Ship-building

"And ready your children for their ride to the south, we gotta earn some money." MIMIRSEN smiled back. Rickard was as happy now as when he had held his children, probably more. If his wife, the late Lady Stark had learned of his thoughts, she would have given him an earful as the She-bear she was. (OC, there was no mention of who she was.)

"So how do start this? We need the money now for our steel ship project to start, don't we?" Rickard asked, back to his old man persona.

"Write a letter to Iron bank, ask them for a two million golden dragon loan, that's the maximum they would lend without asking for collateral to a kingdom in Westeros, more precisely the North. Let me write the letter and when the negotiator comes in person, negotiate to get a loan without any collateral, what's the best we could name for it?"

"Hmm we do not have much to offer really, and the iron bank would not give a low-interest loan to us in that case."

"That's true, even the Lannisters would hesitate, for something like this, a twelve million royal dragon project, probably even more expensive."

"It's because I made plans of spending money before I could earn some," MIMIRSEN lamented. "Tell you what, bring water-filed barrels in the castle of Winterfell, we have to earn golden dragons to spend golden dragons. carry on with the loan deal though."

"How many barrels?"

"How many can you hide from everyone except us?"

"From everyone? That would be a maximum of fifty barrels."

"That is a lot, are you sure they are south-spy proof?"

"They are dungeons of Winterfell, only the Stark heir knows of it, not the master of arms, not the Maester,"

"Good, bring 200 of those barrels and store 50 of them in the dungeons, the rest of them as cover-ups. Do this before I leave, we have the best business proposition for anyone in Westeros."

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MIMIRSEN left the company of Rickard Stark to meet the chief builders and smith, Rikard had called in one day.

"Milord!"

"Silence, I come here with a task for you all, a long but rewarding task. Bring the eldest of you bunch forward." An old man lunged forward to his call.

"This is what you all would be making for the next year or so." MIMIRSEN brought out drawings, on white paper he had conjured earlier, with specifications and detailed descriptions of every step the shipbuilders and smiths had to take to construct this abomination of a ship.

"What do you see?"

"Milord is this paper of free cities?" The chief smith was blemished to the quality of paper in his lord's possession.

"It's not the Paper, leave that alone, what do you see drawn on the paper."

"Milord that's a ship, we are steel-making, blacksmiths, what may we help you in making this ship?"

"I need this ship, some 400 meters long to be made of steel, from start to end." At this proclamation of MIMIRSEN, there was murmuring among the workers. Everyone was doubtful how a steel vessel, that too 400 meters in length would float in the water.

"You are to leave for Cerwyn territory, where you start on this as early as you can. The master smiths would be paid 6 golden dragons for the year for the smiths, while the chief smith and builders are to be paid 13 golden dragons for the year's work. These drawings explain what is to be made, how it is to be made, and when is to be made. I will explain to you." Mimirsen pointed at the chief of builders and Smiths "everything for once. This is a command from your Lord Stark, do you understand."

"Y-Yes, milord."

"Good, pack your bags for tomorrow, we leave at dawn." After bombing the subjects with these plans MIMIRSEN retired for the day to his room.

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The next day, JIM and Rickard Stak were in the dungeons, where they had 50 barrels of water stored, brought to above the dungeons, and carried underground by Brandon under the veil of night. (I did not save from here and had to rewrite the rest, which was very painfully boring to re-write, so it could only be sub-par to what it was once)

Rickard joined them as he jumped into the dungeon via the basement door.

"Why did you have all this brought down to the dungeon?" Brandon complained

"We need to earn money to spend money."

"And people die when they are killed, why is the water to be hidden here?" Brandon complained while huffing, like the unpaid labor worker he was used as.

"I intend to sell this"

"If one could see water to the people, the Riverlands would have been the richest kingdom- Oh they are, because of the trade!" Brandon compensated for his contradiction while MIMIRSEN tapped into the Odinforce to use the Divinity of Love, Fests, and alcohol to turn all of the water into Yellowish Brown liquid.

(A/N- Riverlands was the richest kingdom before the rebellion, due to all the trade it hosted, from North to south, from east to test, as after that they were war razed kingdom, devoid of any willing traders due to the aftermath of war, namely banditry, and anarchy. This is just my view, and if anyone has problems, ALTERNATUM UNIVERSUM, now you don't)

"This, my son is Asgardian Rum, liquor of the gods." Brandon jumped out with this cup, filling it up to take a sip when he received a hard tap on his hand.

"This is Asgardian, one sip and you will beat a dead horse to the race to the afterlife" He picked up the cup and chugged whatever little he could from the barrel.

"Aaghhh!, That packs a punch. Now I want you to listen to my instructions clearly Stark." Brandon's ears perked up. "I am talking to Rickard."

"We will be departing to Cerwyn river bank today, where I will leave the workers for that." MIMIRSEN knew the news of the steel boat will be out in the open soon, but he wanted it to be delayed as late as possible. "While you will sell the Rum, for Midgardians, use one cup of this Rum with one barrel of water and then sell it, otherwise it would be poison."

"Midgardian?" Brandon asked

"That's what we called the earth, Midgard so Midgardian, it had become a sort of habit, forget about it."

"Remember, only trusted people are to be present here for the process."

"Do not worry, I will personally see to it, it would be fun to be a bartender, or would it be a winemaker? It would be a sort of hobby to brew different proportions of it with different recipes, adding wine, fruit juice, and all to it."

"It is, just make sure the Asgardian part is one cup to a barrel. We need money 12 million of the golden ones, and at the same time we need people." He turned to the barrel. "Make some sort of selling arrangement with the iron bank regarding trade to free cities, they would accept after testing this. Ask for at least 110 golden dragons per dozen barrels but 100 golds is the acceptable price, it is worth that much."

"Of the 12 million, in reality, only half, or less would be spent on the vessel itself, rest would be necessary for constructing a port city out of nowhere. The white harbor is very near to the Vale, so it needs a militaristic port, not a trading one, but up north is Boltons which I have different plans for, so we need a port in between them. Karhold is too far up the north for a merchant ship to travel, no matter how enticing the rum is."

"We would need the Flints to be on our side."

"House Flint has been a loyal vassal of Starks for centuries." Rickard pointed.

"Loyal, maybe but they are more closely associated with the Boltons. Call the Flint Lord and discuss with him about the same. I will see the provisions of the militaristic port at Moat Calin later myself."