"Your lordship!" Several guards from Winterfell greeted Jason with salutes as they approached.
"Hurry and take your young master back to the castle, before he gets lost!" Jason said, shaking his head in mock annoyance.
"I'm not going to run around!" Bran pouted and wrinkled his nose, clearly unhappy about having to leave. Still, he got up reluctantly and prepared to follow his guards back to Winterfell.
Jason chuckled and asked casually, "Bran just told me that your Miss Arya sneaked out too. Have you found her yet?"
One of the guards scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Not yet, my lord. Miss Arya is too quick. We're having a hard time catching her!"
Of course she's quick, Jason thought to himself. Arya Stark would one day travel across nearly all of Westeros and even half of Essos! She would survive every challenge and grow stronger with every step. There really was no one like her.
After seeing Bran and his guards off, Jason ordered Barlow to prepare the carriage. He was planning to visit the lumber mill down south.
It had already been more than ten days since construction had started, and he was curious to see how things were going.
Barlow quickly hitched two horses to a small carriage and drove it into the courtyard.
Meanwhile, dicken and the other four men had already bathed, changed into clean clothes, put on stab-proof vests, and mounted their horses. They formed a guard around the carriage.
Behind them, ten soldiers sat ready on horseback, fully armed and prepared to escort Jason on the road.
Jason climbed into the carriage. Slowly, the castle gates opened with a groan, and Barlow steered the carriage outside.
With dicken, his companions, and the soldiers following, the small convoy made its way through the town.
As they passed through Bidong Market Town, townsfolk lining the road stopped to bow or salute when they recognized Jason's carriage.
Their respect was genuine. If anyone asked why the townspeople held Jason in such high regard, the answer would be simple — the Easter Hospital next to the Easter store.
Following Jason's instructions, Boris had set different prices for medicines — cheaper for commoners and higher for nobles. Thanks to this, even poor families could afford basic treatment. It made a real difference in their lives, and they were deeply grateful to Jason and his house.
This was exactly what Jason Liu had intended.
Without the goodwill of the townspeople, running profitable businesses in the area could quickly draw resentment and trouble. Especially in a place like the North, where people were proud and slow to trust outsiders.
It was no different from how multinational companies operated — if you wanted to succeed in a foreign land, you needed a good reputation, or else the locals would make business impossible.
Luckily for Jason, the common folk of Winterfell Town weren't much of a problem. As long as House Stark didn't grow greedy or hostile, he didn't have much to worry about for now.
Besides, he had another layer of protection — a private army of 300 well-equipped soldiers under his command. That was a serious force, enough to discourage bandits, wildlings, and petty thieves from causing any problems.
Once they left the town behind, the carriage rumbled along the King's Road, heading southward.
Jason pulled back the curtains and looked out through the tempered glass windows. The wilderness outside stretched endlessly, with nothing but frozen fields and forests in sight.
He couldn't help but marvel at the sheer vastness of the North.
It reminded him of modern-day Outer Mongolia or Siberia — cold, harsh, and almost empty of people.
The most striking sight in the distance was the Wolfswood, an enormous forest stretching farther than the eye could see. It had stood there for tens of thousands — maybe hundreds of thousands — of years, untouched and wild.
Honestly, Jason thought, Game of Thrones might be backward in technology, but at least the environment was still clean and pure.
There was none of the pollution, none of the heavy smog that industrialization had brought to the modern world.
What excited Jason even more was the thought of all the untouched natural resources this world must have — endless forests, rich ores, coal, maybe even oil...
Well, he thought, even if oil didn't exist here, just having wood, iron, and coal was already a huge advantage.
As these thoughts ran through his mind, about twenty minutes later, they arrived at the lumber mill.
"It's Lord Easter's carriage! Open the gate!" shouted a soldier from a tall wooden watchtower behind the newly built fence. The sentry had spotted Jason's carriage surrounded by more than a dozen armed cavalry.
Creak—
The wooden gates slowly swung open, making a loud, complaining noise.
It seemed the gates were made of freshly cut wood, and the joints hadn't been properly oiled yet. Jason made a mental note to have someone fix that later.
The carriage rolled inside, followed closely by the rest of the guards on horseback.
Seated inside, Jason could see through the glass windows. Rows of wooden houses were being built inside the fenced area. These homes would soon house the lumberjacks and their families.
The progress was impressive.
There were twenty rows of ten houses each divided into four sections. About half of the houses were already finished, and the other half had their foundations dug and ready.
It proved a simple truth Jason had learned — in an era without machines, if you wanted to build quickly, you needed lots of people.
With 2,000 strong laborers and another 2,000 women and children helping in small ways, the work moved at an incredible speed.
Feeding these workers three meals a day, free of charge, also made a big difference.
In Westeros, most lords barely fed their peasants when they forced them to work. No wonder construction projects usually dragged on forever.
But Jason wasn't like other lords. He spent his own coin to feed and pay the workers fairly.
Though most of these farmers were illiterate and poorly educated, they could still recognize kindness when they saw it.
When a lord treated them well, they would work hard in return.
The poorer and simpler people were, the fewer complicated thoughts they had — and the easier they were to manage with basic fairness and respect.
This was why Jason Liu preferred to recruit his soldiers from among the sons of farmers.
Jason smiled to himself. It seemed that, even in Westeros, that wisdom held true.
The carriage came to a stop, and Jason stepped down.
At once, Jon, Marb, McCann, Bud, Master Torrant — who was overseeing the construction — and a few masons rushed over to greet him respectfully.
Among them, Jason spotted a familiar face he didn't expect to see here.
"Boris? What are you doing at the lumber mill?" Jason asked, raising an eyebrow.
Boris looked tired, but his spirit seemed good. He saluted and explained, "My lord, better ask Jon and McCann. They dragged me here overnight straight from the hospital at Winter Town!"
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