Chapter 10: The Champion of the Day

The fifth and final day of the joust was a thrilling experience for the audience. The finest knights from around the Realm gathered to show their mettle, and the event culminated with eight contestants who would face off till only one champion emerged.

The first joust of the day was between SER Barristan Selmy and SER Merlon Manderly, the two knights faced each other on their horses wearing their resplendent armors and holding their lances waiting for the start, as soon as the horn sounded they launched like raging bulls towards each other only for both of their lances to break with contact, and for the few following moments it was an enchanting back and forth that entrapped the audience in a song of galloping horses and broken lances and shields that ended with SER Merlon on his back ending the joust and making the audience go wild with clapping and cheering, and in a show of sportsmanship, SER Barristan helped SER Merlon to his feet while smiling at each other.

After SER Barristan headed for his tent to rest for his next match, the next two contestants, SER Tybolt Crakehall and Prince Lewyn Martell, entered the jousting field, and after seven tilts, SER Tybolt was unhorsed, and much like the previous joust, this one was amazing.

The third joust was between SER Tyland Lefford and SER Yohn Royce, and it ended in Yohn Royce's victory. His bronze armor was intriguing because I felt a faint trace of magic emanating from it. It appeared that the rumors of his family's experience in inscribing First Men Runes were not mere rumors after all, but I needed to personally inspect them to verify their authenticity.

The fourth joust was between SER Tyland Lefford and SER Alenn Crobray, and it was a resounding victory for the Westerlander, proving yet again the irrelevance of jousting in proving someone's martial capabilities, as SER Tyland showed in the melee what a fine Knight and a warrior he is.

After the lunch break, the participants in the semi-finals paraded around the jousting ground carrying their heraldry, which worked as a way to show the prestige of the Houses they represented.

The first two contestants were SER Barristan and Prince Lewyn and man was it an intense competition, but after a grueling ten tilts, SER Barristan proved to be the better jouster and unhorsed Prince Lewyn from his fine sand steed, which looked like an Arabian Horse from my previous world.

The next match of the semi-finals was between SER Yohn and SER Alenn, two Valemen, yet again proving that the legendary reputation of the Vale Knights was not unearned but a hard-cold fact. Simply put, their joust was the most fascinating of them all, which impressed even me and made cousin Steffon who was sitting beside me in the Royal Box, jump like a five-name-days-old kid. The joust ended only after eleven tilts, a number that was rare to be reached in tourneys and that went in favor of SER Yohn.

The two finalists were given time until the evening to rest for the final joust, a time that was used by Nobles to mingle and discuss the chances of each contestant winning while each placed their bets on their favorite. The betting pool was run by a steward who was arranged by Lord Marbrand upon my suggestion to make more revenue to cover the tourney expanses.

Sitting at the Royal Box with my Family were the Baratheons and the Starks, as we followed the same order of the swearing ceremony to determine who would sit with the royal family each day, and with Lord Ormund being the Hand of the King, he sat with us along with his family.

The Starks were honestly the most interesting of the Great Houses, as they were not only the oldest Dynasty in the Known World but also the only ruling family in writing history that was known for never breaking an Oath, whether that of a friendship, lordship, or even their most recent oath, which a vassal-ship to my House, their rich history and the legendary figures they produced especially in times of crises proved to be a most intriguing subject to speak of with Rickard, Lord Edwyle Stark was like most of the Northmen a hardy dutiful and disciplined man, his face most of the time was like it was carved from ice, which appears to be a trait amongst the Stark Lords and Kings in commonly known in the North, and after probing proved the result of training in mind arts, where I found it hard to penetrate his mental shields without risking him sensing it, something that made his mind safe from anyone but the most able masters of mind arts.

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The thing that further raised my opinion of House Stark. This is the first sign of a disciplined practice of magic that I have found since I arrived in this World.

Many people here showed the raw magical capacity that Wizard Children showed in My previous World, but none showed any signs of control, including my family, with the Starks by far showing the biggest reserve of raw magic of all, which dwarfed even my family and the Baratheons who showed magic with a storm-like feeling.

The Starks, aside from their apparent practice of mind arts, further emanated an aura of nature that my druidic magic seemed to resonate strongly with, as well as an icy aura that appeared to be able to calm the fire magic inside me without a need for my fine control.

All of those signs cemented my decision to choose my bride from House Stark. Luckily for me, they have two unmarried women of age, Lyarra Stark and Branda Stark, both of whom were the daughters of Rodrick Stark, the uncle of Lord Edwyle Stark. And from my interaction with Rickard, who has become my new favorite friend, I found out he had a crush on his cousin Lyarra when they were children, which may make him choose her as a bride, something that I don't have a problem with, as I don't have any preference as to which sister I will choose to marry. Both of them showed strong personalities and sharp minds, as well as comely faces.

I tried to talk Rickard into considering courting another bride, making sure to point out his House's need for making alliances outside the North to bring in more trade, something that would make procuring food for their people cheaper and easier.

My idea was for Rickard to propose to Joanna Lannister, Tywin's cousin, a marriage alliance that would provide his House with more gold and would open for them the door for more connections in the South, and for either Lyarra or Branda to marry Tywin Lannister, thus connecting two Great Houses I intend to build strong relationships with. And for that to happen, I needed to convince Tywin of the merits of allying with the same House that I chose to form my marital alliance with, something I managed to do with difficulty the other day after I made sure that Tytos Lannister wouldn't be able to cause any catastrophe while he stayed in the capital by heavily relying on Confundus charm.

All that remained was to talk both Rickard and Lord Edwyle into my idea when we meet in my Solar tomorrow, and from their positive reaction to the efforts I put into securing them great deals on food imports from the northern Reacher and western Riverlander Lords, I found my chances to convince them to be increasingly good.

*****

In the evening, after a well-needed rest, both contestants emerged from their tents, followed by their squires, who were holding the reins of their horses. Both knights easily took their positions and mounted their horses, waiting for the horn to blow.

(SER Barristan Selmy POV)

I took a deep breath to calm my raging heartbeat as I shifted to make myself comfortable on the saddle of my horse, waiting to hear the sound that would announce the start of the joust. As soon as I lowered the visor of my helmet, I heard the sound of the horn. I nudged my horse, and it started galloping. And I put my whole focus on my opponent. I raised my shield, pointed my lance toward him, and braced for impact.

His lance impacted my shield with a thud, and I felt my whole body shake from the force of the hit, but I steadied myself and pushed my lance, only for it to break from the pressure.

(SER Yohn Royce POV)

I changed my lance after the sixth tilt and started heading toward my opponent with the determination to end the joust with this last tilt. As I faced my opponent, I felt my posture correct itself from all the training I had, and I positioned my lance to strike his left shoulder and pressed hard till impact, where SER Barristan flew away from his horse and hit the ground with a resounding thud, declaring the end of this event with my victory.

(General POV)

•• AND THE CHAMPION IS SER YOHN ROYCE THE BRONZE ••

There was a moment of silence, and then the audience exploded with a celebration in honor of the winner, as men, women and children, Nobles, and Small folk from all around the seven Kingdoms cheered for SER Yohn, and then he went to receive the crown of roses and headed back to stands to choose his queen of love and beauty, and he went to where to Nobles of the Riverlands were sitting and ended in front of the stand of House Darry as he looked to Lady Alyssane the sister of Lord Darry and said: "My Lady, I am honored to crown you my queen of love and beauty" and raised the crown on top of his victory lance to the Lady who took it with trembling hands and put atop her head that was going to explode from blushing a storm, and the crowd once again exploded with cheers for the champion and his queen.

(Prince Aerys Targaryen's POV)

I watched with a smile on my face as the champion of this jousting competition was crowned his betrothed as his queen of love and beauty, while Steffon was destroying all of those present in the Royal Box's eardrums with his thunderous voice as he was cheering for SER Yohn. I turned to Rickard and said with a polite smile, "I apologize in place of my cousin, he is a child at heart, but the voice of a storm", Rickard gave a hearty smile and said, "You don't have to apologize, Your Grace, with how boisterous the Umbers are, we are used to such a booming voice", and we both laughed at this while the rest of the booth was all smiles at the spectacle.

Steffon had the grace to smile sheepishly as he scratched the back of his neck and said, "You know how excited I get when I see a good jousting, cousin", I had a wolfish smile as I said to him "Both of the finalists were your age, cousin, you could've always participated in the joust yourself and showed us your might".

Aunt Rhaelle looked at me pointedly and said "Hush now, nephew, you know very well that Steffon is not good at jousting, stop putting funny ideas in his head", and we again had a good laugh at cousin Steffon's expanse, while he was twisting his face funnily at his mother for further embarrassing him in front of all the people present in the Royal Box, while both my father and good-uncle Ormund were smiling contentedly at the spectacle.