As Davos left the tent, Jon's words still echoed in his mind: "Please, Your Majesty Stannis, proceed to King's Landing as quickly as possible, so that I may return to the Wall and continue my duties with the Nights Watch."
Three hundred years ago, when Aegon the Conqueror landed in Westeros, he decreed that criminals would henceforth be used to replenish the Nights Watch.
This led to a rapid decline in the quality and moral standards of the Nights Watch; donning the black to guard the Wall was no longer a moral choice, and Castle Black became viewed as a place full of trash and criminals.
Davos had originally intended to speak well of Jon to Stannis; with Jon's merits, bestowing an earldom upon him would be more than sufficient, and even a dukedom was not out of the question.
Yet, he was willing to give up all of it to go to the Wall, which was truly admirable.
He saw Penny outside the tent, grumbling and standing there, covering his highly swollen cheek with one hand.
His highly swollen cheek made his features look somewhat comical, which made Davos lament the terrifying force of Jon's slap.
He was indeed a formidable person who had turned defeat into victory on his first battlefield experience; his martial arts must be exceptionally strong.
However, compared to his lament, Penny was furious; seeing Davos emerge from the tent, he irritably said, "When we return to Dragonstone, I will definitely explain this matter to His Majesty. This arrogant little bastard, I must make him suffer a bit!"
As the saying goes, comparing goods makes one discard them; thinking of Jon's stance, and then seeing Penny still thinking about power struggles, made Davos feel a wave of nausea.
He said to Penny, "Jon said that once His Majesty arrives in King's Landing, he will return to the Wall to continue being a Night's Watchman. Your complaint to His Majesty probably won't be of much use."
After hearing Davos's words, Penny was stunned for a long while before speaking: "What? He wants to go back to that godforsaken Wall?"
Penny's intention was, at most, to make Jon suffer a little, for example, by having Stannis reduce the fiefdoms to be awarded to Jon, making him pay for that slap. But if it meant driving Jon away, that was absolutely impossible.
Leaving aside that Jon returning to the Wall would be equivalent to re-embracing the Stark family, ever since the Battle of Blackwater Rush, they were either captured Soldiers or defeated generals like him.
If Jon hadn't held King's Landing and changed the overall situation of Westeros, they would have been in a desperate situation.
They certainly wouldn't be able to keep Dragonstone; they might even have to go into exile overseas.
This is only considering it from the perspective of Stannis's court. If viewed from their own perspective, if Jon refused all rewards, would they still have the face to ask Stannis for any rewards?
This was simply impossible.
In other words, the rewards Jon received represented the upper limit of the rewards they could receive. If Jon received nothing, they would be no exception.
Even Stannis himself would be labeled as stingy and heartless. Anyone else could receive no rewards, but Jon could not!
Realizing this, Penny suppressed the anger in his heart, now only thinking about how to make Jon abandon the idea of returning to the Wall.
"Where is Lady Melisandre?" Penny asked, seeing only Davos emerge.
Seeing Penny like this, Davos only found it amusing, but he still said, "Melisandre is talking to him to persuade Jon to stay."
In fact, Penny's worries were very reasonable, and Jon was precisely relying on this point to dare to slap him, using his offense against Eddard as an excuse.
However, Jon was relatively confident in dealing with both Penny and Davos.
It was like a job requiring two rounds of interviews; Davos was the first round, and Melisandre was the second round.
It was stricter, but if he could pass, Jon would receive more rewards.
"I heard that you left the Wall right after Eddard was imprisoned. This seems a bit unreasonable. Can you tell me why?"
Melisandre looked at Jon, her voice carrying a hint of dreaminess.
The Red Woman indeed got straight to the point. Jon's immediate journey south after hearing of Eddard's framing was indeed somewhat abnormal.
He thought for a moment and said, "The Maester at Castle Black now is Aemon Targaryen. When he heard that the Targaryen family was annihilated, he also had the idea of going south, but he had, after all, been away from his family for decades. As for me, I only left Winterfell a few months ago. I cannot uphold my vows like him. Now that the revenge for my father's death has been settled, I will return to the Wall once His Majesty comes back."
In fact, the Nights Watch system still goes against human nature. When Aemon learned that Daenerys, the Dragon Mom, was rising again in Slaver's Bay, he wished he could immediately go to help her.
Listening to Jon's explanation, Melisandre remained expressionless. Jon had a feeling she was still not entirely satisfied.
—
A moment later, she nodded and said, "So that's how it is. I thought you had received some revelation."
"Revelation?"
A new idea suddenly sparked in Jon's mind. He tentatively asked, "You must be a follower of the lord of light, I presume?"
"That's right, the lord of light is the only true god in this world. The Seven Gods and the Old Gods of Westeros are false gods; we should all abandon them—"
"Stop, stop, stop. You seem a bit too extreme," Jon thought to himself. If Stannis were to immediately push for the worship of the lord of light upon arriving in King's Landing, he would likely face considerable backlash.
The moment the lord of light was mentioned, Melisandre began to chatter incessantly. Jon interrupted her during a pause in her speech.
"I met another follower of the lord of light, just like you. His name is Thoros, and I once told him about a dream I had."
"A dream?"
"Yes," Jon nodded. The mystical omen of dreams was simply too useful; whatever he said it was, it was.
"It wasn't just because Lord Eddard was framed that I chose to flee the Wall and go south, but because I saw a sea of fire in my dream. A person radiating light and heat suddenly appeared before me. He pointed south and showed me a man holding a sword radiating red light, saying that he faced a great challenge and that I should go help him—"
For Melisandre, who loved mysticism, Jon's words directly hit her sweet spot.
A person radiating light, a man holding a glowing sword.
The former is the lord of light, and the latter is Stannis, right! You, Jon, are destined to serve Stannis, there's no escaping it!
Melisandre expressed her admiration for Jon, this young man who could receive revelations from the lord of light in his dreams, even a smile graced her face.
She "interpreted" Jon's dream, and Jon displayed appropriate confusion, but inwardly he felt even more secure.
Now that he had the double insurance of Davos and Melisandre, Stannis would have to seriously consider how to bestow rewards. As long as he wasn't a fool, he wouldn't accept Jon's decision to go to the Wall.
This "second round interview," Jon knew he had passed smoothly, even perfectly. Now he just waited for Stannis to arrive in King's Landing for everything to come to a conclusion and settle down.
The next day, Davos and Melisandre and their party departed. Jon personally saw them off to the ship and even dispatched Soldiers to escort them.
Additionally, he also dumped the burden of Cersei and her two children on them, so whether they lived or died was no longer his concern.
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