Chapter 31: Tournament

After Ned's departure from Asteria, things continued on the same as they had before, with the addition of Jon added to the mix. Mostly he hung around Aegon, getting pointers and instructions on how to do random things here and there.

A few days passed like this in the blink of an eye, at which point it was time for the first ever tournament to be held in Asteria. It wasn't a huge event that was known to all the Lords of Westeros, but there were a few Lords of the North who actually showed up.

Of course Lady Maege Mormont and Lord Galbart Glover showed up, them being the ones ruling the lands closest to Asteria. Ser Helman Tallhart, Lord of Torrhen's Square showed up as well, but him showing up wasn't all that surprising.

With the influx of trade coming from Asteria to his place of power, they had done a fair bit of trade. The only other Lord of the North to show up was The GreatJon, but he wasn't really here for any prizes.

No, he had come on invitation from Will, and since his arrival a few days before he had a score to settle with Oberyn after the Dornish prince kicked his son's ass.

The SmallJon as he was called, was not actually small, just smaller than his father, though not by that much. He wasn't as built as his father, but the man was still growing, and Will wondered what the hell they were eating over at the Last Hearth, the Umber's place of power.

When they arrived a few days before, The SmallJon had challenged Oberyn to a duel, but like Will, the Dornish prince had used superior agility to win his fight, but not without taking a few lumps himself.

Once the GreatJon heard of his son's defeat, let's just say Will was glad he wasn't Oberyn. The GreatJon had told Oberyn that he would see him in the ring, unless he chickened out, which Oberyn only laughed at, much to Will's enjoyment and Ellaria's dread.

She knew Oberyn was strong, but the behemoth that was the GreatJon looked like a true terror.

The tournament would take place in the arena, however it was far different than any other tournament before it. Usually there was the joust, melee, and archery, but Will had decided to change that up a bit.

Only knights could take part in the Joust, and Will wasn't really too fond of that idea, but he knew that if a peasant tried to Joust against a knight, the knight would win hands down and might just kill the peasant as a show that he was that much better than them.

The melee was of a similar fashion, and Will knew that a trained knight could kill an untrained commoner like it was just a game.

Rather than just take the two deadly games out of the tournament, Will decided to keep them strictly for the knights, knowing everyone would still get quite the kick out of watching them.

Archery was fun for everyone, and there was almost no risk of someone hurting themselves, so Will made it so anyone could sign up for it.

Aside from those however, Will added horse races, an obstacle course, and a platform game called The Free-for-all!

No weapons or armor would be permitted in the Free-For-All, it being a hands on sort of game. Punching and kicking were fine, and you could even pick up your opponent and throw them out of the ring. Last one standing won!

The rules for the tournament had been posted, as well as the prizes for them. The events went in order of,

1. Obstacle Course: Just as it sounds, it was a course that anyone could run, and the top three fastest times of those who actually managed to complete the course were the winners.

-1st place: $500 Silver Stags

-2nd place: $300 Silver Stags

-3rd place: $100 Silver Stag

--------

2. Horse Racing: The riders would supply their own horses, and go around the arena as quickly as possible. The first three riders to make it over the finish line on their horses would receive prizes. You would receive nothing if you finished the race on someone else's horse, making it so the contestants would tackle another rider off their horse and eliminate the competition. Will didn't think he needed to set that Rule, but the GreatJon assured him he would need to.

-1st place: $750 Silver Stags

-2nd place: $500 Silver Stags

-3rd place: $300 Silver Stag

------------

3. Archery: The competitors would have to supply their own bow and arrows, then shoot at a bunch of different targets. Not all that complicated.

-1st place: $25 Gold Dragons

-2nd place: $10 Gold Dragons

-3rd place: $5 Gold Dragons

---------------

4. Melee: Contestants would enter single round eliminations, fighting their opponents with weapons of their choosing. A contestant won by disarming his opponent, knocking their challenger unconscious, drawing first blood, if their challenger surrendered, or in worst cases, if they killed their opponent.

-1st place: $500 Gold Dragons

-2nd place: $300 Gold Dragons

-3rd place: $100 Gold Dragons

------------

5. Joust: Only knights could join the Joust, though there might be certain exceptions down the road.

(A.N. For those of you who don't know what jousting is, you have lived a sheltered life, and need to get out more. Also look it up, because I'm not explaining it.)

-1st place: $500 Gold Dragons

-2nd place: $300 Gold Dragons

-3rd place: $100 Gold Dragons

---------

6. Free-For-All: A circular platform 25 meters in diameter would be set up in the middle of the arena. Anyone wishing to participate must be on the platform at the beginning of the match. No weapons or armor were allowed, and nothing metal could be worn by any challenger, save for maybe a belt buckle. Once the bell rang, they could use any means to get rid of their opponents. There would be judges of sorts, making sure people didn't take advantage of unconscious opponents and hurt them if they were unconscious, which would of course disqualify whoever did it. You could team up if you wanted, but that was if you could convince someone to join you and you actually trusted them not to take advantage of you once your back was turned.

-1st place: $100 Gold Dragons

-2nd place: $50 Gold Dragons

-3rd place: $10 Gold Dragons

--------

The prizes weren't anything so grand to Lords such as the Tyrells or Lannister's, but to the small Lords of the North the prizes were nothing to scoff at, so you couldn't imagine what it must have been for a commoner.

To them, even the lowest 3rd place reward was more wealth than they would make in years of hard work, thus there was quite the buzz going around town, and many people had been talking about entering.

The tournament would last for 3 days, each of the events happening on each day, giving three days of rewards. The prizes weren't anything like the king could front, but Will wasn't trying to compete with the crown, now was he?

That's not to say he couldn't. He was arguably one of the richest people in the world, but he didn't need to waste his wealth away. Spending as much as he was, was already bad enough in his book, but it would hopefully help drive his people to get better at these sorts of things.

Before he realized it, Will was announcing the beginning of the first round of the tournament. There were a little over a hundred people lined up to take the gauntlet, as it had been dubbed, that number already far lower than the original number of would-be competitors.

Once everyone saw what they would be running through, most of them had opted out, realizing they couldn't even make it through such a thing.

The Gauntlet wasn't anything special to Will, but it was definitely something for the people here.

A rock wall, rope swing over a mud pit, crawling through a small tunnel, climbing over a large wall that was lined with fish netting, and jumping across a series of stepping stones that would lead to the platform one needed to step on to finish the course.

Some people might have thought the course was too difficult, but Will and a few workers who had helped set it all up had run it a few times, and everyone had at least completed the course.

The course was made so ten people could go at once, there being ten small tunnels to crawl through and ten rope swings over the pit, so no one would be waiting for the first person to go through before they did.

There were three people off to the sides using hourglass looking things to judge time, and would make note of the three fastest individuals.

It took almost two hours for everyone to run the course, though Will had somewhat lost interest after the 40th guy had gone through. There had been a clear winner of the event, a wiry looking kid who was beyond fast.

Will honestly didn't think he could beat the kid in a race if he wasn't using magic, and he had unbelievable agility when climbing the fish netting over the wall.

Will had made a mental note to find the kid later and see if he was interested in a job, knowing full well he could be a little monster if he was trained right.

The 2nd and 3rd place holders were nowhere near as good as the kid, but they were still pretty good nonetheless, and Will was actually happy to see that they were both in fact guards who worked for him already, or the city anyway.

Next came the horse race, which thankfully was much quicker than the obstacle course. It helped that there weren't too many people that owned horses, and the ones that did weren't really interested in racing them, as that could put them out of commission.

Only 18 riders bothered to sign up for the race, and Will had given them all a bit of time to get ready, while also giving a few people a chance to make their own bets on how the race would play out.

When it finally began, there was screaming and cheering, everyone super pumped about it, which was the goal of this whole event. Will was happy to note that of the three fastest horses, neither of them compared to Trojan.

It was a little vain of him, but he didn't think there was a horse out there that came even close to Trojan.

The archery tournament had more people than Will thought, but still not an absurd number that it would take a long time. The Lords who had come from somewhere around the north voluntold some of their own men to enter the shooting competition, showing off the skill of their people.

Watching everyone, Will gleaned a bit of information from them. The people of Asteria couldn't shoot a bow to save their lives, himself included. The few people shooting for House Umber weren't too bad, but they didn't hold a candle to Lord Tallhart's men.

The 1st and 2nd place spots went to his men, while the 3rd place went to a kid from House Glover. Will figured he could make a deal with Lord Tallhart to have a few of his men come give some training lessons, but he could worry about that later.

Once the archery was over, there was an hour break for lunch, which everyone was quite thankful for. Will used the people being here to do a bunch of selling of his own.

From all the plundering he had done over the years, Will had figured there was no point in constantly hoarding everything inside his inventory where it would never see the light of day, so he had hired a few people to run a few stalls inside the newest market building.

The idea of running a stall out in the rain or freezing cold had been a dreadful thought, so Will had created a large building with a boiler system similar to the bathhouse and healing house.

There was tons of natural lighting from the windows, and Will even created a sort of skylight using a thick pane of glass. It wasn't like a Walmart in his previous life, but it sure as hell beat trudging around through the mud, snow and rain!

The people of Asteria obviously thought the same way, as a number of them who also wished to sell their goods rented out their own stalls inside the market building. It helped having guards stationed at the only exits of the building, so thievery was pretty low.

Will wasn't even close to having gone through everything inside his inventory, or the ships he had stolen for that matter, and already he was making a good amount of coin, while at the same time supplying the people with things they might not ever find here in the north.

Before long, everyone was back in the arena for the next round of the tournament. The melee excited a lot of people, Will himself being one of them. Oberyn and The GreatJon would be fighting in this one, and Will was looking forward to it.

When all the contestants drew straws, Will couldn't help the curse that slipped out of his mouth when he saw that Oberyn and The GreatJon wouldn't be fighting until later, and that might not even happen if someone else managed to beat them before their fight came up.

It was highly unlikely that someone else would beat them, but it was still possible. The beginning fights of the tournament were not too bad, but they weren't anything special either.

Lord Glover, the GreatJon, Oberyn, the SmallJon, and unsurprisingly, Dacey were rising through the ranks of contestants. Obara, Oberyn's oldest daughter had entered the tournament as well, but Dacey had kicked her ass in her third fight, much to Maege's great joy.

The noise in the arena was almost deafening when Lord Glover and the GreatJon fought, but Will already knew how that fight was going to go. It came as no surprise to him when Lord Glover was disarmed, but the same could be said for most people watching the fight.

Thankfully it had just been a duel and Lord Glover wasn't hurt too bad, though Will did doubt he would be thinking right with that fist sized bump on his forehead.

Oberyn went on to beat the SmallJon again, driving the man to a new level of anger, but before he could freak out and lose his temper, The GreatJon punched him into the ground like a hammer hitting a nail. That seemed to do the trick of calming him down, as The SmallJon left after that.

Dacey fought a few more rounds, but was ultimately beaten when she was paired against the GreatJon. Despite how good she was doing, she fared worse against the GreatJon than Lord Glover had, but no one could really fault her.

She was one of the only ones who actually dared fight him, which was either extremely brave, or extremely stupid! She had at least made it into the top 3, which was pretty good all things considered.

Maege had a proud look on her face, with a hint of smugness. Anyone who thought a woman's place wasn't on the battlefield could go and get fucked, and Will would bet every copper he had that Maege would fight to the death to prove that point.

Will was glad Dacey had made it as far as she did, but he was extremely happy that he was finally gonna get to watch Oberyn and the GreatJon finally get to duke it out.

Apparently he wasn't the only one either, as quite a few people had placed their bets, but the majority of them were in favor of the Lord Umber.

When the duel finally began, the people were cheering wildly, some of them almost to the point where they jumped into the ring itself.

The duel started with the GreatJon rushing Oberyn, sidestepping a spear thrust to his chest while swinging his blade down and narrowly missing Oberyn, who had moved quickly to evade the strike.

The two of them danced back and forth with each other, exchanging blows here and there, and on and on it went. It only took a few thrusts for Oberyn to graze the GreatJon's left shoulder, causing the man to smile as though he had already won the fight.

No one really understood why at first, but after a minute, The GreatJon began to slow down, and it looked as though his left arm was moving sluggishly.

"You feel it, don't you?" Oberyn asked with a mocking smile, getting a growl in response from the behemoth in front of him. "You poisoned your blade!" The GreatJon said, causing Oberyn's smirk to grow wider.

"A temporary paralysis potion. Should wear off in a few hours." Oberyn explained, then charged once more at his opponent, who actually looked like he was struggling now, though not out of the fight.

Oberyn must have felt like he had the victory in the bag, because he over-extended his thrust, leaving himself wide open. The GreatJon took advantage of the opening, grabbing the shaft of Oberyn's spear and pulling it out of his hands, then wacked him right over the head with the shaft of his own spear.

Rather than continue to attack his unarmed opponent with his sword, Lord Umber tossed both his and Oberyn's weapons off to the side, then approached Oberyn with an almost sadistic gleam in his eyes.

"We use our fists in the North!!" The GreatJon declared, swinging his unparalyzed right fist at Oberyn, who ducked under the swing, only to get the breath knocked out of him by a powerful knee.

Lord Umber had learned quite a bit from his fight with Will, and as such he knew he knew he could bait Oberyn into falling for this if he swung high enough.

Oberyn was still struggling to breath when a boulder sized fist came crashing into his face, sending him sprawling to the ground.

"Is that all you have?!! If it is, it's no wonder you needed the poison!" The GreatJon shouted evilly. He let Oberyn struggle to get back to his feet, but rather than let him get his bearings, The GreatJon proceeded to beat Oberyn black and blue with his right hand.

When the duel was finally called to an end, Oberyn definitely looked as though he had seen better days.

"Idiot!" Will said, mocking Oberyn, who was a complete mess off to the side of the arena. "I got cocky. My mistake." Oberyn said through swollen lips, it sounded a little funny.

"I can't believe you coated your weapon for a duel!!" Elia shouted, a look of irritation on her face.

""I can!"" Will and Drox at the same time, both of them thinking that was exactly like something Oberyn would have done.

"Can you heal me?" Oberyn asked Will, ignoring the jabs at himself.

"Once the tournament is over, then sure. However I won't do it until then, even if you're no longer participating." Will answered, getting a groan of frustration from the Dornish prince.

Funny enough, no one around him felt one bit sorry for him, Elia included. In fact, she wholeheartedly agreed with Will on the matter, stating it was exactly what he deserved before she walked off with Jon and Daenerys in tow.

The Joust came soon after, though Will didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the people around him did. It honestly wasn't all that fun really, and he was glad when it ended.

The GreatJon had been the favorite to win, but with his arm still paralyzed he couldn't participate, and Lord Tallhart had taken 1st place, with Lord Glover in 2nd. The SmallJon did take 3rd, which did appease the GreatJon somewhat, though he still threatened to strangle Oberyn a few times.

When the Free-for-All came around, everyone who wished to participate made their way into the ring, though a few people were hesitant when they saw Will enter.

This was the only game he had wanted to participate in, but in order to actually have people to go against, Will had vowed to not use magic, and he meant it too.

Seeing Will join sparked a few others who had originally not planned on participating to join as well, and it was looking like it would be quite the show.

Despite his left arm still being paralyzed, The GreatJon boasted how he wouldn't let it hold him back, entering the ring with his son and all of his men.

Dacey and Drox both joined, as well as Aegon and Obara. A few of Lord Glover's and Lord Tallhart's men joined, but the Lord's themselves opted to stick this round out.

There were of course about a hundred random people who wanted to try their luck as well, and soon it got to the point where the platform was pretty crowded.

When the bell was rung to signal the start of the match, Will wasted no time as he immediately ran towards those closest to the edge of the ring.

All it took was a simple push or kick to get most people off, but there were a number of them who were determined to not get eliminated right away, making him have to work for it.

The GreatJon was really showing his prowess, as even with one arm he was tossing people out of the ring like he was disciplining a toddler.

Dacey was eliminated not long after the game began by Obara, but the Sand Snake was also eliminated in the process. Apparently her only goal for entering was to make sure Dacey didn't win, which she of course succeeded in doing.

The Dornish people could hold a grudge, and Obara definitely proved that. Drox and Aegon were both eliminated by Will after the both of them joined together to try and take him out.

Will had made sure to get in a few good hits before he finally threw them off the platform, then continued through the masses.

Everyone thought the GreatJon's men would join forces with their Lord to eliminate the competition, but it was the exact opposite really.

Their main goal was getting rid of the GreatJon himself, and worked together to overpower the giant and push him off, though he did take 3 of them with him.

After a little over 30 minutes since it began, the only contestants left were Will and the SmallJon, who were both breathing quite heavily by that point.

Still, they didn't let it slow them down as they rushed one another, swinging their fists the instant they were within arms reach.

They slowly made their way towards the edge of the ring, still swinging at each other the whole time. Once they were close enough, Will ducked under a punch, then sent a quick jab into the SmallJon's throat, disorienting him for a second, giving Will the opening he needed to go full Leonidas on his ass, kicking him in the chest and sending him out of the ring.

The people cheered, and before long the champions for the rounds were given their rewards.

For the first day of the tournament, it was actually a major success. The second day was just as fun as the first, though Will was eliminated pretty quickly at the beginning of the Free-for-all when almost everyone ganged up on him.

The third and final day of the tournament was a big hit, especially since Will didn't enter any of the games, leaving it up for everyone else to have a chance.

Before long the Lords were all setting off to go home, and all of them asked to be invited to the next tournament, as it was a great way to have some fun and let off some steam.

Also it was a good way to fill your pockets if you were good enough. The people of Asteria were quite thrilled by the tournament, and they themselves were also looking forward to the next one.

The only person who Will thought wasn't interested in the tournament any longer was Oberyn, though that might only include any tournament that the GreatJon entered.

The two of them had been paired up early on the second day in the Melee, but this time Oberyn's weapon was checked for poisons beforehand. Needless to say, it was a crushing defeat, which had Oberyn out of the following games clear until the end of the third day, as Will hadn't bothered to heal him up.

With everything finally over and done with, everyone got back to their everyday lives. Will appointed Jenkins as his second in command, who would in turn make sure everything was running just fine in his absence when he was gone.

Another thing of note, the workers the Iron Bank sent had finally arrived, with the bulk of Will's pumps he had commissioned.

One of the people who showed up was a big burly man, with only a small part around his eyes not covered in hair.

His name was Sren Archenhold (Ark-en-hold), and Will had taken a liking to the man right away, mostly because he was an angered individual who did not bother to hide his thoughts.

Despite his crass attitude, Sren worked harder than any man in Asteria, and was a genius by this world standards. The man had been trained in the citadel, but was exiled when he broke his vows to marry a woman he had fallen in love with.

Will hadn't met the woman before, but he knew she was somewhere in the city, raising their little girl. Aside from knowing a great deal of learning, Sren could outwork anyone in the building, though the same couldn't be said for combat.

Despite being an angered individual, the man was a giant teddy bear towards children, and it was only when he was teaching them something that Will actually saw the man smile.

It only took less than 2 weeks for Sren to prove himself capable enough to join in Will's weekly meetings on the running of the city. It was basically his Small Council, though it was solely for the running of Asteria rather than the running of the Seven Kingdoms.

Will's council was made up of Jenkins, Sren, Dacey, Roark, Fae, Varick, and of course Will himself.

Roark served on the city guard, and was of an equal rank as Dacey, mostly because Will had dreaded having to deal solely with that woman when it came to the protection of the city.

She might have been strong, but Dacey knew next to nothing about patrols, running the barracks, training regime for the men, and everything else in general.

Thankfully Roark was fully capable of such things, having served as a soldier almost his whole life, only he kept getting moved around a lot by one Lord or another to train new recruits, until it got to the point where he could never settle down, thus resulting in him leaving.

When Will offered him a chance to stay here and not have to worry about being sent off to train another Lord's guards, Roark had agreed immediately once he learned how much he would be getting paid. Let's just say Will was quite generous.

Fae was the woman currently in charge of the Healing House, though she did receive all the help she needed from Sren and anyone else who might have some knowledge of healing.

Will actually made sure to teach a few of his own bits of knowledge from his old world, such as sterilizing instruments, washing their hands regularly, and little bits on anatomy.

He knew he would have to give a few lectures on the topic in a more in-depth manner, but for now this would work just fine. She had over a dozen young girls in her employ that were learning from her, and Will was actually quite proud of that fact.

Women weren't relegated to just being baby makers, and they also were kept out of harm's way. Most families had jumped at the opportunity to have their children learn such valuable teachings, and on top of that, there was no ridiculous oath that would end their bloodline.

Varick was the man who was in charge of the Harbor, making sure the ships were all still in good condition, taking note of the catch the fishermen brought in, all that sort of thing.

Originally this had been Jenkins' job, but Will had changed that to the overseeing of the city. Things like making sure there was enough coal or firewood for the homes, and that the market was running smoothly, taking note of the people's complaints, and bringing the important matters to Will.

It worked out quite well, as Will didn't have to sit there for hours on end and listen to the bitching and complaining of his subjects like most Lords in the North did.

Sren was basically in the same boat as Jenkins, though he often spent his time in the Healing House educating the healers, though he did spend lots of his time helping on the houses and solving problems that Jenkins himself couldn't quite figure out.

Anything that the two of them together couldn't handle was left up to Will, though most of those problems usually involved Oberyn, Dacey, or one of Oberyn's children.

Like this, a month had passed rather quickly in Asteria, there being nothing of importance happening until Will and Elia announced that the usual group was going to be going on a little trip, mostly for Jon's and Daenerys' benefit, but the others would still enjoy it as well. Probably.

"Where are we going?" Jon asked curiously once they were all on the ship.

Will smirked at the boy, knowing how truly ignorant he was of the world as he answered, "North!"