The registration fee for the competition was one copper coin. This threshold, which was almost non-existent and purely symbolic, would not put pressure even on the most strapped New Gift contestants. It ensured that there would not be too few contestants for the competition to proceed, and Aegor would not be stumped if he wanted excellent archers.
The negative effect of doing this was that the skill level of the contestants was shockingly uneven.
The target for the competition was over seventy meters away. For a normal archer, this was a normal but slightly challenging distance. However, this was judged by the standard of ordinary Seven Kingdoms archers. The fact was, many New Gift contestants from Beyond the Wall used their own bows and arrows. In Beyond the Wall, where there were no standard units of measurement, they could not even clearly state how far they could shoot. Perhaps some of them were indeed top experts in their own villages or tribes, but a small target over seventy meters away?
There was no snow in Queenscrown today, but the cold wind was blowing as usual. In this open-air environment, it was normal for insufficient skill to result in an extremely low hit rate or even no hits at all. The most comical were those contestants who, due to being too young, lacking strength, or having poor bows, could not even reach the target. After shooting a few arrows, they were bewildered, either awkwardly withdrawing or temporarily switching to the standard Night's Watch bows and arrows provided by the organizers. It is easy to imagine, using equipment they touched for the first time without practice directly in a competition, it would be a ghost's chance to have any good performance.
The occurrence of various unexpected situations certainly added liveliness and drama to the competition. Fortunately, even when problems arose, no one would cause trouble under the nose of the Night's Watch Commander for the sake of a one-copper registration fee. In stark contrast to these supporting players were the serious archers, who quickly stood out from the large crowd of contestants. Theon and Marksman Anguy, of course, easily advanced with perfect scores. Among the latter's companions, it was no surprise that Dondarrion, as a noble, was skilled in archery. What Aegor did not expect was that Thoros, clearly a Red God priest, could also use a bow. All three skilled archers sent by Castle Black passed the second round. Furthermore, Ygritte also unsurprisingly became one of the few New Gift contestants to advance. What left Aegor somewhat helpless was that, as his direct forces and core officer corps, the promotion rate of the soldiers from the Logistics Department was somewhat unsatisfactory.
There was nothing he could do. Although a scientific system, advanced theories, and diligent training made this team, mainly composed of commoners, quite good in terms of discipline and overall combat capability, their disadvantage in individual martial prowess could not be caught up in just one or two years of hard training compared to those warriors and nobles who had been able to handle bows since childhood.
However, if it was unsatisfactory, then so be it. Aegor was now not just the boss of the Night's Watch Industry and the head of the Logistics Department, but also the Night's Watch Commander. As long as a few of the black brothers, his sworn brothers, could hold their own, he would not have anything to be embarrassed about.
The only thing that made Aegor slightly uneasy was that Arya had also led several Winterfell guards into the next round. He had originally hoped she would be eliminated early because she could not draw the bow. It seemed the girl's strength was greater than he had imagined. By the Seven Gods, if Lady Stark really made it into the top ten, should he bring her to the front line to face the White Walkers in the final battle?
The worry just flashed through his mind. After learning about Arya's advancement results, hitting the target half the time, he breathed a sigh of relief. Although Queenscrown and the Night's Watch were not exactly overflowing with talent, they were far from being so lacking that even a little girl like her could enter the final round. Drawing a bow and shooting an arrow was not as easy as it looked. After two more rounds of competition, she definitely would not even be able to lift her arms.
Taking advantage of the break in the competition, Myrcella spoke up softly again. "Lord Aegor, your attitude towards Asha Greyjoy is too stiff, is it not?"
"There is nothing I can do." Aegor glanced at Asha's back a few meters away, sighed helplessly, and explained softly as well, "There are always some women in the world who think that because they have some looks, men should revolve around them or look at them differently. If I am not decisive enough to let her know my attitude, she will only misunderstand that I am interested in her and increasingly think she can use her flesh, use certain costs to exchange for something." At this point, he suddenly remembered that the person opposite him was just a girl, and discussing this topic with her was slightly inappropriate, so he could only quickly skip parts of the content. "If I do not have a strong attitude, I will only add more trouble for myself."
"I was not saying you should accept her deal." Myrcella was also a woman. One could even say that she dared to actively approach Aegor seeking reliance and help because she subconsciously had some confidence in her appearance. Hearing this, a blush immediately appeared on her little face. "I know, out of consideration for Lord Theon, you have to give his sister some preferential treatment, but you do not want to get too entangled with her. But have you forgotten the sword practice she had with Arya before? This time she did not have any intention of harming Arya, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. You later warned Arya not to do that again, and perhaps she will listen to you. But think about it, the sword practice has indeed stopped, but as a friend, if Asha encounters Arya on the road in Queenscrown and calls out to her, wanting to say a few girl talk words, given Arya's personality and temper, would she pretend not to hear and ignore her?"
Aegor raised his eyebrows. Myrcella had pointed out a blind spot in his previous thinking. A skilled female warrior like Asha was not necessarily only a threat when holding a sword and sparring with someone in the training yard. If she wanted to cause trouble, indeed, simply forbidding Arya from practicing swords with her was not a foolproof plan.
"Oh dear, I am rambling. Lord, just pretend you did not hear me, I will rephrase." Myrcella shook her little head vigorously. "My suggestion is, you cannot simply rely on ignoring her and expect her to calm down, figure everything out, and be an obedient prisoner. Not everyone is as calm and unemotional as you. If you keep handling it passively like this, someone who sees no hope might do something crazy. You either lock her up as a complete prisoner, or give her a little hope, throw out a couple of verbal promises. For example, that you will help her ask the Stark family, or that you will consider giving her something to do. You do not need to rush to fulfill them, but with something to look forward to, at least you will see signs when she is about to go crazy."
To be honest, Myrcella's suggestion this time was not as sharp and eye-opening as her previous ones. It only made some sense. Aegor thought about it. Not wanting to disregard the Little Princess's good intentions, he could only nod. "Alright, I will make time to talk to her during lunch and appease my prisoner a bit. At least ensure she does not cause any more trouble before this big battle."
Myrcella quickly nodded. If she said any more, her cheeks would burn with guilt, revealing everything.
She forced herself to find a topic to speak for Asha, certainly not because she liked her, but largely out of selfish motives. She wanted to test Aegor. If he was truly someone who was impervious to persuasion and strictly impartial, who only wanted to be a competent Night's Watch Commander, then her hope of using him to change her fate would be dashed, and she could give up early. Conversely, if he was willing to talk to Asha today, willing to help others with small favors tomorrow, getting used to stepping and skirting the edges of his duties and authority time after time, then when she pleaded with him for rescue in the future, it might be considered.
Aegor did not know what Myrcella was thinking. Even if he did, he would most likely just laugh and pat her head. The competition continued. By the end of the morning, the top thirty had all been decided, and Arya had also been eliminated as Aegor had hoped, finally saving him the dilemma of whether or not to let her participate in the battle.
Around noon, after a brief talk with Asha Greyjoy and promising her that he would help sound out the Starks' attitude after the war, Aegor encountered a slight problem. Because this somewhat informal archery competition adopted a flow style where multiple people shot at targets simultaneously and the number of hits determined who stayed or left, rather than the modern sports style where one person shoots and the camera focuses on the next person, the pace of the competition was a little too fast to control. If it continued like this, the competition would end anticlimactically in an hour at most in the afternoon.
Such a rare grand event should at least fill an entire day, making it natural to proceed with other activities in the evening. Aegor stroked his chin and quickly had an idea. Before the afternoon competition began, insert a temporary event, a simple trebuchet accuracy competition.
In the absence of real cannons, as the main heavy firepower of Queenscrown and the areas along the Wall, Aegor had equipped each stronghold with a large number of small and medium-sized trebuchets capable of launching Wildfire incendiary bombs and Dragon Crystal Bombs, and required these artillerymen to prioritize accuracy in training. He had privately tested the training results, and they were not bad. Using this as an emergency filler event now, showing their faces in front of the spectators, could both kill some time and further inform the soldiers and civilians of this stronghold about its defensive capabilities, increasing confidence, killing two birds with one stone.
Ten artillery teams were named to participate in this exhibition match, performing precision strikes on a large circle drawn on the ground from 150 meters away, the size of this circle was roughly drawn based on the killing range of a Dragon Crystal Bomb. The rules were the same as the archery competition. The one who could hit the target more times with stone projectiles of the same weight as a Dragon Crystal Bomb would win.
A small number of spectators eager to see the results of the archery competition were indifferent to the trebuchet competition, but most people watched the entire process with great interest. After the interlude ended in just over an hour, the final stage of the archery competition started as scheduled. To increase watchability, the organizers appropriately reduced the number of people shooting at the same time. However, by this point, the people still in the field were basically all skilled shooters. Not only were there few accidents, but often one or two errant arrows could quickly determine elimination or advancement. The number of people on the field decreased, while the audience on the sidelines grew. In this enthusiastic atmosphere, the top twenty and top ten were finally decided one by one.
The tenth and eighth places were taken by a Grey Area Citizen Aegor did not know and a Mountain Clans warrior, respectively. Beric Dondarrion, the Lord of Blackhaven famous for his inability to die due to the Red God's blessing in the original plot, also had surprisingly good archery skills and ultimately took ninth place. Sixth place was the famous Kissed by Fire, the only woman in the top ten, Ygritte. Fifth was a Winterfell soldier. Aegor wondered if Catelyn should keep him if she returned to Winterfell now to fulfill the reward of participating in the final battle with Lightbringer. Seventh, fourth, and third all came from the Castle Black rangers, Aegor's former colleagues, among whom the leader was the current First Ranger, Jaremy Rykker.
Finally, only the competition for the champion and runner-up remained. Anguy, the King's Landing tourney archery champion who claimed he would surely take the top spot, nicknamed the Marksman, had no idea that he had defeated the best archers of the Seven Kingdoms, yet would encounter a formidable opponent in this cold, remote place of Queenscrown. Theon Greyjoy was younger and less experienced than him, but his advantage was having spent ten years in the North, familiar with the North's temperature, humidity, and cold winds. From the moment they entered the field until they eliminated all other contestants, neither of them missed a single arrow. In this competition where hits, not ring counts, determined victory, regardless of their true skill, they were currently tied.
Yam ran to the stands to ask Aegor how to proceed, and the two sides added another round.
After five arrows, both sides still hit the target with all of them.
Aegor became interested and immediately announced new rules. "Three arrows per round, the two sides shoot alternately. If the score is still tied at the end of each round, the target will be moved back thirty feet, and so on, until a winner is decided."
Unlike hot weapons, the kinetic energy of an arrow, a cold weapon, comes almost entirely from the archer's muscles, which already consumes a significant amount of energy. This will only increase as the distance to the target grows. With such rapid range increases, even if both sides' archery skills are unparalleled, someone will eventually be defeated due to a disadvantage in endurance.
A peak duel between experts. Since most Grey Area Citizens had never seen such a spectacle, the atmosphere in the arena gradually became heated. The spectators who had been waiting to leave were re-engaged, like a football match entering the penalty shootout stage. When only two people are left competing on the field and the rules are adjusted to be simple and brutal, even if the spectators are not supporters of either team, or even football fans, they might stop and watch out of curiosity.
All three arrows hit, add thirty feet.
All three arrows hit x2, add another thirty feet.
All three arrows hit x3, add yet another thirty feet.
After adding thirty feet three times, the distance between the target and the archers reached an astonishing nearly a hundred meters. Many spectators who grew up in the mountains or Beyond the Wall, especially the latter, widened their eyes and showed expressions of disbelief. It was not that they could not shoot arrows. Ygritte and another New Gift contestant in the top ten were also extremely talented, but they lost early and did not achieve better results because their homemade bows were too poor. A hundred meters, Ygritte's weirwood short recurve bow could barely reach this distance, yet the two contestants on the field were still hitting every shot.
One arrow, both hit the target.
Two arrows, both hit the target.
Three arrows, both hit the target.
Still a tie.
At this moment, everyone forgot their cultural and religious differences, forgot that they had once hated and been enemies with each other. The shouts, cheers, and discussions around the arena were like boiling water, the noise almost tearing apart the dark clouds in the sky. Queenscrown's gloomy pre-war atmosphere of recent days was completely swept away.
In front, the staff eagerly rushed onto the field to move the target, while at the archers' positions, the Queenscrown archery instructor turned helplessly towards the main stands and shrugged.
Theon Greyjoy's bow was a fine yew longbow, a gift from his foster father, Lord Eddard Stark, when he was sixteen. Let alone a hundred meters, he would dare to try a hundred and fifty meters. However, daring to try under normal circumstances was one thing, but now, after continuously drawing and shooting dozens of arrows, he felt a soreness in his shoulders and back, and that last arrow had been shot while trembling.
In contrast, the Marksman Anguy, who appeared out of nowhere without even a surname, looked relaxed, as if he could shoot another hundred arrows. Even knowing he might be bluffing, it still dealt a huge blow to Theon, who lacked experience and worldly wisdom.
Seeing the Commander nod at him encouragingly, Theon turned back, gritting his teeth and looking at the field. The staff who had moved the target ran out of the danger zone, while Anguy on the other side nocked an arrow and drew his bow, as if needing no adjustment for the changing distance and wind speed, he casually aimed and released the arrow.
The arrow drew a beautiful arc as it flew over a hundred meters, deviating a few degrees from its initial direction under the side wind, but as if guided by an invisible hand, it instead aimed directly at the target.
With a barely audible thud, the arrow hit the target.
Cheers like mountains and seas.
Theon gritted his teeth, felt for an arrow, nocked it onto the bow, took his stance, used the strength in his shoulders and back, and forced himself to make a final attempt.
His posture was a bit distorted. The correct way was to relax the arm and use the back muscles, but the current reality was, without using more strength from his upper arm, he could no longer draw the bow far enough to shoot that distance.
Holding his breath, adjusting his aiming point according to the wind direction and speed, maintaining the drawing posture was extremely strenuous, he had to release the arrow quickly.
But just as Theon shot the arrow, the sound of horns and alarm bells suddenly rang out simultaneously from the direction of the Queenscrown watchtower.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
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