12

286 AC

It could be said it was a year from my visit to Stark lands, and as I promised, I quickly went into work, starting one project after another so that once the story starts im more than ready, which is easier said than done...

The first and one of the most important tasks I tried to do was acquiring a large amount of potatoes, which was easier than someone would think, as it was shown, more than one farm in Bolton lands had potatoes, and yet I didn't see any large scale farming, just normal one house small farms enough to feed the family but that's all, asking Wolkan didn't bear any fruit, all I get to know from him was that there were experiments with potatoes in Reach, and at one time it looked good, but then winter came, and farmers weren't capable of farming the potatoes in the snowy winter, which to my knowledge was understandable as even if potatoes could grow in winter, you needed to take care of them carefully, something Reach seemed didn't do, and once winter came most potatoes were gone in the first year, as such it was seemingly understood as summer breed...

Or, if my more paranoid and traitorous mind told me, a simple way for the Reach lords to not lose their monopoly of food distributors as potatoes could be grown almost everywhere, and thus Reach would lose profits in a lot of ways, but if that was true or not was beyond me, it just seemed that most lords believed that if Reach lords couldn't farm potatoes in winter, they too couldn't, after all, Reach were a master of farmers...

So once again asking father, and once again getting permission, I knew father didn't do it from the goodness of his heart, nor because he loved me, if Roose was even capable of love, even if I was his child, it was because I proved that my ideas were mostly successful and very profitable, meaning, Roose wanted to see me bear him another miracle he could milk others for favors and deals...

As such, I became overseer of one of the more good-looking plains, as most Bolton lands, there couldn't be grown corn and such, meaning it was just a plain field, a plain heh, get it?

Stopping my mind from any further deviations was harder than I thought as I came back to thinking, I already had the first experiments done by farmers I paid for from my own pocket, that was three months ago, and now as I watched them carting away in wooden one wheel carts I ordered to be made from my sketches, I couldn't help but grin as I watched the fully grown and healthy colored potatoes...

"Order cooks to make the dish, I want to try them, no cook for all people in there, let this by reward for your work!" There were few cheers at my words as free food was always good, then it became a slow waiting game as I watched cooks preparing the food.

"Milord, we already tried, it is eatable." One of the younger boys said as he delivered me a bowl of cooked potatoes, the guards behind me tensed as I tried the potatoes, and couldn't help but smile, something that made the boy who delivered me potatoes flinch, but by this point, most people knew my smile wasn't mean to be evil, even if it looked as such...

"Good, good, very good..." I looked around, noticing the people looking at me, making me look at them and nod, earning another wave of cheers.

"Today, rest! Tomorrow I want you, and all other farmers that will join you on my orders to plow this entire land plowed and seed with potatoes! After that, I want you all to take care of it to the best of your abilities! This, this is our future! This is the way our people, you will no longer be starved in our North cold winters!" I said with a straight face and a loud voice, well, as the loud and authoritative voice of a six-year-old boy could by, still, my words seemed to work, or was it because of the ten guards behind me?

The farmers all but nodded their heads, promising to do their utmost care, making me again smile...

The field size was around a hundred acres or forty hectares, it was one of the bigger uninhibited plain fields in Bolton lands, and if the next harvest of potatoes would be successful again, then I was sure I could ask my father of another such field, selling to entire North our potatoes wouldn't by a pipe dream as from all lands in the North, just Gift was as plain as Bolton lands, where potatoes could be grown in such quantities...

Knowing my potatoes bet worked, I stopped on my way back to another project, this one was smaller in size, but its importance was the same as the potato farm, it was enormous, well, by this world, a big wooden warehouse with stone work basis, it in truth was where my next project was, and as I drew closer the building by the side of the river, I could hear the sounds of hammers falling down, it was almost synchronized sound, telling me that another trial was a success, at the start, coming with water-powered hammers and air blowers were harder than I thought, it took months for Maester, three fully experienced blacksmiths, and fifteen blacksmith apprentices to come up with the right method, creating water wheel was the easier task, combining the mechanism together, that, that was a horror...

In truth, the one who came up with the right idea was one of the younger apprentices, who, after telling me, was made from blacksmith apprentice to mechanism overseer, as I could see the clear fascination and talent in these primitive auto mechanisms, he wasn't Leonardo Da Vinci, but he had promise, making me promise him any reward with any upgrade or new device he could come up with...

Thankfully, I had this warehouse built before we came up with a method, thus once they came up with it, or rather Johny, just Johny, or rather now Johny Wheel as I named him after his success and to his delight, we could incorporate the designs into the building immediately, now the warehouse or Wheel house as they called it, was housing nine automated hammers, and nine air blowers, always three hammers and three air blowers tied to the one water wheel, I knew we could do more, but then the materials in this time were not right, and I would let them became more experimented before trying to tie more things into one...

"Do you have it?" I asked once outside of the Wheel house, as the inside was too hot, and I would need to shake off my coat or sweet, so I rather stayed outside as one of the blacksmiths came, pride is written on his face.

"Yes, milord! We created it by your exact instructions!" I looked at the horrid appearance of the very primitive distillery tank that was created from copper, don't look at the appearance, as long as it could do what I wanted, then it was alright...

"How long would it take you to create more and bigger ones?" My eyes traveled back to the blacksmith, who put on a thoughtful expression.

"I-I would say, week milord? For the same one, but bigger... Month or more, and I would need help." The man almost nervously said, making me nod, it wasn't so surprising...

"Very well, I will try this product, and if it works as I desire, then I will send someone with my orders for you to make more of them, and bigger ones at that," I said before stopping.

"Yes, let's not forget, good work, even if it doesn't work, it wouldn't be your fault, there for your work, and for all who helped you." I put a few silver coins into the man's hands, making his eyes wide, for me, it was pocket money, but for the peasants?

Well, I clearly made the mans day as he quickly nodded his head in thankfulness, ordering my men to carry the small distillery carefully, I made my way back to the castle, I needed experiments being done with my new toy, I could look on how the water-powered mechanism fare later, for now, the synchronized sounds were more than enough to settle my curious spirit...