Ch 29 The Flower Knight Part 1

Jon squinted as he stared at the scorching mid-day sun bearing down on his head. He cursed under his breath, determined to manoeuvre through the bustling crowd at the port near Highgarden as swiftly as possible. Rising early that morning, he had concluded his business and was now making his way back to the docks where his crew was likely still unloading Starkhorses.

'Seven Hells! I'd give anything for a little Northern snow right now,' he mused, sweat dripping profusely from his forehead. Having spent most of his new life in the North, his body had grown accustomed to the biting cold winds, making even the mild heat of the Reach unbearable. He couldn't even imagine what it would be like if he ever went to the dunes of Dorne, just the thought of it sent a shiver down his spine.

Finally catching sight of his two ships docked at the port, Jon's body sagged with relief. He didn't want to pay too much to the port master as dock fees so he didn't have all of his ships docked at the same time instead he had only his main ship docked at all times while the other ships took turns unloading their cargo before they went a bit away from the port to anchor themselves.

In the shade of his ship, Jon spotted Brian, one of the few literate members of his crew, diligently taking notes as workers unloaded Starkhorses onto a waiting wagon.

"Brian! How's it going?" Jon greeted him, joining him in the shade and letting out a sigh of relief. "Everything going smoothly with the deliveries?"

"Yes, Captain," Brian nodded while giving him a smile of sympathy at seeing him drenched in sweat. He gave the wooden slate on which he was taking notes to Jon and said, "This is the last ship being unloaded at the moment. Once it's finished, all our orders will be completed, and the ships will be empty."

"Hmm..." Jon nodded, quickly reviewing the entries on the slate before asking, "No issues with the remaining payments, I hope?"

"No, not at all," Brian shook his head before snorting. "In fact, they were practically fighting each other to be the first ones to pay, just to get their orders sooner. It was quite amusing, witnessing people so eager to part with their money."

"Get used to it, my friend. You'll be seeing more of that in the future," Jon reassured him, patting Brian's shoulder with a confident smile. Returning the slate, Jon glanced around and noticed someone missing, "By the way, Where's Dacey?"

Brian's face suddenly grew uncomfortable, and he pointed silently towards the main ship, avoiding eye contact.

"What's wrong?" Jon inquired.

"It's a bit difficult to explain," Brian shrugged, forcing a smile. "You'll have to see for yourself."

Puzzled by Brian's strange expression, Jon shook his head and headed towards the main ship, where most of his crew resided and kept watch.

Ascending the plank that connected to his ship, Jon exchanged greetings with two crew members on guard duty. When he inquired about Dacey's whereabouts, both of them gestured towards the captain's quarters, wearing the same odd expression as Brian.

Growing increasingly concerned, Jon realized that he hadn't seen Dacey since the meeting with the merchants. His early mornings and late nights, driven by an important task, had kept him away from her. He wondered if his vice-captain had fallen ill after indulging in the spiced food and sweet wines of the southern region.

He found Dacey seated on a small stool outside the captain's room, her back turned towards him. Immediately, he sensed that something was amiss. She was whispering to herself, nodding her head as if possessed, reminiscent of characters from the horror movies of his past world.

Aware of the existence of dark magic in this realm, such as Melisandre's sorcery, Jon felt a twinge of fear. Steeling himself, he cautiously approached Dacey and called out to her in a soft voice, "D-Dacey, are you alright?" She appeared oblivious to his presence, prompting him to inch closer and touch her shoulder, gently attempting to turn her around. "Dacey, what's wrong—Oh, damn it! Shit! By the Seven Hells!"

In an instant, Jon stumbled backwards in fright as soon as he saw her face.

"Huh... Jon, when did you get back?" she asked, wearing a confused expression.

"Damn it! Dacey, what the hell happened to your face?" Jon exclaimed, his hand on his chest as he tried to calm himself.

"Hmm?" She tilted her head, puzzled by his reaction, and absentmindedly touched her face. The reason for Jon's alarm became clear—she had dark circles under her eyes the size of dumplings making her look like a panda while her eyes were sporting more red than white and her hair was in complete disarray, all in all, she looked scary enough to give even Tywin Lannister a heart attack.

Dacey suddenly widened as she realised Jon was in front of her and she immediately pounced on him and started speaking in a rapid, frantic manner, "Jon! you're finally here! Where were you? Do you know how worried I was?"

"Worried about what," Jon asked her while taking her hands from her shoulder and standing up. He was a bit embarrassed about getting scared by something so silly, thankfully no one else saw him fumbling or else his reputation would go down the drain.

"The MONEY! Of course!" she shouted, her eyes wide with madness. "I can't sleep! I can't eat! I can't drink! I can't do anything! Every time I blink, all I can think about is the TEN THOUSAND dragons in that room. How can you just leave it like that? Do you know how much money that is? Do you?"

"I think I do," Jon said with an amused smile, he finally understood the gist of the situation and why everyone was acting so weird, it seems that their vice-captain had gone a bit crazy from seeing so much gold for the first time in her life.

"No, you don't! Do you know that it is more money than the whole of Bear Island earns in a couple of years? Years!" She began pacing frantically in front of him, "I keep thinking that someone's going to steal it or worse I'll open my eyes and find that it was all a dream or the ship could somehow sink and then we'll have to dive down to get it back or—"

"Dacey! DACEY!" Jon seized her shoulders and shook her vigorously. "Calm down."

"Calm down? How can I possibly calm down?" She trembled, her voice filled with anxiety. "What if... What if... and you weren't here... and... Waaahhh!" Suddenly, she burst into tears, sobbing like a child.

Jon enveloped her in a comforting embrace, rubbing her back gently. "Shh... it's alright now. No one is going to steal it," he said as soothingly as he could before he pointed towards the door, "Look! I left one of my best friends here." Gan, the little mouse, darted through the gap under the door and scurried towards them. "He has been guarding our gold at all times. If anyone tried to steal it, he would have alerted me immediately."

Dacey sniffled, her tears subsiding. "That's good, then," she muttered absentmindedly. After a moment, she added, "I think Mother will have a heart attack when she sees the money we made on this trip. Haha..."

Jon's expression turned slightly sheepish, and he coughed. "Ah... about that. I don't think she'll be able to see it for a while..."

"What! Why?"

"Hmm..." Jon thought for a few moments before he asked her, "What do think the Reach has in abundance that the North doesn't have?"

"Money! Lots and lots of money... Hehe..."

Jon rolled his eyes with a smile before he said, "Think again,"

"Umm... Is it food,"

"Exactly," Jon nodded enthusiastically, "

It's the peak of summer right now, and almost everyone in Reach had a wonderful harvest, every single farm is producing more crops than they know what to do with so are at their lowest. If we can grab onto this opportunity then it would be a great boon for our home,"

The year was 294 AC which meant that summer had barely even started and it was supposed to be the longest summer in living history, there were 7 more years to go till 300 AC when winter arrives. So if they are able to regularly supply the North with cheap corps from the Reach it would completely change the picture, it would be similar to the Green Revolution in his previous world.

And the most important part is that it would prepare the North for the grim future ahead. If they had enough food when the cold wind rises eventually, they wouldn't have to worry about feeding the people of the North or any armies they host, so even if they have to fight the Walkers over a prolonged period, they won't have to worry about to dying of starvation first.

And that was what Jon had been up to for the last few days, he got up early in the morning before anyone else woke up and after renting a horse from the nearby market, he would try to travel to as many farms and cover as much distance as he could so that he could compare the prices of all the corps available at the moment, and what he found about the prices had left him completely speechless.

"And most of their crops aren't the hardy ones like ours are so they have a small time limit before which they have to sell them whatever the price otherwise it'll all go to waste," Jon said with a glint in his eyes before he smiled and asked, "Why don't you try and guess how much cheaper the price of grain here is?"

"Umm... Two times? Three times cheaper?" Dacey guessed randomly and when Jon still shook his head, she continued, "Five times? It can't be cheaper than that. Are you kidding me?"

"I am not. I have asked about the prices of almost every kind of crop available and I was shocked every single time," Jon said with a giddy smile, "Most of it is about TEN TIMES cheaper and some of the more abundant ones go as far as fifteen times cheaper than they are in The North,"

"T-That's just absurd,"

"I know!" Jon nodded before his face took on a contemplative expression and said after a while, "I think we only need to spend about three thousand gold dragons to fill our ships to the brim with all kinds of grains and maybe even some of those long-lasting fruits,"

"Amazing!" she exclaimed softly with wonder when she imagined what it would be like to have all the ships with so much food every single trip, "...so we'll have only 7000 gold dragons left?" she said with a small pout, a little bummed out that the money went away so quickly.

"Hmm... Not exactly," Jon said while scratching his head. "You see, I've been thinking about it for a while now because I believe we urgently need to upgrade from these 'borrowed' longships."

"Why? What's wrong with them?"

"Well... they're not exactly designed for carrying cargo over long distances, are they?" Jon looked around at the cramped space of the ship. "We'll never be able to meet the demand for Starkhorses in the Reach, considering how densely populated the cities are, and not to mention the Westerlands, with just the Longships. So I think we need to invest in those huge Trade vessels,"

"I guess that makes sense... So how much does it cost?"

"I've inquired with a couple of merchants around here, and from what I've gathered, there's not exactly a market for them at the moment. However, if we can secure an introduction to someone from House Redwyne, we can easily get a decent trade vessel for around 5000 dragons."

"5000!"

"I know it's a lot, but it would be an investment in our future..."

"No... That's good! That's good," she mumbled with her eyes growing heavy. "Give it... Give it all away..." Her eyes closed abruptly, and she fell asleep right there.

Sigh

"Guess they were right when they said that too much isn't good for you..." Jon mused while gently carrying his sleep-deprived vice-captain to a hammock, allowing her to get some much-needed rest.

After ensuring that she was properly settled, Jon made his way to the deck, seeking a breath of fresh air. As he looked out at the bustling port, he thought about all the farms he had visited and which ones would be best to purchase various grains from. He also considered which crops would be most beneficial for the North.

"CAPTAIN!" A shout from below abruptly interrupted his thoughts, and he glanced down to see a knight bearing the Tyrell rose on his breastplate standing beside the crew on guard duty.

Jon's guard called out to him, beckoning him to come down. He quickly descended to see what the knight wanted. As he stepped onto the plank, the knight stood before him, adopting a formal tone. "Captain Jon, I am here on behalf of Lady Olenna Tyrell. She cordially invites you and Lady Mormont to have lunch with her at noon tomorrow."

Jon's first instinct was, of course, to deny it, with some kind of excuse like he was busy or that he was just leaving the port but he stopped himself at the last moment because he knew that it would be too discourteous and almost insulting to deny a direct invitation by the Lady of a Great House.

Moreover, considering his plans for the Reach's future, it would be unwise to offend the region's rulers. Plus considering that she only sent this invitation after the very last Starkhorse had been unloaded, it meant Lady Olenna had likely taken into account his previous rejection of Willas's invitation, and her spies in the port must have informed her. Declining again would be a grave misstep.

Jon nodded to the knight, accepting the lunch invitation. "Thank you. Please inform Lady Olenna that we gratefully accept her kind invitation."

The knight departed promptly, and Jon found himself lost in thought once more. Despite the adjustments he would have to make to his plans, he knew that engaging with Lady Olenna could potentially open doors and solidify their position in the Reach. The lunch meeting would be an opportunity he couldn't afford to miss.

As the day drew to a close, Jon watched the sunset over the port, contemplating the future of their trade ventures and the prosperity it could bring to the North.

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