85 85. Northern Railways
Soon Robert arrived with his army. When he went to greet Alexander, he was shocked to see a little girl around him.
"Who is she, Uncle?" He asked.
"Ah, let me introduce you to our lovely lady Rina. Rina, this is the King," he introduced.
"Hahaha... So this is the famous Rina. I've heard a lot about you girl." Robert warmly said.
"But why did you bring Rina? This is not a place for a child," he questioned.
"Well, she wanted to beat the bad guys. Anyways, I'll stay with her the whole time. Now that you're here, let's head to Pyke." Alexander stood up.
"Wait, Stannis will be coming with the royal fleet. We should wait for him," Robert informed.
"Really, do we still need more ships, Robert? I brought the whole fleet of 250 warships and 80,000 men. I don't think we need anything more." He stated.
"What? So many? If that's the case. Let's go." Robert agreed.
Soon, all the lords boarded the ships. Tywin and the Reach had their own ships. Robert went with him on his steel warship. In their way, the Northern fleet sunk every Ironborn ship they could find.
"Robert, our target is simple. Annihilation of the Ironborns. They are just like Boltons. Ambitious and backstabbers. They will strike you at your lowest. If we're doing this today, we'll do it all the way till the end."
"Yes, you are right uncle. They are also more into stealing and killing. They are a disease to Westeros that must be cured." Robert agreed.
"Good, let's go then." Alexander walked in his full armor.
...
Soon the ships reached the shores of the Iron Islands. The Northern army quickly deboarded the ships and attacked in formations with accuracy. Their mission was clear. Kill anyone that attacked them. Save any woman or child in need.
At the same time, naval ships were bombarding the Iron Islands with magical cannons. Alexander had cast an illusion on Rina. She wasn't seeing all the blood spilling on the fields. Though she still saw the bodies.
He was continuously keeping an eye on her. If he sees her getting upset, he would send her to Phixheim to her friend Unicorn Roony.
Rina started to shoot her little arrows from Alexander's shoulders. He made sure that whichever guy she shoots looked like an ugly demon.
"Good job Rina." He praised her.
...
The siege lasted for some hours. It was an easy victory. Most of the fight was finished even before other lords could start. The Northern Army was just so good. The Ironborns were also very bad at fighting so it made things easier. All of the Greyjoys were dead or captured. Balon Greyjoy was killed. They also saved many salt wives forcefully enslaved there.
Then it came to what was going to happen to the Islands now. Every big Lord gathered in a big tent of the King.
"So, what do we do with the Iron Islands now?" Some Lord asked.
"I get to keep it. Winterfell has enough experience in managing overseas territories and we also have the strength to protect it. Not to forget, I brought the biggest contribution." Alexander sternly stated.
"Point taken, Lord Stark brought his ships and 80,000 men. If it weren't for him, we all would have suffered many more losses," Jon added.
"I don't agree with that. The Iron Islands are nearest to us so we should have some part of it. It was also us who were affected the most," Tywin retorted. He was probably the only lord who would fight over it with Alexander. Most of the Lords had subconsciously decided never to anger the North after they first hand saw their might.
"Then I want to buy the part you want, Lord Tywin," Alexander uninterestedly said. He had already known that Tywin would not agree.
"Sorry, it's not for sale." Tywin denied.
"Even if I give you your ancestral Sword, Brightroar?" Alexander said, shocking everyone. Everyone knew how much Tywin was looking for that Sword. He had hired so many ships to look for them in the past years. It was probably the only thing that could make Tywin make the biggest and dumbest decision of his life.
"If you can get me the sword, you can have these barren islands," Tywin replied with a bit of hope.
"Good, bring the box in soldiers" Alexander loudly said and soon 2 men came in with a long box.
Alexander opened it and took out the sword. He showed it to all the people around in the room. Tywin felt like jumping and quickly take back the family treasure for Alexander.
"Good, then sign the deed, Lord Tywin." He said and gave a parchment to him.
Tywin signed the deed stating that he gave up any right to claim any land on the Iron Islands and recognized it as Stark's property. Then Alexander handed the sword to him. But he had secretly placed a curse on it, that it would eventually fall into the hands of Tyrion.
"It's settled then. Lord Stark owns the Iron Island now." Robert loudly announced.
"Yes, I invite you all to a tourney I will organize in Lannisport for the successful defeat of Ironborn and return of Brightroar to the House Lannister." Tywin proclaimed. It was always about keeping the image for him. Even if he was going bankrupt.
...
The tourney was boring, so Alexander spent most of his time hanging around with Rina. Jorah Mormont didn't participate in the jousting. More like couldn't. This time, he wasn't able to do much in the battle, so he wasn't knighted by Robert like in the books. Hence, he couldn't participate in jousting and didn't declare Lynesse Hightower his queen of love and beauty. A small change was caused by Alexander's actions.
...
The Iron Islands were going to be turned into a naval base. The native people would be given some jobs. Their religion of drowned god was going to be removed slowly. After he returned back, he for the first time felt like he didn't have any work. The Railway tracks were being laid, and everything else was also going smoothly. The north could easily self sustain itself now. It didn't need him.
So, he decided to relax for a while and chill with all the people in Winterfell.
...
1 and a half years later.
It still hurt him seeing all the children grow up, but what could he do? He did announce that he was taking Jon as his ward and legitimized him. The little boy was called Jon Stark from then on. Anna was very happy with that, she didn't really care if he didn't have a Targaryen surname, at least he won't be called Snow now.
[For those who don't know, there is a reserved surname for bastards born in different regions of Westeros.
In the North, they are called Snow.
In the Riverlands, they are called River.
In the Crownlands they are called Waters.
In the Iron Islands, they are called Pyke.
In the Vale, they are called Stone.
In the Stormlands, they are called Storm.
In the Reach, they are called Flowers.
In the Westerlands they are called Hill.
In Dorne they are called Sand.]
For the past 1 year, Alexander worked to make the basic life of the people better. many new inventions were introduced. Water taps, pumps, water towers, bicycle and the most amazing one, Trains.
The whole north was now connected with trains. There were both freight trains and passenger trains. The engine he used was based on Norfolk and Western 611. It was a magnificent steam engine. Though it wasn't really a steam engine as it used clean hydrogen as fuel. The large carriage behind that usually stored coal now houses the Hydrolyser unit to create fuel. Alexander just liked the look of the old train so he went on with it, he had still left a mechanism to make it spew clean steam. It could go up to 150 mph(241 kmph). He was going to cut the ribbon tomorrow and officially start the Northern Railways.
The full-sized passenger trains would have 21 coaches. They will have different classes for how much one wants to spend on. There was no restriction on who can buy which seat. Even a smallfolk with enough money could buy the highest class seats.
Train N&W 611.
21 coaches.
All coaches were double-deckers.
1) Class B: 6 double-decker coaches and 4 restaurants, lowest costing, 780 seats.
2) Class A: 10 premium double-decker coaches with recliners, wide seats, and 4 restaurants. 480 seats, divided into cabins of 6 seats each.
3) Class S: 4 ultra-premium double-decker coaches with full room cabins with beds and room service. 24 rooms.
5 luggage compartments with expansion runes. It can carry 300 horses.
21 coaches + 1 engine.
Sleeper trains would also run on overnight routes.
[You can see the image of the Train and Stark Occupied territory map on Illustration channel of my Discord - https://discord.gg/DgHkrAn
Or see them on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mister_immortal_novel]
...
The next day, a huge crowd came to the Moat City Railway Station. He had invited many big Lords to come and see the engineering marvel. For the past 1 month, Alexander had been advertising the Train in the newspaper. With the warnings to not jump in front of it as it won't be able to stop in time. Many rules and regulations were advertised.
The Rules included:
1. No fighting or criminal activity on the train or railway premises. If found guilty the criminal would be declared the enemy of the whole north and be hunted down.
2. No misbehaving with the train staff or will be banned for life from traveling on trains.
The first train ride of Westeros would be from Moat City to Wintercity. In Wintercity, Alexander had organized a big game tournament. Involving different kinds of sports like Race, Long Jump, Shotput, Javelin throw, Swimming, weight lifting, Archery. Then there were also fighting tournaments like Boxing, Wrestling, Karate, mostly Northern army men were participating in it as only they knew this form of martial art. There were also team sports like Polo, Rowing, Tug of War.
As it was happening in the north, Figure Skating was also there. For all this, Alexander had designed and built a new, bigger Colosseum. For the next 2 weeks, Wintercity was going to be very busy.
But first, the awesome train was going to be inaugurated.
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