Chapter 19

A few moons later

"It does work." Aunt Babrey commented as she saw the newly created printing press.

"Yup. But now I'm thinking that I've wasted all my time and effort for nothing." I said and looked at the new bundle of pages I had recently received from Braavos.

To say that paper was an expensive commodity during this era would be a huge understatement.

And what was even more disappointing was the fact that the Citadel and the Paper making guilds in Essos only sold a limited amount of paper to their temporary customers.

A pity.

So in the end, I realized that I won't be able to open my book producing business as long as I don't have a steady supply of paper.

Which meant that sooner or later, I'll have to open a paper mill of my own. Because buying such a large supply of paper from some Braavosi guild was just asking to be bankrupted.

"How is the work at the port going on?" I asked as I started remembering all the methods that were used in the 16-18th century to mass produce paper.

"It's a slow going process." She said with a shrug. "We've made enough space for 5 ships to dock in the port but that's all the progress we've been able to make in the past 2 months. Though I'm surprised that you were able to buy so many ships from Braavos. I didn't think that they would give away their ships and crews so easily." She said, giving him a shrewd look.

"I am persuasive guy." I replied with a careless shrug. "And no, I've not bought 5 but 10 ships. The other 5 are still docked in White Harbor. Or have you forgotten about them."

"Of course I remember them." She lied unconvincingly and he had to stop himself from rolling his eyes.

"Regardless. Put more men at the port. I want it expanded as quickly as possible." I said and got a weird look in return from her.

"Why do you want a large port?" she asked "It's not like we have anything substantial to export or import from Dreadfort."

"Yes. I know. But believe me that we'll have many things to export and import very soon in the future."

She gave me a skeptical look but then simply gave a nod and I knew that she'll follow my command.

"And don't worry about the gold either. We've enough gold in our coffers to hire tens of thousands of men for decades without emptying it. And if we start running out of gold then I'll just go and steal more of it from Littlefinger or the Iron Bank of Braavos."

She chuckled at my words before her chuckles turned into full blown laughter.

After coming from the Kings Landing, I had shared the story about the corruption in the small council and incompetency of the king. I also told her about the absolute genius of Littlefinger who stole from the Crown but got hoodwinked by me instead.

But despite saying that, I was sure that we would not need to do that as I had already started sharing the magically created High Yielding Seeds to some farmers who lived close to Dreadfort.

Before giving away the seeds, I had magically altered them so that the grain procured from them won't grow new Wheat plants. Otherwise some of the farmers might sell the seeds to other people and I'll lose my Monopoly on the High Yielding seeds.

Regardless, the point was that within a year, I'll have all of the farmers within my land work with High Yielding Seeds. That would easily increase the amount of wheat I get from the peasants by 8 times.

And since the many of the Northern houses usually import food from the Riverlands or the Reach, I'll be able to sell it to those houses at a cheaper price and still gain a good amount of gold from them.

And that was just the start of one of the many industries that I'll soon be forming within my lands.

"My Lord. My Lord…" my thoughts were interrupted as their was a frantic knocking in the door.

"Come in" I said, looking up at my Auntie whose face scrunched up in disgust as Maester Wolkan entered the room.

"What is it grey rat?" Auntie asked in an irritated voice and the Maester looked slightly pale under her scrutiny before he passed on a piece of paper to me.

"The Greyjoys have risen in Rebellion. Balon Greyjoy has named himself the King of the Iron Islands and burnt down the Lannister fleet and pillaged and raped their way through the Westerland coasts my lord." He said "The king has called for the banners and Lord Stark has sent us a message to start gathering our levies and meet him in Winterfell within a moon's worth of time."

I stopped for a moment and then wondered if I heard that right.

The Greyjoys had risen in Rebellion against the 7 kingdoms and started the Rebellion by attacking the Westerlands.

Did they really think that they would win the rebellion?

It was unlikely. But now that they have smashed the fleet of the Lannisters, the only sizable fleets that remained intact were the Redwyne fleet and the Royal fleet. If the Ironborns were able to defeat these two fleets in the sea then they'll have an open passport to raid and reave though the coast of the entirety of Westerlands.

I didn't knew how large this Ironfleet was and was doubtful that it was capable of destroying the two other fleets.

But even if they did, it was unlikely that Robert Baratheon would just accept his defeat and allow the Iron Islands to gain independence.

So even if the Ironfleet won (which was unlikely in my mind), and the Ironborn raze and reave the entire coastal area of Westeros North and Reach, Robert Baratheon and the other kingdoms would just raise another fleet and fight again and again until the Ironborns are brought to their heels.

And the rest of the kingdoms would definitely support Robert because everyone hate the Ironborns.

"What are your orders My lord?" Maester Wolkan asked.

"Send for the levies and the bannermen. Tell them to convene in Dreadfort within two weeks. We'll leave for Winterfell from there." I said and the Maester bowed before leaving.

Once the Maester left my Aunt turned to look at me with a slightly worried gaze and asked "Who is going to lead the army?"

I raised an amused eyebrow at that "I am of course."

"No. Definitely not. I'll not allow to go to a war at such a young age. There are many experienced men in Dreadfort who have taken part in Robert's Rebellion. I'm pretty sure that they can lead your armies in your stead. Plus you're a 7 year old boy and the last of your family. No sane person would blame you if you don't participate in the war."

I nodded at her words but also knew that I have to go to the Iron Islands for a personal reason.

If we lost then I would be able to retreat back with what remains of my army properly.

And if we won the war (which was likely to happen) against the Iron Islands then I would be able to poach a lot of the miners and ship builders from those islands as well. After all, Iron Islands were given that name because of the large amount of iron mines in those islands. And the ship builders in Iron Islands were no doubt the most talented ship builders in all of Westeros.

Then there was the fact that I planned on finally selling the reforged Valyrian Steel to Tywin Lannister and poach some talented smiths, miners, wood workers and architects from Lannisport as well.

It took me another half an hour to convince Aunt Barbrey that I'll be the only leading the army and stay away from any real battles. She was of course not happy with my decision and left the room with a stormy expression. I doubt that the next few days with her are going to be easy. But she's family and I would not use compulsion charms to influence any of her decisions.

The Ironborn Rebellion also reminded me of something that I've ignored up until this point.

The lack of information.

I'll probably have to employ a Master of Whisperer very soon if I want to remain informed about the things going around in the world.

Oh well, one thing at a time I guess.