Chapter 9: Chapter 9 : Feast, Rizz and Lvl 1 Hits.
"Be my hand, Ned. You belong in the Crownlands by my side," Robert Baratheon, the King of the Seven Kingdoms, finally said, making Eddard Stark's assumption come true. He knew why Robert was here, and he found himself overwhelmed by the proposal.
Did he want to be the Hand of the King and go south? No. Only the old gods knew how much he hated the South. But this was his brother—all but in blood—and his king who was asking him. He couldn't find it in himself to refuse. So, Lord Eddard Stark kneeled, following his honor and duty like he always did.
"Your Grace, you honor me."
"I'm not honoring you. I'm asking you to run my kingdom while I whore and drink myself to an early grave… Come on, Ned, get up. We were meant to be brothers, to rule together. You helped me get the Iron Throne; now help me run it." Robert laughed and was ready to leave the Stark cemetery after meeting with his only love, Lyanna.
"And, Ned, we must join our houses. You have a daughter, and I have a son. This time, I'll make sure there will be a Northern queen in the Red Keep." Robert Baratheon said, more like decided unilaterally, and walked away.
"Robert…" That was when Ned Stark called his friend. Maybe he wanted to refuse to go south. Maybe he had a weight on his conscience regarding his bastard's true origins. Maybe he didn't want to marry his daughter into the South. But what came out of his mouth even confused Robert Baratheon.
"Joffrey is your firstborn ?"
"Yes… Who else could it be?" Robert looked at his brother-all-but-in-blood with confusion.
"Nothing… Just asking." Ned shook his head. It was his imagination, after all.
---
"Why are you acting like that? A lady shouldn't play with her food," Septa said, making Sansa even more frustrated.
"I'm not playing."
"Then where is your smile? Look, the prince is looking at you. You shouldn't avoid his gaze. Give him a smile." Septa pointed at Joffrey, who was indeed looking at Sansa—more like waiting for her to notice that he was looking at her. But the girl never once looked at him. Her eyes mostly remained on her food while she pretended to eat, occasionally roaming to the entrance as if waiting for someone.
Sansa, finally noticing Joffrey's gaze, gave him a forced smile before pretending to be shy and averting her eyes.
"He pales in front of Thor," Sansa muttered under her breath, but the Septa heard her.
"Don't compare that Night's Watch man with the Crown Prince," Septa said in an unusually harsh yet hushed tone, making sure no one else could hear her.
"But it's true. Thor looks 100 times more princely than Joffrey," Sansa replied with a little heat, though her voice remained hushed as ever.
"Shush… Appearances can be deceiving, child," Septa pursed her lips and said, though she very much understood how her best student had developed such infatuation with a man she had just met today and had seen for less than five minutes.
For all her virtues learned from the Seven, even she had to agree—the Night's Watch man looked more princely and was undeniably handsome.
But that didn't mean she could let this infatuation develop into something else.
"He's not with the Night's Watch," Sansa muttered, her eyes roaming once more toward the gate. She wasn't the only one. Many girls and women were disappointed by the absence of the once uninvited guest from the Wall.
And the Queen was one of them.
However, her reasons were different.
Cersei, for once in her life, couldn't figure out what she wanted. She had always known what she wanted since childhood, and she had always gotten it—either by money or other means.
But today, she wasn't sure.
From the moment her eyes had laid upon that man, she had been in a strange mood.
'Do I fancy him?'
She first asked herself this, and only got a half-hearted response. It wasn't often that she found a man more charming and handsome than her own brother after all. Any woman would want to have that man's company, and in that regard, Cersei found herself no different.
But was it lust that had driven her to walk up to him this morning?
No.
There was something else—those long golden locks, that face. She couldn't pinpoint it, but she knew this wasn't just mere lust.
If it were, she would have long since tried to seduce him—if not outright order him to warm her bed. She was the Queen, after all; she could have anything she wanted.
And yet, her heart beat differently around him.
Not just lust, no… something else.
And thus, she too found herself, ever so often, looking around the feast hall, searching for Thor—the man who had brought chaos to her mind for some reason.
And while her eyes roamed, she saw her husband groping a wench, bringing back her trademark scowl.
---
My hand trembled as sweat dripped from my head. I found myself sitting alone in a dark room with no light source. A candle had been provided to me, but I turned it off to stop any improvement in my impromptu training of controlling my thunder power.
'Are you Thor, God of Hammers?'
That line had been disturbing me from the start. If the system modelled my power according to MCU Thor, then surely I should be able to use thunder—even at Level 1. But it was immediately evident that I couldn't.
Or, to be exact, not without the help of Mjolnir.
Thor had this problem in the MCU, only resolving it after losing his hammer. I thought I would be better, but I was wrong. It was very hard to concentrate thunder without Mjolnir's aid.
Sigh… I let out a sigh and grabbed the hammer lying beside me, picking it up and concentrating once again…
"Zi. Zi. Zi Zi…"
And within seconds, the hammer lit up with weak yet bright lightning sparks in the dark room.
"It's good… for party tricks, that is," I rolled my eyes. This level of thunder was better suited for charging my phone on the go—not for fighting. It's at best could be used like a shock gun.
I was slightly disappointed. Only slightly though.
I expected it to be weak—it was still at Level 1, after all. By Level 10, I should reach Base Thor's starting level in the MCU. So, power wasn't the issue. I just had to add points by fulfilling tasks.
No, my real disappointment came from not being able to use lightning without Mjolnir. By MCU Thor's standards, this was normal—he was never able to control his powers without his hammer.
In this case, being modelled after Base Thor was a limiting factor.
I had to learn to use lightning without Mjolnir myself.
I just hoped it was possible. If it was limited by the system itself, then I'd be so mad. But my estimations said it shouldn't be.
The power had always been in Thor—he just didn't know how to use it.
I didn't intend to be like him.
Right now, I might possess the power of Thor, I knew I was strong but how strong, how strong is Level 1 ?
It's Human Level ? Enhance Human ? I have to figure this out.
So, after finally getting some free time, I locked myself in this room and started training—willingly missing the feast.
Hell, I wouldn't have gone even if I was invited.
It seemed that after getting that little bit of attention from the Queen, even Benjen was wary of showing my face in front of the King's entourage.
He, too, didn't bother inviting me.
Well, good for me in the end.
I sighed and tossed the hammer aside, going back to my training.
But there was no improvement.
"Grrr…"
Suddenly my stomach roared. Protecting to get something to eat. I can't help but sigh again, there was no shortage of food in Winterfell for their guess but it's usually something a modern man with a modern taste palate like me would eat only in the most dire of times.
Today was different though, there was a feast going on, I most likely wouldn't get food like this after today for a long time
"I guess… With great power comes great hunger as well."