"Test the Infinite Training skill."
Infinite Training: there was a 4-by-4-meter room inside, without any enemies.
"There are no enemies inside, but the Order God said there would be enemies for me to train against. I don't understand what's going on, and why is it so small? How do I enter this space?" I closed my eyes, concentrated, and imagined myself entering the space.
I felt a flowing sensation, which then began to vibrate. When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a white room without doors or windows.
"There's nothing here. What should I do? Is it because I'm not familiar with it yet?" Just then, I sensed someone approaching me, but I couldn't see anyone.
I remembered what the Order God had said. Someone must have been approaching my room. I immediately concentrated and imagined myself leaving. After feeling a vibration, I opened my eyes and found myself in bed. The door opened, and Aunt Bris walked in.
"Good morning, dear. How are you feeling today? Does your head still hurt?"
"My head hurts a little, but not as badly as yesterday."
"Are you hungry? Would you like something to eat?" I nodded and said, "Yes."
I got out of bed, and we started toward the Citadel kitchens. It was a cold morning. Wasn't that normal in the north?
When we reached the kitchens, many people were busy working. It was probably almost time for the lord and his family to have breakfast. My stomach growled when I smelled the enticing aromas in the kitchen.
Bris began to chuckle when she heard my stomach growl.
"Dear, you know you can't eat those things. They're not for us. They're for the highborn." She led me to a corner and lifted me onto a tall chair.
Being picked up like a baby was so embarrassing. It would take some time to get used to asking others for help with such simple things. She brought me a slice of cheese and a quarter of a loaf of bread. It was a simple breakfast, but at least I had something to eat.
After eating, I decided to go for a walk. When I stepped out through the Citadel's service entrance, my eyes needed a few seconds to adjust to the light. I began wandering around the Citadel at Winterfell. It was an enormous castle. If it had been in my old world, it would have been one of the wonders of the world.
The Citadel itself was larger than any castle I had seen on Earth. I didn't know much about this world. All I knew was what a five-year-old boy would know.
We lived in Winterfell, the lord of the Citadel was named Eddard Stark, and we were called northerners. That was everything I knew about this world.
I didn't have to work because my father had died saving the lord, so I had some privileges other smallfolk didn't. I could eat three meals a day for free until I turned sixteen.
At that point, I would be given a position in the Citadel if I wanted one. That was out of the question for me. With a mission to fulfill, I wouldn't waste time serving a lord.
I didn't even know what my mission was. He had only said to bring balance and stop some people when the time came. My other privilege was being a playmate to the lord's son, Robb Stark. That was a little annoying because people always told me to lose to him when we played. That wasn't fun for a five-year-old child. Now I, a thirty-five-year-old man, had to do such things.
Thanks to my father's sacrifice, I had a good life. Although I had never met him, I was still sad because this child's memories had become my memories, and I still missed him.
My memories of my father and mother were brief and beautiful, and those memories carried feelings with them.
My father's name was Baelon Snow. When people called him a "bastard," the child hadn't known what "bastard" meant.
When the child asked his father what it meant, his father simply said, "It means I don't know who my father is." It was regrettable to give children different surnames just because they were born out of wedlock.
I was a little curious about that. Did he really not know who his father was, or did he not want to say who his father was?
As for my mother, she also had a surname, and I had inherited hers. That meant she wasn't ordinary smallfolk, but I didn't think she was a noblewoman either.
She came from a family that had been knighted. But just because you were knighted didn't mean your blood became noble. Thanks to that, they had a surname, but the knighthood wasn't hereditary. We were just an ordinary family without any power or means.
The only things they had left me were my father's death benefit of a hundred gold dragons and a keepsake from my mother, a medallion. The medallion had originally belonged to my mother, but she had put it on me before she died.
As for the money, a death benefit was usually only a year's wages, but Lord Stark had given my mother four times that because he owed my father his life.
"Let's stop sightseeing and find some animals."
Although this was an enormous castle with countless animals, catching one was still difficult for a five-year-old child. Almost everything here was wild. Even those mangy dogs and cats looked like direwolves and lions. It took me nearly five hours to corner a small dog that looked like a terrier.
"Come on, good dog, come here. Big brother will give you this bread. Come here." When the dog realized it was trapped, it began to growl and bare its teeth.
Since it looked as though it would attack if I approached, I tore off a piece of bread and tossed it in front of the dog.
It stopped growling and began sniffing the bread. After deciding it was food, the dog began to relax a little. It started looking between me and the bread on the ground.
After seeing that I wasn't trying to approach, it ate the bread on the ground. When the dog saw I still had a piece in my hand, it began looking for another piece.
All its attention was focused on the bread in my hand. When I moved the bread, it followed it with its head. That was amusing to watch. I held out my hand, and it began approaching while sniffing. It ate the bread in my hand, and I began petting it.
"Good boy." Let me see if we can form a bond.
I focused my mind, thinking only of forming a bond. The magic inside me began to move, but it felt as though I were trying to cross an enormous chasm. I kept pushing with my magic, but I began to feel exhausted.
My magic wasn't enough. But after one attempt, I realized something. I had my own guesses about how to form a bond and what had caused the failure. Was this the effect of the 5x Skill? I felt that this animal was too big.
I raised my eyes and shouted at the sky, "Do I have to start from scratch with every skill you gave me?!" Do I have to tame a squirrel or a mouse as my first animal?
Woof, woof...
When the dog began barking, I stopped pondering. "What? Are you expecting me to give you more food? Sorry, I don't have any more."
It really looked as though it understood me. It stopped barking, looked around, then ran into an alley. I needed to start with the smallest animal I could find. On the bright side, at least the 5x Skill worked well.
"I think I'll like this 5x Skill more than any of the other skills." I should head back to the Citadel.
When I returned, someone jumped onto me from around a corner. "Got you!!" We fell to the ground, and he began straddling me before saying, "Will you surrender?"
I froze for a moment. Once I calmed down, I realized it was Robb Stark attacking me.
"That's cheating, Robb."
"No, it isn't. A knight needs to be ready for anything." He stood up and held out a hand to pull me up.
I grabbed his hand and swept his legs out from under him. He fell beside me, and we began wrestling on the ground. We were evenly matched, and neither could pin the other down. A few minutes later, we lay on our backs on the ground, breathing heavily.
Robb turned to me and said, "Giving up was a wise choice."
"You gave up first!"
He stood up and said, "No, I didn't. You did!"
"No, you did!" We went back and forth like that a few more times, then decided to call it a draw. Pretending to be an ordinary five-year-old was exhausting.
(Catelyn Stark's POV)
My lord husband and I stood on the balcony, looking out over the front yard. Then I saw them. My son was playing with that commoner boy again. I turned to my lord husband and asked, "My lord, does he need to play with that commoner boy? I don't think it's appropriate for a noble to be friends with a commoner."
"In the north, it is appropriate. That commoner boy's father saved my life. You have a husband, and your children can know their father, because his father died in my place. In the North, the line between nobles and smallfolk is a little blurred. Winter is coming. We shouldn't waste time on such things. If he has half his father's talent with a sword, he'll make a fine soldier for our son. If he shows the same courage as his father, he might even be knighted."
I watched them from the balcony and said, "If that's what you want, then have it your way." I knew I was being a little harsh on that boy; I wasn't heartless. I pitied the boy for becoming an orphan at such a young age. Most likely, he wouldn't even remember his parents when he grew up.
(Main character's POV)
Robb and I played for several hours, after which I retreated to a quiet spot in the back yard because I had realized something. I had wrestled with him for at least two hours, but I hadn't felt that I had gained five times the wrestling experience.
Was it because I hadn't been focused on wrestling and was only having fun? To test my hypothesis, I got up and picked up a long branch. Holding it like a sword, I began slashing and swinging it for two hours. Just as I had thought, nothing happened.
This time, I held the branch properly and began focusing on training, making vertical cuts. I kept swinging for several hours. Then it came. That feeling of understanding. Yes, it was slight because I had only trained for a short time, but it was there.
It was small, but it was there. I was learning. So it only activated when I focused on or thought about something. If I did something mindlessly, it wouldn't work.
"Hmm, like the other skills, intent matters." Without focus, it wouldn't work.