Dozens of pairs of eyes widened so much it seemed they might fall out any moment. Most of those present at the meeting had only heard of the power of Dumbledore and Grindelwald's wizards, much like soldiers who sat through the battle of bastards were in another room, where all the wars available to the North were located. Only a few had seen Dumbledore and Grindelwald previously destroy an army, but to many, the ability to change the weather was far more impressive than killing an army.
Seeing the fire in the sky gradually dissipate, people began to step outside. Surveying and confirming that the blizzard had indeed ended, they turned their gaze to the wizards. They had already noticed a new wizard, clearly younger than Gellert and Dumbledore by a couple of decades, but worthy to stand with them on equal footing in this battle with nature, signifying his exceptional stature.
As people began to slowly move towards the wizards, they noticed the head of a familiar figure quickly emerging from the portal. It was Jon Snow! Seeing their king, many of the vassals subconsciously quickened their pace.
A strange scene unfolded, a couple of people surrounded Sansa, who walked slowly, while dozens of vassals headed towards Jon. This situation was noticed by Asmodeus, and he smiled imperceptibly to himself, thinking, 'So it should be... the more insignificant you are, the less reason I have to get rid of you.'
In his calculations, Asmodeus had initially planned to get rid of Sansa - the little girl who thinks she's smarter than everyone. Firstly, such a person with her lineage could pose a threat to uniting the North and South under one crown. Secondly, even if Asmodeus wasn't concerned about the possibility of the North seceding, he wouldn't allow an incompetent yet ambitious leader to rise to power over a large territory.
Asmodeus sees Sansa as a foolish young lady who everyone protected until she brought trouble to the family due to her stupidity. Although she has endured certain hardships and may appear smarter on the surface, it's only superficial. Moreover, she has a tendency to succumb to fleeting emotions mixed with ambitions that don't match her objective capabilities.
Even when Asmodeus contemplated aiding Daenerys, he already thought about discreetly getting rid of Sansa. Although she currently seems somewhat incapable of causing any real harm, Asmodeus has not completely abandoned the idea of eliminating her.
When the Northern lords approached Jon, the couple of Dumbledore and Grindelwald stepped aside, while Asmodeus remained in place and addressed Jon, "I don't want to interrupt the reunion of the king and his vassals, but could you all step away from the portals? My people also need to start crossing to this side."
Jon immediately ordered his people to step back and began to explain who Asmodeus was, "Lords, please step aside. Don't obstruct the landing of the troops that have come to our aid."
Upon hearing Jon's words, filled with doubts though they were, the lords, including Sansa who had already approached, began to move away from the gates.
Standing to the side, the Northern lords watched as dozens of people gradually emerged from the portal. As they emerged, they didn't stop but instead created additional portals, thus accelerating the movement of the troops.
Seeing more and more of these strange knights in crimson armor, the Northern lords had more and more questions for Jon, and Sansa couldn't hold back and asked Jon directly, "Are these the wizard forces Lord Dumbledore and Grindelwald spoke of? How many of them will there be in the future? Who is responsible for providing their sustenance? Will there be any other forces coming to our aid besides these wizards?"
The last question sounded as if Sansa didn't want any troops to come to the North's aid at all, and there was an unmistakable discontent in her voice. Jon couldn't understand why Sansa was dissatisfied and was slightly taken aback by her tone, so he replied, "You sound as if you don't like their presence in the North. Do you want to fight the White Walkers by yourself? With our forces? How do you plan to fight them? Oh, I forgot, when I arrived, you had just emerged from the closed prestigious castle!"
Hearing this, Sansa was stunned. Usually, she could manipulate Jon, and by expressing her discontent, she could influence him, but there were only a couple of times he responded to her like this.
Sansa couldn't understand why Jon was defending these people so fiercely...
Meanwhile, Jon was sincerely grateful to Asmodeus and Daenerys, and he had long been disgusted by Sansa's behavior, trying to become a manipulator like the Lannisters. Briefly explaining something to the less important lords, he gathered those who were loyal to him specifically rather than to the North and headed towards the portal, as he saw the face of a woman emerging from there.
Seeing Snow's departure, Sansa and her entourage fell into a brief stupor. They noticed Snow's clear separation from their group, as if there was no longer just one force in the North...
Sansa couldn't understand why Jon had changed so much and wanted to follow him, but she saw white hair emerging from the gates, along with a lovely face. However, it wasn't this sight that made her feel danger; it was the violet eyes and the dragon's head gradually emerging through the portal behind the woman.
At first, she was frightened by the figure of the dragon, and most of the lords were horrified by what they saw, but what scared Sansa the most was John's gaze, which he cast upon the violet-eyed woman before approaching her. It was the gaze of a lover!
Naturally, Sansa already knew who this woman was - Daenerys Targaryen! The Dragon Queen!
Not understanding the full situation, Sansa didn't even know if Jon was still a king, or if the North had already been sold to the dragons, or... She didn't know; she didn't understand what was happening. She only knew that the wizards and the Targaryens were allies and apparently, at Jon's request, they had decided to come to their aid.
But shouldn't they be reclaiming the King's Landing from Cersei now?
Why are they coming to their aid?!
Sansa couldn't grasp such simple logic as saving people; she was searching for all sorts of benefits that these two groups of people could gain or what Jon Snow had promised them to make them come.
She couldn't understand...
At the same time, Jon led his people towards Daenerys, who emerged from the portal, followed by Drogon, by the way.
Seeing Drogon, the lords, and even some wildlings who were following Snow, slowed down significantly; some simply stopped in their tracks, trying to remain unnoticed by this creature.
Seeing this, Jon merely shook his head and gestured to the dozen or so people who were unquestionably following him to keep going.
Daenerys, seeing Jon, smiled very sweetly at him.
In the past few weeks, while Asmodeus was destroying the Lannister armies and soldiers from Dorne and the Reach were moving towards the King's Landing, she and Jon had spent a lot of time together, watching as the Dothraki, with the help of wizards, extracted dragon glass from the depths of Dragonstone.
Subconsciously, Daenerys had already agreed that Jon could become her husband, although she had not received written confirmation from Asmodeus that Snow was one of the candidates. She had spoken a lot with Asmodeus, and he had nonverbally confirmed her suspicions several times.
In fact, apart from Jon's height, Daenerys hadn't found a single flaw in him, but there can't be anything perfect, right?
So, with the agreement of both parties, Daenerys and Jon spent a lot of time together and became very close, and the thin barrier separating them from officially entering into a relationship could be broken at any moment...
Jon carefully introduced Daenerys to his people, and when they finished on the castle grounds, there was almost no room left for new people.
Seeing this, Asmodeus had no choice but to send people to the suburbs to begin clearing the snow-covered lands.
Observing Asmodeus's actions, Jon also decided to help, especially when he learned from some nobles that perhaps not all peasants had managed to hide in the castle. So, a group of a couple of dozen wizards and a couple of dozen Northerners headed to the city.
Gradually clearing the streets and digging out houses, some of which were buried so deep under the snow that they looked like strange-shaped mounds even up close, the faces of the Northerners became increasingly grotesque.
In almost every fourth house, they found icicles... These were people who had decided to hide in their homes, fearing there wouldn't be enough space in the castle for them, and then they would be kicked out in the middle of the blizzard.
"All these people froze in an instant, as if the temperature dropped several times over," said one of the soldiers who was examining a body gradually thawing thanks to his comrade's fire magic.
"How did you determine that?"
"Look here. See? The person's veins are torn. Torn from the inside, meaning the blood freezing process was so fast that circulation stopped in an instant and damaged the frozen blood inside the body."
"Disgusting... Bill, you were...?"
"Yes, I worked as a pathologist."
"Ah, I thought so..."
"Alright, toss him into that pile. Lord Morningstar ordered to burn the bodies."
"Alright, Wingardium Leviosa."
The man left, taking Senya with him and a couple of frozen corpses.
From a distance, John looked dismayed at these senseless losses and couldn't understand why this was happening, why people didn't go to the castle? Did they really believe they would be left on the streets to die from the cold?
What John didn't know was that for the Northerners, the last five years had been a nightmare, the worst times they had ever seen. Regular wars, changes of rulers, crises here and there. Moreover, many of the relatives of these peasants had fought against the same Karstarks, Allisters, and so on. In short, the level of trust many Northerners had in the people Jon left in charge was very low...
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Oh, and here below will now be a new section—where I write funny little rhymes.
It hurts, it hurts, it hurts so bad,
Everything's swollen, oh, what a fad,
I teased a bee with my little pride,
And now I suffer, stung and fried.
Guys, please do not forget that there ia a PATREON existing, and it's 15 chapters ahead of the webnowel.
https://www.patreon.com/The_last_airbenderlibrary?utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator