(Male protagonist's perspective)
My lord, Ser Rodrik and I are in his sunroom; the scouts just returned yesterday.
"Aermir, I have confirmed that what you said is true, and my opinion remains unchanged, so I will send a Crow to see the king. Let me know if you have any better ideas."
He's really not fit to be a lord. He only cares about honor.
"Sir, we need to take a Crow to see the king."
He slammed his fist on the table and said angrily.
"Are you kidding me, child? You begged me not to send the Crow to the king, and now you're saying we have to send Crow."
"We will send a Crow, not to warn him of a possible rebellion, but to invite him to the tournament on your son's Name Day."
He must be starting to understand what I mean, he said.
"Continue."
"We've all heard or seen how much our king loves his tournaments. Especially those hosted by his closest friends; he'll come immediately, and you can tell him what you want."
"Is this your good idea? I'm very disappointed. I'd rather ride to King's Landing and tell him."
He's utterly Unworthy be a lord; he's too blind, unable to distinguish between his going there and the king coming here. He has no idea how to play the political game.
"Even with the best horses, it takes fifty days to travel from Winterfell to King's Landing's Landing, and sixty or seventy days in these winter conditions. By the time you inform the King, there will surely be traitors who will pass the message to the Ironborn, and by the time you return, their invasion will have already begun. If the King comes here, he will first assemble not the army of the Crownlands, but the army of the North."
"At this moment, what you need to do is persuade the king not to attack immediately, but to gather more men until all the armies are united."
It seems I was able to persuade him to take this action through that thick skull brimming with a sense of honor. This isn't a perfect plan. The perfect plan would have been to prepare the North for rebellion before informing the King. I don't think anyone will rebel at the end of winter; spring is coming, but the snow hasn't completely melted. A raid and war are virtually impossible on half a meter of snow. We have time to wait until the snow has completely melted and spring has begun. They can attack the South, but I don't care about them.
Two months from now, we can hold the tournament. The snow on the competition field has been cleared, the snowfall of the past two months has stopped, and the snow is starting to melt faster. This is the first sign of spring.
All the lords of the North have arrived, and the King will arrive in about a week. Besides the King, two other high-ranking figures have also come. Of course, as close confidants of the King, one is Jon Arryn, and the other is our lord's good father-in-law Hoster Tully. The Reach and the Westerlands didn't even send envoys; they only brought a Gift.
Arrogant idiots, this will be their doom. Even if we send out Crow, it will take them much longer than ships. Ships may be slower at their top speed, but they can keep moving, while Crow can only fly for a limited time. Under perfect conditions, Crow can only fly 160 kilometers a day, and that's in cold weather. But an ordinary longship can cover that distance in 8-10 hours. Especially in the Reach, by the time their Crow arrive, the war may have already begun, or it may have already ended.
Everyone awaited the arrival of the royal procession; there were hundreds of them. The procession stopped. A Giants stepped out of the carriage, but his height wasn't the most impressive thing; what was most impressive was his belly. It was almost two steps ahead of him. This wasn't a stag; at best, it was just a fat pig. The king, his three children, and the queen alighted from the carriage. As soon as the king left the carriage, everyone knelt down.
He threw down his wine glass and shouted.
" Ned! My friend!"
He raised his hands and approached Lord Stark was kneeling on the ground.
"Get up, you old wolf! I've missed you so much, my old friend."
( Cersei's perspective)
We're in the Citadel, but it's worse than our servants' quarters. I still don't understand why we came to this desolate barbarian territory. He's the king, and I'm the queen! For the sake of the Seven, how can we go to someone else's feet? They should be the ones bowing down at our feet, not the other way around to these barbarians. If we offer them even a small Gift, it would be a great honor for them.
"Your Majesty, how long shall we stay in this beautiful place? As members of the royal family, we should not be away from the capital for so long."
"Woman, don't spoil my joy! Go chatter with someone else! We'll be here until the tournament ends, so shut your mouth and enjoy the celebration."
( Eddard Stark's perspective)
Robert and I sat in the sunroom, chatting and reminiscing.
"Your Majesty, I have something important to say. Can we speak alone?"
Let's not say "My King" anymore when we're alone.
"I turned to look at the Kingslayer, "Robert said.
"Don't worry about Jaime. Even if I sleep with a prostitute and am unfaithful to his sister, he'll still be there. You can pretend he doesn't exist."
Seeing that he was there, I wouldn't continue the discussion. Robert gestured for Jaime to leave the room. Then I told him everything that had happened.
"So, it's safe to say the news didn't get out. You used the martial arts tournament as an excuse to bring me here. Ever since I saw you last time, you've learned to be cunning."
"This wasn't my idea; one of my subordinates strongly recommended this plan."
"In this way, the North will be the first to assemble its army, while the majority of the losses will be borne by the Westerlands and the Reach. The Reach will suffer the greatest losses. The person who proposed this plan is a cunning fox. For the benefit of the North, they even dare to manipulate their king."
He took a big gulp of wine and said.
"We can't accuse them just because they stole timber. The evidence is insufficient."
"Why do you think they stole so much timber? Do you think they were going to build houses and merchant ships? They were building longships. They already have the second most powerful fleet in Westeros, why would they need so many ships? It's obviously to fight off other fleets."
"Even if what you say is true, we cannot advance on them until they provide more compelling reasons. If we attack now, that cowardly squid will burn his warships and beg forgiveness for building them without permission, but we can attack if they make their intentions more explicit. Until then, let's enjoy the game."