Chapter 350

He flew above the lands as an astral manifestation and looked at the Army as well as the Large Castle in the distance.

Looking at Casterly Rock now, he could understand why no one has ever taken the castle.

He also understood that even with his magically armored troops, it'll be very difficult for him to win over this castle.

He'll have to use his wits and magic for this one.

He flew away from the Rock and set his sights on the army once again.

12,000 men led by a knight named Lucian Lannister from a branch family of the Lannister house.

Upon looking closely, he saw that the army was indeed composed of boys and old men along with a bunch of mercenaries who were now being trained to hold the right end of their spears.

The Lannisters were truly scraping the bottom of the barrel with this army.

He looked at the area around the army and noticed that Ser Lucian Lannister had not stationed any sentry or guards around the army.

Which was understandable. They were some distance from Casterly Rock after all. And the time he was sighted was at Riverrun.

No one would think that he had taken the Golden Tooth and had entered the Westerlands.

This assumption was going to cost them an army. Not that they would have been spared by him even if they had been prepared. But this will just make things so much easier.

He flew back up in the air and looked at the army composition and the tent positions along with the local landscape once again and committed it to his memory before he returned.

He came out of the Valyrian Glass Candle and took a few deep breaths while shaking his head to remove the Disorientation.

Ygritte came from behind and rubbed his back "Is it done?" she asked.

He smiled "Yeah. The men are barely trained. They have no decent armor and on top of it all, their commander had put no guards around the army." He laughed "This is going to be easy for us."

"Don't become too overconfident Domeric." Ygritte said and he nodded and became a little serious.

Then he got up from his chair and walked up to a large table which was filled with clay.

He took out his wand, used legilimency to bring out the memories of the army and the landscape near it and then used transfiguration to turn the clay into a realistic looking life like map.

"There are more of them then I thought." Ygritte said as she looked at the realistic 3d map on the table before looking at him "You said there were only 8000 of them."

"That was a month ago." He said "Now there are 4000 more. At least this Ser Lucian is not a totally incompetent if he's able to gather so many men in such a short time."

"Just incompetent enough to not station any guards around his army." Ygritte said and he smiled.

—————

ROBB STARK POV

Both him and Jon sat on the ground and looked at the Lannister army on the other side of the river.

"You look tired." He said to his half brother who he now knew as his cousin and the rightful heir to the Iron Throne. Funny how life was filled with irony.

He had always wanted to keep Jon by his side and made him his right hand man. Now if Jon takes on Lord Bolton's offer then Jon might sit on the Iron Throne and the opposite might happen.

He wonders what his mother would think when she hears the truth of Jon's parentage. How Sansa would feel.

"I feel tired." Jon replied "And afraid and confused and lost." Jon turned and looked at him "How are you supposed to deal with the fact that your entire life has been a lie?"

"It's not a lie Jon." He said "You're still family. And Arya'll always love you more than me or Bran or Sansa."

Jon chuckled at that and he smiled. Seeing Jon even a little bit happy was a rarity these days. Most of the time he just stood in a place, looked in the distance and brooded.

"You can always refuse." He said "If you do not want this burden then you can always refuse. No one needs to know."

Jon chuckled at his words "You're right. I do not want to be a King. But Lord Bolton said that if I become the King then I'll be able to send more help to the North during the Long Winter."

"Possibly." He nodded "But Renly and Stannis are not unreasonable men. If they became king and we showed them the Wights and the White Walkers and make them understand the severity of the situation then it is possible that they'll do everything in their power to send us help as well."

"Lord Bolton said that if King Stannis won and sat on the Iron Throne then the 7 kingdoms will break down." Jon said.

"Possible" he replied.

Lord Bolton had already explained that as much as they wanted to continue with the illusions, the truth was that the 7 Kingdoms were already breaking. In fact, Dorne and Iron Islands were a part of the 7 kingdoms in name only. And once King Stannis sits on the Throne, neither the Westerlands on the Reach lords will obey him. Which'll lead to civil war in those kingdoms and cause more descent.

And considering how Riverlands has already descended into chaos and madness, that only left the North, the Vale, the Crownlands and the Stormlands in good enough condition to fight the White Walkers.

Then there was the fact that Lord Stannis had taken to the Red God and habit the habit of burning down the statues of the faith so the Lords of the Vale might not support his reign either.

The whole political explanation had been long and confusing but they did understand that Stannis becoming the King was not going to be good for any of them.

The fact that Lord Bolton knew so much more about the political stance of the whole of Westeros than their own Lord father only made them respect the lord even more.

"Do you think I'll make a good king?" Jon asked.

He wanted to lie to Jon. Tell him that he'll become a wonderful king. But he knew that someone who had never known what ruling even meant was not going to make a great king. Not at first.

"Not at first." He replied "But you're a fast learner."

Jon didn't reply to his words.

He looked at Jon and noticed that he was staring into the distance.

"Jon." He said, a little annoyed that Jon didn't listen to him.

Jon frowned and pointed into the distance "Look. Robb."

He looked and could see a boat coming from the other side of the river.

"You think Tywin wants to negotiate?" he asked Jon who frowned as well.

"Possibly." Jon replied "Lord Bolton has defeated the Lannister army outside Riverrun and the Vale army will arrive within a week or two. I don't think Tywin likes his odds too much."

"That's because he doesn't know that Lord Bolton has left the Riverlands." Robb replied "If he did then he would realize that he still holds the advantage of being on the other side of the river."

"That's true." Jon replied "Well, let's got and greet out guest."