-Chapter 3-
It had been three days since the royal procession arrived and, as usual, I trained on the makeshift training ground I had built with my own hands on the outskirts of the castle because, with the ritual I performed, I developed a monstrous physique.
My strength, speed, endurance...everything was better than 90% of the best attributes found in humans of this world...in short, my physique had been sublimated to an extreme point, my reflexes and overall physical condition had been multiplied by 3.
I was so absorbed in my exercise that I didn't notice people starting to gather to watch me train, firstly I carried two bags filled with earth and ran on an obstacle circuit I designed myself to strengthen my instinctive reflexes and physical condition.
Once the obstacle race was over, I dropped the sandbags, grabbed a bow, and shot at targets I had hung about a hundred meters away while continuing to run, I ran even faster and finally, I had to cross a long beam to test my agility and balance while maintaining the same running rhythm throughout.
This course was so simple and stupid that when I set it up many mocked me, especially fools like the Squid or commoners who wanted to give themselves a sense of superior existence by insulting someone with noble blood, but not a single one managed to complete my little training course.
Some were strong enough to finish the first test, but in the second, the archery accuracy on the run failed, while those who were accurate enough for the second test didn't even pass my first test.
I must admit it was rather complicated but after doing it for a month it had become second nature and this course was so physical that even for me doing it over and over was...exhausting.
I stopped when I saw the king had arrived with Ned, Lady Cuntlin, and the whole gang, I dropped the bags I was about to pick up and knelt down, though my pride took a serious hit, one of the side effects of the ritual, I had become increasingly proud and my pride was beginning to border on arrogance.
"I heard one of Ned's sons had developed a passion for books and wanted to become a maester, I'm happy to see you've come to your senses, my boy, stand up, don't be so formal," said Robert Baratheon once within earshot.
I stood up and he said:
"What do you want to become?"
"He wanted to become a sworn brother of the Night's Watch as a child," said my uncle Ned quickly.
He probably said that so Robert wouldn't ask me to become a royal guard, which I wouldn't accept anyway, but he didn't know that, it's true that in the past Ned tried to show me the grandeur of the "honorable" Order of the Night's Watch but I wasn't the young and impressionable Jon, I was a fucking man reincarnated in a second life.
"No," I said.
It seemed I contradicted him in front of everyone and we looked at each other for a few moments without me faltering, King Robert Baratheon broke our staring contest with his loud booming voice.
"So what do you want to become?" said Robert Baratheon, unaware of the electric tension between me and my uncle.
"I don't know," I said because I couldn't tell him that I wanted his throne.
"The possibilities for bastards are not numerous," said the queen with her usual venom.
"Why not a royal guard, your brothers praised your talents yesterday," said the King.
"Little Arya especially," said a knight in golden armor, he continued saying:
"She even said if I remember correctly My brother is the strongest knight in the whole North he even killed a giant at 5 years old."
My cold façade broke and a genuine smile slipped onto my face and I said:
"I am excellent at combat, not to brag, but a giant at 5 years old is a bit exaggerated even for me."
The king laughed heartily and the others too, even the queen and her little bastard honored us with polite little smiles, then the king said:
"Since you're so confident, why not organize a little fight now, the Kingslayer against you, if you win I'll give you absolutely anything you want."
"You can't give me what I want," I said with a big smile.
The king's face then turned purple, biting the hook probably due to the large amount of alcohol always present in his system and he said:
"I am the king and my word is law, as long as you want something, I'll give it to you, you have the promise of the King himself."
I laughed and said:
"Anything I want even if I asked you for a thousand gold dragons."
He burst out laughing and said:
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA last year the jousting champion brought home 30,000 gold dragons."
I pretended to be surprised and said "so much?!"
From the corner of my eye, I could see the disdain filling the queen's eyes.
King Robert smiled and then he said:
"If you want gold I'll give you 100,000 gold dragons."
I pretended to be really impressed and I partly was because I didn't even have 10 gold dragons as personal fortune at the moment.
I saw Catelyn's eyes tremble as well as those of my uncle although I doubt it was for the same reasons and I saw the queen's expression go from disdainful to downright contemptuous.
"Even a castle?" I asked.
I saw he hesitated and I said:
"Your Majesty, it may not be prudent to make such a heavy promise, forget it, it's not important, I don't need anything."
My hypothesis that he was still not sober became more and more clear because he said:
"I promised I would grant you whatever you want, as long as I don't steal it from someone else I'll even give you Harrenhal if you agree to marry that old hag Sheila Whent."
Everyone present laughed and I said:
"I'll take you at your word, Your Majesty."
I then smiled and grabbed two swords I was 186cm tall, quite tall for my age, and therefore the weight of two bastard swords was not a disadvantage, especially after my ritual, I gestured to the Kingslayer who shook his head before drawing his own blade and advancing towards me, he didn't take a shield probably because he despised me but that was perfect because it would give me more chance to defeat him.
I twirled my swords and began to test him by throwing some easy-to-block attacks he laughed and said: "Your style reminds me of a man I knew a long time ago."
"Sir Arthur Dayne?" I said smiling because I had tried to imitate what I had heard of him in the rare stories where father talked about him.
"So even in a godforsaken hole like this, you've heard of him," said Ser Jaime Lannister looking at me with a raised eyebrow of surprise.
"I mostly read a lot while looking for my mother's identity," I said.
I said this on purpose because I wanted to cause trouble for Ned and make Catelyn suffer a bit because I knew her first insecurity was that I was the son of Lady Ashara Dayne, the most beautiful woman in the Kingdom who was also pregnant at the same time as my mother.
He took advantage of my inattention and attacked, I blocked the blow with the sword in my right hand and returned with my other hand while advancing towards him and attacking in turn with my two hands two swords, he backed off a lot and after a while, he grabbed a shield then continued the fight blocking with his shield and striking with his dominant hand wielding his sword.
After nearly 10 minutes of very exciting combat for our observers, he surprised me by charging with his shield, I rolled on the ground and stood up but now I only had one sword left.
I was starting to get seriously exhausted because I had a long training session this morning but I was keeping up the pace, I memorized his blows and responded simultaneously, but at one point his rhythm broke and he disarmed me, he said with a victorious laugh:
"You've lost."
The crowd applauded but I said:
"No, you've only disarmed me, not beaten me."
I unfastened the armor plates I wore to weigh me down in my exercises and took a pose similar to that of Lee against Gaara and bent my hand closest to him signifying 'come on, I'm waiting for you.'
He laughed and I began to listen to my instincts and only my instincts, I had limited myself against him using only my physical abilities to see at what level I was from the finest blade of Westeros, but now I was going to give everything in this fight.
He swung his sword which I dodged before kicking him in the back making him stumble and I resumed my pose, he charged again but this time more intelligently he kept me at a distance while trying to cut me with his sword.
After my ritual, I discovered that like the Direwolves, I had developed a kind of 6th sense of danger and by focusing on it, I could predict at certain moments from which side the attack would come.
In fact, describing my ability as a 6th sense was wrong, it was simply that I was much more in tune with my instincts.
I continued to dodge and I began to slowly approach my two swords after a few seconds and I rolled to the side, I grabbed my sword on the ground and quickly got into guard because I felt a blow coming from behind.
After blocking the blow I stepped back and picked up the second sword at my feet then the fight resumed.