Chapter 9

The only surviving Stark guardsman was sent off as soon as he regained consciousness so he could report back to Rickard of what had taken place. No matter how much he pleaded for Chad to return with him, he was rebuffed.

Why would he return back to his father after going through all the effort to escape political schemes in the first place? Chad would only return back to the North if his mother was dead and there was no more chance of being used as a political pawn by Lord Stark.

As harsh as it was to abandon the person he loved most in this new life (thanks to his identity's implanted memories), it was simply too dangerous to risk having to magically follow her orders. Besides, she had abandoned him first by allowing Rickard to send him off for ten years of fostering.

The guard, heavily outnumbered, had no choice but to ride back north solo with a letter from Chad explaining his stance on the matter. It was basically accusing Rickard Stark of attempted murder with his co-conspirator Jon Arryn, and that Chad would not return until his majority.

With his 'Fuck-You' message now safely on its way to his father, Chad had followed his earlier plan. He led his men out of the mountains and down south to the nearest village.

Widow's Ford was a small town of only a thousand or so people, built near an old battlefield that made use of the river crossing to hold off the Andal invasion.

Finding people with sailing experience turned out to be the least of Chad's worries when their group sighted the town. He had overlooked the problems involved when marching a few hundred armed clansmen out of the mountains.

Sure, he had accounted for food and camping arrangements for the few days march south, but he had forgotten the impact a large band of savages converging on a small town would have.

Fearing an attack, the villages ran around screaming before barricading themselves in the town centre since there was no wall surrounding the town. Not having a wall was weird considering they lived so close to the Mountains of the Moon and its Andal hating inhabitants.

The western foothills between the mountains and the Riverlands had a few towers of unmortared stone, and some strong points on the High Road had earthen walls four feet high, but they were hardly enough to stop Chad's force from bypassing them.

Hell, most of the defences were not even manned! It seemed strange to him that the clansmen had not taken advantage of this to leave the Vale and settle elsewhere. Though bands of raiders would be easy to ride down outside of the mountains.

Seeing the panic caused by his small army, Chad had decided to leave his men on the outskirts of town and just take the ten armoured Knights with him to calm down the frightened peasants.

He was not worried about being attacked since he was mounted, fully armoured, and facing poorly armed farmers. Chad had also learnt from the Bloody Gate ambush and covered his horse in indestructible armour.

He didn't want to suddenly find himself squashed under a horse thanks to a few well-placed arrows, and with a means of escape, he could then lead his full host forward to burn the village to the ground.

Although he planned to negotiate and pay for iron, if the town became unreasonable, he had no problems with pillaging. A conflict with the Riverlands would be politically undesirable, but attacking a noble was easily grounds for retaliation.

Chad led the ten Knights forward, moving at a walk thanks to them being on foot, and when finally close enough to hail the defenders, he cast a Sonorous Charm.

"I am Chad Stark of Winterfell, and here to trade on my way to Saltpans. If any of you dare lose an arrow, you attack a member of one the Great Houses of Westeros. You will not like the consequences of such an action. Have a representative come out so we can settle this quickly."

Predictably, there came shouts of 'lower your weapons' from among the defenders. No one wanted the nobility converging on their small town for offending a noble, much less for daring to attack or threaten one.

An older, portly man, presumably the town Mayor, came running out seconds after the townspeople fearfully disbanded, afraid of being labelled as rebels. The man, red-faced and out of breath, finally arrived in front of Chad and grovelled without shame.

The fact that Chad was child-sized made the town's representative more afraid rather than putting him at ease. Children were a lot less reasonable than adults when agitated, even more so when they had authority over the life or death of peasants.

Robin Arryn being the perfect example.

"Our sincerest apologies, my Lord, we did not know it was you. We behaved foolishly, fearing an attack from the Mountain Clans." The man explained bowing, before rethinking and getting down on both knees in supplication.

"It's fine. Since you have realised your error and acted accordingly, we can ignore this incident, for favourable prices of course." Chad replied, not forgetting to blackmail the man into complicity.

"Of course my Lord, it is the least we can do! What is it you desire, my Lord, I'm afraid our town is rather small and lacking in trade."

"I need as much iron as you can spare. It doesn't matter if it is only ore, rusted, or scrap pieces from the forge, I will buy anything you can find."

The representative of Widow's Ford cast an eye over Chad's fully plated armour, that of his horse, and the ten men behind him, before looking at the four hundred clansmen a few hundred metres away.

The difference in the quality of arms was astronomical, and the reason a Lord wanted iron understandable. Even one as young as Chad.

"Of course, my Lord, we will be happy to trade. Would you like to wait in our town's inn? I'm afraid our hospitality is severely lacking to accommodate nobility, but our town is at your disposal!" The man said, bootlicking like a professional.

"Thank you for the offer, but I'm sure the townspeople will be more at ease if I remain with my men, less chance of any misunderstanding."

After a bit more brown-nosing, the town's representative rushed off to do his best to satisfy Chad's desire for iron. Though iron was limited in a place like Widow's Ford, it was a small price to pay to keep them from being wiped off the map.

If word got out that Widow's Ford raised arms against a noble, even a noble child, they would have to be punished harshly to set an example. Any sign of rebellion was always put down with extreme prejudice by the rulers of the land.

While he waited, Chad thought about ways to increase the value of his Gold Dragons. Since he could mould metal with his mind and transmute an object into anything he desired, it was child's play to counterfeit coins.

Though he could not make gold directly, he could cover a worthless metal in gold and pass it off as a Gold Dragon. The problem came from the different weights of the two metals and the fact that he would need quite a few to make any decent amount of money.

He had yet to redeem the item card of a thousand Dragons because it would weigh too much and be easily stolen, so he only had four Dragons that he had managed to scavenge before he was sent south.

Since he wasn't going to lug around a thousand gold coins, and skimming gold off four wouldn't make much of a difference, he put this idea at the back of his mind.

Maybe he could use it to later help destabilise the value of the Gold Dragon if he ever decided to cut ties with Westeros or needed a way to besmirch the Lannisters. Their mines running out and counterfeit coins in circulation would make for some potent rumours.

Two hours later, a decent pile of iron had been amassed in front of Chad. Most of it was raw iron ore that had yet to be smelted and a few ingots from the stock of the local blacksmith, but there were also many rusted farming tools mixed in.

All up, it was about two hundred kilos if it was melted down into ingots, and would be enough to make ten suites of Plate if made normally. Thanks to magic, Chad would be able to instead make the armour as thin as possible and stretch the materials out to make eighteen suites of Full Plate Armour.

The amount of iron they were willing to part with was more than he expected from a small town like this, but it was also on a river downstream from major trading hubs, so it made sense. Hopefully, Saltpans would yield even better results.

Because he only wanted iron instead of steel, the total price came out less than a Gold Dragon. Though since neither Chad nor the clansmen had any real idea of how much iron cost, this may have been made cheaper because of his earlier threats.

Or he could still be getting ripped off.

Either way, a full suite of average-quality armour is worth about two Golden Dragons, so he was still making a killing. Especially when a wave of his wand could add carbon to iron and produced top-quality steel.

Giving the man a full Dragon instead of the Silver Stags he asked for, Chad watched the man once again grovel, though this time in gratitude. Thankfully, he was as eager to leave as Chad was to see him go, and he soon departed back to the illusion of safety his village provided.

Overpaying him would hopefully see Chad's reputation not take a hit from the entire event, and ensure the man did what he promised by sending a runner to the Saltpans town to prevent another misunderstanding.

Once there were no longer any witnesses, Chad gathered his men around before turning the scrap pile into a neat stack of iron ingots. With four hundred men, it was now easy for them to transport the ingots away.

By the time they reached the next town, there would be twenty-eight fully armoured Knights Templar under his command.