For a long time, Hearth Castle was not only the northernmost castle in the Seven Kingdoms, but also the northernmost building. Further north there was almost only the desolate Beyond the Wall and the vast expanse of snow.
Greatjon Umber, who had just finished checking the taxes in Last Hearth, received news from Ned.
"Lord Stark is a man who cares so much about his reputation, yet he has a bastard who is totally unlike him. Of course, I'm talking about his personality. I've seen that kid and almost thought he was Robb. Judging from his appearance alone, he is indeed a Stark."
The seven-foot-tall Greatjon sat in front of the fireplace and spoke incoherently. Sitting next to him was his son Smalljon, who was a head taller than him.
"Tell the lords around Last Hearth to keep an eye out for a person coming from the north..."
Out of the psychological motivation of covering up Ned's shame, the Great Jon didn't know how to describe Jon for a moment. Deserter? It seemed that he didn't respect Ned very much. Bastard? There were many of them on the Wall.
So he held it in for a long time, and asked the surrounding lords to pay attention to a young man with black hair and gray eyes, about fourteen or fifteen years old.
Although Smalljon looked rough like his father, he was more meticulous than Greatjon. He found that except for the gray eyes, the image described by Greatjon was not uncommon in the North. In order to further narrow the scope, he asked: "How tall is that Jon? Does he have straight hair or curly hair? Does he have any habitual movements?"
The Greatjon thought about it for a moment, then as if realizing something, he slammed the wine glass in his hand down on the small wooden table beside him and angrily said to the Smalljon, "I've only met him once. I'm not a worm in his stomach. How could I know so much? Ask Ned, and he may not know!"
Because when Smalljon made mistakes when he was a child, Greatjon always had the habit of whipping him on the back of the neck, so he is sometimes very afraid of his father. So even though he is now more muscular than his father, he will subconsciously shrink his neck as long as Greatjon raises his voice.
Seeing his son cowering, Greatjon was a little angry, but this was related to Ned's order after all, so he thought carefully and said, "He is not tall, probably between my chin and your chest."
After getting more information, Smalljon turned and left. Although his son looked a little timid in front of him, he was not afraid at all when facing outsiders. His size like a bear could give people a great sense of oppression wherever he went.
When he thought about the fact that neither Ned's eldest son Robb nor his 'illegitimate son' Jon was as big as his own son, he felt a special sense of pride in his heart.
But when Smalljon went out to deliver the message, Greatjon felt a little annoyed. After all, the iconic appearance of the Starks was black hair, gray eyes and long faces. He wanted to save some face for his old leader, but he was unable to do so.
In the end, he could only comfort himself that Ned wouldn't care about these little things.
Jon, who was getting closer and closer to Last Hearth, decided to take a break as it was getting late. He found a sheltered place, set up a tent and lit a bonfire. During the rest time, he wanted to check if there were any changes in his system.
So Jon closed his eyes and tried to use his mind to check the system's status as usual.
However, after a long while, I saw that his eyes were closed and his brows were furrowed, as if his whole body was exerting force, and he looked like he was constipated. Soon, sweat began to seep out of his forehead.
After a long while, Jon slowly opened his eyes, a hint of loss flashing in his eyes.
The system is down!
No matter how he tried, the familiar Chinese characters did not appear again, which made him feel a little panicked.
'What's going on? Is my system a one-time use? Do I need to renew my subscription after trying it once?'
Jon sat there for a long time, then smiled bitterly and made a joke, but he confirmed again and again that his remaining two Xing Daorong experience cards could still be used. Maybe the system was just temporarily dormant, and he needed to reactivate it?
Considering that this system itself was not in line with common sense, Jon did not think about it any further. Instead, he calmed himself down and began to recall some information about Last Hearth.
Jon didn't know much about Last Hearth. He only knew that it was the northernmost castle in the Seven Kingdoms and that there was a river called the Riverlands next to it.
Of course, he remembered that this was also the first castle captured by the Night King in the TV series.
To be honest, he has only been in this world for a few days and has not yet been able to integrate into the cultural atmosphere here. Greatjon's full name is Jon Umber, and he was nicknamed Greatjon because of his huge size.
For some reason, this guy gave his own name to his son. Both he and his son were named Jon, while Greatjon's son, who was a head taller than Greatjon, was called Smalljon.
Jon was a little worried that if he went to Last Hearth, he would be combined with them to form a 'two-star Jon'.
You have to know that the people of Westeros like to give their descendants the names of people they respect so that they can inherit their excellent qualities. For example, many children of noble families in the North are named "Ned", and the reason why Ned himself named his eldest son Robb was because he hoped that Robb could be more masculine like Robert.
Naming Jon Jon certainly wasn't because the hope was that he would grow up to be as big as Greatjon, but because the hope was that Jon would be as wise as his adoptive father Jon Arryn and be able to protect himself.
As for Bran, Ned's elder brother Brandon, whom he has always admired.
But no matter what, it can be said that it is very abstract for someone like Greatjon to directly call his son Jon.
As he was daydreaming, he felt a little hungry. It was getting late and there was no place to rest nearby, so he lit a bonfire, set up the tent and decided to eat something first.
Jon looked up at the stars in the sky and couldn't help but let his thoughts wander.
The four seasons in Westeros are very irregular, and there is even a polar night phenomenon, which makes him think of the famous three-body problem.
But there are no three suns in this world, so Jon can only attribute this phenomenon to supernatural forces, or magic.
As Jon was daydreaming, the aroma of barbecue drifted far away. Compared with humans, wolves have much stronger digestive abilities. Ghost caught a rabbit from somewhere and started to tear it apart.
Soon the meat in Jon's hand was almost roasted, and the man and the wolf were eating happily. Suddenly, Ghost seemed to have noticed something and let out a threatening growl in one direction.
Jon's plan was to first go to the port at Last Hearth, and then take the water route along the Riverlands to reach the royal territory. In this way, the journey that might have taken nearly two months could be completed in just over ten days.
But by then I might not be able to continue to take care of Ghost, after all, its white fur is too eye-catching.
"Then we'll have to separate again."
Jon touched Ghost's ear and thought that it was still inconvenient to bring him along.
While he was thinking about it, Jon noticed a noise in the grass not far away, so he shouted as if to issue a warning: "Who is it! Who is there!"