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"A special note: those who meet the required count of enemy heads and pass review by the noble council will not merely receive the title of a knight.
"His Grace Robb will grant gold dragons, land, and even castles as real rewards!"
"Gods!"
"Isn't that the same as becoming a landed knight? With land of your own, you can recruit farmers to cultivate it and keep soldiers to protect your private property."
"May the Seven bless the King in the North! This new law gives even commoners like us a chance to rise!"
"Exactly. It is too hard for commoners to rise. In the Westerlands, over the last few decades, only the founder of House Clegane risked his life to save Lord Tytos Lannister and was rewarded, becoming the founder of a landed knightly house."
The officer's announcement of the second new law had not caused much reaction. But as soon as the third law was read, every commoner near the execution platform burst into discussion even fiercer than before.
"Ah! It is true. The rumor is true. Thormad, we can earn battle merit and rise to citizen rank, even to knighthood!"
Like the other smallfolk around them, Mael grew extremely excited after hearing the third law. He shook Thormad's arm and shouted at him.
"Hey, Mael, do not get so worked up. The way you look now, I would think you had already become a knight."
Thormad smiled faintly and turned to answer the excited youth.
"If this new law is true, then the rumor about recruiting new soldiers should be true too. I want to join the army. I want to earn battle merit. I want to become a knight and let my grandmother, my brother, and my sister live well."
Looking at the relatively calm Thormad, Mael slowly settled down. He turned toward the officer, who was waiting for the crowd's excitement to fade, and spoke with a firm gaze.
Mael's family circumstances were even worse than Thormad's. When the fighting broke out in Lannisport, his parents had been selling their catch in the harbor district. While fleeing in panic, both were crushed beneath a millstone-sized rock that fell from the sky.
After coming north, the strong-willed Mael, his grandmother, his younger brother, and his younger sister took on dirty and exhausting work to support the household. With the supplies distributed by Winterfell, the family had only barely survived.
Thormad looked at Mael's profile and thought of his own mother, who could find no suitable work and could only earn money washing clothes. His gaze also grew firm.
At that moment, many commoners who heard the third new law, including the two youths from the Westerlands, began to think of joining the army to change their fates.
"Fourth article: the conscription of labor. His Grace Robb has announced a five-year building plan. The first step is to build a wall enclosing both the winter town and Winterfell. A great many laborers are urgently needed for the work.
"The laborers conscripted this time will be paid each day, and two meals will also be provided. There is no age limit. Specific wages will be counted according to the amount of work completed that day."
When the officer first spoke of conscripting laborers, the watching crowd fell silent at once and lowered their heads toward the ground, as if the officer had come to choose them for forced labor.
But when they heard that laborers would be paid and given two meals, everyone immediately became eager to ask questions and discuss it.
"Do not be impatient. Listen while I explain in detail!"
Seeing the crowd begin to stir again, the officer spoke first and continued.
"The laborers conscripted this time will all be paid fair wages. No age limit means that whether you are young, old, or even a child, you may take part in the work.
"There will be special officers who assign tasks and count wages according to your age, build, and work experience.
"For example, if you carry ten large bluestones for the wall in one day, you will be paid according to that amount of work.
"If you dig only one basket of mud in a day, you will likewise be paid according to that amount of work.
"To borrow the words His Grace Robb summarized: work more and earn more; work less and earn less; refuse to work and earn nothing!"
As soon as the officer finished speaking, the surrounding crowd erupted into heated discussion again. This time, however, the overwhelming majority of voices praised Robb.
After all, when a lord conscripted his people for work, even if he gave no pay, no food, and ordered them to bring their own dry rations, they still had to come.
"Fifth article: Winterfell's army will recruit new soldiers. Anyone over sixteen may participate. As long as they pass the recruit screening, those of citizen rank will be accepted first. Upon enlistment, they will gain the right to have their names carved in the Heroes' Crypt.
"Those of commoner rank who take one enemy head will also gain the right to have their names carved in the Heroes' Crypt. As for what the Heroes' Crypt is, ask anyone around you.
"That is all for the new laws announced today. More will be added later."
After announcing all the new laws, the officer left in a hurry. It seemed he was afraid the crowd would keep questioning him and trap him there for half a day.
After hearing from the people around them what the Heroes' Crypt was, the determination on Mael's face grew even stronger.
"Thormad, did you hear that? His Grace Robb has thought of everything. As long as we can join Winterfell's army, our families will not need to worry about living.
"If we are lucky, we can keep rising through battle merit until we become knights. Even if we are unlucky and die in battle, our families will receive generous death benefits and proper arrangements."
As he looked at Mael, who had already completely forgotten that his parents had died because of the northern army, Thormad found the new laws announced by the King in the North somewhat frightening.
He forced a smile onto his face and nodded. "Mm. We meet the age requirement, and our bodies are still strong enough. We will definitely be able to join."
The new laws announced that day spread through Winterfell and the winter town as the crowd dispersed. For a time, all kinds of arguments broke out over them, but the praise outweighed the criticism overall.
The changes brought by the new laws slowly began to appear. The original northern smallfolk, now northern citizens, began to carry a sense of recognition and pride in their new identity, whether rich or poor.
When facing those now classified as northern commoners, they already felt themselves a step above. That filled their hearts with a satisfaction difficult to describe.
Correspondingly, the sense of loss among the new northern commoners was extremely strong. Before, it had already been difficult for them to integrate into the native northern environment, but there had never been such an obvious contrast in class.
Some northern commoners thought that as long as they lived here for more than two years, they too could become northern citizens, and slowly began to accept it.
Others were unwilling to wait and wanted to enter the citizen class as quickly as possible. There was only one fastest method: join the army and earn battle merit.
As the new laws were announced and put into practice, the former Westerlands smallfolk completely abandoned their earlier attitude of being guests. They began slowly and truly integrating into the North.
All of this had been within Robb's expectations. On the road back to Winterfell, he had already been thinking about how to solve this problem.
At its core, Robb's household registry system borrowed from privileged military household systems and client-rank arrangements he had known from his previous life.
The essence of such systems was to turn an external threat into one's own tool and transfer the conflict between two sides.
The new laws used the gap between classes to drive part of the unwilling commoner class to struggle toward the citizen class.
In the future, Robb would have these people manage other commoners. At that point, they would become the targets of resentment and hostility from the rest of the commoner class.
In the short term, this system suited the North's present condition extremely well. The recruits Winterfell raised this time would certainly be high in morale and brave in battle because of the new laws' incentives.
Time passed slowly. The new laws spread from Winterfell to the entire North.
Every day, Robb supervised the Wolfguard's training. The four fruits Leaf made each day were carefully stored by Sam. Gendry constantly tried to design a fruit belt.
After nearly half a year of war among kings, Westeros seemed to have entered an intermission. No battle involving more than ten thousand men broke out again.
Of course, the wars in the Vale and Dorne continued. Some false kings who had crowned themselves saw their heads become trophies for the victors.
Powerful forces such as House Stark, House Lannister, and House Tyrell began gathering strength for the second half that was about to come.
Two months later, deep in the night, three figures moved constantly through the alleys of Winterfell's winter town.
They were agile, avoiding all kinds of obstacles and drunkards in corners as they quickly made for the outermost wall under construction.
After vaulting over the half-finished wall that only reached their waists, all three let out a breath of relief.
"We have been obedient all this time, and that terrifying ice direwolf finally has not appeared in the cells for the past few days.
"Leaf, do we use true skinchanging now?"
The wood dancer Vine glanced back behind them, then turned to ask Leaf beside her.
"Bloodwind is indeed terrifying, but he is definitely not an ice direwolf. Thorn, how is your body?"
Leaf first corrected the error in Vine's words, then turned with concern to Thorn, who had been badly wounded before.
"No problem. Although I kept pretending in the cells that my heavy wounds had not healed, thanks to the herbs you secretly gave me, my body has nearly recovered. I can use true skinchanging."
Thorn smiled at Leaf and nodded to confirm that she was fine.
"Good. Although I used 'Whisper of the Forest' to put all the guards in the cells to sleep, I do not know when someone else will discover it.
"Thorn's body has only just healed, so Vine, you skinchange into an ice direwolf first. You two will take turns resting. We will go to the Wall as quickly as possible and return home through the secret passage."
Seeing Thorn confirm that she was all right, Leaf nodded and stated her decision directly.
"Good."
Vine answered, and her whole body again turned into a writhing mass of soft clay. In the end, it settled into the shape of a gray-furred ice direwolf.
Leaf and Thorn quickly climbed onto Vine's back. With their light bodies, their combined weight was only about that of one strong adult man.
The ice direwolf formed by Vine carried the two of them with no trouble. It pushed off with all four legs and shot north of Winterfell like an arrow.
Roughly twenty minutes after they left, a large cavalry unit mixed with horses and ice direwolves arrived outside that stretch of wall.
"Tenman Will, judging from the tracks, one wood dancer likely skinchanged into an ice direwolf and carried the other two north.
"Their target must be the Wolfswood beside Long Lake. They will use the forest as cover to pass Last Hearth and go to the Wall."
A Wolfguard skilled at tracking dismounted, examined the area roughly, and reported his judgment to Will, the Wolfguard tenman.
"Mm. Wolf riders, follow me in pursuit at speed. The rest of you ride after us as best you can."
Riding a huge black-furred ice direwolf, the tall and strongly built Will thought for a moment before issuing his order.
"Yes!"
All the Wolfguard answered together. Four Wolfguard who also rode black-furred ice direwolves moved out of the group and came to Will's side.
Will nodded to them, then patted the black-furred ice direwolf beneath him and raced toward Long Lake. The other eight Wolfguard, each leading a slightly smaller gray-furred ice direwolf, spurred their horses after them.
It was strange. Robb had always distributed blood pact points evenly. Yet among the thirteen ice direwolves of the Wolfguard, the five black-furred ice direwolves had grown faster than the other eight gray-furred ones.
Still, the remaining eight gray-furred ice direwolves needed only a little more growth before every member of the Wolfguard could become a wolf rider.
Whether Leaf and the other two sensed the Wolfguard's pursuit or not, they did not rest once after fleeing Winterfell. They only stopped briefly now and then to let Vine and Thorn take turns skinchanging into an ice direwolf for the journey.
The next day, when the morning sun had only just risen halfway above the horizon, Will and the other four had already caught up behind Leaf's group.
They could catch up so quickly because of Thorn's injury. Although she said she had no problem, when she skinchanged into an ice direwolf and ran, her speed was slower than Vine's.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Five arrows tore through the air and shot toward Leaf's group.
Hearing the sharp sound, the ice direwolf formed by Vine leapt lightly to the left and avoided the arrows.
But because they had to dodge arrows and could no longer flee in a straight line, Leaf's group was caught from behind by Will's five after avoiding the fourth volley.
"Warrior, ram them!"
Will called his ice direwolf's name. As he drew his longsword with his right hand, he used a training signal and patted the left side of the wolf's neck with his left hand to help it understand.
After two months of training, the intelligent ice direwolves could already understand their own names and roughly understand specific hand signals. Warrior threw its whole body into Vine, and Will used the force to slash out fiercely with his longsword.
Using the longsword she had taken from a guard while escaping, Thorn directly blocked Will's attack. But the violent collision between the two ice direwolves knocked her off Vine's back.
As melee-type wood dancers, their bodies were extremely strong. While falling through the air, Thorn had already adjusted her posture. The moment she hit the ground, she rolled to disperse the force, then finished with a flip and landed steadily on her feet.
Clang, clang!
She had only just steadied herself when two Wolfguard rode their ice direwolves past her from front and back, crossing each other's paths and attacking with their longswords at the same time. Thorn easily deflected both attacks.
While Thorn dealt with the two Wolfguard, Leaf, who had sat in front and held firmly to Vine's neck without falling, began fighting Will, who sat steadily in the wolf saddle Gendry had made.
As a singer, Leaf did not possess a wood dancer's physical ability. But she took a handful of green powder from the small pouch at her waist and threw it directly toward Will beside her.
At the same time, her mouth released a chanting sound in the True Tongue.
Green light flashed. All the green powder in the air ignited, and sparks filled the sky as they swept toward Will and Warrior.
Seeing this, Will immediately threw away his longsword and leapt from the wolf saddle. Warrior's back became light at once, and it sprang forward nimbly, letting all the sparks fall behind it.
Will, who had fallen to the ground, did not have Thorn's physical ability. He could only wrap his arms around his head and roll with the fall, doing everything he could to reduce the damage.
Although Will had fallen, the other two Wolfguard kept Vine and Leaf tightly entangled. Since they had not picked up Thorn, they could not simply leave.
After resting for a moment, Will mounted Warrior again and rejoined the battle. For a time, the two sides were locked there, attacking back and forth.
Da-da-da!
After the stalemate continued for some time, loud hoofbeats suddenly came from the distance. The eight gray-furred ice direwolves received orders, sped up, broke away from the cavalry, and raced toward the battlefield to help Will and the others fight.
Seeing that her side was about to fall into an absolute disadvantage, Leaf took a handful of materials from her waist and prepared to use large-scale magic.
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