RoWE - Chapter 83

Chapter 83: The Show Begins

The letter to the Wall had been sent, and across the vast distance, Aeg was powerless to exert any further influence on the Night's Watch. He was well aware that, given he was not the only, nor even the main, source of logistics for the Night's Watch, the so-called "logistics affecting the front line" might be extremely limited. Now, all he could hope for was that the raven delivering the letter would arrive safely and swiftly, and that the recipient would take its contents to heart.

Life in King's Landing continued, and after discovering that Arya could serve as his ears in the power center, Aeg put more effort into winning her over. Except for certain things that absolutely couldn't be revealed to her, he was generally willing to take her along wherever he went... The "master-apprentice" bond grew deeper, which was good, but being too familiar often led to her being a bit overwhelming. If it weren't for the fact that she could be quite a presentable noble lady when dressed up, bringing her along would allow him to enjoy the dual pleasure of "being a teacher" and "raising" her. Aeg wasn't sure if it was worth the effort just for a bit of information.

He somewhat missed the compulsory education from his world—children without homework were truly terrifying.

Although troublesome, the unruly child was manageable, but another individual gave Aeg a headache: Jaqen H'ghar had neither become instant friends with Arya nor left as early as expected. Instead, he settled down in the lodgings Aeg arranged, wearing the black and going to work with him every day, doing light chores as instructed, and taking on the task of watching the office when Aeg occasionally left—even after Aeg hired another local employee from King's Landing, Jaqen still made no mention of leaving.

What use was it to have a top spy and assassin by his side if he neither gathered information nor killed for him? Aeg decided to pair him with Arya—either to share some of the pressure or to be driven away by the unruly child: "Aegon, I'm busy today. Go practice swordsmanship with Lady Stark."

"What?" Arya immediately looked unhappy: "No, I only practice with my master. Don't try to fob me off with someone else!"

"You're so bad at it, practicing with you is a waste of my time. Come back to me when you've mastered what I've taught you and can beat my subordinates."

"Someone does not know how to wield a sword, my lord."

"You can get into the royal library, surely you can handle a little girl?" Aeg narrowed his eyes at Jaqen: "I won't ask about your background or restrict your comings and goings, but please be a little more honest and don't treat everyone like a fool... If you can't handle a sword, just teach her something else. Your task is to... not be defeated by her before I'm free."

Jaqen hesitated for a moment before agreeing: "Someone understands."

To prevent Jaqen from feeling constrained, Aeg didn't watch their sword practice in the backyard. Arya was initially unhappy, but soon became excited and competed vigorously with her new sparring partner. Aeg finally breathed a sigh of relief: If Jaqen not only stayed in King's Landing for unclear reasons but also shamelessly pretended to be defenseless, Aeg wouldn't know how to deal with him.

***

After an incident where a bond purchaser came to the office when Aeg was absent, Aeg and Tyrion learned their lesson and set a precise bond issuance schedule—on the agreed days, Aeg would strictly wait at the office from morning till night for Tyrion to bring in customers, while at other times, the hired employees could watch the office to keep it open, allowing Aeg to run around and attend to other matters—such as supervising the paper-making progress at the Neil and Nina siblings' workshop, participating in discussions on improvement plans, urging the mining of obsidian, and purchasing supplies for the Night's Watch.

The summer in King's Landing was as hot and fragrant as usual, but without Catelyn Tully's reckless actions and Petyr Baelish's meddling, the days in the capital of the Seven Kingdoms seemed rather uneventful compared to the original plot—the king was indulging in eating, drinking, and sowing his wild oats, the queen was anxiously continuing her affair with her brother, and the Hand was overwhelmed by the mystery of his foster father's death and the rampant rumors in the city...

Beneath this seemingly peaceful but unharmonious surface, the issuance of the first batch of Night's Watch bonds and the improvement of papermaking techniques supported by them were proceeding quietly. After the first batch of obsidian mined from the ancient mines on Dragonstone was loaded onto ships at the Dragonstone port, along with a large number of auxiliary items purchased by Aeg for the "wight capture plan," crammed into the ship's hold and swaying on the journey to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, the first piece of plant fiber paper with practical value in Westeros, and possibly the entire A Song of Ice and Fire world, was finally born in the small workshop.

This was an important historical moment, especially for the few parties involved who still wanted to make a fortune from it.

Aeg and Tyrion arrived at the workshop where the paper was born, standing together with the papermaking siblings... Of course, Arya, who never missed any excitement, also tagged along.

From the appearance alone, the piece of paper in front of Aeg... apart from its slightly yellowish color and uneven edges, already had the texture of the poorest quality pirated books or spirit money he had seen before his transmigration. Trying to fold or roll it—the flexibility was acceptable; pulling it slightly with his hands—it only deformed slightly without tearing... Now, as long as the ink was clear and didn't bleed when writing on it, this was what they needed.

"Pass me a pen." Aeg extended his hand.

Nina quickly brought over a pen and ink, and Arya snatched them away: "I'll write it!"

Aeg sighed helplessly, with a hint of indulgence: "Alright, you can be the first." The girl, of course, wouldn't be the first. The papermaking siblings wouldn't have called both bosses over unless they had already done experiments. The girl dipped the pen in ink and excitedly wrote her name on the paper: Arya Stark.

Not only that, she doodled under her name, drawing a cloud, a tree, and a little person...

The room fell silent, the siblings tensely watching Aeg and Tyrion, who looked at Aeg with a questioning gaze.

"How is it?"

"What do you mean how is it? Aren't you in charge of printing? Do you think this paper is suitable for printing?"

Tyrion looked at Arya's name and doodles on the paper, stroking his chin in thought for a moment before nodding: "I think it's fine."

"Then it's settled." Aeg said decisively, "Nina, tell me, how much does this piece of paper cost?"

"Cost?" The young inventor blinked her bright eyes: "The cost of raw materials... the cost of a single sheet of paper is almost negligible, mainly the equipment, processing agents, dyes, fuel... and labor!"

"Exclude the equipment and venue, just give me a rough number."

"About ten coppers, I guess."

"Very good. Even after mass production, the real cost will continue to decrease and approach this number, and this number should continue to decrease as the process matures and improves." Aeg calculated in his mind and suddenly turned to ask Tyrion: "How much does a sheet of parchment cost on the market now?"

Two months ago, Tyrion wouldn't have been able to answer this question, but now he had done his homework: "A sheet this size costs more than a silver stag. If you want it thicker and better, it's hard to say."

"Then the situation is clear. Even without improving the process, the cost of our paper is only a fraction of that of parchment." Aeg took a deep breath: "The show is about to begin. To commemorate this historic moment, let's give this paper a name."

Nina was the first to suggest: "Lord Aeg made the most suggestions and contributions to the birth of this paper. Let's call it Westpaper."

"Ha, I wouldn't dare claim the biggest contribution. But calling it Nil and Nina paper would be too strange—how about Lannister paper?"

"Let's call it Arya paper. Look, it has my name on it!"

Amidst the light laughter, Tyrion made the decision: "Let me take the lead this time, shall we? I say we call it Night's Watch paper. It not only highlights the identity of the funder of this paper's development but also serves as free advertising for our bonds!"