[Chapter Size: 4800 Words.]
---------------------------------------
Third Person POV
Arctic, 298 AC.
---------------------------------------
Jon had returned to the castle after spending his time with his family, having enough children around him to bring him peace.
There was also his commitment to his dragons, he flew both with Eragon and Vezofēdrur until the end of the day.
In the end, an investigative team interrogated the man who had his entire spine broken by the king just by being thrown against the tree.
And even losing the movement of his legs, nothing would change, after all, the punishment for taking a life is to pay with another life.
The curious thing was only the investigation. In fact, the murderer wanted to marry one of the victim's daughters. Knowing the character of the criminal, the father himself had not accepted.
The girl reported directly to him that she had been pursued, until the moment came when the man had to confront the criminal, saying that if he continued the pursuit, following his daughter, "I will seek the authorities of Ártica."
The criminal, however, believed he could get away with it, until he tried to kidnap her in the way people did outside the walls of Arctic, but the man was beaten with a piece of wood by the father and had to flee.
The father denounced him that very same day and this criminal was already starting to be sought after, but unfortunately, they did not find him in time.
While he was following, trying to hide his face with a cloak, he stabbed the man in the middle of the crowd, wanting revenge for the refusal and the beating he had taken.
Or perhaps he thought it would clear the way to possess the young woman without the father nearby.
A foolish and barbaric crime, without any reasoning, only revenge and pure evil.
This was one of the last men who had come with Mance. Unfortunately, there were some rotten apples among them to the point of thinking there would be no justice within the kingdom's domains.
In the end, he had been executed before nightfall by the Justice Committee that took care of the laws and his trial, and by the force of the city guard, which enforced the laws and punishments.
So after the judge determined his death, a commander executed him publicly in one of the smaller squares with a widow and two inconsolable daughters over the death of their father, and all they could do was watch the man's murderer being executed publicly.
In any case, justice acted quickly enough to execute the man on the same day, with the only longer matter being the motivation for the crime, which the judge wanted to understand.
The king had been called to attend, but he did not participate, preferring to spend his time with his family and his dragons rather than hear more about that man.
Jon, personally, had learned in Winterfell that a man must wield his sword in a trial.
However, as much as he wanted to follow this, he could not do so in the kingdom for all executions.
How could he handle executions in a city with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants?
He would only participate in high-level executions of great importance to the kingdom, not of common murderers within the realm.
In any case, he had not said anything since arriving at the castle, and everyone could see that the king seemed a little irritated, but he tried not to show it with his children, who did not seem to notice it, unlike the women who exchanged glances and saw how the royal guard had stern faces — something had happened.
He only told them after he returned to the castle on Eragon. His wives were a little worried, but he said they were much better.
Jon spent the night with Ygritte and their children, while Lyanna and Brandon demanded that he stay with them.
Jaehaerys also joined, asking to sleep with his siblings and parents, so Rhaenys gave in, staying with her baby that night.
The intimate moment between Jon and Ygritte happened only in the morning, when the children left the room to run to breakfast or to play with Loki, who grew jealous when he discovered that only he, among the older ones, had not spent the night in his father's room.
Jon had prepared everything to begin Joy Hill's rescue with his men, and he asked Jin Sakai to meet him at the port that same morning.
After Ygritte left him following their bath, Jon told her to deal with the children while he had to do what he had left undone yesterday due to all the problems that had happened.
He managed to map Casterly Rock easily through their memories, searching through all the entrances, even the secret ones in the castle.
Jon knew what the castle had been like at that time, but many things could have changed over the course of twenty years.
Joy Hill could be anywhere in Lannisport, and an early investigation would be needed before Jin could act.
That was why he relied on the Wargs in his team to sweep the area with aerial animals before starting the plan.
In any case, he spent the first hours of the morning with his family after finally leaving his room and then decided to go to the port.
He saw Rhaenys testing the new saddles on her dragon, and Daenerys was also there laughing, since they could soon begin flying.
Those two dragons were not the first batch born with Loki and Lyanna, but they were already large enough.
Lyanna's and Loki's were already big enough and could be used for flights, but he would not allow it before the age of eight.
The dragons would be large enough by then to be safer in flight.
At the same time, Jon began to analyze whether the castle courtyard would still be suitable for keeping Eragon and the others.
There was a large space for them, but still limited, even more so with nine children — which meant nine dragons, if each had one.
And that was not exactly the case, after all, Lyanna and Loki had more than one dragon bonded to them, and then there was Jon himself and his Targaryen wives — Daenerys and Rhaenys.
He would have to start building something similar to the Dragonpit of King's Landing.
This was already a project he had put into planning when he started the city, designing it so that the dragons would have their own space outside the castle, just as there were even some landing sites for Jon to use Eragon, such as at the senate itself, in the artisans' district, and other main places of the kingdom.
The very "dragonpit" that Jon wanted to create was an empty land near the castle, in the northern area. It was precisely there that he planned to build gigantic structures, large enough to house the dragons should anyone from the royal family need them, and it would be much closer, without the need to leave the city or even go to the dragon mountain in the south of the kingdom.
"At first, it's strange, but you get used to it." Jon approached Daenerys and Rhaenys, while the others didn't seem to mind his presence so close to them, even with Jon touching the skin of one of the dragons while Daenerys mounted.
It was strange — he might not control the dragons who already had their riders, but certainly none of them behaved with other people the way they did with him. Jon's presence had always been welcome to any animal, in truth.
He even had a strange pair of animals he had brought from Sothoryos, which he called dinosaurs, and released into the forests so they could reproduce, as they were a type of creature that not even the books he had stolen from the Citadel had much information about.
Even the basilisks of Yi-Ti were better known.
Jon called that species Tyrannosaurus Rex, meaning something like Tyrant Lizard, since, in terms of predators in the food chain, only dragons stood above them among the creatures that inhabited Arctic.
The voice of one of his wives broke Jon's line of thought.
"Well, we already have experience riding on Eragon… and even on you, my dragon." Rhaenys said, making Daenerys look at her a little horrified.
Obviously, because of her sexual joke, unheard by anyone else among the three, since no one dared to approach when they were with the dragons.
"I appreciate your consideration, my beloved wife, but you could be more subtle, I'd hate for our children to start hearing sexual teasing between us." Jon said laughing.
"I grew up in Dorne, Jon. I may have been pure and had only one man in my life, but that didn't stop me from hearing how openly sexual my family was, even you would be horrified." She said with a certain boredom as her dragon stepped forward, moving with its wings.
"You're even making our pure Dany blush here." Jon said, smiling at his Valyrian wife. She was a little red at that comment.
"I'm not!" she defended herself.
"She's too innocent to admit that she's riding a dragon about four or five times a week… do you think I don't know that the two of you usually go to the castle roof some nights?" Rhaenys said, seeing Daenerys' enraged look, while she was about to answer but the dragon she was on shifted slightly and unbalanced her.
Rhaenys had started with the provocation. The truth was that Jon had to divide his entire week among all his wives, and even though he spent the night with each one in her room or in his, he still found time whenever he was aroused with one of them.
It was frequent for him to lose a few dozen minutes inside the castle whenever there were no children or royal guards nearby.
"Tsk. And you're in the garden with him, you always call him in the morning!" Daenerys accused.
"As if that were strange, we have to share our dragon with five other women." Rhaenys replied with the same provocative tone.
"I feel flattered that you're fighting over the time you spend with me, but we can leave this for another moment, I don't want these conversations being so open, talking about this in the middle of the courtyard." Jon still said, as Rhaenys had always been more provocative in this regard, even more than Ygritte used to be.
"In any case, today is my turn, so we can discuss it, the three of us tonight." She said in the end.
"Wait, you're inviting me to spend the night with you and our husband?" Daenerys asked.
"Of course, as long as you also let me sleep with you both too. We can live like in the era of Aegon the Conqueror. You could be Visenya, since we have an Aegon and another Rhaenys." Rhaenys teased, while Dany was left speechless.
Jon only sighed. "Well, I can handle you two. Just don't say any of this in front of the children or when others are around." That was all Jon said, as Rhaenys continued provoking. Even when she used other languages, the children had already learned many of them.
"All right, my jorraelza." Rhaenys said in High Valyrian. "Besides, I promise I won't say such things anymore." She finished.
"In any case, be careful, don't let the dragons flap their wings, they might still have trouble keeping flight, even at this size, and you'll end up on the roof of the first house after passing the walls with some miracle." Jon said in a still serious tone.
"Don't worry, jorraelza. We'll be careful, and soon we'll be flying on them. Besides, soon we'll be ready to help you in the war atop our dragons."
Jon pressed his lips together, disliking the idea, while Rhaenys' dragon seemed to approve with a puff of smoke through its nostrils.
The dragons were still far too small for war. He himself had to resort to a colossal dragon like Cannibal to have any chance, since Eragon still had many limitations, even with his powers.
"We'll talk about that. Now I must go to the port. I need to say goodbye to you, my dear wives," Jon said at the end; he would disapprove of them using dragons in war, but he wouldn't argue about it there.
"So we'll see, tonight…" Daenerys said, a little flushed at accepting Jon's invitation.
"It's not as if it's the first time we've slept together… Anyway, see you tonight." Jon left them while he could hear Rhaenys tease Daenerys about the relationship they used to have out at sea when they were returning to Ártica from Yi-Ti. The dragons seemed to roar and make noises all the time because of that.
He walked away while the children, at a distance, watched the dragons and even played with some of them. Their dire wolves were also around, sitting with some children using them to prop their backs, while the wolves themselves kept their tongues out without seeming bothered by the kids, playing and talking among themselves.
Jon headed for the port and found Jin Sakai already waiting for him, while men worked on the ship, fastening heavy chains and breaking some of the ship's planks for that purpose.
Jon approached Jin along with some of the men who would also take part in the mission, but who didn't understand anything of what was happening. The Ártica flag had been replaced by a white one, which was obvious. But they still didn't understand why the thick steel chains were being put in place and were also surprised that it was a ship in the middle of Ártica they would use, how it would go to the other side of the sea, they didn't know.
It was as if they wanted to anchor the ship to something. It wasn't just one: at least eight chains ran from the bow to the stern of the ship.
Jon approached them with the royal guards.
"My king," Jin Sakai said upon seeing him.
Jon looked at the ship first, satisfied. He had entrusted the project to some dwarves and sailors, taking care that they would not destroy the vessel with the force of the chains on the wood. Therefore, those chains were attached even to the ship's main structure, the backbone, or rather, the keel.
Holes had been made in the ship's decking, connecting the chains directly to the central wood, the keel. That would be the firm point of support to carry the whole ship.
Jon turned his attention to the men in front of him. "Lord Sakai, I hope everything is well." he said briefly.
"It is, Your Majesty." he said before returning to the ship with a questioning look. "What are they doing, my king? May I know? Does this have something to do with taking us to the West? After all, there's no doubt this will be the ship used for what we're seeing," Sakai said cautiously, not understanding why the king was doing that.
"Why am I doing this, Jin?" Jon began, making a small pause while smiling. "Because I intend to carry it to the West flying on a dragon."
Jin stared at him in disbelief. "You can't be serious…"
"I'm very serious, Lord Sakai. And don't worry. I believe it will be safe. It's the only way to take you to the West. After all, the North is dangerous, with the dead walking in large numbers close to us.
Besides, Vezofēdrur would not accept anyone riding on his back but me. Not even my children and my wives, despite being Targaryen, could manage it. That's why we must proceed this way. You'll have a complete ship on the western sea," Jon replied.
Jin seemed to grimace. They would be flying through the sky inside a ship while a dragon carried them westward. If the sea was already bad, imagine being bound by chains to a dragon in the sky… The idea was terrifying.
"You've always had absurd ideas since I first met you, my king," Jin muttered. Despite that, some of the men nearby grimaced at the comment, while Jon remembered the war against the Mongols.
Jon's decisions, his strategies… often very different from what a general would consider. But he managed to execute them all and succeed, achieving exactly the result he sought, no matter how exaggerated Jon's idea and mind might seem.
There was no doubt: Jon often had ideas that went against logic — at least Jin Sakai's logic, and that of others. When Lord Shimura was rescued and joined the battle alongside Jon, he himself witnessed many of those bold decisions. Still, he couldn't deny that he had been saved precisely because of Jon — and also because of Jin.
Jon was in command, a position earned and given by the shogun himself, and all obeyed. In the end, they proved that Jon's "crazy" ideas were, in fact, ingenious.
He had unique abilities: controlling animals, observing the battlefield, and crafting advantageous strategies that resulted in crushing victories, almost without losses.
He had experiences beyond his personal army in Yi-Ti being trained well enough to strike down forces much larger than theirs. Jon knew Yi-Ti very well, even its strategies, so much so that the army led by samurai followed his plans — something always bizarre, given that Jon was a foreigner, yet able to lead them all effectively.
One example was when Jon made the army march through an entire night. All so that within two days, they would find their enemies in a much more favorable position — one that surprised them, since the strategic area sloped to their advantage and against the Mongols, where even outnumbered they still had the upper hand.
By holding the high ground, they required less effort to face the enemy.
He also sought out enemy leaders — and did so with ease, always leaving the foes without proper command, giving way to chaos, unable to hold their positions.
Jon would often dismantle the order of an entire enemy force, or else deceive his opponents into believing they were advancing at one point, when in truth the attack would come from another.
He used birds, horses, basilisks — everything to his advantage, seeming to know the land of Yi-Ti better than the samurai themselves.
The enemies didn't even stand a chance. It was no wonder he had become a legendary figure among the people when he left Yi-Ti with the princess, even after only a small war of six moons. That was why Jin decided to leave everything behind in Yi-Ti. His fame as the "Ghost" was not something good for him among the samurai. When Jon invited him to Ártica, he accepted, trusting the man who had brought so many victories.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Jin Sakai still hadn't finished his reasoning, and he kept a look of recognition and admiration fixed on Jon.
"…If you believe this will work, my king, I have no choice but to believe in you. I hope I didn't offend you," Jin said at the end of his speech, after practically calling Jon's idea insane.
Jon only smiled and laughed. "No offense, Lord Sakai. In any case, we'll start with a test this afternoon. I just want you to prepare your men. I'll take care of transportation and run a test without crew on the ship this afternoon."
Jon spoke and turned to one of the men responsible for the organization of the port, who was there when he discovered that the king was speaking with one of the army's men about something important.
"Hello, Danro. Since you're here, I need you to clear part of the port. After all, my dragon is quite large and he needs 150 meters to land without breaking anything in the harbor. Can you do that?"
"Of course, my king! We'll do it!" the man said.
The port was full of ships, as the entire fleet was docked at that moment, none of them able to leave. Even the production of new vessels had stopped under the dwarves. Arctic was completely closed. The ships bringing Arya would be their last.
"When will we depart?" Jin Sakai asked.
"Tomorrow afternoon," Jon said.
"All right, I'll be ready."
Jon watched him leave after handing over the scroll with the maps of the Lannister region and the one he had created through green vision earlier that morning. Then he stayed behind to organize the matter of transportation with his dragon. He needed to test if it was truly safe, loading the ship with weight equivalent to the goods they would carry.
After all, Jin Sakai and his men would pass as merchants traveling from the North to the South, selling their products, until they stopped in Lannisport to then invade Casterly Rock.
Jon's only role was to aid them with the map of the Lannister fortress and also to carry the ship to the West.
After that, he left the men to finish fastening the steel chains firmly around the vessel and went on to the Senate.
There he found the Minister of Coin, Gavron, who awaited him for the meeting with the king. Some letters had arrived from the Free Cities, sent by birds that his men had stationed for communication with the people of Essos. Also present were the Minister of Trade, Junly, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Darius, all waiting for the king to sit down.
"Tell me, gentlemen, how are our clients in Braavos?" Jon said calmly, as he picked up a cup of wine and took a sip.
There was not yet an official cupbearer for the most important meetings concerning the kingdom, not that Jon complained about it. He intended to make Loki the cupbearer when he was of proper age, after all, he would be attending the kingdom's councils.
It would be appropriate for him to start learning early, and everyone expected that he would be Jon's heir, even though Jon had placed some conditions for the next king of Arctic to assume after him. Still, Loki was always the most expected choice, being the eldest. Jon also saw that destiny for the boy, but only in a few years. Until then, he would have to learn much before dealing with political situations.
"Well, I can't say much, Myr and Tyrosh want to send a representative to Arctic. Braavos is upset, demanding that we give them an explanation in person. They don't believe we are in a closed war against the White Walkers. Personally, I can't blame them for that," said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, opening a letter and placing it on the table.
Jon listened to that in silence, took another sip of wine, and set the cup down on the table. He took the letter with his other hand and read it with a cold look.
"Let them think what they will. They don't live in the North to understand the horrors that exist here. In any case, they will have our products when the war is over." He sighed and turned back to his men.
"I know what you must be thinking: why shouldn't we have started trade with them only after the war," Jon began.
"No, my king. We understand, and we have already discussed it. After all, it was all of us who decided together with you to begin trade before the war against the White Walkers," said the Minister of Coin with a perceptive tone.
"I know. And you must always remember why we opened this trade. After all, our clients will be very angry with us in the coming moons, or even years, depending on how long the war lasts."
Arctic had many points of resource scarcity. To begin with, adopting the concept of exchange and currency value with the people of Arctic itself was fundamental. And, at the same time, initiating contact with the outside world to the south. This had brought much success: the warehouses were filled with sand, a resource impossible to easily find north of the Wall. Sand had become a fundamental raw material for various types of creations used by the kingdom.
Now they also had a mounted army, thanks to the horses brought both from the Reach and purchased in Essos.
The livestock was also a good acquisition, released into the forests to create a self-sustaining environment, useful both for the direwolves and for the bears and shadowcats — the latter two being used as mounts by the warg-skilled warriors of the kingdom.
Meat, abundant, had become a common meal in the families of Arctic, thanks to the accelerated production developed by Jon, who had genetically modified many animals.
People no longer needed to be limited by the demands of farms. Even so, the production of bread and cakes was quite popular among the families of the kingdom, especially with the significant number of recipes Jon had brought from various places through the green vision, as well as books he had purchased during his travels and later distributed after making copies.
Arctic had everything to prosper at that moment as the greatest kingdom in the world, and the only real obstacle was the dead.
In any case, Jon listened in silence to the letters of the outraged merchants. After all, beyond the need for their products, they had also profited exorbitantly by reselling them — as long as it was at the price set by Arctic, they became even richer than in most of their other businesses; even slavery was less profitable than reselling ice to the people of Essos.
Jon did not choose only lords from his cities as his merchants, but also people who demonstrated the ability to manage the ice trade. The more they sold, the more everyone profited. And ice was an inexhaustible resource north of the Wall.
"In any case, I only worry about one thing," Jon said at the end of the meeting. "That they begin sending ships here in search of answers and learn what is happening."
"My king, I don't think we can control that. It's not something we should worry about," replied the Minister of Trade. "After all, everything outside Arctic's walls will be in danger. I already foresee many fools coming to a place where the temperature is completely different from their lands and being attacked by zombies grabbing onto their ships. If they enter the canal that connects the city, they're fucked."
"Well, you're right about that. In any case, this meeting is over. Now I need to take care of a few things," Jon said in closing.
After briefly bidding farewell to his ministers, he went again to the port, where the area he had asked to be cleared was free. With a mental command, a huge dragon appeared in the sky above the city, casting a shadow that hid the sun as it advanced toward him.
The space was used to store goods from ships before loading and unloading tons of products. It was large enough to receive the dragon. As Jon had ordered no one to remain in the area, everyone had already withdrawn, with city guards preventing anyone from approaching.
The dragon landed on the edge of the port, its wings shaking even the most distant ships. Cries of horror echoed among the Arctic people, who recoiled in fear. Some, braver, approached with curiosity. Jon simply ordered that they place the ship prepared with chains in the designated spot.
There was a special saddle, and Jon had placed it once more the day before, fastening belts side by side around the dragon's belly, securing the chains to steel rings fixed to the saddle. Everything had been carefully adjusted to withstand the weight.
"Let's see if you can pull this one," Jon said.
The dragon began flapping its wings with greater force. The chains tightened, and the ship was lifted. All the people at the port watched, astonished, as the dragon raised the vessel into the air, climbing higher and higher and flying off in a random direction. It was only a test, to see if it could truly carry it all the way to the West.
Compared to the dragon, the ship was only a tenth of its size. Besides, it was light, without cargo, and not one of the large freight ships, but rather a smaller one, chosen precisely to maintain the appearance of a common merchant with a reduced crew.
Jon flew for the next few hours and was satisfied when he set the ship down again at the port. Then he wrote another letter to Jin with an update on the plan and ordered that everyone prepare with whatever was necessary for the next day, when they would depart.
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
🦝 Raccoon here: 🦝
I deeply appreciate your support since the beginning of this exciting journey!
I hope each chapter has provided incredible moments. If you like my work and would like to support the continuation of this fanfic, consider becoming a patron with plans starting at $2!. As a token of gratitude, I offer access to more than 210 extra chapters with 7 active fanfics at the same time, along with other exclusive benefits on my profile, such as images and significant decisions for the stories.
Even if you are not a patron, I am making chapters available a few hours earlier here, so become a free member on the platform!
🌟 RaccoonLeague | Patreon🌟
Visit our Patreon for more: https://www.patreon.com/RaccoonLeague
Extra Content Already Available:
🏴☠️ One Piece - I Am a Different Luffy!: 30 extra chapters!
👑 Game of Thrones: The Legend of Jon Arctic!: 30 extra chapters!
🌀 Naruto - Minato Namikaze SI!: 30 extra chapters!
🗡️ The Witcher - As Uchiha Madara! 30 extra chapters!
⚡ Harry Potter - Shadow Monarch! 30 extra chapters!
👑 Game of Thrones: DragonBorn! 30 extra chapters!
Except for One Piece with daily chapters and DragonBorn once a week, all fanfics are updated 3 times a week, there's just a pause in updating in the week, only to create drafts for the week's chapters.
In addition to the extra chapters, daily chapters are posted and 25 chapters per week!
Your support is very important and makes all the difference in keeping these stories alive.
Thank you very much for being part of this journey! I hope you continue to enjoy the story and that it brings even more joy to your life!
Visit our Patreon for more!!
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆