Chapter 6

267 AC: Winterfell

Brandon

One moon has passed since Brandon marked Shiera and Borors. Convincing his father Rickard about the money was also a success for him. With the help of one million gold dragon coins, Shiera quickly started to build her spy network. It was still in the early stage of its creation but still provided some good-quality information about the other northern houses and the lords of Riverlands.

With the remaining one million coins Brandon started to invest half of it in medical science and the other half in buying various goods and products around the known world. He also built a far superior forge for himself and with the help of it, the Wild Wolf was able to build far cheaper and better quality steel and glass products. With the glass production, the Winterfell heir was able to build a microscope, which helped to identify the origins of many diseases. Brandon named those microscopic lifeforms as germs.

Archmaester Boros was quite ecstatic when Brandon helped him understand the concept of microscopic life forms and how to defend against them. Safe to say, everyone in Winterfell and Wintertown now boiled food and water before consuming it. Walys again wanted to report the findings to the Citadel but was quickly denied by the Winterfell heir.

Brandon also taught magic to Shiera and Boros. Shiera quickly acquired occlumency and legilimency, but her abilities in illusion were lacking. However, her skills in destructive magic were the ones that surprised Brandon the most. The silver-blonde beauty was quite the powerhouse when it came to offensive magic. Even Borors, who was a natural genius in every form of magic was unable to match up her skills of destruction.

Sylvia

A young girl with silver-blonde hair was waiting for her instructor to arrive at the Winterfell training ground. A small boy approached her while she held her wooden sword. "Ned, what are you doing here?" She questioned the small boy.

"I wanna play with big-brother too." The small Eddard answered with a smile.

"Ned…we are not playing." Sylvia softly spoke. "Bran is going to train me to fight with a sword."

"I wanna tain too!" Ned whined.

"It's pronounced train, not tain." She smiled. "T-R-A-I-N! Train!"

"That's what I said." Ned pouted. "No, you didn't." The young girl replied.

"Did too!" The young boy shot back. While the silver-blond girl fired back, "Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

Above the training ground, Lyarra looked at the scene with a delighted smile. "I apologise for my younger sister's behaviour, my lady," Shiera spoke with a whisper. "Oh! Hush now, Shiera." Lady Stark smiled. "Sylvia is a delightful girl. Ned sees her as his older sister and my Bran adores her, don't apologise for such things."

"You're too kind, my lady—" Before the spy mistress could complete Lyarra interrupted, "Oh, stop it, would you, girl." She playfully narrowed her eyes at Shiera, "It's been over a year and yet you still talk to us like we are the same as those slave masters."

"Listen carefully, Shiera, you have left that life behind. Those people will never touch you. You and your sister are part of our family now." The Stark matriarch ensured with a stern voice. "Both of you will always have a home with us till the end of your days."

Shiera smiled brightly, "Thank you, my lady, for everything."

"You're most welcome." Lyarra nodded. "But it is not me who you must be thanking now, is it? Sweetling?"

She nodded, "Yes, it's all thanks to lord Brandon."

"Speaking of…where is Bran?" Asked the Stark matriarch. "Oh, Lord Brandon was looking over some budget reports. He will be joining them shortly." Shiera answered.

"Budget reports?" Lyarra blinked. "Then what is my husband doing?"

"Um…Lord Rickard…went for a hunt with some of his friends." The spy mistress answered meekly. "What…" Lady Stark almost growled, "This would make it a third time this week…Shiera, inform me when my husband returns to the castle."

"Of course, my lady." The spy mistress almost felt bad for the old wolf.

Recently, Rickard has been dumping almost most of his work on Brandon. Ever since the ice trade made the Starks millions, he has left nearly all of his work on the shoulders of the Wild Wolf. Yes, Brandon can do most, if not all of Rickards's work with ease but that's not an excuse for him to go on an early retirement. That's why Shiera felt almost bad for the Stark Lord. Almost.

Brandon

"That lazy bastard," The Stark heir muttered silent curses to his father as he wrote down a letter and allocated a new budget structure for the Winter Town. "Maybe I should Imperio the bastard and make him do his job all day."

'Nah…he will do a decent job at best.' Brandon thought. 'In hindsight, maybe this is not all bad. This allows me the freedom to start whatever project I want without explaining myself to the old man.'

He wrote another letter and stamped it with the official Stark seal. 'The Mormonts can't live like this. They need another income source than just fishing.' Brandon sighed. 'The problem is what are they going to trade with? They do more than 90% import and they only export fish and salt.'

The Winterfell heir scratched his head with annoyance. He knows that salt can be used as a flavouring and for preserving food. It can also be used in dyeing colours and making bleach. Salt was also one of the key ingredients for pottery, soap, and chlorine production.

But the problem was that Mormonts lived in one of the coldest places down the Wall, Bear Island. Located just below the Bay of Ice. So, there was no need for food preservation. As for dyeing colours and making bleach, they neither had the knowledge nor the equipment to make those. The same goes for pottery, soap and chlorine and Brandon wasn't going to them the knowledge for free. So, the Wild Wolf sat in his father's study room with a dilemma, 'Decision, decision….'

He was looking over the documents and letters. One of the letters caught his eye, the letter wasn't anything fancy and by the looks of the paper and the handwriting, it wasn't written by any Nobel either. The paper was dirty, the writing was bearly readable and it was written with charcoal instead of ink.

"To, the great Starks, the High rulers of this land...suspicious people snooping around…scared for the women and children…need help…signed by the Alderman of Oreton village at Stony Shore near the Rills River." Brandon read the letter. 'That's odd…' His eyes narrowed at the letter, 'Rills River and Stony Shore are both under the Ryswells. Why is a small village sending requests for help directly to us instead of their overlords?'

Brandon thought long and hard, the proper thing to do here would be to send a letter to Ryswells and order them to deal with it. However, not sending a scouting party would be very inconsiderate. 'Yes…maybe I will tag along with them. It has nothing to do with me being bored and cooped up inside the castle for over a year.' He smirked. 'Plus, Father always says the one who passes the sentence must also swing the sword. So, the one who assigns a scouting party must also go with them.'

"Tempus!" Brandon snapped his fingers and quickly cast his time-seeing charm. "Shit, I'm running late." He stored the letter in his pocket realm and quickly started to walk towards the training ground.

Chapter 6 is done.

A Merry Christmas to everyone.

I'm sorry for being this late to update. I thought my work would finish in November but it dragged on till December.

Anyway except the next chapter in a much shorter time frame on my Pa-atreon.

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Link is: pa-atreon {dot} com/blazerinfinity

Stay Safe. Peace Out.