Chapter 131
The southwest winds brought a smell of salty sea air to the east coast of Slaver's Bay, and the smell of blood and fire from the battlefield below the White Poplar Slope has been diluted a lot.
The noon sun reflected a dazzling white glow on the snow-white ground with seven or eight gaps, causing Barristan and the others who were watching from the side to narrow their eyes slightly.
Seven wooden stakes stand behind Dany, and the upper half of the stakes hold seven freshly carved faces: a large bearded man (Father) holding a scale, a smiling woman (Mother), equipped with a long sword, A young man (Warrior), a tulle Maiden (Maiden), a man with a hammer (Smith), a hunchbacked old woman (Crone) with a lamp, and a faceless man (Stranger).
The sword's edge tapped the excited bearded man's shoulder three times, and Dany said aloud: "Braavos and bastard child of the North, Jon Snow, in the presence of The Seven, will you swear to me? Will you hold allegiance for the rest of your life, will you be my loyal Knight, will you serve me with your courage, power, and wisdom?"
She took off her helmet, and the silver hair that fell to her shoulders, on the gray and black shoulder armor, was Glittering in the sun, her face is full of solemnity, and her purple eyes only make people feel she is majestic while ignoring her beautiful face.
Jon kneels, yelling in promise: "I, the illegitimate child of the Braavos and the North, Jon Snow, swear allegiance to my lord Daenerys Targaryen.
"I accept your allegiance." Dany smiled slightly, like a hundred flowers blooming, "I swear, you will always have a place by my fireplace, you will drink and eat meat at the same table with me. I swear that your service will never be stigmatized. In the name of The Seven, I, Daenerys Targaryen, solemnly swear."
Then she retracted her sword, looked around, and finally looked back at Jon's head on the bridge, she said softly, "I announce as Jon Snow's monarch and Queen that Jon Snow is the son of Roose Bolton and will inherit his mother's surname from today."
"Jon...Bolton, thank you, my lord!" His voice trembled.
Dany took two more lateral steps, came to another kneeling bearded man, tapped the ridge of her sword three times on his shoulder, and said, "Descendant of the Northern exiles, Brus. Wayn, under the witness of the Old and New Gods, are you willing to swear allegiance to me, to be my most loyal Knight for the rest of your life, and to serve me with your courage, power, and wisdom?"
Um, Brus, like many of Westeros, not only believes in the Old Gods of the North tradition but also maintains awe and devotion to The Seven.
In fact, Jorah Mormont is like this. He is a Northern man who accepted The Seven's baptism and became a true Knight.
There is a slight change in the oath to Brus, by Dany.
Brus took the oath, followed by Lyra Umber, a tall, red-haired woman, and Helman Tallhart, a black-haired middle age man.
This is not over. When the four new Knights get up excitedly, 25 Warriors, including Symon Stripeback, Mollono, black Tal, Dothraki Quaro, etc, lined up in two rows, kneeling below the statue of The Seven and Dany.
This is a reward for meritorious deeds. The 25 people in front have made great achievements in today's battle and will be conferred by Dany as Knights together.
Well, they can have other beliefs, but still accept The Seven's baptism and become the most orthodox Knight – although many of them are not qualified.
Watching Quaro swear his oath aloud to Dany with a flushed face, Aggo said to Rakharo with some unpleasantness: "I want to be a Knight too."
"I want to too," Rakharo muttered.
Haggo was stunned, shook his head, and shouted: "No, our Khaleesi said, our Bloodrider is her 'blood of my blood', the degree of closeness and loyalty is far better than the Knights, so we can't neglect the root!"
"That's right, Khaleesi's father's kingdom was overthrown by his bannermen, but the Great Grass Sea has never had a Bloodridder who betrayed their Khal." Aggo came back to his senses and said excitedly.
"We are the Khaleesi's last barrier!"
In addition to knighting 25 Warriors as Knights, Dany then awarded each of them a Ser title one by one.
Dany's reward and punishment are clear.
After the knighting, today's ceremony is not over, Dany also conferred herself as a Knight..
Even if Dany has the title of Queen, she is still not a Knight. She has not gone through a Knight's ritual, smeared holy anointing, and has not squired under a real Knight.
How can the Ruler of all the Knights not be a Knight?
Barristan, as the White Cloak Commander, is entitled to confer anyone as Knight if he is willing to vouch for them.
Except for King.
If Mad King Aerys was still around, and even Dany's second brother was still alive, Barristan could have made her a Knight, as a princess.
Both the Princess and the Crown Prince can kneel to the Kingsguard Commander, but not the Queen or King.
It's not that the Queen can't become a Knight, if there is a Church of The Seven's Most Devout at this time, he can designate Dany as a Knight on behalf of The Seven.
But now there is not even a single Septon.
But…
Dany had all the Knights, including Barristan, line up below her, announcing loudly: "Slaver's Bay doesn't have The Seven Septon, much less even a small Septon. So, I decided to follow the example and be the Astapor's Most Devout."
She didn't really say much, Saint Baelor the Blessed, who locked his three sisters in the Maidenvault and buried them. Baelor I, who ignited the Blackfyre rebellion, held the positions of King and Most Devout at the same time.
If Dany's character can be maintained until the moment of death without breaking down, then she will be praised as "Saint Daenerys" by future generations.
The historical status of the Church of The Seven is higher than that of Saint Baelor, probably similar to "St. Peter", "St. John" and "St. Paul" in Christianity.
At this time, Saint Daenerys, as Most Devout, conferred Queen Daenerys I as a Knight.
Knight Queen Dany's sharp sword is unsheathed, inserted beside her, facing the one-knee kneeling of The Seven stake, dozens of Knights behind her draw out their long swords or arakhs in unison, learning from Dany, they kneel behind her with a solemn expressions.
"I swear to be kind to the weak!" Dany said loudly.
"I swear to be kind to the weak!" the Knights shouted in unison behind her.
"I swear to be brave against rape!"
"I swear to fight against all wrongs and injustices!"
"I swear to serve the world with my sword!"
"I swear not to harm children and babies!"
"I swear to help my fellow Knights!"
"I swear Be honest and trustworthy!"
"I swear to abide by the Basic Law and folk customs!"
"I swear to be ashamed of ignorance, ashamed of pleasure and dislike of labor, ashamed of arrogance and lust!"
Dany said a word, and her Knights swear together, the scene is simple but sacred, and the atmosphere is even more solemn.
The surrounding soldiers quietly witnessed all this happening, both in awe and worship and with infinite yearning.
However, Dany's newly "invented" Knight declaration is a bit… there are too many things, and in the end, it's almost just shouting "Eight honors and eight shames".
Dany said aloud the last oath to conclude: "At the moment of facing a strong enemy, don't be afraid, be brave and loyal, be honest and upright, rather die than lie, protect the weak, and do nothing against the law!"
As a feudal Knight King, she certainly can't let her young men forget "loyalty and bravery".
Don't preach loyalty, do you encourage Knights to rebel?
And now that war is going on, bravery is even more important.
Ending the knighting ceremony, Dany stood up and looked around, and found that the soldiers' imposing manner and mental outlook were much improved than before. Obviously, they not only saw the glory but also felt the real leadership of the military.
Dany sighed with emotion and then ordered some to prepare drinks and meat. After winning a big battle and conferring so many Knights, of course, there will be a celebration next!
This afternoon's festivities are arranged, and Dany gathers all the new Knights to wrap up the battle.
The Unsullied were in charge of leading clean up of the post-war battlefield. Grey Worm first stood up to report the result of the battle: "Your Majesty, we lost 127 soldiers and 206 were injured, so we can't join the next battle immediately."
Dany brows frowned, under such an advantageous battle situation, the casualties also exceeded 10%, this ratio…
In addition, in the Red Wedding, House Frey (about two or three thousand troops) and House Bolton (about three thousand infantry) joined forces to kill Robb's mixed team of four thousand elite foot soldiers, Frey only lost more than fifty people, of which ten were still killed by Robb's Direwolf Grey Wind. Bitten to death.
Well, in the "Game of Thrones" television drama, Grey Wind died tragically in a cage, a poor life, a useless death: in the original "Ice and Fire", Grey Wind was released by Raynald Westerling, Killing and fighting the death is extremely heroic.
Raynald Westerling is Robb's eldest brother, Crag Jenny's big brother, and Lady Sybell's eldest son.
It's a pity that Sybell didn't tell her children about the collusion between herself and Lord Tywin at all, which is the first undercover agent in "Ice and Fire".
She also made a deal with Lord Tywin to find a Lannister wife for Raynald.
As a result, the traitor's mother, loyal son, Raynald committed suicide by jumping into the river on the night of the Red Wedding.
Well, he was outnumbered and unwilling to surrender to House Frey, who violated the guest's rights, and his loyalty was a mess.
One more thing to mention, Robb's Direwolf is several times more sensitive to the danger of his master than Dany's Dragons. It bites and yells at Lady Sybell's siblings in Robb's face many times, trying to remind his master, but is very close to Lady Sybell's son Raynald.
…
"How come so many people died?" Dany asked, looking towards Barristan.
She took Little Green and 500 Knights to clear the stubborn stronghold, and only 20 people died. Ser Barristan led a large army to charge into the empty camp, and no one should be able to stop them. After all, the camps had been completely destroyed. The horses trampled it all.
"We didn't lose many people in the southern camp, but when we changed horses to sweep the northern camps, we encountered a lot of resistance." The veteran sighed.
Dany nods and says nothing more.
Ghis slave masters as it should be by rights put the sellsword groups at the front of the camps, and after seeing the enemy camps through the Black Dragon, Dany accurately intercepted the Ghis alliance camp in the middle.
To the north are mostly traders and slave soldiers, the threat is small, so you can put it aside for now.
And the sellsword groups were all at the southern end, and she ended up taking it all in one fell swoop.
After the two thousand cavalrymen of Ser Barristan swept the sellsword camps several times, they changed to a piece of energetic mounts and swept to the north.
At the cost of hundreds of casualties, capturing tens of thousands of slaves and traders is totally worth it.