Chapter 6

He has just got the letter that three teams got together to trap a shadow cat. They tracked a shadow cat in the mountain of Vale and are coming to the Eyrie in a day. While tracking it, they also got into trouble with the hill tribes but they quickly escaped.

Thinking of these tribesmen, Artys suddenly thought of one of the problem that may affect the trade. If the tribesmen can be killed or controlled, he can make the high roads safe for travel which can allow land merchants to come and increase their trades.

But although he wanted to do this, it can't be done within a few years. If it could have been done, his previous predecessors would have already done. And when some tried, they died pursuing them.

Although it was not easy, it can be done. But he has to train his men targeting the jungle fights. Perhaps guerilla warfare can be used against the hill tribesmen as same as them. So instead of knights, he has to train people focusing on the agility with reasonable strength.

It seems that it is time to execute another plans of his. A military academy, where he will train men specializing for various forms of fighting and battles. He will open it in the valley right under the Eyrie where villages are.

He will try some of the training methods he has downloaded from this world and also some bits of the training techniques he saw in his previous world. As he did not want to fight for the Iron thrones now but on the other side of the continent. He wanted to expand his influence on Essos and establish a town or city on the Essos.

So to do this, he has to defend as well as fight some battles to keep the city as the free cities on Essos may not be happy to see another city that too from Westeros near them. If he is successful in his plan, he will be able to increase his income to an exponential level but if unsuccessful he will have to face grave consequences.

But he will not hastily execute this plan. He will have to first increase his current power and let it grow along with his current income which was barely enough to break even with his currently high expenditure. And with his new plan in motion, the income will not be able to handle the expenditure and will decrease the reserve.

Now, with more and more place to expend, the income has to be increased quickly before the current reserve dwindles. That is why he was more focused on the shipbuilding factory. Currently the merchant's ships can be built within ten days and warships in almost a fortnight. It was very fast compared with the currently known shipbuilders except Braavos. But even in Braavos, it took the whole city to build it in a day.

He has now a fleet of half a dozen merchants ship and four galleys. This was a huge fleet compared to other nobles in Vale. Even in the scale of Westeros, it was a decent size.

With this, the income has been slowly increasing and more traders are coming for the ships too. But although the medium sized merchant's ships were sold, the military ships and large ships were not sold as it was more expensive and he did not want to sell ships to his potential rivals.

With this growth, he can definitely increase his income along with the size of the coastal village of Claw Town, whose name came from the pointed position of land along the bay of crabs.

Maybe in a year, he can put his other plans into motion. He later sent his representative to count the income from the town. Although it was the territory of Ruthermont, he has invested in the town more than the Lord and is liable to more profit. He later made a deal of 70-30 of the income from the town to Ruthermont. This too was because he promised the Lord Ruthermont with the fixed bare minimum of income of the time of the deal. Above that, the income will be divided.

This way, although Ruthermont was reluctant to part with his share, he will still have more to gain. With barely getting by with the income from the village to amassing wealth will change his perspective. And while Artys will get more profit from this, Ruthermont will still be able have the city (currently town) with the same scale as Gull Town.

He also asked Lord Ruthermont to send his men to guard the factory as it was his hope to quickly increase his wealth and influence and he did not want anything to happen to it before it was accomplished. He also sent some men secretly to monitor the men in the factory and the guards sent from Ruthermont.

He also wanted to see if Lord Ruthermont had other ideas about the factory. Because although nobles swore loyalty to great houses and kings, in Westeros, the loyalty can be changed at anytime and anywhere. Even the North, known for its xenophobic nature, pride and honor, had Boltons and others rebelling and even occupying the Winterfell at latter time period.

And with the shipbuilding factory, more and more population were willing to come to this village increasing its size and therefore increasing the income. There are great interest connected to this factory. So, although Ruthermont house is swore to House Arryn, he did not want to feel the same way as the Starks by making great efforts to only lose it to nobles.

One day, when Artys returned from Ruthermont, there was a solemn environment in the Great Hall. Coming towards the weir wood throne, Artys sat down to hear what seems to be the issue. Lord Steward Nester Royce opened his mouth to try to tell but soon closed it. Other people in the hall were also silent.

Seeing this, Artys called toward Maester Luceon. "Maester Luceon, what seems to be the issue? Is there anything wrong?"

Maester Luceon hearing this approached Artys and handed him the letter. "My lord the raven came this morning. It is better if you read it yourself."

Artys took the letter and opened it. Seeing the contents in the letter, his face was pale. The contents of the letter told about the death of the current hand of the King, Jon Arryn who also happens to be his father.

He wanted to visit the capital this year to prevent this event. But it seems that the event that should have taken place another year was brought forward. Maybe his coming to this world changed the timelines of this world or perhaps accelerated some of them. Nonetheless the things he wanted to avoid happened.

Although he wanted the following events to happen, he wanted to prolong this peaceful times. But it seems that someone did not want to see this. With this event, he now did not know whether the chain of events leading to this point was same as previous. Whether the Lannisters and little finger was involved was now uncertain.

It seems that he has to quickly increase his influence to the capital so he can know accurate information and quickly too.

Seeing Artys silent, others thought he was in shock and was unable to process. Nester Royce was about to come console but stopped and left the hall with others to give time to Artys to process. Soon, the hall was empty and silent with only Artys in the throne.

After few minutes, Artys woke up from his thoughts and found himself alone in the hall. Seeing this, he returned to his room.

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A few days later in King's Landing, Artys arrived in a ship. Sighing, he entered the capital city. Last time he was here was years ago. He looked around the city along the way but felt the same as the time he left.

The King's Landing City Watch, often known as the gold cloaks, guard the wall that encircles the main city. Although King's Landing is the most populated city in Westeros, it is also the ugliest and dirtiest. Outside of the metropolis, the less wealthy people establish slum communities. Outside the city's boundaries, one can smell the stench of its waste.

Quickly reaching the red keep, Artys came to the Great Hall where the dead body of Jon Arryn was lying with stones painted eyes. He soon came near the body and saw the body of his father with his mother standing beside it.

Seeing Artys, Lysa came towards him and hugged him fearing he might not be able to cope with the situation. Artys also hugged her back. After few seconds, they separated while Artys came to the lying Jon. After few minutes, Artys came outside the Hall with his mother.

"How did this happen mother?"

Hearing the question, Lysa replied "They said it was the fever that took him."

Getting the answer, he focused on his mother's face but was not able to find any mistakes. Either his mother was a top notch actress or was really not the one to kill his father as in the series.

"Okay mother. I am tired from the journey. I will go wash up and come for the dinner."

After a while he returned to his chamber to wash up. Seeing Artys walking away, Lysa finally sighed a sigh of relief. After not seeing her son for these few years, he has grown to the point where she was feeling nervous. But thankfully he did not see anything.

At the evening, Artys came to the dining hall for the dinner. After finishing the dinner, he was walking along the hallway when there was a commotion on the way. It seems that king has come to the tower of hand. After few minutes, Artys saw King Robert Baratheon coming towards him. Robert was a tall fat man, with wild, thick and fierce beard.

When king neared him, Artys bowed, "Your grace"

"Rise up kid."

"Thank you your Grace."

"You don't have to thank me. Come with me for a walk."

"Yes, your Grace."

Walking around, Robert spoke, "Jon was a good man. He was like a father to me. Everything I learned, I learned from him. Although I can't do anything about his death, I can help you if you have anything you want. Don't hesitate to tell me."

"Yes your grace. I will."

After a few minutes of conversation, king walked away. Artys also walked toward his room.

Next day, after the usual training, Artys washed up and walked outside to see if anything interests him. When he was on the market, he scoured everywhere but could not find anything of value to him. After few hours, he returned to the red keep. Although the hand of the king was dead, they were allowed to stay in the castle.

And tomorrow it will be more than a week and they can bring back the body of his father to the Vale. According to the custom, the nobles following the Faith of the Seven has to be placed in the hall for seven days before returning to the homeland.

When he reached the tower of hand, someone came to inform him of the arrival of Lord Petyr Baelish waiting for him. After few minutes, Artys came to the private chambers where Petyr Baelish was sitting in the chair with a glass of wine in his hand.

Petyr Baelish was a short guy with a slim build. He has angular features, a tiny goatee on his chin that is pointy, and dark hair that has grey strands going through it.

Seeing Artys entering the chamber, Petyr stood up and spoke, "Sorry for your loss my lord. Jon Arryn was a good man. May god bless his soul."

"Thank you for coming Lord Baelish. How may I help you?"

"I came here to provide you service if you require any. These times can be hard for someone your age to cope up with. If you have any problems or help you need, you can just ask my Lord."

"Sure I will. Thank you for the offer."

"Well I should also go. Let's meet again in better times. Take care my lord."

"You too. Lord Baelish"