Madness or Genius?

In the year 288AC Ned Stark had to leave Winterfell for a few months, a vicious group of bandits began attacking several villages near Torrhen's Squire. Ned found out that bandits have been terrorizing The Barrowlands for years, ever since the war, and Lady Dustin has been doing nothing. Now that the bandits have spread to other parts of the North, word of their existence reached Lord Stark, who had a couple of hundred bannermen gathered to deal with them.

Shortly after Lord Stark left Winterfell Lady Stark fell ill, the maester said that she was pregnant with her third child.

One day while Lady Stark was resting after being ill for several days, Lord Robb along with Maester Luwin were attending court.

"That bastard is poisoning my fields, my Lord"

"I didn't even go near your lands, you damn idiot!"

"Silence!" Luwin yelled, stopping the ruckus between the two farmers.

Robb, who looked like a dwarf sitting in his father's gigantic seat, had to suppress the urge to yawn. Hours and hours of listening to peasants complain about everything and anything have drained all his energy. Not for the first time he is envious of his half brother, who is not tied to these duties and can enjoy the day playing in the snow.

"Why do you think this man poisoned your fields?" Robb asks the first farmer in his lordly voice, mimicking his father's.

The farmer, a man in his forties with a balding head, points an accusing finger at the other farmer.

"Our lands are right next to each other, me lord but while his lands have had bountiful crops, mine barely produced enough to feed my family through the winter!"

"Both use the same farming techniques..." Robb hears the maester mutter.

"It is slander my Lord!" the other farmer yells. "I swear to the gods I don't touch his lands!"

"Blasphemous! Everyone knows you hate me because my son didn't want to marry your whore of a daughter!"

The defendant's face turns a shade of purple that reminds Robb of the berries he likes so much, and to no one's surprise he lunges at the other farmer.

As the guards separate the men who are fighting on the ground, Robb is thinking about the matter at hand.

`It is weird, nearby lands and both use the same methods. There shouldn't be a big difference.`

"The matter seems clear enough, my Lord." Claims ser Rodrik Cassel. "It is clear that he is guilty"

The farmer begins to plead, swearing over and over again that he is innocent.

"The punishment for-"

"Enough!" Robb yells, getting up from his seat. Luwin and the others fall silent and stare at the young lord in astonishment, Robb hardly ever raised his voice.

"Myles, right?" he asks the farmer who looks at him with hope in his eyes.

"Yes, my lord"

"Tell me what you have been cultivating in the last five harvests, this one included and how you have cultivated it. Spare no detail."

Everyone looked at him strangely and the master was going to intervene.

"I don't think that matters a-"

"Hush," Robb sits back in the seat and waves for the farmer to start.

Myles tells them what they've been growing on their three plots of land for the last few harvests, while Luwin and Ser Cassel think it's a waste of time. Robb listens intently and at the end of the story his eyes sparkle.

A familiar sparkle to everyone who knows him, the same sparkle he had before he tricked Lady Stark into admitting that Jon is a talented artist. That sparkle often brings trouble, and Maester Luwin knows it well.

"Winter is going to start in a few moons right master?"

The maester is taken by surprise but responds quickly.

"Yes, Lord Robb."

"And the Citadel foresees it to be a short winter?"

"Less than a year, yes."

"Alright, I want you to round up all the farmers who live around Winterfell. I'm going to make an edict."

"What?"

Everyone looks at him puzzled.

Robb gets up and starts to leave the room.

"Wait my lord! What about me?"

Robb turns to him and smiles brightly, reaches into a small bag hanging from his belt, and pulls something out. He throws it to the farmer, who picks it up and realizes with wide eyes that it is a golden dragon.

"He's innocent, let him go. And bring all the farmers by tomorrow, Luwin, come with me."

"Thank you my lord! Thank you! I'll never forget-" Robb nods and walks away, Myles has tears in his eyes and bows to the young Stark.

The maester follows the young heir as bewildered as the other men in the room.

***

Robb walks into his father's solar, a large room with an ironwood desk with matching a chair and a fireplace taller than Robb. Behind the desk there are several shelves full of books of great importance to Lord Stark, the ledgers and such are there.

Robb looks at the tomes and when he finds what he is looking for he drags his father's chair so he can get to the book. He takes it and sits cross-legged on the floor, flipping through the book.

Maester Luwin looks at him without knowing what to do or say, he was going to open his mouth but the heir is ahead of him.

"Maester, bring the books that detail the harvests of the last century, what and how they were harvested," he orders with his eyes still looking between the pages of the book. "Not only from the North, but also from the other kingdoms."

"Lord Robb-"

"Hurry up master, I have until tomorrow to confirm my suspicions."

Luwin sighs and walks out of the solar toward the library. He knows very well how stubborn the young lord is.

"Wolf? Rather a mule or a bull..." snorts the maestre.

***

Robb spent the entire day sitting on the floor reading book after book, only stopping to write something on the sheets of parchment beside him. He didn't even get up to eat, the servants had to bring him a tray with food and the young heir barely took two bites of the piece of bread, the soup and the meat left untouched.

When his siblings came wanting to play with him he chased them away with promises to play with them another day. Sansa did not take it well. Robb loves the two-year-old baby, he always pampers her and plays with her; it is the first time that he denies something to little Sansa.

When night comes, Robb is still on the floor reading book after book,he sends some servants to bring him some candles and then drives them away when they ask him to go to bed. He even ignored his mother when she sent her personal maid to take him to bed.

***

The next day, around noon, the Great Hall of Winterfell is packed to capacity; Hundreds of farmers had been summoned by order of Lord Stark's heir.

When Robb walks into the room he's wearing the same clothes as the day before, his hair is a bit disheveled and has dark circles under his eyes. It is clear that he has not slept at all.

The farmers murmur among themselves as Robb walks toward the stone throne of the old Winter Kings.

He climbs the stone steps one at a time and sits on the old throne, as old as the very castle the Starks call home.

"I'll be quick, yesterday there was a dispute between two farmers. One accused the other of poisoning their fields because the other's fields had a much larger harvest." Robb starts, the peasants start talking among themselves without knowing what that has that to do with them.

"And it's true? Did he poison the fields?" asked a young farmer, the same age as Lord Stark.

"No," Rob replies.

Another farmer was going to say something but Robb raises his hand and everyone falls silent.

"I have been researching the farming methods used in the Seven Kingdoms for the last century and have discovered a way to increase the harvests."

Robb explains his discoveries to them.

Myles did not farm two of his plots for two years because his children had left home and he had no money to hire workers. He hurt his back during the Rebellion and he can't work as much as he used to. So those two plots were left uncultivated and weeds like clover started to grow, some shepherds even used those plots for their cattle to graze.

Robb ordered each farmer to plant clover and spread manure on one of their plots, but not to grow anything on it during one harvest. The young Stark is sure, after much reading, that in this way those plots of land will rejuvenate and give much more abundant harvests.

Many wanted to protest, finding it wasteful. Leaving land uncultivated seems to them to be stupid, insane, but the word of a Stark has power, even that of a five-year-old.

When Lord Stark returned home many brought their complaints with him and Ned summoned his son to explain himself.

"Father the fields, like men, need food and rest to be able to perform better." Robb explains his theory in detail, and Ned agrees to allow his experiment but only on five parcels of land owned by House Stark. If it works, it will revolutionize agriculture, but if not, there will be no significant losses.

During the next spring, at the beginning of 289AC because the winter did not last half a year, those five plots are left without crops during the first harvest and they only plant clover and spread manure on them.

In the second harvest they plant several crops, a different type on each plot. Robb visits the fields every day and helps the farmers personally, from plowing the fields to pulling weeds; the heir helps in everything. Lady Stark protested, saying that such a job is too unworthy of someone of high birth, but her protests fell on deaf ears. Robb had already had the habit of ignoring his mother's wishes since he was a baby and would rather play with his half brother than spend time with her. And Lord Stark thought that helping in the fields would be a good experience for Robb. What better way to train a good lord than to know the life and work of his subjects personally?

Unfortunately Lord Stark was not present at Winterfell during the second harvest, he was unable to personally see the fruits of his son's experiment.

Balon Greyjoy rebelled against King Robert's rule and Ned Stark was called to war.