Chapter 9. Bloodwind Appears

Jon Umber, nicknamed "Smalljon," was the son of Greatjon and the heir to Last Hearth.

In the original story, he ultimately betrayed the Stark family, bringing Rickon and the head of Shaggydog to Ramsay.

During the Battle of the Bastards, he died at the hands of the wildling Tormund.

Smalljon was actually quite aggrieved!

The knights of House Umber were known throughout the North for their bravery in battle and unwavering loyalty.

Greatjon had two of his fingers bitten off by Greywind but admired Robb's courage instead and remained loyal to him until his death at the Red Wedding.

As for Smalljon, who narrowly escaped, he continued to hold Last Hearth and didn't surrender to House Bolton.

That was until Jon Snow brought all the Wildlings south of the Wall.

Throughout history, Last Hearth, the shield of the North, had been the first line of defense against Wildlings crossing the Wall.

After thousands of years of fighting, a deep-rooted hatred existed between them and the Wildlings.

So, Smalljon's final betrayal was entirely understandable.

Now, Robb would never allow such a loyal warrior to betray them again, but he greeted them all equally, without showing too much enthusiasm.

With some people, one needed to use diplomatic means, while with others, one needed to show strength.

After greeting all the warriors, Robb cleared his throat and shouted, "Brothers, I know you are all warriors loyal to House Stark.

But I've never met most of you, and you must also be watching to see what kind of person I am.

Words alone are meaningless, so now I'm standing here, taking turns sparring with you. Whoever can defeat me will win a prize of 100 silver stags!"

"Lord Robb is truly generous!"

"Woo-hoo, I'm in!"

"I…"

As soon as Robb finished speaking, the previously tired warriors immediately perked up.

The children of the Northern knights had little pocket money to begin with and spent lavishly when they did. A prize of 100 silver stags was no small amount.

Immediately, one of the warriors closest to Robb stepped forward and asked to spar.

Clang! Clang!...

The sound of blunt swords clashing echoed continuously across the training yard.

Although Robb had saved a lot of energy by observing the warriors during training, he wasn't invincible.

After consecutively defeating six warriors, he was finally knocked to the ground by the female warrior Dacey with a single strike.

"Oh-hoo!"

"Dacey! Dacey!"

"…"

"…"

Seeing Robb fall to the ground, all the onlookers excitedly shouted Dacey's name.

As one of the few female warriors in Westeros, and having never experienced this kind of treatment before, Dacey blushed, raising her blunt sword high as if she had won the entire world.

"Pah… You're all excellent. The prize goes to Dacey. Tonight, she'll be treating everyone at the Smokewood Tavern in Wintertown."

Hearing the cheers around him, Robb got up, spat out the mud he had accidentally swallowed, and laughed heartily, not caring about his appearance, as he pointed at Dacey and loudly announced.

"Long live Dacey! Long live Lord Robb!"

"Haha, I'm going to drink all the ale at Smokewood Tavern!"

Today's training yard was as noisy as a marketplace, filled with various sounds.

A certain lord, observing from the shadows, watched as Robb quickly integrated into the crowd and nodded in satisfaction.

***

After dealing with the spoils of war and the distribution of rewards, Robb's days became quite regular and fulfilling.

Aside from caring for Bloodwind and routine training, he spent time drinking and chatting with the warriors.

As his closeness with the guards deepened, Robb added a small team combat training session to the training arranged by Ser Rodrik.

Westerosi warriors had no problem forming ranks for a charge, but once two armies clashed, it often devolved into a chaotic free-for-all, lacking any cooperation.

So, Robb divided thirty-one warriors into six small teams. Under his covert arrangement, each team sparred against one another, with the strongest among them serving as team leader.

Dacey Mormont, Smalljon Umber, and Owen Norrey were unsurprisingly elected in their respective teams.

The other three teams were led by Torren Karstark, Ed Karstark, and Theon Greyjoy.

Yes, the reason there were thirty-one was that after a heartfelt talk with Theon, Robb personally got Ned's consent to add him to the guard.

Torren and Ed were Robb's cousins, descendants of House Karstark, and they possessed considerable fighting ability.

As for the Blood Pact Points, it was uncertain whether it was due to the daily high-intensity training that consumed so much energy.

This week, Robb's appetite increased dramatically, but he had only earned three measly points from his dry rations.

However, after a week of repeated testing, Robb had preliminarily summarized two rules for gaining points.

First, adding all the Blood Pact Points at once made the body feel completely drained, resulting in a state of weakness and fatigue.

Second, the highest stats in Bloodwind couldn't exceed three times the lowest stat.

Currently, Bloodwind had a speed of 4, strength of 3, and constitution of 7 points, with 1 Blood Pact Point remaining as a baseline.

With a constitution of 7 points, Bloodwind grew as if inflated like a balloon, and Robb could see its growth every day.

By today, Bloodwind had grown from the size of a small teddy bear to that of an adult Alaskan Malamute, standing about 70 centimeters tall and weighing nearly 40 kilograms.

Over the past ten days, the other five direwolves had also grown at an unusual pace, reaching sizes comparable to five- or six-month-old puppies, but none could compare to Bloodwind.

Of course, aside from the stable boy responsible for delivering food, no one else knew that Bloodwind had grown to this size.

Unlike his siblings, who loved to show off their direwolves, Robb's Bloodwind had remained in his room during this time and had never been outside.

Most days, aside from eating, Bloodwind spent the majority of its time sleeping; perhaps a side effect of its rapid growth!

Creak!

The bedroom door opened, and Bloowind, lying by the bed, immediately lifted its head to assess the situation.

"Bloodwind!"

As the door swung fully open, Robb, dressed in standard chainmail, appeared in the doorway.

He gently called out, and Bloodwind immediately expressed its joy, quickly rising and leaping gracefully over the wooden bed to approach him.

Robb knelt on one knee, cradling Bloodwind's fluffy head in his hands, and scratched its cheek for a while. Bloodwind closed its eyes in comfort, fully embodying the spirit of a lovable dog. 

"Alright! Bloodwind, we're going out today to see the world outside."

Remembering the task assigned to him by his father, Ned, Robb stopped his scratching and called to Bloodwind as he exited the bedroom.

***

In the castle corridor, any servant who saw Robb and Bloodwind instinctively showed signs of fear and stepped aside.

As a magnificent creature, Bloodwind, though appearing like a lovable dog in front of Robb, showed its fierce predator nature to strangers, with glinting eyes and bared teeth.

At the main castle's entrance leading to the training yard, Ned and his wife, along with Robb's siblings, were waiting with their own direwolves.

When they saw Bloodwind, which had taken on a fierce form in just 10 days, disbelief washed over their faces.

And when Bloodwind spotted the other direwolves of its pack, it suddenly stretched its neck and let out a long wolf howl.

"Awoooo!!!"