CHAPTER 33

283 ac

Teaching birds how to count was a bit challenging, but Poe learned more quickly. While teaching her, I remembered we teach kids to count their fingers, so I made her count her claws; now, she can count to 8. It is a good step, but Erebus is the problem, and he still needs to understand the concept of counting.

-AHHH, Stupid Aermir, the stone is stone, and claw is claw. Go away, and I don't want this counting thingy. –

-Erebus is the stupid, daddy can count, and I can count, NANA NANA NA NA, Erebus can't count, Erebus can't count. It started chasing after Poe, but she was faster than him, and in the end, he couldn't catch her. I feel like a kindergarten teacher.

-Poe, you shouldn't make fun of Erebus; even though he has muscles as a brain, you still shouldn't make fun of your brother.-

-You are the muscle brain; both of you are the muscle brain. Hmph, at least Erebus is not ugly like Aermir.-

it is just like humans; just as no two people are the same, two familiars are different too, even if they are from the same species. It looks like Poe is the brain, and Erebus is the muscle in this duo. I tried a bit more to teach him to count, but for now, I couldn't make progress, so I gave up.

POV RODRİK

This boy is always making me nervous; why is he insisting on going out of the castle so much? I don't understand it at all. The outside world is perilous for nine years old, yes nobody in their right mind is going to take a nine years old boy seriously when doing banditry, so he will be ignored, or he could even kill them if they underestimate him in a fight, even though he promised he would run at the sight of danger, I'm still nervous. Should I put some tail on him?

My worries don’t end even when he is inside the castle too. I thought Wyland would beat him and break some of his arrogance, but he got beaten so truly, even now, I'm in awe. I hope Mander wouldn't try some idiotic shit just because the boy is a commoner, and it is not helping all the other Household guards who are making fun of the Flant boys. Mander is a prideful man; I don't think he can take much of this ridicule. Being a household guard doesn't mean we are petty guards. It means we are in control of at the very least 100 soldiers, and since Mander is the commander of the holdfast right outside of Winterfell, 200 soldiers are under his command.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Rodrik… Rodrik!"

"I'm sorry, my lord; I didn't hear you coming in." I got out of my chair in a hurry and didn't even hear or realize the door had opened.

"Why are you in such deep thought?"

"I'm sorry, my lord; I was thinking about our little friend and all the things he was doing."

"What do you mean?"

"Household guards are making fun of Mander a bit too much, my lord; I’m afraid he will do something stupid."

"Don't worry. I already made it perfectly clear to Mollen and him what the boy means to me."

" I do not understand, my lord. Two years ago, didn't you only give the boys only a slap on the wrist for their crime?"

" Yes, that is true, but you do not punish a son in front of his father if you don't want the father to hate you all his life; if you can help it, of course. After that, you punish the father privately for their son's crime. This way, they save their face by not being humiliated in front of others, but they will know that they will be punished if they don't control their sons or themselves. I made it perfectly clear to them that it will be black or iron if they get involved in the children's fight."

" I didn't know that, my lord."

"Because you didn't need to know that, Rodrik, that is why. The only reason you know now is I need you to nudge the other squires against Aermir a bit; I want them to compete with him. This way, we can use both blades to sharpen each other. If Aermir gets broken, it means we overestimated him, and if he breaks the other squires, we might be losing around 20 potential knights, but we will be getting one more precious than all of them combined."

"I don't understand, my lord. Didn’t you want Aermir to have a good relationship with the minor nobles? "

"Yes and no, I want him to have an amicable relationship with them if possible, but it is more critical for the next generation of knights to respect him or, at worst, fear him than having an amicable relationship with him. Fear or respect, both is acceptable to me in the case of Aermir. "

"But my lord, if the knights respect or fear him that much, wouldn't it threaten Lord Robb's authority in the future."

"It will not because around 10 or 15 years, there will most definitely be a new bannerman of House Stark, House Drasil. He doesn't want to rule, of course; he wants to be at the top, but not because he is hungry for authority and power. He just wants to be left alone. I have never seen a commoner loves his freedom this much, as long as Robb understands it and keeps his childhood relationship with him. I don't think Aermir would mind being the biggest shield and sword of the north."

" I hope you are right, my lord; he might have the naiveté of childhood right now, but I don't think in the world exist a man that can resist the constant allure of power."

"HAHAHAHAH, you are underestimating the power of House Stark. He might have charisma, power, and some of the knights might stand with him, but the second he stands against House Stark, he will lose all of his support. Northmen live and die honorably, and none of the northern lords will plot against their sworn lord. Actually, Boltons might do it, but I don't think they have the guts for it."