~~~3 years Later~~
~~~Vally of Arryn~~~
~~~ Town Hall of Skyfall ~~~
Artys Arryn POV
I stood by the window, looking out over the town.
From here, I could see everything.
It is small, nowhere near any city or even big towns of Westeros, but it's growing fast thanks to the ample jobs we have created here.
To the north, deep in the mountains, lay the silver mines an hour's ride from here. To the northwest were the iron mines.
Next to it was the Iron Guild.
Think of it like a citadel of blacksmiths. Blacksmiths are trained here; there are hundreds of smiths and thousands of trainees, though highly skilled ones are no more than a dozen.
Plus, I taught them quite a few modern smithing techniques, but the important ones are known by the higher-ups only.
A little away from the town, in the other valley, there are distilleries, breweries, and wineries built, and also some mills to make clothes from sheep's wool, and more are being built.
Though no matter what I do, this place can never become a city comparable to King's Landing or any major city.
The thing holding it back is the ports. The nearest coastline is more than a hundred miles away. We cannot sustain more than thirty thousand people; even that would strain our supply chains.
Since the past three years, we here in the Vale, primarily in lands of house Arryn, make wine, rum, vodka, ale, perfumes, and the latest soaps, and whatever we can sell, shipping them across the Vale to the Free Cities, to Slaver's Bay, even to Yi Ti.
Luckily, I had potatoes imported from Yi Ti and sugarcane from the Summer Isles, solving the problem for vodka and rum.
I grow potatoes here in the Vale, though sugarcane is primarily grown in the lands of Darry, Whent, Hawick, and Mooton. These Riverlands are closest to the Vale and former Targaryen loyalists.
"My Lord, we are running out of wood," I heard Lord Grafton's voice from behind, and when I turned, I could see all of them had taken their seats at the high table.
It is my version of a small council. I call it the High Table.
"We need to find more wood if we want to keep building ships like we are," he added.
"I think we should limit it. We cannot keep up with such scale. Many across the realm have already taken note of our ever-growing fleet. The king and the small council would make a move," Lord Royce spoke while raising his hands slightly.
"The king is more interested in the latest batch of our vodka than our fleet," Lord Grafton scoffed.
"As for the small council, Lord Arryn is Hand of the King. I don't think I need to say any further," Lord Grafton argued back.
He is happy with the current arrangements we have here.
I am not surprised, considering he is benefiting the most out of it.
Gulltown is bustling, no taxes to the crown, and, on top of that, after my request, father has allowed House Grafton to build a fleet of sixty warships. Though he has built only one fourth of it so far.
With that, both Grafton and Royce locked themselves into a competition of who would blink first.
"My lords, shall we begin with the annual report?" Soyrn stood as he opened the accounts book.
Yeah, finally the fun part. I had to introduce some modern management techniques to these medieval idiots.
"That's what I have been looking forward to for the past week," I said as I took my seat.
The table was big and circular, with a detailed map of not just Westeros but from Asshai to the Summer Isles to a few other lands like Sothoryos. though nothing in detail about them and the shape of those are probably wrong.
Just like Dragonstone has, it was carved out of wood, only bigger and round.
"My lords, the Vale is richer than ever. This year the income from all sources of House Arryn has reached two million and four hundred thousand gold dragons."
It might sound huge, but it's not.
Lannisters make much more, same with Tyrells, and of course the Iron Throne. People estimate Lannisters roughly make somewhere between three to four million gold dragons annually from everything.
It's the revenue, not the money in pocket.
There are salaries to be paid to knights, men-at-arms, the servants, then upkeep of castles and the town, and other expenses.
The real profit would be much lower.
The reason the crown struggles is they don't tax properly they have to go thourgh a long chain fro peast to there local lords then loca lords would giev it to the great houses then greathouses woudl send to crwon, and the ability to tax is directly proportional to how powerful the king is.
"How much did we fill in the coffers after all expenses?" I asked with anticipation.
It should be a good number.
"Let me see." Soyrn turned a few pages of the accounts book, then there was a smirk on his face. He looked around the table, holding the answer to himself.
"Four hundred thousand gold dragons at best," Soyrn declared in a loud voice.
That's much better than last year's two hundred thousand gold dragons loss.
Yeah, I literally had to borrow from the bank of volantis the money, though I have repaid it now.
"Master Soyrn, are you sure you accounted for all the expenses? The upkeep of the castles, the towns, and the payment of the knights and servants?" Lord Royce asked in disbelief.
He doesn't know much about our business side since I made him governor of Skyfall. He is always busy with mines, distilleries, then town issues and development around it. I had done it to ensure he doesn't become a pain.
"Yes," Soyrn replied with one word, but that one word was enough to make the room go silent.
"That's a lot. It would put House Arryn above House Redwyne, only below the likes of House Lannister, Tyrells, Hightowers, and the crown," Lady Waynwood commented.
"I say equal to Hightowers," Ser Nestor chimed in.
"Soyrn, pass me the book," I asked. He handed it to Ser Jasper next to him, then it went around the table to me.
I opened the book to check the details, and it was not good.
"There is nothing to be happy about. Most of the income came from the silver mines," I declared after looking over the records.
No wonder Lannisters make more. They just mine gold and collect taxes from other Westerland lords, not to mention the wealth of Castamere goes to Lannisters too.
And Tyrells have the largest fertile fields and taxes of Reach lords, Hightowers have fertile lands and Oldtown, and the crown has King's Landing and the entire realm to tax.
Here I am doing alcohol, weapon production, shipmaking, building towns, and all the expenses are just too much.
But a good thing—the Lannister mines are running dry. My birds report Tywin is pretty pissed about it; his response was that he had over two dozen mine workers killed so the news doesn't leak out.
Maybe I should leak it. It would give Tywin more headache.
"How is that a bad thing?" Ser Lyn chimed in, head of the Silver Knights, my personal guard unit I created, about 20 knights sworn to defend me.
Though only Ser Lyn and Kalen are great fighters, the rest are above-average knights.
I had also formalized the garrison at the Bloody Gate, becoming the Order of the Knights of the Moon, responsible for safeguarding the Bloody Gate and the mountain passes.
An order with 120 knights and 240 men-at-arms, plus the helping staff, headed by Ser Jasper, who sat next to Ser Lyn. As for Ser Robar Royce, he is the Lord Commander of my City Watch.
"You are a warrior," Soyrn began, closing his ledger with a soft thud, "coin and governance are not your area of expertise."
"Perhaps you should take up the sword and handle the defenses of the Vale, then I will see if it's your area of expertise," Lyn's jaw tightened.
WTF, for God's sake, he wasn't insulting you.
"He didn't mean to insult you, Ser Lyn," I interjected, because this man is like a Rottweiler, but I have his leash.
He kept his gaze at Soyrn, then looked sideways.
"Let's focus on other important matters now; we have a lot to discuss," I said, my gaze focused on Grafton next to me.
"Yes, about the wood. The lands near Gulltown are not enough, my lord. If we keep cutting, there would be nothing left in a few years at this pace," Lord Grafton explained.
"We should slow down then. We are already making more ships than the rest of the realm combined. It will save us some coin and make the lords less concerned," Lord Royce suggested, which, from the faces of everyone sitting, was rejected.
Seeing this, he could only sigh.
"Lord Royce, we are not doing that. And about the wood issue, we will have them from the North. I will go to the North to talk to Lord Stark regarding it," I suggested.
"Excellent idea, my lord," Ser Nestor praised, his face full of smiles.
This shit… he thinks I will give him lands of his own when I become the Lord of the Eyrie. That's why he has been such a bootlicker.
"And how exactly do you plan to bring those woods all the way from the North to Gulltown?" Lord Royce asked with an amused look.
He thinks it's impossible.
We will cut the wood, tie them, have them float via boats, and bring them to Gulltown via sea—the classic technique used in the Age of Sail.
"Don't worry about that, Lord Royce, I have a plan for it," I said softly with a smile.
"Next issue," I added while taking a sip of water.
"Hill tribes! My lords, we have to ship the barrels of wine and other drinks from Skyfall to Gulltown, and on the way the hill tribes have frequently attacked the carts," Ser Jasper said, almost exhausted.
"Does anybody have a solution?" I asked. I wanted to see what kind of solution they would present.
"I say we get more men to guard the supplies," Lord Corbray suggested.
"Too expensive," Soyrn immediately cut him off.
For a minute, no one answered, everyone thinking about the solution until—
"War!" Ser Lyn said in a low voice with a wicked smile on his face.
"Are you out of your mind? War with hill tribes? We have done it for thousands of years. Whenever we beat them, they simply go and hide in the forests and constantly move their settlements," Lord Corbray immediately said with frustration, banging the table a little too hard.
"I agree. The war would be a total failure like all the previous attempts our forefathers had made to make those savages kneel," Lord Grafton said.
"I think we should increase the number of men guarding the supplies, as they travel much cheaper than a war," he added.
With that, again all eyes focused back on me.
I looked around the table, got up, and went to get a pointing stick from near the window.
I took the stick and pointed at the Vale.
"My lords, and my lady," I spoke while looking at Lady Waynwood.
"The Vale has been tormented by these savages since the Andals took over. For thousands of years, they have refused to bend the knee, assaulted our people, and disturbed the peace of the valley."
"But the time has come—they must be brought to their knees. The reason we lost earlier was because we didn't know where they hide. But that is no longer the case. Two years ago, Soyrn and I sent a few spies to infiltrate them and pinpoint their locations."
With that, the faces of people changed, because they knew which side I was on, and the smile on Ser Lyn grew.
"The time has come. We call the banners. But before that, we will have to equip our men with weapons and have them trained. I am not sending farmers to war. For six months, we will train our levies, and then start the attack."
"Lots of swords and armor would be needed to equip these many men, my lord," Lord Grafton said.
"The Iron Circle has taken care of it. Weapon production is going on at full scale. Within six months, we will have enough," Soyrn broke the good news.
"Let's get to work. Lord Grafton, please make sure this reaches the ears of all lords of the Vale. Tell them to be ready. I will have the supply of weapons and armor ready, but they must send their men. Me and Lord Royce will make a trip to Winterfell."
"The other thing that needs the council's attention is the taxes," Ser Nestor brought another issue to the table.
POV ends
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