The Mountain of Ice and Fire

In the Witch's heart, there was no doubt that the Mountain was the true prophet.

It was just that the Duke didn't know it.

However, after magically probing the Mountain, besides predicting the future, his other magical abilities were completely blank.

This was normal. Since the Seven Gods had given the Mountain a rare and unique physique and unmatched martial prowess, plus the great prophetic ability, that was already enough. If the Mountain also mastered magical powers, he would become a god-like figure.

Usually, a person couldn't always have good luck, and the same went for abilities. The Seven Gods couldn't concentrate all abilities on one person.

Duke Tywin completely believed what the Witch said, for one reason: because of the details.

The Witch spoke of the details.

Last night, the Witch was convinced by the Mountain and accepted his 'great prophecy' of the future also because of the details. Afterward, the Witch secretly used a magical potion to 'test' the Mountain. The magical potion showed no abnormal reaction, and the Mountain's 'prophecy' passed the Witch's test.

The Witch didn't sleep the entire night last night.

But her spirit was surprisingly good.

She had reached a 'small deal' with her step-great-grandson, the Mountain. The Mountain would secretly assist the Witch in completing the most important event of her life: to make Jeyne Westerling unknowingly become her apprentice, inheriting her witchcraft legacy. Jeyne was currently helping her grandmother with some chores, and she herself didn't know her grandmother's true intentions.

As for the conversation with Duke Tywin this morning, the Witch had already foreseen it all last night.

Although she wasn't a 'great prophet' who could 'prophesy' the entire world, she could easily see people and things in time fragments that were very close, and she could also see some people's life-and-death events and key life ups and downs through blood.

Of course, as for whether the Witch would tell the truth she saw, and how much she would tell, that depended on her personal judgment and will.

When Duke Tywin walked out of the Witch's room, lunchtime had already passed.

Neither the Duke nor the Witch had eaten breakfast or lunch.

No one dared to disturb the conversation between the Duke and the Witch.

The Duke looked to be in good spirits.

*

The Duke sat at the dining table by the window, eating breakfast and lunch together.

His eyes looked out the window, to the Clegane training ground outside, which had doubled in size, where a lithe young woman was practicing horseback archery.

This woman was the Mountain's adopted daughter, Julie Clegane.

For more than two months, with daily training, Julie's body had become stronger, she had grown taller, and she had the charm of a mature young woman.

She had learned a body of banditry, and among the brothers, she spoke nothing but foul language.

Being with the bandits, it was difficult for Julie to become a lady.

Julie rode past a wall, on which there were three targets, the center of the targets painted red.

The horse's speed didn't decrease, Julie drew her bow and fired an arrow from horseback, and with a swoosh, it hit the bullseye of the first target.

The scholars, knights, and instructors surrounding Duke Tywin were also watching Julie practice archery.

Julie's archery skills, in the eyes of the Duke and the knight instructors, were average.

First, Julie's horse speed wasn't fast, not the speed of a charge; second, the targets were inanimate objects, and the bullseye was fixed, while on the battlefield, the enemy would move.

Each of the five centurions of Tywin's cavalry guard could hit three bullseyes in a row on a faster warhorse.

The scholars, earls, supervisors, knights, and centurions watched Julie practice archery with cold eyes, and they didn't think much of it.

Julie rode past, circled her horse back, and as her horse flew past the target, she shot another arrow with a swoosh, hitting the bullseye of the second target.

Although the little girl's archery skills were average, and her horsemanship was also average, she practiced repeatedly.

After shooting a quiver of arrows, the little girl hit the bullseye with every arrow.

She rode her horse to the front of the target, jumped off, pulled out the arrows, and put them back in the quiver.

"What do you see?" The Duke looked at his courtiers beside him with eyes like nails.

No one answered.

Everyone didn't see anything unusual. The little girl's archery and horsemanship were quite satisfactory, and her practice was also very diligent and meticulous. But she was still lacking.

Julie also noticed the Duke and his party watching her.

The little girl didn't care and continued to practice archery.

This time, her horse speed was the same, but she fired two arrows in a row, hitting the bullseyes of two targets.

This was Julie's mandatory lesson after completing her daily patrol mission: archery.

Her father, the Mountain, required her to draw her bow and shoot at least one hundred and fifty times every day, and the little girl's requirement for herself was to complete at least three hundred times.

First, she sought accuracy, second, she sought speed, and third, she sought rapid-fire archery.

Shooting an arrow, and then the second arrow came, that was rapid-fire.

Shooting arrows on a running warhorse was already very difficult.

The Mountain required Julie to practice every day. As long as there were no special tasks to complete, she had to practice hard on the training ground.

To become a sharpshooter, the only trick was to practice hard and accumulate a large number of times. When accumulated to a certain number of times, the accuracy of archery would naturally increase.

Julie kept her father's words in mind and practiced horseback archery hard whenever she had time. Again and again, until she couldn't pull the bow at all.

After Duke Tywin watched Julie's second round of rapid-fire archery, he pointed at Julie outside with the chopsticks in his hand: "Ser Bronn of the Blackwater."

"Yes, Your Grace!"

"Didn't you see anything different about Julie?"

Bronn of the Blackwater concentrated and looked at Julie's horseback archery again, and he shook his head: "Your Grace, I can't see any difference between Miss Julie's archery and our archery."

Outside the wall of the Great Training Ground, the sound of the Clegane cavalry training their charge was also constantly coming.

Although there were less than a hundred people, the training was meticulous and never slackened!

These cavalrymen received the highest military pay in the entire Westerlands. Every day, besides eating, they trained. Because of this military pay, the Mountain was greatly ridiculed by the nobles of the Westerlands, as after-dinner gossip.

Only a fool would pay a soldier one gold dragon a month. The military pay for the Mountain's one hundred cavalrymen could pay the wages of three hundred cavalrymen.

Without a doubt, the Mountain was that fool.

It was just that, given the Mountain's brutality and bloodthirsty ruthlessness, no one dared to laugh at him in person.

The Duke ate his fill, put down his chopsticks, and said, "Go call Miss Julie over."

A centurion immediately went.

Soon, Miss Julie rode her horse to the window of the restaurant. She sat on her horse, her body as straight as a gun, her eyes sharp. Through the window, she was slightly shorter than the Duke. In front of the Duke, the little girl had no fear.

"Miss Julie, is your right shoulder soft armor?" the Duke asked.

"Yes, Your Grace."

"You are in full armor, why use soft armor on your right shoulder?"

"Your Grace, I am small and weak. My father ordered me to wear heavy armor during training to exercise my strength and bones. Covering my right shoulder with heavy armor would make my right arm unable to lift up quickly when I raise my arm to shoot an arrow. My father designed a light soft armor for my right shoulder to reduce the weight, so I can train a quiver in one breath without having to rest in the middle."

The Duke nodded: "Scholar, reward Miss Julie with a gold dragon."

"Yes, Your Grace." Scholar Potter's heart moved. The Duke didn't have the habit of rewarding small soldiers with gold dragons. Why did he do this? It would definitely not be a sudden burst of kindness. The Duke's heart was as hard as iron.

Julie thanked the Duke for the reward, and after receiving the Duke's permission, she rode away and continued to practice archery.

"Ser Bronn of the Blackwater."

"Yes, Your Grace."

"I order you to immediately return to Casterly Rock and order the officials to replace all the right shoulder armor of the two thousand garrison troops in Casterly Rock with light soft armor; then issue a conscription order to gather manpower in the territory of Casterly Rock to train a team of two thousand archers, and their right shoulder armor should all be the lightest soft armor."

"Yes, Your Grace!" Ser Bronn of the Blackwater immediately saluted and left, returning to Casterly Rock.

"Centurions, the right shoulder armor of the five hundred cavalrymen of the Guard will all be replaced with light soft armor after returning to Casterly Rock."

"Yes, Your Grace!" The five centurions bowed together in agreement.

"Scholar, send out ravens, order all parts of the Westerlands, the soldiers of each family must train in battle and fighting every day from today onwards, and I will inspect them in turn. All family professional soldiers, whether infantry, cavalry, or archers, must not use heavy armor on their right shoulders, only light soft armor is allowed."

"Yes, Your Grace, I will do it immediately."

The right arm is not only for raising to shoot arrows, but also for wielding swords and spears.

In a life-and-death battle, if the right shoulder and arm can be lighter by one point, the movement will be faster by one point, and naturally there will be one more point of winning.

Thanks for chau534's reward, thank you!