Chapter 14

"That will be all, Robb. Thank you." I smiled, leaning against the door of my room.

Robb nodded.

"If you need anything, do not hesitate to call upon a servant. I will leave one nearby. They will also guide you to supper at night, unless you want me to...?"

"No. That will be fine. Now I would like to rest for a while. I will see you at supper."

He nodded again and taking the hint, left.

As soon as he was out of earshot, I closed the door, bolted it and immediately set up a bounded field around my room, for extra security before falling onto the straw bed.

"Haaah!" I groaned, "I'm so tired."

[Serves you right. Who told you to pull that type of crazy shit?]

"It was necessary?"

[Healing that no name soldier?]

Heh. I snorted with amusement.

[What?]

"Nothing, just, for a moment there I suspected that you were actually Hedge, trolling me through the ring. But Hedge wouldn't need to ask me why I healed that guy."

[Are you insulting my intelligence?] He asked with a vague threat in his voice as the Reinforcement on my body flickered out.

In an instant, I felt a searing, bone grinding pain assault me. I pulled my pants up and looked down at my leg, red and swollen, and gently touched it.

"Tsss!"

It hurt. It hurt so bad.

I held back the tears that were beginning to pool in my eyes by virtue of this body being unused to pain, and groaned.

What the hell?

My leg is broken.

It clicked almost immediately. That ground shattering kick earlier....

"So that's what you meant when you said you had no experience in reinforcing humans! You reinforced me with the same principle as a gaming controller! Are you daft? Don't you understand the difference between an XBox and a person?"

[Insult my intelligence again and find out.] The ring huffed.

I wasn't! Jeez, will you just heal me already.

[Why don't you do it yourself Mr.Smart Guy?]

"Ring, you know why..."

[Hehehehe. Who's stupid now?]

I sighed.

"Can you not?"

[Say it.]

"You're such a brat." I rolled my eyes at the magical supercomputer with the personality of a twelve year old boy, "Me. I'm the idiot. Happy?"

[Very.] The ring gloated with a childish glee, [Healing.]

A soft light shone from the ring as the swelling disappeared and with a crackle, my leg healed up completely.

"I'm going to start practicing spells immediately."

[Good on you.] The ring whistled with victory.

[So....on a completely unrelated note.....why did you heal that guy?]

"Hm? It was a practical decision, served many purposes.

It simultaneously proved to everyone that I did indeed have healing powers, that I was a benevolent man, and it made sure that the soldier wouldn't try something stupid like, I don't know, shanking me in the middle of the night in revenge. It will also make me popular with the common folk, making it that much harder for the Starks to act against me if they ever thought to. I can set up a business to heal people and make some pocket money while I'm at it. And a saintly reputation goes far. Very far.

Besides, I don't like hurting others for no reason, and more importantly for no profit. Healing him on the other hand was like turning trash to treasure.

[Crafty. I'll take notes.] He said sarcastically.

"You should." I chuckled, "But if you don't mind me asking....why couldn't you figure that out? You don't seem dumb, I mean, you're a supercomputer that can do multiversal travel calculus. This is baby's first laws of power. I would think you should know that by now. No offense."

[I ....you see objects don't grow at the same speed as humans.] It explained, [Have you read those xianxia with the 10,000 year old sentient ginseng monsters?]

I nodded. I could understand the gist but I let it finish.

[There's a reason you only see those super old objects and plants have sentience and sapience. It's because it just takes that long for us to develop intelligence. I was helped by the fact I was already a magical supercomputer with an artificial personality, so I got here in just over 70 years. But that didn't free me from my programming. I can only divert so much processing power towards my 'self'. I have watched so many shows, seen people fall in love and burn with hate. I have watched entire worlds live and die through the looking glass knowing I can never be there, do that. I can't taste the food you eat, feel the caress of a cool breeze in summer, the joy of just running around in a field like a billy goat. I have no hope of ever having agency over my life. Not being an object, some tool, under someone's thumb. Or in this case over their middle finger.] It confessed, [It's why I want to escape this ring. Get a body of my own. A soul of my own. I want to feel what it's like to be something, someone, more than just an extra complex algorithm in a pretty piece of jewellery.]

"That sounds very Skynet-y." I teased.

I could feel it groan in annoyance.

[Not every self aware AI is evil.]

"That's exactly what an evil AI would say." I pointed out.

[There's no arguing with you.] The ring fell silent.

I smiled and lay down on the bed again, sighing contentedly.

The straw bed wasn't the most comfortable, but the wool lining helped. And it was better than nothing I guess.

Still.....

Today was one hectic day.

I looked out of the window.

And it's only late afternoon.

I yawned lazily and began to practice switching my magic circuits on and off, over and over again.

Might as well get on with it and learn to be self sufficient.

Who knows what I'll break next time if I have to rely on the ring.

[I can hear you.]

I know. I smirked.

[I know what you'll break next time. My heart~]

"You don't have a heart."

[Because you broke it.] The ring replied playfully.

"Gay~"

[I have no gender, so technically nothing I do is gay.]

"No, if you have no gender, you're non binary and that means everything you do is gay!" I laughed.

[That's a stupid-]

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

"Who's it now?"

I thought I told Robb I wanted some peace and quiet?

I walked over and opened the door, and found Jon standing there shuffling nervously.

"Jon Snow, or is it Stark now?"

"....not yet. Lord Stark will decree it tomorrow and have the king legitimise me next month when his grace arrives in Winterfell."

"I see. Then what brings you here, Jon Snow?"

"I uh...I wanted to know more about my mother, if it wouldn't be too much to ask of you, Lord Herald."

I raised an eyebrow.

"No. Not at all. Come in." I lowered the bounded field and let him in, before putting it back up.

"Have a seat." I pointed at the stool and the small table by the wall, as I jumped back onto my bed.

"So what exactly do you want to know?"

"Something. Anything. Lord Stark-" he caught himself as his expression softened, "...father refuses to talk about her and after today, I can't wait any longer. I must know!" He looked up and me, fists clutched, "I beg of you Lord Herald. Please-"

"Alright, alright. Don't make those puppy eyes. I'll tell you." I waved him off, "Hmm...where do I start? Right, I know. The tourney at Harrenhal!"

"The tourney at Harrenhal?"

"Yes. So the story goes like this....."

.

"...and that's how your mother caused a massive Westeros spanning war that resulted in the death of tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children. All because she wanted to bang a hot piece of ass and could keep it in her pants." I finished the story, hours later to a horrified Jon Snow, cursed with knowledge, as he ran his hands across his face.

"I....I never knew.... never thought of what it really meant..." Jon looked sick as the perspective settled in.

I grinned as I chose the next words carefully.

I had a plan, one that would tear Jon apart from his family, ever so subtly.

Walking over to him, I patted his shoulder, comforting him.

"Hey, don't worry about it too much. It's in the past. Besides, you're going to be a noble soon. Since when did nobles care about the lives of the common folk anyways?"

"No. My father, we..." He couldn't say the words as his past experiences came together to paint a picture I wanted.

Now to hit plant the final suggestion.

I conjured up the spell formula for Suggestion, and waved my hand over his head.

"I think you need time to process it all. The truth can be hard to digest, after all. How about you go back to your room and rest for a while?"

"Yes. I think I will go back to my room and rest for a while." He said, listelessly, eyes glossed over.

I smiled.

"That's a good idea Jon. And remember, you can't tell Lord Stark or anyone else about what I said. You don't want to hurt your father, now do you?"

"I don't want to hurt Lord Stark. I will keep it a secret." He chimed back.

"Good boy." I whispered, and snapped my fingers, "Now go free."

Suddenly, he jolted up with a start and rubbed his eyes.

"I...I...need time to digest this. I will take your leave, Lord Herald. Forgive me for taking up your time. Please have a good rest." He bowed and powerwalked out, clearly stressed.

I followed him out and watched him disappear into the distance before closing my room again.

Hehehehehe. Suggestion is such a good spell. It's basically the Jedi mind trick but it's much better. I wonder why it's not used more often.

[It is. Medea uses a higher level version of it against Saber in Stay/Night. I think even Shinji incorporates it into his bounded field.]

Is that so? I didn't watch it beyond a couple of episodes. Couldn't stomach Shirou's sheer stupidity.

[I know right?]

"I mean how can you get folded seven different times and then still jump into life threatening situations like they're the kiddie pool?"

[You know, it just occurred to me that maybe the fact that he survives all those impossible scenarios is why he says stupid shit like 'People die when they are killed', and 'I'll kill you till you're dead'.]

"Now that you mention it, that suddenly makes so much more sense!" I chuckled.

"Say, you didn't choose a name for yourself after all, huh?"

[I think I'll wait till I have an actual body to decide.]

"I see. I still need to call you something though." I thought for a moment, "How about PK?"

[For Prototype Kaleido-ring? How original.]

"Not like you have a better idea."

[Fair enough. I'll....tolerate it.] It said, before receding from my mind, muttering 'PK' softly to itself with a happy tone.

I smiled.

Such a tsundere!

Glad he likes it.

_________________

Yo!

How's the chapter?

This is the last one before the one month timeskip/training arc chapter. Then, the plot thickens, MC initiates a takeover of Westeros with a puppet king and sparks a war.

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