Chapter 20

To say that the Northern lords were surprised or even shocked to see a 7 year old boy leading 3,000 men on the back of a black direwolf would be an understatement.

Literally no one had expected me to join in the war efforts and some of the lords even told me to go back to the castle. Lord Rickard Karstark was rather vocal with his choice of words and treated me like a child, which admittedly I was. But I was also the lord of Dreadfort. Something that he should not have forgotten. And something that I'll be sure to remind him in the future in one way or another.

Unfortunately, I was not allowed to bring Black in the tent and I didn't want to use magic to intimidate so many people in case someone might figure out that there was something wrong. So every other lord treated me like a child which irritated me to no end. And no one asked me for a suggestion in the war table even though I had some good suggestions to give, what with being a Head Auror and having participated in a magical war myself.

Regardless, it took two more weeks for the other lords to convene in Winterfell during which I spent most of my time with Robb Stark and Sansa Stark, using compulsion charms to make Robb a loyal friend to me and Sansa Stark have a slight crush on it.

It was rather despicable of me to mind influence children like this but I already knew that this was a cruel world and wouldn't take any risk if possible. So if I could become friends with the heir of Winterfell and the future Lord Paramount and Warden of the North, then I would do it.

I also made sure to apparate back to Dreadfort every now and then to make sure that the construction work in the Port was going well. I had also sent for the 10 trading ships under me to Lannisport. Because I would need those ships for the miners and other craftsmen that I wanted to transport to Dreadfort.

At the same time, I also started training our levies in the art of war. Mainly training in formations, tactics, marching, etc. I knew that I would have to create a standing army for my lands sooner or later as levies are just not very practical. And these men would be the ones who'll form the base of my standing army.

Once most of the lords from all across the North had arrived, we started our slow march to the Neck to join Robert Baratheon's huge host near Seaguard where Balon Greyjoy's eldest son recently suffered a defeat and perished.

As our army crossed the Neck, we heard news about Stannis Baratheon leading a pincer attack on the Iron Fleet with the help of the Redwynes. Something that resulted in total destruction of the Iron Fleet.

From what little I knew about Iron Islands, I was sure that they have already lost the Rebellion.

Their main strength laid in Naval warfare and despite how much they may boast about being great warriors, the truth was that they were just as good as any other levy. Except that they were lightly armored and very few in numbers.

In fact, I was sure that the Iron Islands weren't even capable of raising 15,000 in total while Robert's host has more than 100,000 men in total.

There was no way that Balon Greyjoy was going to win this Rebellion. Not unless he has a dragon in his possession or some other miraculous advantage.

Our men continued our march toward Seaguard where Robert's huge host was camping in all it's glory.

As the Northern group entered the main tent where Robert and his most trusted advisers were making plans for the invasion of Iron Islands, Robert turned around to face Ned Stark and a huge smile blossomed in his face.

"Ned. You're finally here." Robert boomed and quickly strode forward before hugging his childhood friend with all this might.

I could see that Ned looked a little uncomfortable, perhaps still remembering the death of Elia and her children but gave a small smile to his king before he knelt down in front of his king. The rest of the Northern lords and me followed suit and knelt before the king as well.

"Your grace. The North and it's men are at your command." Ned said in a stoic voice.

��Ah get up Ned. There's no need for such formalities between us." Robert said as he bent down and picked his friend up and the rest of the Northern Lords followed. I gazed and almost smiled at the fat Wylis Manderly getting up from his position as if it was the toughest task in the world.

"You brought your son as well Ned?" Robert asked and I looked up to see that Robert was looking at me and so was everyone else in the tent.

I looked back unflinchingly at the King and no one spoke for a moment before I bowed my head "Lord Domeric Bolton in your service your grace."

"Hah! You're a Bolton then. What's happened to your father boy? Is he sick or something." Robert asked in his booming voice and my eyes narrowed for a moment but I simply nodded my head.

"He died while leeching himself with an unknown species of leech a few moons ago." I said and the tent fell silent for a moment before Lord Rickard Karstark started laughing to himself. Something which was immediately followed by the king and some of the other lords so people like Tywin Lannister, Ned Stark, Ser Barristan Selmy and some others stayed silent.

I let out a sigh as realized that I couldn't let them laugh at my dead 'father' as it would be seen as weakness so he put my hands behind my back and the took out the wand before quickly using it and a loud howl echoed loudly outside, quickly silencing every single person in the tent before they heard some screams and shouts coming from outside before the flap of the tent burst open and his direwolf entered the tent with a snarl, scaring the shit out of everyone as many lords including Rickard Karstark fell back on the bums.

I turned to Lord Karstark and advanced along with his direwolf at the fallen lord and increased the intimidation level to the maximum until the lord looked at the Direwolf's eyes and pissed his pants.

"You think my father's death is funny Lord Karstark?" I asked softly and caressed the Direwolf's soft fur Black sniffed the lord's throat who was panting bucket of sweat from his face.

"N…. No my lord. It's… it's… not funny." He stammered out quickly and for a moment everyone in the tent remained silent before I caressed Black's fur once again and it slowly backed away from the fallen lord who also seemed to have shat himself from the fear. I then turned to King Robert who gulped upon feeling the effects on the intimidation spell on him.

Well, he didn't piss himself so that's saying something.

"Your Grace." I said and bowed before I climbed on Black's back and left.

Later I heard about all the humiliation that Rickard Karstark had suffered. His sons Torrhen and Harrion Karstark had also come to his camp and told him to come and suffer their wrath or be called a craven. The joke was on them as they were challenging a 8 year old boy to a duel in order to save their honor. An action that only made them fall even lower in the eyes of the other Northern lords.

Suffice to say that it was likely that House Bolton and House Karstark would not be friends anytime soon.