Of course, when things go wrong for a person, the bad luck is far more than just one thing.
Besides the annoying matter of the coveted Gold Dragons being withheld, the transmigrator was also relentlessly entangled by Loras Tyrell.
Perhaps in the eyes of this handsome young man, Jon, who could save him from danger, was simply the incarnation of a hero.
For this reason, the transmigrator was miserable for a time, and even spent a lot of Gold Dragons to go to the brothel to tarnish his own reputation, in order to avoid the Knight of Flowers who frequently visited him.
However, even though he did this, things were far from as simple as he imagined.
In the subsequent Small Council meeting, the look in the Master of Laws' eyes when looking at him also became strange.
It was a look full of jealousy, disgust, curiosity, and... expectation.
Such complex emotions appearing in a man's eyes made Jon even think for a moment that Renly in front of him had been possessed by Cersei and turned into a crazy follower.
Regarding this, Jon felt a chill down his spine for a time, afraid that if he wasn't careful, he would become famous throughout the Seven Kingdoms and turn into an anomaly in Westeros.
In order to protect his hard-won honor, the originally cautious King's Squire and Secretary to the Hand not only began to frequent the brothel but also talked about the looks of noble ladies on certain occasions, wishing he could label himself as a sex-starved ghost.
But this measure not only failed to achieve the desired effect but turned Jon into a contradictory complex with mixed reputation, and even made many middle-aged noblewomen who heard the news begin to frequent the Tower of the Hand just to chat a few more words with the Secretary to the Hand.
Apart from being deeply trapped in the quagmire of fame, the transmigrator was also full of complaints about King Robert and his cheap father.
However, this was just the silent struggle of the weak. Apart from completely ruining his own mentality, it couldn't affect the superiors who held power at all.
Not only that, shortly after the tourney, King Robert went to hunt wild boars again, not taking these trivial matters to heart at all.
And Duke Ned, who held the power of King's Landing, also had no intention of compensating Jon until Varys brought a piece of good news for Jon.
In the original words of the bald Master of Whisperers, he provided this news to Jon entirely out of friendship:
His Majesty the King, who naturally loves saving face, absolutely cannot tolerate the reward he promised being encroached upon by anyone, even if this person is doing it for the sake of the country or is his own brother.
regarding this, the ministers close to him proposed a compensation plan—granting a fiefdom.
Clearly, the Usurper was willing to allocate a certain place in the Crownlands to Jon Stark to demonstrate the authority of His Majesty the King.
Hearing this, Jon wasn't too happy.
As for the so-called fiefdom, it was insignificant to him as a bastard.
Presumably, with Robert's nature, this matter was definitely just a whim. Even if it could be implemented later, it would be handed over to the Small Council and finally handled by Ned.
And this stubborn man who regarded honor, justice, and law as life would definitely treat his own people harshly and cut the blade inward ruthlessly.
In the end, the reward he could get would probably be just a piece of empty fame.
However, thinking of this, Jon suddenly reacted, and then turned his head abruptly to look at Varys.
"Wait, what do you mean by Jon Stark?"
When asking this question, a trace of imperceptible throbbing flashed in the transmigrator's eyes.
Although he had thought of countless possibilities and didn't expect to get a real reward.
However, no one expected that the biggest stumbling block shackling him disappeared without a trace in the Master of Whisperers' description at this moment.
If he didn't hear it wrong just now, what Varys said was to grant a piece of land to Jon Stark, not Jon Snow.
This also meant that the only supreme being in the Seven Kingdoms qualified to erase the status of a bastard—the Usurper, Robert Baratheon—would grant Jon the surname.
Although this kind of thing was not uncommon, being mentioned proactively by His Majesty the King might really be the first time.
In short, Jon wouldn't believe that this was the result of Ned going to plead for him.
Moreover, recently, the Lord Hand simply had no time to deal with these issues.
However, the unexpected surprise was far more than this.
The reason why Varys, who felt this huge vibration on the spider web, chose to rush over to offer this treasure was not only to gain the friendship of the Northern noble Jon Stark but also to extract potential benefits from it.
In the bald Master of Whisperers' style, intelligence is worth a thousand gold and can determine many key points, even life and death.
So Varys's purpose in finding Jon was definitely not simply to show goodwill; that would only make friendship cheap and make the Master of Whisperers dispensable.
So when the Spider proposed an equivalent exchange condition, even if he wasn't clear about the price he had to pay, Jon still responded quickly and expressed his position with a firm attitude.
As for the condition proposed by Varys, rather than an exchange, it was better to call it a piece of advice.
After that, when King Robert finally returned to King's Landing for a rare occasion and attended the Small Council meeting, a brand new royal decree was also handed to Jon.
Then, the sixty thousand Gold Dragons that should have belonged to the transmigrator were replaced by the title of Baron Stark (Note: implied lower rank, likely landed knight/minor lord given context of fief) and a small fief bound to it.
As for the choice of the fief's location, Robert was also not stingy and appeared willful and generous, letting Jon choose it himself.
As long as it was not the fief of a known lord, any area within the Crownlands was up for Jon's selection.
So, when the transmigrator pointed his finger firmly at the northeast corner of Blackwater Bay, the era belonging to the Dragon and Wolf quietly arrived.
It was a sunny afternoon. Two handsome warhorses were carrying two tall young men.
Just from their clothes, it wasn't hard to distinguish who was the master and who was the servant.
And the young noble leading the way had an enviably handsome face. Apart from some noble arrogance and facial paralysis, there seemed to be no other major faults.
Of course, this was just the perspective of passersby on the Rosby Road; Jon didn't care about this at all.
Now, as the warhorse bumped along the way, the transmigrator's gaze was looking at the void in front of him.
Looking at the changes on the panel, especially that long list of titles, it could almost catch up with a Targaryen princess in a parallel universe.
Of course, these were not the key points attracting Jon.
As he quietly completed the tourney, an optional branch appeared in the mission on the panel.
[Detected that the Host has obtained a fief. Side mission activated. Please treat every choice carefully.]
[Side Mission 1: Warlord. Military-first development strategy. Build the territory into a fortress and let the world feel your pain!]
[Reward: Random Master-level Knight Swordsmanship, allowing you to face existences like Ser Barristan directly with skill.]
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