Chapter 241

He took out other map, this one of the 7 kingdoms and pointed at Kings Landing.

"Kings Landing has a current population of about 650,000." He said "Of those, about 350,000 live in abject poverty. Begging on the streets, stealing purses, doing menial labor and eating from trash. Their lives are a horror story and they contribute nothing to the City except for bolstering it's population and making the city smell of shit and piss. I would like to ask for your permission to relocate these people to the New Gift. The faster we can do this, the better it'll be. I'll send my men to teach them how to farm. They'll add to the economy of the North and the addition of this many people would give us an addition of 2,000 men in the defense of the Wall."

Kings Robert frowned at that and remained silent for a long moment.

"I'll not force them to relocate." He said while shaking his head "But if you can offer them a better future and they leave on their own then I'll not stop them either. This'll be in your hand."

"Yes your grace." He said and pointed at Gulltown "Gulltown also has a population of about 200,000 people. Half of which are living in poverty. I would like to ask to be allowed to take the men from there as well."

"I'll allow it." The King said "Anything else."

He nodded "The crown does not tax the North a lot. Mostly because the North is the 2nd poorest Kingdom and it's lands don't produce much. But it still tax us on timber, clothes, iron, wool, cattle, leather and a variety of other things. I would ask for the Crown to forgo the taxes from the North until the end of this Winter. It'll be of a lot of help to the smaller lords and help them prepare well for the Long Night that's to come."

"Done." The King said without a second thought "What else?"

"That will be all for now your grace." He said "I would have asked for you to send your men North to guard the Wall but…"

"The pampered shits won't come here. I know." The king said and sighed "Even with all the stories and the Ice sword, if Ned was not my friend then I wouldn't have believed you. Hell, I still don't know how much I believe you. But this will not be enough for the people of the South. If you show them an Ice Sword they'll claim that it's something you found in one of your expedition and are using the White Walkers as an excuse to strength the North so that you could rebel in the future." The King bellowed a laugh at that before he became serious.

"I heard that you brought a Wight with you when you came down from the second expedition." The king said to him.

He nodded "I did. But one of the fanatic of the Faith of the 7 considered it an abomination to all that was living and burned it down before we could even show it to all the Lords of the North. Thankfully, many of them believed our account and the ones that were skeptical jumped in as well as the stories of White walkers are still known in this realm. They believed us and now we've started the preparation for the Great War."

"Great War… hah! I like the sound of that." The King said "You must bring one of these wights to the South Domeric Bolton. Without it, the people of the South will not believe you. Hell, I doubt all of them would believe you even if you show them a living breathing White Walker. But most of them will. And it'll be easier for me to send help up North that way."

He frowned at that "The last time I went up North, I almost died. And my men would have followed shortly after. Finding a White walker is a very difficult task. Trying to find one and then kill it is even more difficult. But the fact it that it is very likely that all the Wights under a White Walker die if you kill the White Walker. So I'm not sure if we'll be as lucky this time."

"I know. But this is a task that someone must do. And you're the man with the greatest experience in going beyond the North." The King said and put his hand on his shoulders "You must do this task Lord Bolton. For your people."

He pretended to think about it and then he nodded "I'll prepare my men for another expedition as soon as I go back to Dreadfort."

"See to it lad." The King said before he turned to Lord Stark "Anything else I could do for the North Ned?"

"The help of the Royal Fleet in transporting the people to the North will be appreciated." Lord Stark said.

King Robert nodded "I'll tell Stannis to do it. Anything else?"

"No. That will be all your grace." Lord Stark replied.