While the boorish King Robert kept Queen Cersei suppressed, Greene Kleber needed to find a stepping stone for his own ascent.
If it were a direct audience, the arrogant Cersei Lannister would likely look down on House Kleber, who were called 'half-savages'.
The messenger raven was just a setup; the key was to seize the opportunity to display his ability and strength... Most of the land on Crackclaw Point was barren and desolate, consisting mainly of bogs, pine barrens, and valleys.
In every dark valley on Crackclaw Point, there was a lord, and neither the lords nor their smallfolk trusted any outsiders.
Crackclaw Point was mostly populated by descendants of the First Men. When the Andals tried to take the peninsula back then, they met with failure at every turn.
When the inhabitants of Crackclaw Point weren't fighting foreign enemies, they would slaughter each other internally; family blood feuds were as dark and deep as the mountain bogs.
Sometimes a hero would bring temporary peace to Crackclaw Point, like the legendary hero of House Kleber, Clarence Kleber, but once he died, everything would return to its former state.
During the War of Conquest, Aegon the Conqueror sent Visenya Targaryen to Crackclaw Point to bring them into the fold as direct vassals. Since then, Crackclaw Point had remained steadfastly loyal to House Targaryen... Greene Kleber handed the finished letter to Steward Herschel.
After a moment of silence, Greene Kleber's slender fingers rubbed his ink-black, mid-length wavy hair.
About 100 miles east and slightly north of Whispering City, there was a large area of land that was relatively suitable for farming compared to the rest of Crackclaw Point.
This land once belonged to the sphere of influence of the ancestral Kleber stronghold—Whispering Fort. According to Chief Steward Herschel, relying on that land, the Kleber Family of old had supported a thousand elite clansmen soldiers, maintaining House Kleber's absolute rule over the surrounding area.
After the War of the Usurper, under internal and external pressure, Greene Kleber's mother took the remaining retainers and moved to a then-relatively safe military fortress, renaming it Whispering City.
A dozen years had passed, and the ancestral Whispering Fort was now in ruins; House Kleber had long since lost control over that land... "Surana, my mother must have had a hard time back then."
"My young master, thinking back on it now, I still feel a lingering fear. In the beginning, the Lady had to sleep with two swords as pillows; the longsword was for the Mountain Barbarians who might attack at any moment, and the shortsword was kept for herself."
Greene Kleber chuckled softly, "She was indeed formidable."
A trace of a smile appeared on the face of Surana, who was accustomed to maintaining a cold expression. "The Lady passed away in peace, my lord. You were her greatest pride."
After chatting with the domestic steward Surana for a while, Greene Kleber reflected on Surana's last few veiled words after she left.
As the harvest season for the farms approached, the nearby Mountain Barbarian lords had tacitly set their sights on House Kleber, who had just lost Lady Kleber.
Everyone was poor, but by comparison, the Kleber Family's farms had always been a tempting target.
An excellent opportunity.
At this moment, the master of the Klaeb Territory was just a young boy who had long been sheltered under his mother's wing. The Mountain Barbarians had united for a rare occasion; if they didn't rob him, who would? The advantage is mine!
Surana wasn't worried about the warfare in the Klaeb Territory.
House Kleber had two knights as hereditary retainers, Pel Pili and Mason Baker.
They were the most reliable retainers in this world, nurtured over hundreds of years since the birth of House Kleber.
Under the perilous and unique environment of Crackclaw Point, Kleber's standing army consisted of over two hundred men, each a veteran of many battles.
Twenty of them were clad in full plate armor; against unarmored Mountain Barbarians, one could take on ten.
Surana had followed Greene's mother into many battles; she was agile, and it was rumored that few could match her with a shortsword.
What Surana truly worried about was Greene's youthful impetuosity. In his first time leading troops alone, he might get carried away in the heat of the moment, charge to the front, and accidentally lose his life out there.
Greene was the only remaining scion of House Kleber. If something happened to him, everything sheltered under the Kleber banner would collapse in a short time, and House Kleber would become history.
Greene actually really wanted to tell Surana directly: I'm very cautious, I won't be reckless.
For the sake of a lord's dignity, one must always display courage, so it could not be said.
Since the fusion after his transmigration was completed, every time Greene woke up from sleep, he could feel his physical fitness significantly improving in all aspects.
Greene's sword had long been thirsty for action.
With a mature psychological age, Greene constantly warned himself that this was just one of the ten great illusions caused by physical enhancement.
You are a lord, you have soldiers, stay steady and don't be reckless!
...Aside from a female cousin three years older than him who had been married for four years, Greene was the only surviving member of House Kleber, which was very dangerous for a long-established noble house.
The Klaeb Territory was not a peaceful place; a lord often had to lead his men in battles, large and small.
Now that Lady Kleber was gone, as a lord of Crackclaw Point, Greene Kleber's future life would be like that of his ancestors: fighting, fighting, and more fighting.
Being a lord on Crackclaw Point was a high-risk profession.
What if the last Kleber met with an accident?
Anyone with even a bit of sense would feel a sense of crisis, and people's hearts would waver.
The rank of House Kleber was that of hereditary Baron.
Fitting with House Kleber's current awkward position in the kingdom, Greene's marriage was indeed a problem—he was neither high enough for the great houses nor low enough for the minor ones.
Normally, a fifteen-year-old Greene should at least have a fiancée.
Surana understood that a lord's marriage was not a simple matter of love; the causes and consequences of the War of the Usurper served as a constant warning to nobles not to let love cloud their judgment.
Therefore, Surana felt that even if it were a bastard, Greene needed to leave an heir, regardless of noble traditions and laws.
It wasn't to curse Greene, but to reassure the loyalty of the smallfolk.
With an heir, the lord's marriage would then be handled with ease.
Surana had a son and a daughter; her eldest son, sixteen, was already married and was studying under Chief Steward Herschel.
The younger daughter, Calaia, was thirteen, and her first flowering had arrived a month ago.
She was healthy, beautiful, and most importantly, reliable.
Surana had watched Greene grow up and knew he was not a mean or ungrateful person.
Although bearing a bastard was not honorable, for the Klaeb Territory at this time, it would be a service.
The child would be unable to inherit the Kleber surname and would have to use the bastard surname 'Waters', but they would carry the Kleber bloodline.
At this point, bearing a child with Kleber blood would at least earn a farm, ensuring a lifetime of food and clothing.
She would live better than most women; that would be enough for a lifetime.
Everyone would be better off... Since one must do as the locals do, Greene was only glad he had merged with the original body's memories.
Having integrated the memories, Greene's daily words and actions would not be too out of line; the gradual changes would happen naturally.
As a former loyalist of the dragon family, he could not leave any conspicuous weaknesses.
Under the Faith of the Seven, being too unconventional could easily lead to being labeled a heretic; followers of The Seven were everywhere in Westeros.
Thirteen years old... Greene leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling for a long while.
The conflict with his inner beliefs was too great; he'd discuss it later... After a few days of quiet tallying, Greene's direct subjects totaled about two thousand people, with their livelihood based mainly on hunting, supplemented by farming.
About a thousand people were gathered near Whispering City, while the rest were distributed among ten villages of varying sizes.
One of the villages, located south of Whispering City by the sea, had a population of about 200 and lived by fishing.
It was called Fishing Village; that wasn't a good name, it needed to be changed.
At the very least, the word 'Village' should be changed to 'Port'.
Once this busy period was over, he would have to go there personally for a field inspection and then make plans.
The lord was poor and needed many Gold Dragons... The retainer knight Mason Baker, who had been gone for three days, was inspecting and tallying all the blacksmiths, carpenters, and other craftsmen in the territory according to Greene's orders.
Chief Steward Herschel had already begun arranging for people to clear out vacant rooms.
Concentrating all the power in the territory, centralizing production, dividing labor, and training technicians to prepare for the establishment of a cold weapon factory.
The Klaeb Territory had many excellent yew forests; if he could train a force of longbowmen from the entire populace soon, the advantage would be his.
Elite longbowmen needed more than just archery; they also needed strong discipline, and Greene understood that these things required time to accumulate.
The first thing Greene needed to do was to mobilize the territory's strength to the maximum, gathering all forces to raise a massive force of soldiers, first wiping out the nearby Mountain Barbarians to bring a relatively stable development environment to the territory.
The main issue was still being too poor; Greene planned to temporarily change the house motto to 'Taking is better than hard farming'.
He would change it back once he had money.