, Ngar Village, and also Tamang and Joka Villages from House Darry."
"House Darry still has fiefdoms there?" Jon asked, a little surprised.
"Only a few," Wilder said. "At their height, House Darry controlled nearly sixty villages, stretching from the east bank of the God's Eye to the south bank of the Trident. Now, they have only four left."
Still holding on to four is better than nothing, Jon thought to himself. Only Robert would be that lenient.
"With the help of the locals, we searched every place people might hide," Sir Wilder continued. "But in the end, we found nothing."
Jon fell silent. He had a nagging feeling that something was wrong, but he couldn't figure out exactly what.
"Let's leave that for now," Jon finally said with a soft sigh. "Tell me more about the stronghold you discovered."
"It's an abandoned fishing village on the south bank at the mouth of the Trident, about six leagues north of here."
"An abandoned fishing village? Why was it abandoned?"
"It used to be a small village built around a natural harbor," Wilder explained. "But during Robert's Rebellion—the Usurper's War—it was looted by an unknown army. Hardly anyone survived.
"After the war, many local lords—the Riversides, the Darrys, and the Moutons of Maidenpool—lost their power because they supported the Targaryens. The whole crossroads region fell into ruin. That fishing village wasn't the only casualty; more than forty villages around here were abandoned after the war."
"Sad story," Jon commented, though his face showed little emotion. "Go on. What else did you find?"
"We suspect that the ghosts from White Wall City have found the Blackfyre treasure and are moving it to a new location," Sir Wilder said in a surprising tone.
Even though Jon Snow had already guessed that Wilder and the others might have found important clues about the Blackfyre treasure, he was still stunned when he heard it out loud.
That elusive bandit group known as the "Ghosts," who had barely left behind even a trace of a camp, had not only been tracked this time, but they might actually be transporting treasure?
"Can you tell me what led you to this conclusion?" Jon asked, clearly doubtful.
"It started when—" Sir Wilder paused, thinking for a moment, "we noticed that the ghosts from White Wall City had basically stopped all their raiding activities over the past two weeks."
"They just ransacked the salt mine in Lord Harroway's Town three days ago!" Sir Willy, who had been silent until now, interrupted.
Jon couldn't help but laugh. Of course! Whenever something went wrong, it was always blamed on the ghosts of White Wall City.
"What are you laughing at?" Wilder asked, confused.
"I just thought it was funny," Jon said, smiling. "You had barely finished speaking and he immediately contradicted you."
Still young after all, Wilder thought, feeling strangely relieved.
"The salt mine in Lord Harroway's Town was indeed attacked three days ago," Wilder admitted. "I heard many people were killed.
But according to the foreman's account, he had temporarily left the mine with the workers and had rented the place to a traveling merchant. It seems the attack was due to a personal conflict involving that merchant. It probably had nothing to do with the ghosts from White Wall City. It's just that they've caused so much trouble in this region that everyone likes to blame them for everything."
"Alright, let's assume the ghosts had nothing to do with the attack on the salt mine," Jon said, though he added silently in his heart: Of course they weren't involved. That mess was caused by the Lannister ghosts.
"And then?" he asked aloud.
"The ghosts seem to have disappeared completely, and that worried us. We fear they found the Blackfyre treasure and are preparing to flee with it," Wilder explained.
"Couldn't it also be that they gave up after realizing they couldn't find it?" Jon pointed out.
"Of course, that's possible too," Wilder admitted. "But either way, their sudden disappearance is a bad sign for us."
Isn't it a good thing when a gang you can't deal with disappears? Jon grumbled inwardly. You really are a good and responsible lord.
"So we split up our forces and began searching for any trace of them," Wilder finished