On the other side, in Winterfell
Ever since Catelyn left Winterfell and went to find Ned with the so-called evidence, she has not returned yet. The burden of taking care of Bran and presiding over the political affairs of Winterfell fell on Robb. When Maester Luwin handed the letter from Hearth City to Robb, he was chatting with Bran.
The brothers and little Rickon all inherited their mother's facial features.
They have red hair and green eyes, and look more like a Tully. Jon, on the other hand, has completely inherited the appearance of a Stark, which is also something that makes Catelyn uncomfortable.
When Robb saw the contents of the letter, his warm smile suddenly froze. He felt his whole body tense up, and his hand holding the letter trembled slightly.
The word "deserter" on the letterhead exploded in his mind like a thunderclap.
"Why would Jon be a deserter? His father had just chopped off the head of a deserter from the Night's Watch before he left!"
He felt very sad about Jon's actions. In his opinion, Jon would only have one end, which was beheading. Jon needed to use his own blood to wash away his shame.
Robb calmed himself down, and considering that Bran and Jon had a good relationship, he and Maester Luwin walked out of the room.
The tall Robb looked into the distance, calmed down, and said calmly: "Maester Luwin, why do you think Jon wanted to leave the Wall?"
Luwin had already read the contents of the letter in advance. He just said lightly: "My lord, I don't think Jon is a real Stark. He does not regard being a member of the Night's Watch as an honor."
Luwin glanced at Robb and continued, "He should want to go to King's Landing, otherwise there would be no need to go to the End of the River."
Hearing what Luwin said, Robb shook his head and didn't care about what he said next. He knew what kind of person Jon was after spending time with him since childhood. He looked at the direction of the Wall with his green eyes and said, "No, he is a Stark. There must be some reason that forced him to do this."
However, Robb's eyes gathered, as if he had made up his mind. He said, "But no matter what his reasons are, Jon's actions have hurt the reputation of Stark. I must catch him and then Judge him!"
Thanks to Ned's teachings, both Robb and the original Jon attached great importance to honor. Jon changed his mind and decided to leave the Night's Watch. Although there seemed to be no big problem from a legal point of view, from the perspective of honor, he is now not only a bastard, but also a treacherous person.
The "trial" that Robb mentioned is most likely to behead Jon as the acting lord of Winterfell.
After all, this young wolf lord was capable of killing his own general during the war, and the reason for killing the general was simply because he killed two prisoners.
"Don't worry about this for now..."
Robb originally wanted to keep Jon's escape from the Night's Watch a secret from Bran, but after thinking it over he decided he should let Bran know.
In Winterfell, Jon has a good relationship with Ned's children except Sansa.
It would be much better to tell Bran now than to wait until Jon is captured and let them see him directly in the prison or on the execution ground of Winterfell.
So he walked into the house and handed the letter to Bran.
"Jon broke his oath and left the Night's Watch."
But Bran seemed very calm after reading it.
"He's not a Stark."
Robb was surprised by Bran's words. Among his brothers and sisters, except Sansa, no one cared about Jon's background.
But what Bran said next made him think.
"Now, apart from the Starks, everyone on the Wall is a criminal. Jon is neither a Stark nor a criminal. I think if he hasn't taken the oath to become a Night's Watchman, he should be allowed to leave if he wants to."
In fact, what Bran meant was that now, apart from the Starks, no one considers being a Night's Watchman an honor.
Robb was puzzled. He approached Bran and asked, "How do you know he didn't take the oath?"
Bran, who was sitting on the bed, looked up at Robb with a confused look in his eyes: "I don't know, I don't think he has."
"Robb, I don't think we should stand in Jon's way. If he really wants to go to King's Landing, let him go.
He is a bastard with no inheritance rights. If he goes to King's Landing to have his own territory and title, then we should help him."
But Rob shook his head: "No, I must catch him. No matter what, he is just like you, a son of my father, with Stark blood."
Bran looked a little sad. He said to Rob
"Okay, when you're ready to catch him, remember to call me along. I can ride a horse now, too."
When Tyrion passed through Winterfell again, he designed a special saddle for Bran so that he could still ride a horse. He has almost mastered the skills in recent times.
Seeing that his originally lively brother had become a little sickly due to his injury, Rob agreed to his request.
Then Robb remembered that Jon might take the water route, so he told Maester Luwin, "Send a portrait of Jon to the Manderly family in White Harbor and have them set up checkpoints in the White Knife Valley to intercept him."
Maester Luwin nodded and went to get ready.
Jon never expected that the first time Robb showed his military talent would be on his own head. The reason why he didn't set up a checkpoint directly in White Harbor was because there were a lot of people there, and Jon had a greater chance of escaping.
But it would be different if the checkpoint was placed in the Valley of the White Knife. If Jon did not choose the Kingsroad, he would have to pass through the Valley of the White Knife.
However, this also shows that Robb has put all his talents in military affairs, and his ability in political politics is really poor.
Ned chose to inform Amber to intercept Jon in order to minimize the impact of Jon leaving the Wall. After Robb did this, it is estimated that the entire Westeros will soon know that Ned's illegitimate son is a deserter.
Ned would never have thought that he was being slapped in the face by his own son.
...
Jon looked at the huge lake in the distance, the Long Lake, which was gradually moving away, which meant that it was less than two days' journey from Winterfell.
Just yesterday, he disguised himself to be on the safe side.
First he asked someone to shave his head. His raw scalp felt cold, so he bought himself a hat.
As for his gray eyes, Jon bought a sheep from a family, then cut open the sheep's intestines, cut off the casings of appropriate sizes, and then soaked and washed them in water mixed with wood ash to make them slowly transparent.
He completed this process while on the road, and finally obtained a nearly transparent disc.
Jon extracted some juice from the blue petals on the roadside and dyed the sausage casings with eye color. When placed on the eyes, the pupils would appear a gray-blue.
Although it seems a bit weird, there is really no other good way.
Moreover, this kind of sausage casing "beauty contact lens" is very uncomfortable to stick on the eyeball. He can't help crying after two minutes at most, and he has to find a way to preserve it.
So based on his experience from his previous life, Jon first purified the salt, then prepared a small bottle of saline solution to soak the 'beautiful contact lenses' in.
'Others use sheep intestines to make condoms, but I use them to make contact lenses. It's amazing!'
Thinking of this, Jon felt a little funny.
In addition to concealing his outward appearance, Jon also had to work harder on his own identity.
Jon stole a total of five horses from Kent and others. He sold two of them in exchange for some silver deer and bronze stars, and bought himself a carriage for transporting goods.
He forged an identity for himself as a river merchant, so that if Robb really set up a checkpoint, he could get through with his disguise.