"Is that all there is?" Linde looked at the goods before him, a frown on his face.
The goods Linde discovered were merely precious items like tea, silk, and ceramics from the Far East. While these items were indeed valuable, they didn't seem worth Littlefinger's special trip to King's Landing, or even his specific request for Janos Slynt to provide extra protection for this batch of goods.
"Did he intentionally use these goods as bait to attract the attention of interested parties, while the actual smuggled items he valued were placed elsewhere?" Sensing something was amiss, Linde's mind raced with possibilities, while he cautiously surveyed his surroundings. If these goods were bait, then a trap, and a deadly one at that, surely accompanied them.
However, no matter how he sensed, he found no abnormalities inside or outside the warehouse. The guards patrolling around the warehouse also made no unusual movements. The only thing that made him uncomfortable in the entire warehouse were the snores of a few drunken guards.
"It seems I was wrong." Linde chuckled self-deprecatingly, feeling he had been overly cautious. He looked at the goods again and immediately realized why he had misjudged.
While the value of these goods might not warrant a person like Littlefinger risking a trip from the Vale to King's Landing, especially during this chaotic period, it didn't mean they were worthless. In fact, if sold in King's Landing, these goods could easily fetch tens of thousands of gold Dragons.
If it were Littlefinger, the Master of Coin on the Iron Throne a decade and a half later, he might be qualified to use tens of thousands of gold Dragons as bait. But currently, as merely a port city's customs officer, Littlefinger was clearly not grand enough to pull off such a lavish scheme. Therefore, these goods should not be bait, and the smuggled items that brought Littlefinger specifically to King's Landing should be hidden within this batch of goods.
After realizing this, Linde carefully re-examined the goods. This time, he didn't just glance over them; he meticulously checked every bag and box.
Soon, he noticed that several boxes containing silk felt off. These boxes were the same size as the others, but their weight was significantly greater. Undoubtedly, the contents of these boxes were more than just silk.
Although these boxes were locked, such primitive locks were quite simple for Linde. As early as White Village, he had anticipated encountering similar situations, so he had retrained his lock-picking skills from his previous life, just in case.
As expected, he pulled out two oddly shaped iron pieces and inserted them into different positions in the keyhole. Then, by moving the iron pieces back and forth, he felt the position of the lock pins and adjusted the iron pieces little by little. Soon, the lock of one box was opened by him.
Linde carefully removed the lock, placed it aside, and then slowly opened the box lid, avoiding making too much noise.
Once the box was successfully opened, Linde looked inside and saw neatly arranged rolls of silk. It seemed he had misjudged, but no expression of disappointment appeared on his face.
He carefully took out the silk rolls and placed them aside. Soon, all the silk inside the box was removed. Then, he gently tapped the bottom of the box. After hearing the sound that echoed back, a smile appeared on his face.
Next, his gaze searched the bottom of the box and found a hidden clasp. He then inserted his finger into the clasp and lifted the entire bottom panel of the box.
Inside, there was another compartment filled with weeds for cushioning. Among the weeds were some very ancient-looking bronze, silver, and gold artifacts.
"Are these the smuggled goods Littlefinger values so much?" Seeing these items, Linde felt a slight doubt. He really couldn't tell their value, but he didn't jump to conclusions, knowing very well that due to his limited knowledge and perspective, he couldn't accurately assess the value of such items.
With his doubts, Linde re-covered the partition, put the silk rolls back in their original places, restoring everything. But he didn't leave immediately. Instead, he opened the other boxes that felt unusually heavy. It wasn't until he opened the fourth box and saw the items secretly stored inside that he understood what these smuggled goods truly were.
The fourth box contained only two items: a cracked Dragon Egg and an exquisite dagger.
Upon seeing these two items, Linde's initial focus wasn't on the cracked Dragon Egg with its scaly shell, but on the exquisite dagger. From its striking and unique bone handle and steel blade, Linde could almost certainly identify it as a Valyrian steel dagger with a dragonbone handle. This dagger was also very likely the catalyst for the War of the Five Kings a decade and a half later.
"Has Littlefinger obtained this dagger so early?" Linde felt a mix of doubt and curiosity, so he wanted to take the dagger out of the box and examine it closely.
However, as his hand touched the dagger's dragonbone handle, a distinct burning sensation spread from his fingertips throughout his body.
At this moment, this mysterious burning sensation was not Linde's primary concern. What concerned him was that the energy bar below the Peace Envoy, which was already more than three-quarters full, was flickering like a breathing light under the influence of this burning sensation.
The sudden change left Linde somewhat flustered, but he quickly calmed down and carefully examined what kind of changes the burning sensation from the dragonbone dagger brought to his golden finger's energy bar.
But after a careful inspection, he was somewhat disappointed, because this burning sensation, apart from making the energy bar continuously flicker, did not cause any other reactions. It didn't even push the energy bar forward a single bit.
Despite this, Linde did not believe that the influence of the dragonbone on the golden finger in his body was so simple. He felt that he just hadn't discovered it yet.
Thinking of this, Linde placed his hand on the cracked Dragon Egg again. This time, there was no burning sensation, but a chill like ice and snow spread from the point of contact to his hand.
This chill did not spread throughout his body like the previous burning sensation, nor did it cause any abnormalities in the golden finger. Instead, it flowed through his body like a stream, gathered in his chest, and then injected into Glory, which was in the pouch on his chest. Glory, who was sleeping soundly, seemed to sense this chill and stirred slightly before continuing to sleep.
Although Linde had conducted some training on Glory to reduce its wildness, he didn't know if the training time was too short or if his training methods were wrong. In short, Glory's wildness not only didn't decrease but actually grew stronger. Besides showing affection for him and obeying his commands, it would attack anyone else who came even slightly close.
Moreover, as he grew, Glory's teeth also became increasingly strong. Not only could he bite through the ropes that bound him, but he could even bite through the wooden bars of the cage. Therefore, to avoid accidents, Linde always kept Glory by his side, and this time was no exception.
Fortunately, Glory was very obedient. If Linde ordered him not to move, he truly wouldn't move, even when sound asleep, and wouldn't make any unusual noises, causing Linde no trouble.