CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 10

A/N: I'm going to change the maester of Winterfell by the year 280 ac. Walys Flowers have been the master, but I'm making Luwin the maester because he is the one who delivered all of the Stark children.

280 ac

I have got what I wanted; a bit of freedom to do what I want with my time. First, I need to learn how to read and write common tongue, and the alphabet and the language used are entirely different from English. So, I go to the maester of Winterfell, Maester Luwin.

I have to go to the maester's turret and ask Maester Luwin if he can teach me, but I don't know why I always get a bad feeling about it. Let's try it. If he doesn't teach me, I will try something else. I get out of my room and go to his place, which is the maester's turret. It is right between the kitchen, Bell Tower, and the Hunter's Gate on the east side of the Winterfell.

I started to climb the stairs slowly and reached the turret. When I knock at the door, an old voice tells me to come in. There is an old man in his sixties inside. He is thin and looks a bit sickly and tired. But his eyes looked like they didn't lose their glow. His body might look depreciated, but his mind must be still sharp as ever.

"What do you want, boy?"

"Maester Luwin, is it possible for you to teach me reading and writing?"

"It is not my boy; I already have so many responsibilities and don't even have time to scratch my head."

"Then can you write me the alphabet and show me how to vocalize the letters a few times, and if possible, give me a book you use to teach reading please? Please maester, can you spare a few minutes for this."

"Okay, but only for an hour, and after that, you will not bother me with these kinds of things."

For an hour, he showed me how to read the letters and how to read a sentence. The one hour we worked felt like I worked for 5 hours. I still didn't know how to read and write, but I learned the vocalization of the letters. I plan to learn how to read in a few weeks of work. I already knew how to speak the language, and now I have learned the vocalization of the letters. I can see in its core; it is not that different from English.

I made a training schedule with Rodrik. I have to decide how I'm going to spend my days. I only need to train in sword for 3 hours; 1 hour of physical training and 2 hours of sparring. I have 8 hours of free time on my hand, and until I learn reading and writing, I'm going to spend a minimum of 2 hours a day working on that, so I'm left with around 5 hours if I count the rest I need. What should I start doing with this free time?

I need at least 8 to 10 hours of sleep because I'm still growing. Should I start learning blacksmithing? No, I'm still too small and weak to work on metals. So, archery and magic training it is. Oh, I almost forgot that I should spend some time with Robb and be his friend; it will come in handy later. So, I decided to spend 1 to 2 hours playing with him. I might not be his best friend, but I will try to be a close friend.

I have to go to the archery range to practice. The range is right next to the Broken Tower. They say it used to be the castle's highest structure, but it was destroyed by lightning a long time ago. I get a training bow and arrows when I reach there. The arrows and the bow don't look like good-quality weapons; they are a bit old and really weathered.

But it will do its job. Rodrik had taught me the basic of archery, but he doesn't think of archery as a real martial weapon. It is a war or hunting weapon used by common soldiers. He says a knight should know how to use it, but they shouldn't waste time trying to master it.

What I think is the opposite of him. A good longbow or a composite bow would be a deadly thing in the hand of a knight or anyone trained. I prefer a composite bow, but they don't exist here. They have regular short bows and longbows. Short bows are armies' primary ranged weapon because they are easy and dirt cheap to make.

They have a range of close to 45 to 140 meters (50-150 yards). The longbow and composite bow have a close range to each other. The composite bow has a little bit longer range. The main difference is that you can't use a longbow while riding and can't move while shooting but it is much easier to make a longbow than a composite bow; that is the upside.

Longbows are made of long wood, but composite bows are made of sinew, horns, and glue. A composite bow can shoot for 180-190 meters (around 200 yards) in a straight line and 370 meters (400 yards) in an arced shot. A longbow is usually about 2 meters (6 feet) in length; the composite bow is around 90 cm (3 feet). Just because you watched someone make it doesn't mean you can make it too. I would need a lot of time to master bow-making to be able to create composite bows.

I start training in the range for 2 hours a day, and the rest of the time, I will go back to my room and train my magic there. This went on for two months. I learned how to read in a month. I really love 5x skill, and after that, I have used the time for reading and writing practices, mostly reading time after learning it. I have been spending 2 hours in the library of Winterfell.

When I first asked Lord Stark permission to enter the library, he didn't believe me when I said I learned reading, and he put me through a test. When I read the book he gave me, he believed me and gave the permission.

The library has many things to learn from history, herbs, medicine and existing technology. Oh, and dragons, giants, forest spirits, and all kinds of magic are real. I started learning about the religions of this world. I didn't know there was big red tree with a face in Winterfell. I want to see it now that I know it exists.