-Chapitre 10-

-4 months later -

Time passed and my army began to take shape. After 4 moons, I finally managed to gather, train, and instruct 10,000 soldiers with an average age of 25 days of names. I dismissed all fighters over 40 years old and recruited them as instructors. I couldn't trust them, but I could use them to toughen up my troops in training.

I had 10,000 men and now about 1200 instructors who taught them almost everything there was to know about street fighting all day long. I also ordered them to perform simple group formations and simple formations that I had practiced when I was younger on the training grounds of Winterfell.

The only rule I had set for this army was that I wanted no slackers; no one was allowed to laze around. The old City Guard was rotten, and none deserved their gold cloaks.

None of the 10,000 newly recruited men deserved it either, for now, they were all here for a higher status and easy gold; none deserved a gold cloak, and those who had one before all had to give up their gold capes.

I wanted to deeply instill values such as obedience, loyalty, fidelity, and merit. For one moon, I made them do all sorts of oddities first.

I ordered them to run with sand-weighted armors distributed all over their bodies.

Like Gai and Lee in Naruto, they had to run until I was satisfied. I also required them to stand in rank and remain motionless for 1 hour straight, those who couldn't complete the exercise only got bread crusts while the rest feasted on well-cooked meat and alcohol.

These were simple rewards and punishments, but I wanted them to understand that if they wanted to continue enjoying their rights and privileges, they had to be loyal and listen to me every time I farted.

I always found exercises that tested their physical and psychological limits while testing their level of obedience. I continued like this for 3 additional moons, and today, having finished training the recruits to a decent level, I had to announce the hierarchy of the City Guard.

"First of all, I would like to congratulate myself for making you capable men who won't impale themselves on their own spears; it wasn't easy," I said jokingly in front of the men all gathered in 20 squares of 500 men.

Many laughed, and I then shouted as loudly as possible so that my voice could carry as far as possible and they could all feel my pride and the emotions that animated me at that moment:

"From now on, I am no longer your chief instructor, I am your commander, and you receive your orders from no one else, the first to overstep my orders will be dismissed and punished as any traitor deserves, I hope that's clear."

"YES COMMANDER," said the 10,000 freshly trained men in unison.

"Tristan, Vincent, Jordy, Carvin, Corian, Cédric, Elric, Samwell, Dorian, and Jonothor, step forward, you are now all captains of a regiment of a thousand men, composed of 2 battalions of 500 soldiers, I expect a lot from you, and in 10 days I want you to select the 10 men who will be your lieutenants."

"Yes Commander!!!"

I was summoned by the king a few minutes after the official formation of the City Guard. I was informed that my presence had been requested at a Small Council meeting by the king, which was a big event since I had been informed by my uncle that Robert Baratheon hardly ever attended such "boring meetings."

I didn't know what he wanted from me, but I guess if he called me just moments after announcing the hierarchical positions, he must have wanted to talk to me about the City Guard.

Once before him, I bowed as was proper since he was king, even though it disgusted me to kneel before the man who occupied my throne and hurt my pride with every bow, I had to play smart.

"I heard that you did well, now we have a real army capable of fighting and obeying the king's word and not those who pay them, but you haven't thought about the consequences of your actions," the king said seriously.

"Did I do something wrong?" I said confused, although I had demanded total obedience, I was the commander and had the right to ask for it since I was in turn "totally obedient" to the king.

"You did well in terms of training the soldiers and military discipline, but you forgot something important, where will we find the money to arm and maintain a permanent army of 10,000 soldiers every year?" he said.

I almost rolled my eyes because I had calculated this myself, and even if each soldier had a budgetary charge equivalent to 10 gold dragons, which was not the case, it would only represent an investment of 100,000 gold dragons.

"It's normal that a kid can't succeed where the former commander failed..." said Littlefinger mockingly, he added, "it is said that since you took office all the officers have disappeared or they were found dead in the Blackwater Bay."

Unfazed, I looked at him with the expression of a dead fish and said in an even tone: "Some people say that since you became master of coin you have enriched yourself at the expense of the realm and that thanks to you the crown has more than 6 million in debts."

Renly choked on his wine, and all the other council members hid small disdainful smiles because someone had finally managed to shut him up in public. I didn't give him a chance to retort because I said:

"I had already thought about how to finance my fief when I was young, and I already had several ideas for..."

Before I could finish my sentence, he interrupted me saying: "Hahahaha the whims of a bastard, the finesse required for the finance and economy of a kingdom are not as simple as you might believe, what will you say next, that White Walkers and giants exist?"

"It's not because you are an eternal loser, that it's the same for everyone, I was saying that I had already thought about ideas, and I propose to start by paying myself what the crown cannot pay for the first year, and we will see later if my ideas are viable," I said with no intention of paying anything.

People frowned in turn, but the king's eyebrows relaxed, and he said: "Very well, let's do it like that, next year we will find another way to pay these men, you can go now."