As for the reason behind this obviously strange atmosphere, Jon could roughly guess it after retracing the timeline. It likely stemmed from the incident with Bran.
Only the Seven know what exactly transpired during that time.
Fortunately, a rift between those two wasn't necessarily a bad thing for Jon.
However, the next day, before Jon could wake up naturally, he was startled awake by a noisy commotion.
Crawling out of his tent, he realized it was already noon.
Staring at the haggard but handsome face in the mirror, Jon made a firm resolution: starting tomorrow—he was quitting drinking!
Then, he prepared to turn back into his tent to catch up on sleep. But just then, he heard officers instructing the Gold Cloaks and soldiers to go out and search for someone.
The target of their search was named Arya, a wild little girl of about twelve.
When these elements combined, Jon's drowsiness vanished instantly. Although he didn't invest much emotion in the other members of House Stark, treating them merely as ordinary siblings, he couldn't help but worry about this wild girl who always stuck to him.
In contrast to others, she had never treated him as a bastard or an outsider, consistently insisting on calling him "Brother Snow."
It wasn't until this moment that Jon suddenly startled awake; he seemed to have missed a crucial plot point.
So, when Jon rushed out of the camp, he had already donned his chainmail and weapons, and he even brought an extra warhorse.
Although in the original timeline only a direwolf suffered, the seeds of evil had been planted deep.
Moreover, even Jon himself didn't know if his conflict with Joffrey last night would further exacerbate the conflict between the Wolf and the Lion, eventually spiraling out of control to affect him.
So after rushing into the forest and finding Arya first, Jon hurried towards Duke Ned while not forgetting to instruct the girl on a few points.
"Listen, Arya, when you see the King, you must do exactly as I say!"
His words obviously made Arya, who was on horseback, a bit worried.
"Brother Jon, if we go back like this, will it cause unnecessary trouble?"
However, the answer Snow gave was full of confidence, "Don't worry, leave everything to me!"
After that, before they could find the Warden of the North, they were surrounded by Red Cloaks.
Apart from passing a message to the Gold Cloaks hoping they would notify the Duke, Jon could only follow the main force to the King's tent.
The subsequent events fast-forwarded to the confrontation before the throne and Robert's decision. Because of Jon's instructions, Arya didn't lose her reason as usual. Instead, she narrated the whole story in detail.
She especially emphasized how the Crown Prince provoked the incident and brutally abused commoners with force.
However, hearing this account, Joffrey, who was originally confident, instantly jumped up, snatched a longsword from a guard, and charged at Arya.
But when he saw the figure standing beside the wild girl, the corners of his originally furious mouth trembled slightly. Then, whimpering like a puppy, he fled the room.
In view of this, Robert, having lost significant face, had no interest in continuing to uphold justice. He immediately pulled up Ned, who had rushed back, intending to go drinking.
But before the brothers could get up, Queen Cersei, who could no longer endure it, stood up.
"Robert! Damn it, you can treat me however you want, but Joffrey is your son! He almost had his throat torn out by that damned direwolf!"
Hearing this, Arya wanted to defend herself, but Jon held her back.
Clearly, failing to achieve her expected goal, Cersei was ready to take it out on someone. If she couldn't punish the person, killing the little wolf would have to suffice to vent her anger.
At this point, even Robert didn't think there was any problem with this disposal. He allowed the Queen to issue the order and sent Ser Ilyn Payne to handle it.
Seeing this situation, Jon immediately stepped forward quickly, placing one hand on his chest and facing Cersei.
"Your Grace, how can such a trivial matter trouble the King's Justice? Let me, a humble bastard, handle it."
No one knows what happened after that, except that an extra grey pelt appeared on the Queen's bed, and Princess Sansa, after crying bitterly, received an absurdly large black dog as comfort.
---
Another full week passed before the King's retinue finally returned to King's Landing after more than two months.
As more and more merchants and travelers appeared on the Kingsroad, Jon finally saw the outline of a city at the furthest end of his vision.
The winding city walls were like a giant python, coiling around the periphery of this sprawling, complex city.
Towering and heavy, built of huge square stones, they were dark grey in color, weathered by wind, frost, rain, snow, and the baptism of swords and halberds.
On the battlements, armored guards holding spears could be faintly seen, moving slowly like tiny, reflective metal beetles.
Those huge city gates—the Lion Gate, the Mud Gate, the Gate of the Gods—were like the giant maws of the city, swallowing and spitting out streams of people, goods, conspiracies, and the scent of death day and night.
At the foot of the city, Blackwater Bay was like a broad, muddy silver ribbon, or a giant serpent covered in scales, shimmering with a greasy luster under the sunlight.
Masts stood like a forest on the sea, and ships were packed densely—from magnificent warships and tall-masted merchant vessels to filthy little fishing boats—crowding the harbor like floating fallen leaves.
A faint but continuous clamor drifted from the dock area: the chant of sailors, the collision of cargo, and the piercing cries of seagulls, mixed with the salty sea breeze, the rot of the fish market, and the foul smell of the city itself.
Even on the hillside miles away, one could almost vaguely smell that complex and suffocating "scent of King's Landing."
The continuous grey houses were its flesh, the winding walls were its bones, while the towering Red Keep and the shining Great Sept were its cold heart and dazzling crown.
Gazing at King's Landing from afar, what Jon saw was not just a city, but a massive, noisy furnace of power filled with desire, ready to erupt with fire or bleed water at any moment.
With every breath, he seemed to feel the scent of blood and rust, faintly drifting from the Iron Throne, mixed in the salty wind of Blackwater Bay.
Putting aside the transmigrator's inherent prejudice against Westeros, this was the first time Jon had seen a so-called true city, unlike Winterfell, which was essentially just a settlement expanded around a castle.
From the layout of King's Landing, it wasn't hard for Jon to see that at its inception, this city might have abandoned the function of a defensive fortress and was truly developed towards a large-scale metropolis.