Chapter 17
İ thought everything was over when one of them confessed but i was being naive.
One of the fathers said “ He might not have ambushed them but it is a fact that he is not a squire yet, he is just a commoner recruit and he assaulted noble born squires. This can’t go unpunished. We will punish the children for their lie my lord. He needs to be punished too. Law says the punishment for assaulting a noble is 10 flogging at the least.”
Rodrik become as red as a tomato and started shouting at the fathers again “ Assault is a crime punished by flogging. But lying to the lord is not. Which one is the bigger one. Lying to lord is basically betrayal and it is punishable by death. Should we cut their heads.” All of the children’s faces become pale as ash. They started to turn and looked at their father with a face full of terror.
Steward of Winterfell Vayon Poole come close to the lord then said “My lord I think the children shouldn’t witness the rest of the argument. Should we take them out of the solar.”
Lord Stark looked at the frightened children and said“ Yes let them wait outside"
Right as we were leaving the room one of the fathers started shouting at Rodrik
POV NED STARK
“ How dare you call our children traitors.”
“No, how dare you… You are trying to kill a child just because he is more talented then all of your children combined. Can you not look beyond your selfish needs can you not see if we train hım right , we will be having the next Arthur Dayne serve house Stark. My lord if we are not punishing the other children then we can't punish him too.”
It is such mess. Aermir acts so mature most of the time, I m forgetting he is only 6 years old. Why did he have to fight them, he should have run or bow down to not give them a reason until he has the power to stand by himself. İ don’t want to punish any of the children but if I don’t punish him the minor nobles would be discontent. If I only punish him, nobles like Rodrik would be discontent. So I have to punish both of the sides but have to make it look like Aermir is getting a harsher punishment.
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I get up from my chair and say “ I have decided on their punishment.”
“Their? My lord you mean all of them going to be punished.”
“Yes, it is a matter of fact that Aermir attacked noble born but it is also a fact your children lied to me under oath and they are the ones assaulted him with the intent to maim. I m going to be lenient, because all of them are so young. This is my punishment for them. They are to be hold in house arrest for the next month. As for the commoner Aermir Drasil he will be punished the same but with one difference he will only gets 2 meals a day consisting of bread and water nothing else.”
Some of them look a bit discontent but they are nodding their head like they are trying to make themselves believe this is what they wanted. “Now I want everyone but Rodrik to go back to their post. You are dismissed.” I turn to the guard at the door and said “ Call Aermir inside.”
POV MC
When the guard called I walked inside and the nobles were getting out of the solar and they were smirking at me. It looks like they got what they wanted.
I stood in front of the lord’s table, Rodrik was standing right next to the table. Lord said “Do you know what you did wrong?”
“I do not my lord, all I did was defend myself.”
“No, you didn’t defend yourself, if you did you would have retreated after defending.”
“My lord they were trying to break my arms, I couldn’t just stand there and take the beating.”
“Nobody expecting you to take the beating, but I thought you were smarter but it looks like you are not that smart.” He strikes the table with his hand and stands up then starts shouting at me “You are not a squire yet, you are not their equal don’t you know that. You cannot in no circumstances hit a noble. It looks like I spoiled you because of your talent and forgot your age”
This is one of the bad parts of this world. I sometimes forget this world has aristocracy. I m so angry because I m about to get a punishment I don’t deserve in my mind but to every other noble I most likely do.
“For a month you are going to be in house arrest. You will not leave your room and you are only going to get 2 meals a day consisting of bread and water. Now go and think about what you did wrong.”
I was squeezing my fists so hard I think my nails broke the skin in my palms. I was so angry not at the lord or someone else. I was mad at myself. I m to weak, I will show all of them. I m going to climb to the highest peak I can climb.
POV NED STARK
“Rodrik”
“Yes my lord.”
“How good are the other six in their age group?”
“I would say top 10, my lord.”
“HAHAHAH, a six years old beating living shit out of six ten years old squire that were training around 4 to 5 year. HAHAHAH… Rodrik, I really can't wait to see what he is going to do in the next 10 year. I really want to see it. Rodrik, I m trusting you with this child don’t screw it up and what was the name of that maid took care of Aermir when his mother died.”
“I believe she is called Brise, my lord.”
“Summon her right now.”