[Chapter Size: 4300 Words.]
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Third Person POV
Kaeth, 300 AC.
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Lord Valewood was inside the hall talking with Jon. This time, no one interfered in their matters, ever since Jon had mercilessly killed one of the four knights of the place in an open challenge.
Despite the anger and dissatisfaction in their eyes, no one dared challenge the man who had killed the knight wearing full armor as if it were nothing.
The strength Jon displayed was superhuman, and certainly no one wanted to take the risk after seeing him pierce through that armor in such a way. Even Lord Valewood was a little shaky when looking at him after what had happened.
"You know we can't literally bring all those people in here, it would be chaos both for us and for them, after all there are bandits and thieves among them..."
"You can, and you can maintain order as well," Jon retorted. "There are, at most, a thousand people out there. I want you to shelter everyone and have a place to build a group of houses."
He pointed on the map to the northern side of the county, where there were no apple trees planted.
"About the food... well, I know you're harvesting the last apples to send to Lord Kaeth, but let me make something clear. The war won't last much longer. In less than six moons it will already be over or it will no longer affect this territory. Because of that, I want you to cancel all apple shipments, distribute them among the common folk, and I will also ask Lord Kaeth to send a large amount of supplies. Arctic will cover all of this."
Lord Valewood seemed surprised and, at the same time, cautious about those statements. "My lord... what do you intend?" he asked, as if it were not already obvious.
Jon stared at him while looking at another map of Westeros spread across the table. Since Jon was a "representative" of Arctic, Lord Valewood would have to follow his recommendations.
"What we want, Lord Valewood, is simple." Jon paused. "Westeros will be conquered by the Arctican king. He will take all the kingdoms by birthright or conquest, it no longer matters, but Westeros will bend its knees one way or another."
"You may not know this, but only three hundred ships arrived in the west of Westeros. However, one thousand five hundred ships left Arctic nearly a moon ago. Five hundred of them are heading to Essos, and a thousand are coming to the south of the kingdom to attack King's Landing. And an entire army has already stopped in the North."
"Do you have any idea that more than one hundred thousand men from our army are moving at this very moment?"
"One hundred thousand men, my lord...? And nearly two thousand ships in total..." Lord Valewood quickly did the math, looking horrified.
Meanwhile, Jon placed a few objects on the table. Although it was not ideal, he positioned pieces at each corner of the map, representing one fleet arriving at Braavos, another heading to King's Landing, and the third attacking the West, where the King of Arctic currently was, while there was also an army advancing from the North.
"At this moment, Westeros is being attacked from several sides at the same time." Jon revealed a mysterious smile. "It's funny how, after everything we've done, Westeros still underestimates Arctic. And now we're coming with almost all of our power. Almost..."
The man began processing that in his mind, terrified. He did not even seem to notice that Jon had given a hint at the end, that there were more hidden forces left in the north.
But he was terrified. Because, if that was truly the case... Westeros was doomed.
"We heard you were fighting against the ironborn. How is it possible that you are already here?" Lord Valewood murmured.
The raiders had been spreading terror across all of Westeros along the western coast. The arrival of Arctic and the fall of the ironborn around two moons after the rumors had begun, and the fact they had only been a few weeks away from reaching the Iron Islands, had drawn everyone's attention.
What seemed impossible to everyone was that they had truly dealt with the ironborn so quickly. But, since Jon was controlling all the ravens of the sea as well, no news had yet reached the continent, especially with all the islands conquered...
But the main point was simple, Westeros was facing something it had never faced in its history: someone who could control raven communication.
Jon practically held the greatest power of the entire war in his hands. With that, he isolated his enemies, and they would fall without even realizing it.
And that man, negotiating places for at most a thousand refugees in a corner of Kaeth's region, in the riverlands, could not even imagine that he was standing before the most powerful man in the world, negotiating something so trivial.
Even after what he had seen, Lord Valewood thought Jon might perhaps be someone important and powerful within Arctic, but never the king himself. The king would never be there, alone, making demands for small lands, right?
"The ironborn are already a variable out of the game, Lord Valewood."
"King Balon died by the hands of the Arctican king. Asha Greyjoy was also executed shortly after her father. Victarion Greyjoy is dead. There is only one Greyjoy man alive as far as I know, and that is Theon. A man who was tortured by the Boltons and also ended up completely broken as their servant. So he is just a man waiting for someone to capture him and tear off his head."
But the man in front of Jon looked at him with disbelief.
"Did you know that Pyke no longer exists?" Jon added before the man could say anything.
"What do you mean?" he asked carefully.
Perhaps Lord Kaeth had already heard rumors about what had been done at the meeting together with Lord Mallister farther north, but certainly Lord Valewood still had not heard anything about it, with such news being harder to reach the county.
"I'm saying that the Arcticans destroyed the fortress of Pyke. It is now at the bottom of the sea." Jon said with an intense look. "The ironborn were executed without any mercy. Even those who tried to surrender and beg for mercy received no compassion from the Arcticans."
"You still don't know it, but you certainly heard a strange explosion coming from the northwest more than a week ago... and you must have already heard certain rumors about something happening in the Freys' region after the Arcticans arrived. Am I right?"
The man seemed quite frightened by that. He frowned, but nodded. "Yes... I heard something."
"Soon that news will reach you as well. The Twins no longer exist. The two crossing towers along with the bridge over the river were blown apart. All you will find there is destruction."
Obviously, they should already know this by that moment, except the nearest houses that should have sent the news no longer had their ravens reaching their destinations, since Jon was immediately changing their routes and gathering all their ravens in one place for later.
He was already creating a scenario of complete uncertainty. And the people, being nobles and fighters, were already beginning to realize it.
When the arrival of the Arcticans should have sent countless pieces of information from one lord to another, seeking opinions and even allies in these chaotic times... silence was taking over the riverlands, not even outside ravens were arriving anymore.
As the man Valewood listened to Jon more and more, the more terrified he became.
He was certainly a man called a coward. In truth, he had nothing of a warrior. He was merely a noble with some power, overweight, who was used to commanding from behind but never holding a weapon in his hands, and who would always seek his own safety first.
There was nothing special about that man. And Jon's words, even if they sounded fantastical, still instilled great fear in him.
That was due to the reputation and rumors surrounding Arctic. A power capable of blowing up fleets and controlling animals with sorcery. Giants and small men who fought like demons.
It became such a thing that Jon had even recently discovered that human dwarves were being recruited everywhere to form military forces, both in Westeros and Essos.
It seemed everyone was searching for people with height deficiencies to try to create the same force Arctic had made. Which certainly failed.
After all, they did not possess the speed and strength that a dwarf of the warrior and builder race had.
And dwarves were certainly different. They knew the difference, because a true dwarf did not present deformities in the body. They were generally sturdy and muscular. Their arms and legs were shorter, obviously, but they did not display the same disability of a human dwarf who was born with that structure due to some genetic error or even poisoning. Jon remembered Tyrion's case, who was born a dwarf due to the poison his mother ingested while pregnant.
In any case, if there had been any resistance from the man before, now he seemed willing to yield anything Arctic asked for.
"One more thing, Lord Valewood." Jon spoke again, with the man almost having a breakdown from the recent destructions.
"The Arctican king made it very clear: any violence, unnecessary abuse, and especially rape against refugee noblewomen, young women who still need to find a husband, wives, and mothers among the common folk, committed by your soldiers, will be punished. And you will also be held responsible."
"You must control your men!"
"My lord, we would never do such a thing..." he murmured.
Jon shook his head. "Isn't that exactly what has been happening here? I'm sure it has," Jon said in a threatening tone, and the very air itself began to grow cold, making Lord Valewood wonder if he was imagining things.
Jon himself had seen it through the memories of the animals. He saw men offering a handful of apples for husbands to sell their wives to them.
He saw maidens losing their virginity by force, all because their fathers had no way to protect them.
The man in front of Jon seemed genuinely nervous upon hearing that.
"What I want is very simple: order." Jon added. "The King of Arctic desires order. As for supplies, you will have support as well. The Freys will no longer have so much power in these lands, and the Lannisters will be dealt with..." Jon said with absolute certainty.
The man, although still somewhat uncertain, nodded. Certainly the Arcticans represented something far more threatening than the Freys and Lannisters could ever represent.
Especially if they had truly brought down both Pyke and the Twins, making both disappear from the map.
"It seems you've finally decided," Jon said with a smile afterward, as if his earlier threat had never happened, and the air in the surroundings began stabilizing again, warming up.
The man looked at him and nodded carefully. Even then, everything still felt very strange and his instincts seemed to scream in front of this man.
Jon walked over to a map and began marking exactly what he wanted him to do.
In the end, Jon asked to take a look at the estate.
Lord Valewood nodded as he left the mansion under everyone's gaze, without even asking for an escort. He tried to show goodwill, demonstrating that he trusted the Arcticans, even if Jon was only a representative in his mind.
They walked among the apple trees, with people once again working on some trees heavy with apples. Some stopped to look and bowed to Lord Valewood, while observing Jon with curiosity. They also whispered about what he had done to the knight, and now they feared him somewhat.
"Tell me, how are the apple stocks? I'm sure the refugees will need more," Jon said.
The man in front of him looked surprised, but also confused. "Well... we don't have many apples. We'll have to ask Lord Kaeth for more after canceling the shipment of the current stock, my lord. Supplying more than a thousand people will be somewhat difficult with our current reserves. After all, most of it was already given as tribute to my lord," he explained.
Obviously, as a small vassal house within Kaeth territory, that was perfectly normal.
Jon nodded. "We can solve that," he said, to Valewood's confusion.
But he did not let the man speak as he approached one of the trees.
"Speaking of which... I've never even tasted one of these apples. Now I'm curious," Jon said.
The man was already about to say they could go to where the people were working on collecting the last apple trees with fruit, but when Jon raised his hand over the tree, the flower itself suddenly began to bloom at a surprising speed.
The fruit grew within a few seconds until a red apple appeared at the peak of maturity.
Lord Valewood stopped immediately, staring at Jon in shock. Sweat ran down his face, and he unconsciously grabbed a handkerchief to wipe himself.
"What... what just happened...? M-My lord... how... how did you do that?" he said in shock, stammering.
"The old gods favored me, Lord Valewood," Jon replied in a gentle tone, maintaining a smile at the perfect apple.
Then he picked one of the apples and brought it to his mouth, taking a bite from it. He immediately felt pleasure. The apple had no blemishes. It was completely red and absurdly perfect.
Lord Valewood was speechless, seeing with his own eyes a fruit being created from nothing!
Jon savored it for another moment, feeling it was one of the sweetest fruits he had ever created. Then he turned his gaze back to Lord Valewood a second time, amusing himself with the shock stamped across the man's face.
The man still seemed completely confused.
"If I tell you something... would you keep it secret for me?" Jon asked in an amused tone.
Lord Valewood still stared at the apple in Jon's hand, trying to understand how that was possible. But he felt a chill upon hearing the proposal of secrecy.
"Y-Yes..." he answered, somewhat frightened.
"I'm not merely a messenger of Arctic. In truth, I command all of Arctic... and you have also been standing the entire time before the last living son of Rhaegar, Jon Arctic, the king," Jon said.
It was a gamble, but considering how cowardly that man was, and also the benefits he could receive at the end of that war, Jon was certain he would not reveal his true identity.
He only needed to make the man feel pressured enough to fulfill his task even better than he already was. To keep the common people protected the way Jon wanted.
"Y-You said...?" he murmured.
"Yes. I'm telling you this because now we're more alone. I also want to do a few things tonight, so I need you to act normally," Jon said.
Then he turned to the tree and raised his hand. The entire tree began reacting to the magic he was casting.
The apple tree began to grow, filling its branches with pure red apples.
The man no longer knew whether it was possible to look at that with even more shock than before...
Jon picked up an apple and threw it to the man, startling him. He almost dropped it, but managed to catch it at the last moment, immediately using the handkerchief against his face due to the streams of sweat pouring from his forehead.
"Besides ensuring that you fulfill all the terms we discussed, I also want you not to act surprised when tomorrow arrives. And calm your men. Speaking of that... I will also need all your seeds."
"I'm going to arrange a good stock of food for all these people who remained here, and we also intend to show the path through the mountain ranges, from the county to more people from the south, as we move on to the other regions." Jon said, since the bridges created to cross the sequence of rivers would still be there.
The man could do nothing except remain in shock. In the end, after everything that had happened, he was standing before the most powerful man in the world.
Upon returning from the apple plantation with Lord Valewood, Jon wanted to call his men. One knight, under Lord Valewood's own orders, went to fetch the Arcticans. The lord no longer wanted to offend this man.
He had even sworn before his Seven Gods to Jon that he would not reveal his identity to anyone.
Then he called the Arcticans who came to the front of the mansion, while Jon already waited near the apple trees, looking over the field to begin working that night.
Lord Valewood had handed over a large quantity of seeds to him. Not only apple tree seeds, but also several other seeds that had been stored away.
"Did you kill someone?" Arya approached Jon, seeing the blood still coagulated in the middle of the courtyard, although there was no longer any sign of the body. She also noticed that Jon's sword now had a different hilt.
"You could say that," Jon shrugged, as if it were not very important.
Jon paid attention to the knights, wondering if they would recognize Barristan Selmy, but just like before, they seemed oblivious. They were more concerned with looking at him with a certain hostility than paying attention to his men at the moment.
Meanwhile, Lord Valewood stood beside him trying to be as pleasant as possible. The guards and the remaining three knights looked strangely at their own employer's expression, acting so submissively before that man ever since they had returned from the apple trees.
I mean... he had already been submissive before. But now it was as if he were standing before the king himself and needed to be careful with every word or action.
Jon looked with interest between the families he had found along the way and the guards. He could see the families looking with distrust, mainly staring at some guards who had probably been the same men who had expelled them earlier.
Jon observed their reactions as well... Fortunately, he had already resolved a certain pending issue by sending a letter to Lord Kaeth before even arriving there. He had sent a list of men working here who should be punished for their crimes, theft, extortion, and even rape.
The three women also seemed somewhat cautious and even came to speak with the Arcticans to ask if they could stay with them.
But obviously they were denied. They even went to speak to the king himself, but the answer remained the same: they would remain there.
The journey through the south was dangerous, and Jon still needed to assemble a group of armed men.
With Lord Valewood's guarantee and also after a brief conversation about where they would stay, receiving a few unused houses from the servants in that northern corner, Jon finally left the estate with his men.
He refused Lord Valewood's invitation to remain in the mansion.
What he needed now was to deal with the common folk. Besides helping them, he needed to recruit young, unmarried men who intended to protect those lands.
He was going to create a force that did not yet exist, an organization that would deal with bandits and bring order to the region. Perhaps even finally putting knighthood into practice the proper way, with its true philosophies.
Jon did not care if they would serve only for honor. He would simply name hundreds of men as knights if they fought properly.
Jon then moved on with his group, together with the horses they had taken from the bandits earlier, which were now completely empty.
"Let's go to one of the camps..." Jon said.
As his horse rode ahead, they continued until they found the edge of the local river, where there was a large camp.
They had managed to stay there without being expelled, as long as they did not move any closer to the county.
Jon approached them, while his group certainly drew attention with cautious and even some greedy looks.
"Who are you people?" an elderly man who seemed to be the leader of that camp approached.
"I'm here to inform you that the county is now open for you to approach. There will be food and a place to rest there," Jon announced, taking everyone by surprise. He asked if someone could read and handed over a letter from Valewood himself bearing his seal.
Then the announcement was made, causing everyone to quickly begin talking among themselves about such a thing.
"But I recommend doing that tomorrow," Jon added. "We would also like to spend the night here. We'll set up our camp outside, but I would like to speak with your people tomorrow."
"W-Who are you people?" the man asked after the surprise and hearing Jon's words.
"We are merely a group trying to do what is right in these dark times." That was the only answer Jon gave.
There were no banners or emblems on them, and the response seemed to surprise them.
In the end, they whispered among themselves, but did not stop the group, despite some complaints and protests about them being dangerous.
Even so, they had come from the county and would not necessarily stay together with the camp. The refugee camp would remain under heavily reinforced guard because of that.
But it did not matter. The group began setting up camp in the middle of the afternoon.
His men showing themselves to be warriors drew quite a bit of attention. Some went to gather firewood, others went fishing in the river as the people did to eat, while the rest stayed guarding the camp and maintaining it and the equipment.
Jon went into the camp itself with Arya and Lancelot while they spoke with the people, listening to stories about the war.
Some had come directly from the battlefront, fleeing after losing everything and trying to go as far north as possible. They found shelter there, so close to Frey lands, which stood at the far north of the Riverlands. Beyond them came the swamps of House Reed, already part of the Kingdom of the North.
There were many children at the place as well, and Arya was soon surrounded by them.
Even Jon noticed the curious looks coming from them.
"Are they knights? Are you a knight too?" they kept asking.
Arya replied that she was far sharper than an ordinary knight, even without holding such a title.
"But you don't look like a knight, women don't know how to fight!"
"Maybe a noble lady!?"
"You're much prettier than any woman I've ever seen!"
"Maybe you found love among these men, perhaps with the knight Jon, you're always with him and you have a guard!"
"She ran away from home! That's it!"
Many children mocked her while also praising her, and Jon merely laughed at that.
In the end, he returned to the camp when night was already falling and the bonfires were being lit.
Despite some strange and even greedy looks, the camp received them well. They were even invited to some bonfires inside the camp, but Jon knew that would not be ideal and they did not even drink alcohol.
In any case, he left the camp at night when he found two children sneaking into the place.
Jon merely raised a hand, and a flame appeared, lighting his torch and finally revealing that he had been there the entire time, outside the camp, frightening them with the sudden fire as he appeared before them.
"You should not be here." The two children turned pale.
"We are war orphans, my lord... please forgive us. Don't cut off our arms," was the first thing one of them said, desperate and regretful.
"Yeah... and I'm also too young to go to the Wall," the other replied quickly. "He was the one who convinced me to come."
Jon observed them, narrowing his eyes. They had not even reached their camp yet, but they already intended to cause trouble.
"Go back to the main camp. This is the last time I will warn you. But, if this is what you want... take this." Jon picked up a bag of apples and threw it to them, leaving them surprised.
"This will be the only and last chance you will have in your lives. Stealing is not the best path. It can truly make you lose a hand or be sent to the Wall. Something I can already see you do not want."
"Yes, my lord!" they answered in unison.
"Then be very careful and do not do this again," Jon said in a harsh tone.
"Forgive us, my lord... it's just that we're starving, no one feeds us in the camp, and they beat us if we do something wrong..." one of the children replied sadly.
Jon sighed. He could understand that. "I can understand. But if you go to the county, there will be food there. Just don't try to steal anything, understood? Today you were lucky, but I can't do anything if you're harming others," Jon said.
As soon as he finished speaking, the two grabbed the bag and ran back toward the camp, quickly disappearing among the tents.
Jon then headed outside. He had a personal mission that night.
He moved far enough away so that no one could observe him, until something came from the sky. Caraxes finally appeared, landing among a group of trees.
"Let's take a ride," Jon said with the bag full of seeds.
Then they soared into the sky, heading toward the county.
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