Chapter 49

Tom stood outside the large castle and waited in the line as the people from each village were given a bags filled with seed for sowing in their fields.

Seeds that gave birth to a harvest that had eight to ten times more grain in it than a harvest from normal seeds.

It had been a few years since the Lord Bolton of Dreadfort started giving away these seeds to every village within his lands. Seeds that were the reason behind the prosperity within their village.

He remembered a time within his life when he and his six siblings would go hungry at night because of the lack of food within their home but such a thing had not happened ever since Lord Bolton started giving them these High Yielding Seeds, whatever that meant.

In fact, they had produced so much grain with the help of these seeds within the past few years that his father, the village elder, told them to construct a granary so that they could store away their excess food that they could either sell to their own lord or keep for themselves.

Similar things were happening within their surrounding villages as he had not seen a single hungry child within those villages either. Something that was a miracle onto itself.

After a long wait, he finally reached the front where a sturdy looking man was sitting on a desk with a pen and paper on the table.

The man wrote something on the paper for a while before he looked up at him and asked.

"Name."

"Tom."

"Tom… Village name."

"Blue Valley village." He said, reciting the name that the young lord Bolton had given to their village.

"Number of families in the village?" the man asked and Tom took out a piece of paper and gave it to the older and stern looking man.

He had repeated this process for a few times already but he always felt nervous when standing in front of men like these.

A pity that he didn't knew how to read and write or count his numbers for that matter or he would be able to recite the number from the top of his head like some other learned men.

Granny Abba was the only learned on in his village so she wrote down these things before he came here in order to take the seeds.

"84." The man murmured as he looked at the paper "Last time there were only 81 families in your village. How did that change?" the man asked sternly and Tom felt like a little rabbit under the gaze of a fierce lion before he remembered the answer and said.

"Some folk from the nearby lands came to live within our lands because their own lands didn't produce so much food."

The man continued looking at him for a long moment, as if searching for any lies within his words before he finally gave a nod and he let go of a breath that he didn't knew that he was holding.

"Very well then." The man said before he started to calculate some numbers within a piece of slate with a white stone.

After a while, the man finished his numbers and shouted at the guards standing behind him.

"Luton. Bring out 8 ploughs, 8 seed drills, 16 oxen and 28 shovels." He shouted and the men behind him started to move in unison and within the breath of a few minutes, all those things were brought up to him while he wondered what all this was about.

Sure they had followed the orders given by their lord and created a large barn for cattle but he didn't knew that they would be receiving so many oxen.

And his eyes almost came out of their socket as he looked at the ploughs, shovels and the so called seed drills that were being brought up to him. So far, the only thing that they use to tilt their lands was a wooden shovel. But those shovels and ploughs were clearly made of steel. Steel that only the high lords and the men under them used for their weapons.

In fact, the only time he had seen Castel Forged steel within his own village was when his father showed him the spear with a steel tip that he was gifted at the end of the last war by the late Lord Bolton for his bravery within the battlefield.

To think that they would be receiving so many things made of steel was almost unthinkable to him.

Then the stern man turned to him and said "Every 10 family in you village will receive 1 plough. 1 seed drill and 2 ox. And every 3 family will receive a steel shovel. Is that understood?"

He nodded.

"Then repeat what I said." The man ordered sternly and he repeated what he heard. He was good at that.

The man nodded in satisfaction and said "Every family within your village will give 2 more bushel of grain for the next three years in order to pay for these things. Is that understood?"

"Y… yes." He stammered out. There was a time when giving 2 more bushel of grain to the lord for taxes would have left them with nothing to feed their family but now a days they were could give 2 bushel of grain and still have enough food to eat 3 times a day easily.

"Good. These men." The man said and pointed at the dozen or so guards standing behind him "Would help you in carrying these things back to your village and make sure that no harm comes to you on the way. Is that understood?"

He nodded.

Then the man gestured and a boy who was a few years younger than him came up to them while holding a stack of a paper, ink and quill and the man said.

"Tom. This boy's name is Rodrick. He'll come to your village and take the names and numbers of all the families in your village. He is personally being sent to your village by the lord and you're to follow all his orders and do as he tells you to do like the orders came from the Lord Bolton himself. Is that understood."

"Yes." He said and the man gave a satisfactory nod before gesturing him to leave and he bowed in thanks before leaving the place with the dozen of guards and the teenage boy who turned out to be someone who knew his numbers and letters.

"Can I ask why you're being sent to our village?" he asked the boy cautiously once they were on their way and the boy gave a confident nod and said.

"Yes. I'm going to write the names of every person within your village give that report to Lord Bolton so that he could know how may people are living in his lands. I'm also going to teach you a new method of farming called 4 field crop rotation that Lord Bolton himself invented."

"4 field crop rotation?" he asked, tasting the word in his mouth and the boy gave a nod.

"And last but not the least, I'm going to read this letter in front of all the villagers."

"Letter." He asked as he saw a page filled with words in the boy's hands and kicked himself once again for not learning the letters from Grandma Alba when he had the chance.

"What does it say?" he asked and the boy gave him a feral grin as he said.

"It says that Lord Bolton is offering work to everyone from the age of 15-40."

"What kind of work?" he asked.

"Oh. Many kinds of work. Making bricks. Making roads. Mining. And lord Bolton is even creating a standing army of his own in order to fight off the growing number of bandits within his lands."

"Army?" he asked with childish fascination as he remembered the stories his father told him about war and glory.

"Yes. And the pay is quite good as well." The boy said and his eyes bulged opened once again.

"Pay. I don't think my father was paid the last time he went to war." He said with some confusion and the boy nodded.

"Yes. Levies don't usually get paid aside from any loot that they're able to pick up from the enemy lands and loot from enemy corpses. But the army that Lord Bolton is creating won't be a levy but a standing army that would be taught how to fight and taught and trained with the sole purpose of fighting in a war."

"Is that so?" he asked, wondering if he should ask his father to join this 'standing army' that Lord Bolton was making. But then he thought of something and asked "And how much will I get paid in this army?"

Here, the boy smiled mischievously at him and said "5 gold dragons each year."

And he was sold.

He would join this army even if his father tried to stop him from doing so.

After all, his father himself only earns 1-2 gold dragon per year and that too is spent in buying things for their house with almost nothing left to their name by the end of the year. If he could join this army, then he would be able to rise above his station in an instant.

"You plan on joining it?" the boy asked and he nodded.

"And you. Are you not going to join it?"

The boy thought about it for a moment before he shook his head "I want to but I'm going to join the profession of a teacher once I grow up."

"Teacher?" he asked.

"A… a person who teaches others how to read and write. Something like a maester." The boy explained.

"Why would you want to become a teacher when the army has such good pay?" he asked while scratching his head and the boy grinned at him for a moment and then said.

"Because I'm being paid 10 gold dragons for my services already. And once I learn everything that I need to learn and become a teacher, I would receive 20 gold dragons each year for my services. More, once I get more experience."

Tom gaped.