Chapter 102 - Artican Trade in Westeros 29 (Reach 09!).
[Chapter Size: 2900 Words.]
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Thrid Person POV
Westeros, 295 AC.
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The following day, Jon woke up beside his wife after a long night of partying with their group. He admired seeing the beautiful naked woman next to him. They had shared an intense moment of intimacy when they returned from the banquet, which lasted a few hours, as his pregnant wife had a strong desire, and he needed to satisfy her.
As he woke up, he still felt Seryna's buttocks pressing against his groin again. Jon couldn't resist giving it a light slap, which woke Seryna with the slight provocation.
"Is this how you wake up your wife?" She teased and started gyrating on top of him, seemingly continuing what they had done the night before.
"Jon," she murmured with a tone of desire, as Jon pressed his hand, giving her buttocks a good squeeze. She simply moved closer to him, backing up, and whispered softly: "Put it inside," she pleaded in an excited tone.
"Of course, my queen." Jon, as a good husband, obeyed his wife. Since his lower member was already excited, he positioned himself and started moving, having slow but steady morning sex while she moaned softly.
Both spent an hour with Jon giving Seryna his seed, with satisfaction. "That was so tasty..." she said, pleased with the little love they made.
Jon gave her a few kisses before starting to get dressed, "Let's take a bath before we go have our first meal." He said, and they began to get out of bed, heading to the bathtub in the room.
"Put on something more formal, we're going to have some visitors today as far as I understand..." Jon said, thinking it wise to appear before noble people seeking audiences and that it would be good to talk with some of them.
Jon put on some clothes and began petting his wolf, still lying in the tent. "Come on, buddy, you're going to accompany me today." Jon said, and the wolf nodded, standing taller than Jon while he was standing.
Finally, they decided to leave their room and went to the main tent, where everyone was gathered having their first meal. Jon entered with his wife going to the main table while everyone greeted him as usual, and he sat down with his sister, who was already waiting for him. They started a normal meal with bread and roasted meat with mead.
"Jon, I heard that the archery competition is in a few days. Do you think they will let me enter?" Arya suddenly said, hoping for a chance in the archery tournament, knowing she couldn't enter the joust, she wanted to show her skills.
"Let's see Arya... I'll talk to someone to see if it would be allowed." Jon tried to calm his sister's anxiety.
"It's a shame Ygritte isn't here, he would definitely beat all the southerners," Arya spoke again. Jon couldn't help but agree.
"He definitely would." Seryna also commented with a small smile.
As soon as they finished their meal, a royal guard appeared to speak with Jon. "My king, there are messengers from noble families of the kingdom, wanting an audience with you," he said, and Jon knew it wouldn't take long for this to happen.
"Tell those who want an audience, to come to the camp in 2 hours," Jon asked to notify the messengers, and his guard began to leave.
He turned to the men managing the camp like Ziller, one of the royal guards. "Did you catch all the little thieves from yesterday?" Jon asked, discussing another matter. As expected, there were some theft attempts by people trying to enter the camp, some of whom the Tyrell guards caught, others who passed through the sentinels, being caught by the wargs already waiting for them as soon as they entered the camp, using their animals to detain any of them.
"They were caught and placed in cells waiting for your orders, my king..." Ziller spoke, and Jon thought about what to do with them... Perhaps he would have to talk with the Tyrells later.
After that, they continued the meal quietly until they finished. As soon as the whole camp had eaten, Jon asked for some people responsible for cleaning to organize the whole tent, after all, he had a very important meeting following.
All the leaders reconvened, this time with more wargs present; they had the tent to themselves. "Well, here we are again," Jon said, about 16 hours since the last meeting.
"Let's begin." He spoke again before looking at everyone. "I want to know what you've found out about our neighbors and the people from the noble camps." He had tasked nearly all the wargs in the camp yesterday to pay attention to all the discussions happening there and what people thought of them.
A man then started, "Well, my king... as you know..."
"Stop beating around the bush and just say it!" A grumpy dwarf snapped at the man, who sighed before continuing.
"Our situation here is not very favorable... something you already expected," he said, and continued, "They don't judge us much, like savages."
"They are idiots. We wear far better armor than those poor saps from the south," another dwarf complained immediately.
"The nobles of Westeros are like that," said the minister of foreign affairs, familiar with how arrogant people could be here.
"Anyway, what's their plan?" Jon asked, eager for updates.
"Well, they planned to do the same thing that knight tried to do here: provoke you so you would strike him and they could claim a justified retaliation, after all, they want to profit greatly from us because of our position. They are mainly eyeing your sword, my king, which is made of Valyrian steel," he said.
"That's not news..." Jon nodded, finding such a demand ridiculous. "Let them try then, but I won't be merciful," Jon declared, as he had to prove that he would not be an easy person to meddle with, nor would his people.
The meeting continued, discussing various topics, until John finally went to receive his guests in a specific tent for that purpose.
As the messengers were called, the nobles began to appear at the camp, the first to arrive was none other than Lord Paxter Redwyne, accompanied by a chubby young woman and his eldest children.
"Lord Paxter Redwyne," a man announced at the entrance.
"By his side, his eldest son and heir, Sor Horas Redwyne. Next to him, his twin brother, Ser Hobber Redwyne. His daughter is also present, Desmera Redwyne."
"You are in the presence of the king of Ártica, lord of the lands beyond the Wall," the man maintained the protocol.
Lord Redwyne was used to this but frowned a bit, and his children looked worse, regarding Jon with some disdain in their eyes, while his daughter seemed to look at Jon with a sparkle in her eyes.
"King Jon," he finally said, nodding his head in a respectful greeting, while Jon raised an eyebrow at this. The man was clearly flattering, and the way he seemed eager to present his children, especially how his daughter was looking at him... indicated he wanted something more than just trade.
"Lord Redwyne," Jon greeted him.
They began to converse while the man essentially praised his camp, his men, his military equipment.
"I am very fascinated with all the equipment you have, ahead of any house in Westeros..." He continued, his children seemed eager to speak, but the father was strict as they remained silent.
"King Jon," he began, "I would still like to purchase armor made from your famous Eldenmetal that I've heard about since your adventures in the north... a custom order, I'm willing to pay 50,000 gold coins for one." He said.
Jon knew something like this would happen soon. Although the Dornish were quite fascinated by the greenish metal armor, it's not the type of armor they usually use, as they prefer lighter and more flexible armor, otherwise they would overwhelm Jon with offers to use it as their official armor.
Jon considered this; he could afford to sell one or two armors, after all, his father in the north already had one and Ártica produced this armor quite easily. So it would be good to already secure some allies in this place where most did not look upon them favorably.
"Your offer is not bad, my lord, but I will have to think about it. After all, these armors are exclusive to Ártica, I might consider selling one, and only one, by the end of the tournament," Jon said, and the man seemed quite surprised by that, and thus grateful, now having a chance to acquire such armors.
"Thank you, King of Ártica, if you'll excuse me, I hope to see you in the main hall soon..." He said at the end, and Jon nodded.
"That girl was instructed to seduce you..." Seryna commented, looking at the woman trailing behind her brothers...
"That's going to happen a lot... I hope you'll save me a few times." Jon spoke and Seryna nodded.
After that came the Ambrose family themselves, with an apology for what their knight had done the previous night;
Finally, a middle-aged woman appeared, seeming that Lord Ambrose was debilitated from the melee competition. "Lord Jon, we are very sorry for what happened," a woman spoke.
Seryna looked at Jon, wondering what he would do after being insulted in such a way.
"What happened yesterday..." Jon was going to speak, but suddenly a royal guard entered, visibly angry.
"My lord, that knight from yesterday, he's here demanding a challenge," Jon heard his royal guard, raising an eyebrow and looking at the woman, who shrank back.
"King Jon..." She even changed to referring to him as a king now, "I know nothing about this, it wasn't my intention or the family's, this knight no longer represents the Ambrose family," she said.
Jon looked at her for a moment and sighed. "If he wants a challenge, then he shall have one... if I kill him, I expect no movement from your family, otherwise, forget about future negotiations," He demanded, and the woman, although a bit surprised by that, nodded her head quickly.
Jon stood up and began to walk outside, where many Articans were glaring at the knight, thinking he might demand a fight to the death with the king without going through them.
"My king, let me fight him," one of the royal guards spoke, but Jon put up his hand to stop him.
He continued walking to the front of the camp where the man with his sword was. He stared fiercely at Jon, while Jon maintained a calm demeanor and decided to speak. "You demand a fight with me, but what do you have to offer? After all, I have many men who could fight on my behalf," Jon said, while the woman from the Ambrose family stood behind Jon, a bit worried about the situation.
The man seemed a bit lost for words, but soon growled at Jon: "You're just a coward then, you're not a king."
Then suddenly, a giant began stomping on the ground, raising his massive sword, startling everyone who wasn't Artican, watching the scene. Even the brave knight seemed to stumble as he fell backward, scared when he saw the giant with the size of that sword approaching him ready to kill him.
"Uh, weren't you the brave one just now? I see you've lost your courage to Breaker-of-Rocks," a dwarf snarled, laughing at the man and speaking of the giant's nickname.
Many Articans began to laugh and mock the knight. But Jon raised his hand once more. "Wait," Jon gave the order, and the giant stopped. "It's alright, he has nothing to offer, but if he wants a fight, we'll have a fight," Jon spoke and began to draw Darksister and approached calmly.
The man was even more frustrated by the humiliation he was receiving at that moment. Arya looked on with bright eyes at her brother, as Jon was the man she admired most in the world, and Seryna was no different, trusting that Jon could handle this easily. Indeed, there was no one out there who could beat him, something she trusted unconditionally.
Jon approached the man while everyone backed away. The man stood up, he was in armor, taking off his helmet that was off at this moment, in contrast to Jon who was in casual clothes, but always kept his two swords wherever he would go.
The sound of approaching horses was heard, and Garlan approached with some guards from his house at that moment.
"What's happening here?" he demanded, mainly from his men who were already on the site, still awaiting the Artican camp. The crowd of onlookers from other camps also began to approach and grow.
"Well, this man is here to challenge me, and since he wants a fight, we'll have a fight," Jon spoke, as he finished drawing his sword from the scabbard, the Valyrian steel gleaming against the morning sun. Even Garlan had eyes hypnotized like everyone there, with the rare and beautiful metal.
The man seemed torn between anger and fear but nodded, seeing Jon draw his sword. He finally had his chance to end this boy. His nose was still buried in his face, but that wouldn't stop him from defeating and killing a boy half his age.
"You will pay for everything, since at your age, you shouldn't even be off your mother's teat," he said, while Jon simply stood still, watching him, preparing to start the fight.
Garlan could no longer stop it, although he disapproved of the knight's behavior towards his guest.
Both stood facing each other for a while, Jon waited for him to strike, while the man kept his sword raised and Jon had lowered Darksister, appearing as an insult to the knight, and he reacted accordingly.
He kicked the ground hoping to make Jon regret, but then Jon launched into an attack. He saw the knight coming, but due to his armor, he was certainly very slow. Meanwhile, Jon, even at a disadvantage without his armor, could quickly win without the knight even touching him.
He rapidly accelerated with superhuman bursts that his unique body could provide, and before the knight could react, he had lost sight of Jon while trying to hit him with his sword. When he realized it, his sword was no longer in his hand; after all, the same hand was now flying along with the weapon after being ripped from his wrist.
Jon waited for him to strike and saw an opening, mocking how easy the knight was to handle, then he cut off his hand as he prepared to make an overhead strike, which was easy for Jon to do before the man could react.
"AHHHH" The man screamed, seeing the blood spurting from where his hand should be. If he regretted everything here, it was too late because before he could scream further, Jon simply turned his body and mercilessly removed his head from his neck.
The body fell inert to the ground, while silence took over the area from that moment on, even Garlan looking at Jon with frightened eyes, wondering how Jon could do such a thing with such speed, strength, and movement that he had never seen before, even swallowing dryly, as the knights and soldiers watched, wondering how they could face an opponent of this caliber, which was not very positive in their minds.
"Remove the body from here," Jon simply said and looked at the woman from the family. "Should we burn him, or do you want the body?" he asked sternly, as the woman finally seemed to come out of her daze.
"No, please, he is my grandfather's grandson, he would surely want the body, but do not worry, the family will not ask for retaliation or anything, after all, everyone witnessed that it was a fair fight," she said, not to mention that the man practically sealed his own death sentence as soon as he challenged Jon.
"Good, let's leave all audiences for tomorrow." Jon said, not wanting to see any of those nobles anymore.
Garlan approached Jon at that moment, "Lord Jon," he spoke, "I would like to invite you to the castle, you, your wife, and your sister," he said.
Jon pondered at this moment, but ultimately nodded. "It's fine, Arya, get ready!" He spoke, since Arya was dressed again for training.
"Yes..." She seemed a bit disappointed but nodded in the end, after all, Jon had already told her that she would need to act like a lady here.
Jon and Seryna didn't need to change clothes, as they were already dressed to meet the greatest nobles on this day, "We are ready, lead the way." Jon spoke after a while as he mounted his wolf with Seryna behind him and Arya beside them after she got dressed, with some royal guards accompanying them.
They began to walk to the castle where they would have their first encounters, interacting with the Tyrell family for the first time and so they followed.
'I wonder if we will have any interesting conversation... Olenna Tyrell...' Jon couldn't help but think, maybe he could ask why she looked at him as if he reminded her of someone since she saw him.
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