Chapter 2: Bandits

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When I went inside my father's office/lord's room. The place was as dreadful as the rest of this castle, with stone walls that seemed to depress even the most energetic of people. I can't wait till I get out of this death trap.

Walder Frey looked at me and smiled, showing his yellow crooked teeth. "Well look who is here, my prettiest son. If your sisters were half as pretty as you, half of the Seven Kingdoms would be begging us for marriage proposals."

I smirked at his comment and sat down in the chair in front of his desk. One thing I noticed was that the whole chair seemed the same as father's, which wasn't so as it had a lower proportion to make Walder seem bigger than he was.

Also me, pretty? I would describe my looks as average at best, with black hair and dark eyes, a straight nose, and an oval face.

Honestly, even in my last life, I used to be better looking and I wasn't anything special even then. But still compared to a Fray, I was the most handsome Frey in the castle.

There were still a lot of better-looking servants than me in the castle, so that said a lot about Frey and what was considered good-looking amongst them.

I wondered if the other houses comforted their lesser handsome sons by saying something like 'At least you aren't a Frey'... honestly wouldn't blame them, some of my brothers have faces that not even a mother would love.

All these idle thoughts went through my head in a split second as I smiled at my father. "Well now calling a Frey pretty is like saying that a Tully won't sell his children to the highest bidder."

When he heard that, Walder's face changed into a frown, but then he smiled.

"Bahahahah," he laughed, "this is why you are my favorite child Arthur. At least you have a sense of humor."

I laughed along with him, insulting a Tully was the best joke to Walder. Even though he was being a hypocrite. After all, he does the same to sell his kids and all that. Then as the cherry on top, I added.

"But it doesn't matter how you look if you are rich, isn't that right father? After all, you already have had four wives, so that must mean you are the most handsome bachelor in the Riverlands."

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" This time his laughter was so loud that even the rest of the castle probably heard us. "You should come to visit me more often Arthur, you just made my day."

Well, I will say whatever you want to hear, you whore loving barbarian. After all, words were free, so why not use them as much as one needed to get people in an advantageous position to oneself.

I still kept the smile on my face even while insulting this unwashed plebian a hundred times in my head.

"Well, I can't come here that often now that I am a squire. Oh yeah! I almost forgot! Father, can I ask you to get me a real steel sword now that I am a squire?"

He smirked at me and nodded. "Take whatever you need from the guard's armory."

I acted excited at that, got up, and went towards the door. "Ok then, see you later father!"

As I went outside I could faintly hear him saying with an amused voice. "Not even saying a proper goodbye to his handsome father~"

As soon as I went outside the door I walked a bit and made sure that no one was looking at me.

My excited act ended, and I have my natural cold-looking face. This new face was quite good because I had a natural cold appearance if I didn't smile, though as a kid that isn't gonna scare anyone. When I grew older I predicted that it would look more intimidating.

Heh, now that I have Walder Frey in my palm. I was probably his favorite son. I could guide the conversation, I could easily manipulate him up to a certain degree. Though these acts of mine won't work after my childhood is over.

My biggest advantages were that I was a kid and had the facade of being a talented young man, though I had to still seem a bit naive sometimes. Wouldn't want to have any of my new brothers getting any ideas that I would be a competition to their rule.

Keeping a good relationship with over thirty siblings wasn't easy… were there more than thirty? I never quite counted them, and the names I never bothered to learn of the less important siblings calling them only 'brother' or 'sister' or other words that have that meaning.

-Year 273-

*Clung!*

My sword clashed with another of the squires, he was a couple of years older, but even though I was only fourteen years old, modern body exercises kept me in a moderately better shape than most people of similar ages. We were fighting in the training grounds outside of the Twin Castles, some Frey men were looking at us.

*Clang!*

The squire tried to hit me with his blunt sword at my side, I could already see his telegraphed moves. It was easy to predict what he will likely do next, where he will attack, the obvious feints and tricks with his sword.

As he went to do an overhead slash at me. I positioned my clean sword to reflect the sun in his eyes, causing the squire to squint and be blinded for a split second.

I then sidestep his slash and get closer to him in his personal space, I hit his sword holding his hand with the blunt side of my sword.

"Ouch!" He yelped in pain, dropping his sword on the ground. I then punched him in the chin, and he dropped like a sack of potatoes, grunting and holding his mouth as blood came out of it.

Seems like he bit his tongue, I almost felt sorry for the stupid young man.

"Well done Arthur, that is the best swordplay I have ever seen," said my eldest brother as he clapped to congratulate me on my new victory.

My eyes met his similarly dark ones and we smiled. Well, I could say that all Frey soldiers were terrible and very weakly trained. Or I could also have said that I used this time to spar because I knew the squires were either too drunk or tired.

Instead of speaking my mind, going for the more diplomatic approach was better. "Well, I had a good teacher."

His smile widened. "Your swordplay is perfect but now you just need some experience. I will go hunting some bandits. You wanna join me?"

Well, this was interesting. My smile didn't slip out of my face as I answered him. "Of course I will come, brother. Just give me some time to prepare."

While there was no noticeable deception in his voice or body language. This was still a medieval world and Westeros, and him calling me to exterminate some bandits was a convenient way for me to have an 'accident'. Well if he tried anything then he would be the one having a so-called 'accident', I wouldn't mind killing a couple Frey if they got in my way.

So I decided to get all my most loyal subjects. My most loyal 'friends' were eleven Frey guards in total, they used to be some village boys that I met in the nearby village while buying some medical herbs. There was nothing special about them, neither were they too brave or strong, but they were mine and the people I had handcrafted to be my meat shields-... I mean loyal friends.

These guys used to be orphans in the village, nothing special, orphans were everywhere in Westeros, with all the wars that went on in this place probably half the lands were made of orphans.

Still, these guys had no one that cared about them, and so I appeared like their savior. Even gave them an allowance back then and spent a lot of time with them, fed them while they were hungry, helped them when in need, even went to the trouble of socializing with them to create a sense of belonging, comradeship, and friendship.

People always made it sound so easy to create a loyal person that will give their life for you. But humans always were individual creatures who only came together out of convenience and each of them had hopes for the future and no one liked to die.

Finding them wasn't hard since as Frey soldiers they were meant to guard one of the gates. There was nothing special about their looks, except their armor was better than most since I bought it for them.

"Oy! Guys! Come with me, we got something to do!" I called out at them.

They looked at me and smirked. One of them waved. "Okay, coming right up."

"Whenever he calls us, coins are always following us so we better go fast!" Yelled out one of them, while rushing toward me. Good, their enthusiasm will be rewarded.

"Don't forget to notify some other guards to take over your past," I warned.

...

-General (3rd person) POV-

After Arthus went to meet up with his brother, he noticed that his brother had six guards too, and they were all on horses, but so were Arthur and his men.

Stevron Frey smiled. "Well, I thought that you wouldn't bring guards so I brought some even for you. This might be a little much for a small bandit group, but whatever, let's go."

"One can never be too sure, brother. Who knows how many of them could be there. After all, the small folk can rarely be counted on to say the real numbers," expressed Arthur, showing a little half-truth in the statement.

The eldest brother on the other hand teasingly nudged him. "Careful Arthur, some might call us cowards on this."

Arthur smirked. "Well, cowards are known to live longer than brave men at least."

"C'mon now little brother, you can't be like Barristan the Bold if you act like this."

"I never wanted to be like him either. I don't quite see how being a glorified bodyguard would be good for me or my health. Plus King's Landing never was quite appealing, it would be like sticking my cock in a nest of vipers, even to the stupidest of men that wouldn't be good."

"Hahaha," Stevron laughed, "Well, as a Kingsguard you won't get to stick your dick in anything, so I still don't see what the problem is."

"I would rather stick it in a viper's nest than in nothing," said Arthur jokingly, "But really though, the last place I would want to be at is a Kingsguard."

"Even more so than the Wall?" Inquired Stevron, amused at their little banter.

"...move being a Kingsguard to the 2nd worst position to be," he stated.

They continued to banter all the way to the forest. Arthur, even though he had his guards protecting him, he was always cautious, if both threats outside his group and inside.

"Should we leave our horses here?" Asked Arthur.

"We could. But why?" Inquired Stevron.

The younger Frey frowned as he looked around, his eyes narrowed at the shadows of the trees. "Well, if we go in with horses they will hear us galloping and that would give them a chance to prepare an ambush. Plus horses don't do well on forests like there, if they trip in a tree root and land on top of us then we are done for. Also, they might get scared and run away uncontrollably."

Stevron thought for a bit and nodded, seeing that his brother had a point. Plus horses were quite expensive and replacing them would have to come out of his pocket. "A villager close by said that he had sighted them around here."

"How sure are you that this informant isn't working with the bandits to lead us in a trap?"

Stevron stopped in his tracks as he got out of his horse and tied his leash to a tree. 'I now see why Arthur is considered as quite the bright young man by maester Bam.' He pondered. "I am not sure of that at all, so we better be on guard just in case."

"Okay, me and my group should take the rear in case of an ambush," Arthur suggested, "Your group also is generally better at close quarters combat."

Stevron nodded and his guards smiled at the compliment that the younger Frey gave them. As they moved their guards around, Arthur now had a clear look of his brother's back, if he wanted, he could just pick up the bow he had on his back and it would be over for Stevron.

It didn't take long to find the bandit camp, it was just a couple of tents in the middle of the forests.

"Their numbers should be small, but be on the lookout for more or a sneak attack," whispered Arthur, being as cautious as he could be.

Stevron smiled proudly, while this was the first time Arthur was doing something like this, he still had everything covered and was careful, unlike some others his age who thought that only a swing of their sword was needed to end something insignificant like a bandit's camp.

But even then, Arthur had some other thoughts that he didn't express. 'At least this means that one of the rival houses didn't pay them or paid them too little to wreak havoc in our lands.'

"Well, let's go and kill them," said Stevron, puffing his chest with pride.

Arthur looked at him with deeply hidden spite. 'Dumb as a rock… well, it was expected. Stevron wasn't the brightest of the Frey bunch.'

"I have a better idea." The younger Frey suggested, being careful not to anger his brother or seem like he was insulting his intelligence. After all, an arrogant man is like a pufferfish, it always hurts those around him, even the ones who tried to save it.

"Well, we will follow your idea then. Since this will be more of a lesson for you." Stevron declared, "It's your time now Arthur, show us that bright mind that the Maester won't stop talking about."

Arthur nodded, "Okay, I want you," he pointed at one of his guards that was a little smarter than the others, "to go and act like you are lost and call out to them. Leave your sword behind, don't worry, we will have your back."

"W -What?" The man swallowed hard in fear, he had done nothing like this before, "Can't someone else go and do it?"

Arthur frowned, "Two Silver Stags to the man who decides to go and do this for me."

"I will!" Said the cowardly man who refused to do so before. The others also wanted to go too.

"No, fate favors the bold, you had your chance but you lost it now." Arthur put his foot down on this, "Also next time, I don't want to see your face and you will only get a quarter of what the others get."

"Wait, m'lord Arthur, sorry about this I didn't mean it. I will do this for free, sorry, I wasn't thinking straight before." The man apologized profoundly, realizing that having a Frey be on his bad side wasn't a good thing. Especially Arthur, everyone knew he had Walder's ear in these matters.

"I will accept your apology, but you will still get only a quarter of the rewards. Next time make sure that you don't refuse my orders, no go out there before I decide to slit your throat." Arthur said coldly, his dark eyes seeming to look straight into the man's soul.

The cowardly man nodded rapidly and went forward, leaving his weapon behind.

'Every man has his fears, they won't listen to someone like me just because I tell them to. Well, I built a friendship with him so he thought that defying me in front of these men was something he could do? Sadly for him, from now on he will be made an example of.

Just because of my young age doesn't mean that they shouldn't listen to me. This is a medieval society, and might makes right.' Contemplated Arthur, thinking about how to handle this situation. Still, he had his job to do too, so he went and climbed up one of the trees and pulled out his bow, and got ready to shoot.

The cowardly soldier on the other hand was as nervous as he could be. He felt like everything was crashing down on him, his heart felt like it would beat out of his chest

"Is anyone there?! I am lost, can you help me... please?!" He yelled out, and his cries for help were quite truthful since he knew that he wouldn't be having a good time from now on.

"Who's there!" Called out a voice from the tents as six people came out, they all had cheap leather armor and the one spoke seemed to have a better sword than the others.

Arthur aimed and shot out his arrow straight at the leader.

*fwish*

It pierced straight through the eye of the one who seemed like the leader.

The bandits looked around in shock, and before they could get out of their shock, another arrow came and hit another one in the throat.

"There is a bowman around! Be careful!" Yelled out of the bandits, turning around to run away, but it didn't last long as an arrow pierced from the back of his head and came out of his mouth. His corpse plopped on the ground.

"Shi-"

*fwish!*

Another one gets hit through the eye, and by then the two bandits left had come to their senses and started to run off in the same direction.

But it didn't last long as he was pierced straight through the heart.

"Surround him, don't let him run!" Ordered Arthur, even though he could still shoot the last man down too, he had more use for him.

With seventeen chasing after him, the man didn't last long as he tripped and was caught.

Then he was brought to Arthur who looked at the bandit with a strange gaze in his eyes.

'Well, then time for some experience.' Thought Arthur, before taking out his sword. "Take out your sword and fight me for your life criminal, or my men will kill you."