CHAPTER 93

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CHAPTER 93

287 AC

I was touring the area where the Tourney preparations were made, and it was all for a hoax. When the king realized what the Ironborns wanted to do, he would raise the army and most likely stop them from rebelling. At least that's what I thought, but it's been two days since the king and Lord Stark spoke, and still no action from the king. So, I asked Sir Rodrik if I could talk with the lord. After a few hours of waiting, I was able to.

....

"My lord, why are we not marching for the Iron Islands?"

He looked up from the papers and looked very distressed and wistful.

"Our king thinks it's too early to act and has decided to enjoy the tourney until the Ironborns take action, and if they don't act until the tourney is over, he plans to make up an excuse and head for the Westerlands."

Why is this giant hog not charging head first to punish them? Something is wrong, and he doesn't want to return to King's Landing but wants to go to Westerlands. At that moment, it dawned on me. This giant hog doesn't want to end the rebellion before it goes off; he wants a war. This drunkard hog wants a full-blown war but why?

"My lord, is it possible the king wants a full-blown war?"

As soon as I said that, he suddenly jumped up as if he had remembered something, started to pace, and asked himself questions.

"Is this the reason he was in such a high spirit the second I told him about the possible rebellion?"

"That is why he started laughing at everything after our talk, and that is why he said he was looking forward to the upcoming festivities. I thought he was talking about the tourney, but he wasn't!"

So, he is going to cause the death of all those people because he is bored. Now that I think about it. A war wouldn't be such a bad thing for me, and I can earn more renown in a real war rather than a quick suppression. If the ironborn raids the coastline, I could also help the smallfolk as Druid Emrys. I don't care what they will do anymore; if they end it before it sprouts, I will earn contributions as the one who brought this to their attention, but if the war happens, I will get more contributions as I fight.

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POV NED STARK

As soon as our conversation with Aermir ended, I immediately went to the room reserved for The Hand to discuss my conclusions with Jon and told him what had happened. After some quiet thought, he said

"You might be right. For a few years, he's been talking about how disgusting it is to rule the kingdom and how exciting the wartimes were. We have to go and have a talk with him."

We went to Robert and tried to persuade him, but the reasoning he shared with us was that they had to be made too weak so that the Ironborns would not revolt again, and that was why the war was necessary. Jon was able to convince him at least that we should at least send word to Westerlands and Reach and warn them to be prepared for the Ironborns.

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POV MC

they sent the ravens to Westerlands and Reach today, and since winter is almost over, I think Ironborns will attack within the next month if they feel ready. There could still be 20 cm of snow in the north, but the temperature had risen to around 5 degrees, and most importantly, there was no place left under snow in the south. If Ironborns goal was to conquer, the time was still early. But they could still attack today if they aimed to raid and neutralize.

I decided to enjoy the tourney organized like everyone else and signed up for melee with Lord Stark's permission. Northern tourneys were slightly different from southern ones, with more brutal fights. South tourneys would only have jousting, melee, and archery, but at the north, we didn't have jousting.

Most northern knight despises jousting calling it to play fighting for jesters. So, in the north, there is melee, archery, wrestling, fist fighting, and log throwing. Fist fighting, log throwing, and wrestling are usually for commoners, but in the last two tourneys, Greatjon Umber dominates those three.

It might sound like there are a lot of tourneys, but the north usually doesn't celebrate first name-days. It is seen as wasteful tourneys only happen when there is a good harvest, and it is done to celebrate that. So those two tourneys happened over seven years.

I had commissioned a full knight armor from Mikken because I had grown 10 cm in the last nine months and buffed up a bit. I had become 180 cm as a 13 and a half name-day old and had 5.5 str, 6.2 spd, and 210 mana.

When I passed 200 mana a few months ago, I got a few more spells and rituals. Perzys sagit (flame arrows), as the name suggests, launches three arrow-shaped flames that explode with a 1-meter radius. jelmio sumby (wind shield) is a more potent form of warding wind that can deflect javelins and throw axes.

As for the rituals, I was able to cast two more both of them were useful, but the oath ritual was going to be the most useful. Thanks to this ritual, I could make an unbreakable vow, but like every order spell, it had a disadvantage, and it would have no effect if I forced a person to take this oath.

For it to have an effect, that person had to support the sworn subject at the time of the ritual. It meant nothing if they changed their minds after the oath. Once the oath was activated, they adhered to the oath they took until the owner of the oath freed them.

This was both a plus and a minus, I couldn't force the people I suppressed to take an oath, but I could find out who the untrustworthy guys were because it wouldn't work for those who didn't believe what they were saying, and I was thinking of using this on Kegan and Harlik to see how it works. Both brothers had been in Winterfell for nearly two years, and Sir Rodrik must have entrusted them to a good trainer because they had the skills to be called soldiers.

My last ritual was zone of purity. As the name states, it purifies the things inside, and I tried this on a living rabbit, and it died because when it was purified, it killed all living things in the area. I can't use it as an antidote for poison victims, but I can use it on water and food, and at least it will clean any bacteria or viruses, but it doesn't work on chemicals.