Chapter 1

Woo-woo-woo-woo—

The horn sounded, and then it sounded again.

Once to signify a brother returning home, twice for a wildling attack. But today, why did it keep going?

It had been thousands of years since the Night's Watch last blew the horn thrice, so long that even the more seasoned black brothers had nearly forgotten its meaning. But Aegor hadn't. When the third blast, louder and longer than the first two, ripped through the icy air atop the Wall and echoed in his ears, Aegor was stationed on watch. Trembling, he gripped the icy parapet and peered down from the northern edge. What he saw chilled him to his very soul—something beyond anything he'd ever imagined.

...

Aegor woke with a start, his back drenched in sweat.

The nightmare of the Others' attack had haunted him for ages. Ever since joining the Night's Watch as a recruit and beginning his shifts on the Wall, even after being formally named a ranger, the terror had lingered. To fear something dismissed as legend from thousands of years ago was laughable to most. But Aegor was different—he knew that much of what was written about the Others was real.

Aegor was a transmigrator—a transmigrator of the Night’s Watch.

An otherworldly soul transported to this vibrant, perilous world. No harems, no bids for power—Aegor had ended up in the desolate, forgotten wasteland of the Wall, swearing never to take a wife, hold lands, or father children. He had become a shield that guarded the realms of men, vowing to protect Westeros from the threats lurking in the far north. A noble sentiment, a selfless act spanning worlds.

But the truth? He hadn’t donned the black voluntarily.

It all started a year ago. Aegor wasn’t really “Aegor” to begin with. He’d been an ordinary college graduate in his former world, working a dull but steady job in the quality inspection department of a state-owned enterprise. His life was unremarkable, predictable, and utterly lacking in excitement.

Until one day, he was jolted awake by freezing cold, only to find himself lying in a wilderness, still dressed in his pajamas. Lost and clueless, he stumbled through the barren landscape for half a day before finally reaching a village. The sight left him dumbstruck—all the villagers were Western in appearance, and he couldn’t understand a word they said.

Desperate and starving, he stole some potatoes and clothes to survive. As he debated whether to take a couple of eggs from a chicken coop, his luck ran out—he was caught red-handed and dragged before a local official.

The theft wasn’t a serious crime, but Aegor’s inability to communicate frustrated the peasant official, who impatiently presented him with two items: a chopping knife and a black cloak. Through crude gestures, the man made it clear—Aegor had two choices: lose a hand or don the black.

Unwilling to become a cripple on his first day in a new world, Aegor was sent to Castle Black as a criminal, a “glorious” new member of the Night's Watch. As for the name “Aegor,” it was a random moniker given to him by the villager who caught him, and it stuck.

He still remembered the moment the Wall came into view for the first time, its towering, otherworldly presence stealing his breath. Standing 700 feet tall with sheer, unbroken sides, the Wall was more magnificent and imposing than any mountain Aegor had ever seen in his previous life. Its sheer scale overwhelmed him, leaving no doubt—he had been transported to the world of A Song of Ice and Fire or Game of Thrones. Which version of the story, though, he couldn’t yet determine, trapped as he was in the prison-like confines of Castle Black.

...

“Awake?” Gary, his roommate, was already at the window packing his gear. Hearing movement, the older man glanced over. “Get up, then. Start getting ready early. You don’t want to be rushing around last minute.”

Gary was a grizzled veteran of the Night’s Watch. Orphaned as a child, he had joined the Watch young and served for over forty years. Though his constant posturing as an old-timer was annoying, Gary had been a steady presence in helping Aegor adapt to this world. Ignoring him wasn’t really an option.

Reluctantly, Aegor crawled out of bed, peeling back the damp blanket and starting to dress at a sluggish pace.

As a modern, educated young man, Aegor was quick to adapt. After a year, he had grown relatively comfortable in this world. Aside from his distinctly Eastern features, which marked him as different, he now communicated smoothly with the other brothers of the Watch. But one thing still infuriated him—Westeros’s “Common Tongue” was not the British-accented English he had grown used to in the TV series. Instead, it was a language with only superficial similarities to English in its grammar and script, making it utterly alien to him.

Had it been English, with his decent proficiency, he wouldn’t have ended up in this mess.

After finishing breakfast and completing their preparations, Aegor and Gary joined two other rangers assigned to their patrol. The group mounted their horses and rode to the Wall’s tunnel entrance.

...

The iron gate creaked open, inch by inch, revealing the cold, shadowy tunnel beyond. Ser Waymar Royce, the young knight leading the patrol, sat straight-backed and silent as he nudged his horse forward into the darkness.

The tunnel was perpetually cold and pitch-black, the only sounds the faint whispers of air currents. By the flickering light of their torches, the group passed through three iron gates. When the final barrier lifted, the world beyond the Wall stretched out before them—a vast expanse of untamed wilderness.

They had left Castle Black, the Night’s Watch’s stronghold and hub of resources, venturing beyond the Wall for a routine patrol. Their mission: to scout and track the wildling tribes that had recently been making frequent appearances north of the Wall.

Ahead lay the Haunted Forest. To prevent wildlings from using the cover of trees to mount surprise attacks, the Night’s Watch regularly sent men out to cut back the forest near the Wall. However, with their numbers dwindling year by year, only the three manned castles still maintained these buffer zones. The forest had been encroaching steadily.

Turning back for a moment, Aegor gazed at the Wall. Its surface seemed to “weep,” as rivulets of melting ice trickled down—a good sign, indicating the temperature was near freezing. As long as the weather held, the patrol wouldn’t have to worry about being frozen overnight.

Their horses moved steadily forward, the group crossing the buffer zone and approaching the forest. Despite having patrolled here several times, Aegor still felt a chill every time he stepped into the vast expanse of the Haunted Forest.

It was the 297th year after Aegon’s Conquest. Jon Arryn was still alive; Eddard Stark was in Winterfell, muttering “Winter is Coming” while enjoying the warmth of his hearth and family; Robert Baratheon sat on the Iron Throne, drinking and squandering his legacy; Daenerys Targaryen was a helpless girl across the Narrow Sea, living under another’s roof; and the Others had only just begun stirring in the Lands of Always Winter, preying on scattered wildlings to build their undead army.

The familiar events of the books and show had yet to unfold. The great game of thrones and the battle between ice and fire were still in their early stages. In some ways, arriving in this peaceful summer wasn’t the worst luck. The problem? Aegor had somehow ended up as a bloody ranger of the Night’s Watch.

This meant he couldn’t escape the Wall and its dangers. Instead of living a comfortable life elsewhere, he was forced to ride beyond the Wall, bringing himself face-to-face with the Others’ cold, lifeless eyes.

...

Every member of the Night’s Watch was expected to fight, but only the rangers routinely ventured beyond the Wall. What made Aegor want to scream was the fact that even becoming a ranger hadn’t been his choice. During his months of training as a recruit, he had done everything possible to demonstrate his intelligence and knowledge as a STEM graduate, hoping to be noticed by Commander Mormont or Maester Aemon and assigned a safe post. At the very least, he had hoped to become a steward or a craftsman. But all his efforts had been in vain. Despite his plans, he had been placed under Benjen Stark, becoming one of the elite rangers—a role he wanted least of all.

It wasn’t as though the officers had singled him out. On the contrary, many of his brothers would have gladly traded places with him. Rangers, while venturing beyond the Wall, were generally ordered to prioritize their safety and avoid unnecessary risks. In summer, with temperatures near freezing, their duties were far less dangerous than those of craftsmen or stewards, who were often exposed to harsh conditions.

But winter was coming. The Others had awakened, and the King-Beyond-the-Wall was rallying the wildlings for an invasion. Patrols had already started suffering casualties in recent months. Aegor knew that the rangers could no longer expect to be as comfortable as they had been in recent years.

After his initial frustration and despair, Aegor had come to terms with his situation. He was no longer the only child or top student of his past life. He wasn’t Benjen Stark, with his noble surname, nor Jon Snow, with the aura of a Stark bastard. No matter how much he knew about chemistry or astronomy, to the officers of the Night’s Watch, he was just a “foreigner” convicted of theft. Among the nearly thousand brothers of the Watch, no one had the time or inclination to give him special treatment. As a healthy, capable young man with solid training scores, his path had been inevitable—he was destined to become a ranger.

No one cared whether he wanted the role. He was certain that if he were to vanish on a patrol, the Watch wouldn’t go to great lengths to find him, as they would for someone like Ser Waymar Royce or Benjen Stark. Here, he was just another soldier. And when the war against the Others began in earnest, Aegor knew that with his mediocre swordsmanship and newly learned riding skills, he would likely be little more than fodder.

If he wanted to survive and avoid a meaningless death in this strange world, he needed to find a way to change his fate.

...