23

THE READERS HAVE SPOKEN! MILD IT IS!

288 AC

"Where is your mother?" I asked as Frida with Astrid were taking off my clothes, even with Spring being in there, North was still dammit cold, something no amount of jumping and staying in the cold river to build better immunity helped me, even in spring, the water was goddammit cold, the sole difference between summer and winter climate in the North was that in summer there wasn't snow on low lands...

"She was asked to help in kitchen milord, so she changed her place with me tonight." Astrid pleasantly answered, I noticed how much more open the girl was becoming around me, it was good that she had a clever head on her shoulders, for she knew before who she couldn't act so brazen, Frida just sent Astrid a shake of the head, making the younger sister stick out her tongue...

Still, why exactly do they want Estrid in kitchens? It wasn't like she knew better recipes than I already made for the cooks, as my patience with the more bland foods of the North ran out, I knew that there weren't many spices, but a person can eat just so much of just salted meat and not getting sick of it, especially when I knew dammit well there were more ways to enrich the culinary list, even with our short amount of spices...

That made me think of another resource I would like to trade with Dorne, as they have quite the selection of spices...

Hopefully, Doran Martell's latter will soon arrive, I still have time, but better sooner than later, especially when it comes to more long-term projects, and glass making was one of the very long terms projects, it would take at least months before they could be capable of creating more glass for transporting out of their kingdom, and then came the voyage that would take at least three months at shortest from Dorne to North, even with good weather in the sails...

"Well, let's sleep, I'm spent after today..." And wasn't that truth, not physically, but mentally, speaking with father made me always tired, even if not in body, then in mind, it was just that in father's presence, my body was always too stiff, as was my mind that tried to see any point in any meaningless word father utter from his mouth...

"Yes, milord." "Aye, milord!" I looked at both sisters, where Frida already had a woman's body, being plump in all right places, meanwhile still having a good amount of muscles and being sleek from the amount of work as a maid, Astrid is in phase where her body changed from the child to that of woman, she had some small tits, but they were truly just a small, just like her butt...

Astrid just didn't inherit Estrid's proportions as Frida did, or she was truly a late bloomer, still, seeing both sisters in their nightgowns, a present from me, and something that just a nobles woman or wealthy merchant's daughter's or wife could ever hope to wear, I couldn't help but smile, even if I just now just appreciated their look, with my body not being capable of feeling any lust, I still made quite good preparation for the time I grow up in that particular sense...

Once I was sandwiched between the sisters, with the familiar warmth that made all the chilliness of the castle evaporate, my eyes slowly closed, just like the eyes of the sisters, whose breathing became more rhythmic...

I was in the middle of eating my breakfast when someone opened the door in a hurry, my mind jumping to wild conclusions from assassins to the messenger who would tell me that the Ironborn rebellion happened sooner, what I didn't expect was for the worried Astrid to come...

"What is the meaning of this?" I ask, in a commanding voice, but still, with a gentler tone, the doors were guarded by men from the thirty men I trained for the last few months, they know me more than the rest of the castle, and as such, I can show little more of patience where other's would demand punishment for the breach of the tact and insubordination...

"Domer-I mean! Milord! I wish to ask where my mother is!" What, why does she go to me to ask, it's not like I know all their duties and timetables...

I ignored her mistake of almost calling me by the name, as my mind went back to her words, the sole reason why she would come to me and not other's is that she couldn't find anybody who knew where they were, Astrid was quite rash, but she wasn't stupid if I had to say, Astrid was very clever, as in, street-clever, knowing what to do first before becoming panicked...

"Did you ask Fiera?" Astrid immediately nodded and shook her head.

"N-no! That's the thing! I couldn't find her too! And kitchen staff said that mother wasn't there yesterday!" What...

Estrid wouldn't lie, she knew better than to do something so shortsighted...

But if Estrid didn't lie, then who...

Dread started to gather in my stomach, I wasn't so naive in attaching myself to Estrid so much, but she was still a woman I liked, liked a lot, and not in any lewd way, it was just that she actually quite reminded me of my own mother from my past life, with the disapproving looks she threw on her two daughters, or on me when I stayed too late into the night to scribe something, the same reason I quite never find it in me to punish her or tell her something, she was a good reminder to me that even I'm just a man, and not becoming as the lords who thought of smallfolk as lesser, we all shit and breathed the same thing, we all bled the same, something I needed to be reminded off, and something Estrid was good in reminding me, of my true origin...

The power corrupts, a saying I in my last life scoffed until I truly felt true power, the power of having decisions about other's lives, the power to either destroy or save other's life on a whim...

The same reason I was letting others, more specially the maids, alone when they behaved in a way other lords wouldn't permit them, it was a good reminder for me...

"Come, if someone lied to me, then I need to know who and why," I ordered, the two guards before my doors saluted me as Astrid followed me, it could be seen as strange, having a boy of poor eight years old walking in a demanding way as others solemnly followed him, but in there, in Dreadfort it was already normal, and as such, nobody stood in my way when I walked out of the castle to the way where servant's quarters were, that is, if I didn't see very solemn and worried looking Tom, one of captain's of the men I trained walking to me when he noticed my presence.

"Milord!" Tom saluted me, as he looked at me, there was something...

"Captain Tom, what is the problem." I didn't lose time as I asked him straightforwardly.

"Milord, it is nothing, just a few men that were ordered to seek me in the morning didn't return, I'm just looking for them." What? Did they drink themselves into oblivion...

Something that didn't surprise me, especially if they tried vodka, something that is pretty new, and thus making men bet each other who is a better drinker of this true Northen drink that can bring warmth to their bodies...

And as vodka is still not ready for distribution out of the castle and selling, the right distilling process is still in research, I actually needed a few volunteers, and how I wasn't surprised that the guards almost trampled each other for the possibility of trying this new product their lordling again introduced in his miracle way...

Something I found quite funny was how they looked at the way I brought the new ideas, smallfolk just didn't care from where I took them, they just said it was just another of my miracles, how I wish that lords or Maesters would think same...

Still, something made me nervous...

"What was their last assignment?" I asked.

"A guarding lower floors of the castle, milord." A fitting name for the prison and torture place...

Wait...

"Tom, come with me, and take another ten men with you." Tom looked at me questioningly, but then, I reached them not to question my orders when it didn't sound like a suicide mission, I didn't need yes men, but at the same time, I didn't need to have every my order questioned...

"Yes, milord! YOU! COME WITH ME!" Tom hollered at his fellow men, all those who belonged to the thirty I trained, all looking much different from the normal guards, not in their armors, something I still had planned to change but didn't have quite the time or either resource, but they were different in the way, they held themselves and walked...

And in the way, they looked around, taking any threat or danger into account, just like looking for an escape if something happened...

Im thankful for the anime with the little blonde mage girl, or rather the businessman reincarnated into a little blonde girl, her way of training helped me a lot in shaping these men's training regimes...

My destination was clear as something in my was telling me where to go, nothing magical, or at least I think nothing magical, just pure sixth sense, something I know exists...

And as I walked into the corridor of the lower floors and walked down the stairs, I finally reached my destination.

"HALT! WHO GOES IN THERE!"

One of the guards shouted but quite became quiet as my silhouette with the armed men behind me showed, the way the guard looked alarmed didn't make me feel good.

"Open the doors," I ordered, making the two guards look at each other until one gulped as he looked at me, no, not at me, but at Tom and the men behind me...

"O-ON THE OR-ORDERS OF THE LORD! N-NOBODY C-CAN C-COME THROUGH!" What... I incredulously looked at the guards, somehow, my look made them feel even more nervous as they clenched the spears in their hands much more strongly...

"Open the doors... Or when I became lord, it would be you who will have a permanent place behind these doors..." I felt a little bad at threatening men who just followed orders, especially when they served my family, but each second I looked and stayed in there, the pit in my stomach grew in size...

The two looked even more nervous, and my nerves finally ran out, my desire to see the happenings behind these doors grew even more...

"Detain them!" I shouted, and there was a quick clamor of footsteps and struggle as the two guards were a little too late to stop my men, who were trained to act quickly...

"M-Milord! Y-You can't!" The way he said it...

The way these two looked at me and at each other...

"Open the doors... Quickly, and draw your weapons." I said in an unnaturaly soft tone, my eyes just on these two guards who paled even more as Tom's men searched them for the keys...

Something about the voice I just spoke...

It was somehow familiar...

"Ahh..."

"HE!"

"Aaaahh.."

"Fucking tight! Ugh!"

"N-no mor-ee..."

"M-ilord..."

"No...."

"FUCKING BITCH!"

"She BIT ME!"

"Plrrreaseee!"

The moment the doors were opened, faint voices could be heard, and my heart stopped as I recognized the voices, just like the meaning of the words they spoke...

"GO! Stop anything happening in that room! Draw blood if you need." The men didn't say anything as they sped past me into the prison cells and farther into the torture chambers from where the voices could be heard.

I walked, not in a hurried way, even Astrid sped past me, and I could hear her scream when she arrived at the torture chambers.

"MOTHER!!!"

I still walked in a slow manner, with each step, something inside me fought me to turn around, not to go one more step...

Something I squashed with the strength of the boot...

I couldn't see how my eyes darkened with each step, as the heart inside my chest quickened in pace, I couldn't hear the sounds of struggle and clashing, and I couldn't see the way the two guards who guarded the doors were following me, behind them my men who held them at sword point, and I couldn't hear how much slower my breathing became, even when the sound of my heart speeded up...

When I arrived at the room, the struggle had already ended, with my men standing up and the others on the ground, either in surrender or clenching their new wounds...

But my eyes weren't on them, my eyes rested solely on the five people in the room...

Two naked women, both roughly treated by their wounds, and the amount of white substance on their bodies and at the same time leaked through all their holes...

Two were familiar women, even if their roughly disheveled appearance could deceive someone...

"M-milord..."

Another voice spoke, making me look at the other three people...

Three men, Rodrik, Eihart, and Derrick...

Three men who belonged to my batch of thirty, the three men who now were bound on the ground, with clear wounds and injuries that couldn't be from anything other than torture...

Seeing my look, they probably understood my question, as one, Eihart weakly said, his vocal cords clearly damaged from the screaming...

"W-w-we d-didn't f-followed o-order from the- from the lord... We-we were bound a-a-as not to alarm you..." Ah... I could guess it, Rodrik and Eihart both looked down, a shame clear on their faces...

Derrick...

Derrick wasn't awake, and I didn't know if he ever will, from the look of his legs that were missing skin and the blood all around...

I just numbly nodded, walking to Fiera and Estrid as Astrid weakly sobbed, clinching her cum covered mother...

My hands touched their's faces, Fiera... Her eyes were hollow...

And Estrid...

She looked at me in...

In...

Fear...

"Bring Maester in there... With all Nurses, you will find on the way..." I softly said, my voice quivering...

My hands-on Fiera's and Estrid's cheeks...

"M-Milord, y-you s-shouldn't be there..." Someone said...

I ignored their voices, just like the same voice that now grunted in pain as one of my men struck him...

My eyes noticed something shining in the room, something very familiar...

Something that lay near Derrick...

Obsidian sword...

"Throw them into the cells..." I ordered...

Ignoring the shouts of surprise, pain, and weak attempts to ask for forgiveness, all the time looking at Estrid, Fiera, and the sobbing Astrid...

*AUTHOR NOTE*

THIS IS MILD... Yes, a MILD by Roose standards...

At the same time, this could give you an idea of what exactly MIDDLE and HARD would look like if it was voted, something I'm quite glad wasn't xD.

Just like there are authors who like to write evil characters, I like more good ones, as such, you can see how hard it is for me actually to write an evil mc xD

BTW! THE POLL WAS CLOSED A LONG TIME AGO! SO YOU DON'T NEED TO VOTE AS IT WAS ALREADY WRITTEN!