14

286 AC

It was weak after my somehow embarrassing display before Fiera and Astrid, something both of them promised not to share with anybody, I gave them a chance, not that I knew what I would do if they betrayed my trust, both Fiera and Astrid were one of mine's more common and trusted maids, someone who I would regret of losing, even if Astrid was new to this maid work, she had experience as tavern wench, so she knew how to do manual work and how to behave, same for Fiera who was the daughter of a maid, thus already raised to by one...

That said, I used that week for work, or rather tried to banish the thoughts of a headless body from my mind with a good amount of work and planning, one of my first doings was telling the Castelan Rodrick to purchase a large number of carrots, leeks, cabbage, lettuce, and other crops that can grow in winter if goodly taken care of, these crops weren't good for full meals like potatoes, but they were good as an addition to meals, and could grow in winter, but best for us, is that they were good picks to rotate with potatoes, that would serve as main meal ingredient...

After my visit to Castelan and giving him orders, I went to the outer layer of the castle, where I was immediately greeted by Myranda, I still didn't know how she ended up as an almost unfeeling psycho who relished in causing pain, if it was some incident that made her like that, or if she was just like that but now being a child it couldn't be seen and start to show up her psychotic tendencies much later...

In truth, I didn't much care, I knew that if I earned her loyalty, she would serve me well, and that was good enough for me...

And after apologizing for not having time to play with her that much, I invited her to my chambers, both her and Violet, the same duo I remember taunting Theon Greyjoy with sex, or they had sex? I don't remember much, hmmm...

I wasn't so open to sharing as Ramsay was, something once the urges came, I needed to make clear to them, for now, they and I were just children, so I played with them, promising to in showing them my room, something I noticed made Myranda's father face delighted...

My conversation with the kennel master, Myranda's father, was quick, his promise to deliver five fully trained dogs for guard duty around Wheel house made me a little relieved, I looked at how the dogs behaved, and fortunately, they weren't rabid beasts...

Another task, something I made for myself, was something I planned a long time ago, but until now, I couldn't do, but with my father's permission, I had access to thirty young men who wished to join Bolton men-at-arms, Bolton family shield wall tactic was good, something I wanted to work on more as it showed to have some weaknesses, I thought what I knew of roman and other civilization tactics I could utilize, but first, I wanted to work on their more body training, I didn't know much about how SWAT or other special forces trained and knew that I wouldn't be able to recreate it, but I wanted to try, and these thirty boys would help me in it...

As such, one of the first tasks I gave them simple endurance training, running, walking into the hill fully armored and with heavy shields, and similar another simple training exercise I knew of, all the while each night they would get a special ointment on their muscles, of course, I wasn't training them myself, that would be loss of my time, I had one of my more trusted guards making sure the recruits did what was asked of them...

My personal time, with me being six years old, was now too being pummeled into the ground by master-of-arms, who seemed to delight in making me eat the ground, not that I showed any weakness, even if it hurt being smacked with a wooden training sword, but that was it, a training I knew I would need, as personal power was just as important in this world as was leadership power...

My choice of weapons was simple roman like the sword I had ordered to be made for myself, with a shield, I went for protection and offense in similar degrees...

I had no talent in swordsmanship, that was something that was proven once I took the sword into my hands, but I hoped that my hard work would do the job, another point for choosing a shield for myself...

Plus, my year of footwork training showed as I was capable of evading, if not blocking, most of the strikes, I knew the master-of-arms was going easy on me, of course, he was, I was both newbie and child, it was logic for him to go easy on me, plus his survival instinct of not hurting his lord's heir more than what few nights of sleep couldn't heal off...

Another not-so-new but welcomed as it shows I didn't screw timeline so much was that Catelyn Stark was about to birth another child, which should be Arya if things went right, Catelyn was in the middle of her pregnancy and thus birth Arya, hopefully, Arya, on the start of next year, again, if things go right...