Chapter 71: The First Bond
"Debtor: The Night's Watch. Purchaser and Creditor: Jaime Lannister. Amount: Two hundred gold dragons. Date: 298 AC..."
Muttering as he wrote, Tyrion quickly filled in most of the blanks on the bond. By a stroke of perfect timing, Jakken—who had gone out early to run errands—returned to the office having completed both tasks Egger had assigned. He brought back the custom seals Egger and Tyrion had ordered. This first bond would be completed without any lingering regrets.
"These grids on the back are for when you're short on cash and need to transfer the bond. By recording the date of transfer and having both the original holder and the new recipient sign and provide a thumbprint, the bond can be sold to someone else."
"I've never known what it feels like to be short on cash," Jaime said flatly. Clearly, no one in the room was going to dispute that.
"I believe you, but at least let me finish my lines for the rehearsal," Tyrion muttered, finishing the paperwork and handing the bond to Egger. "There. This first one will have my signature and seal as guarantor. Once the Night's Watch establishes its credit, we can skip this step. Here."
The "Chief Logistics Officer of the Night's Watch" nodded and signed his name in the agent's column: Egger West.
West—this surname was chosen after some deliberation at Tyrion's request. The Imp had told him that Westerosi society placed great importance on family names. If Egger wanted to use the title of Night's Watch Logistics Officer to raise capital from the upper and middle classes of King's Landing, failing to provide even a basic first and last name would create a massive sense of insecurity for those nobles and wealthy merchants, adding invisible friction to the plan. He didn't just need a surname; he needed one that sounded localized enough so as not to cause cognitive dissonance.
Tyrion hadn't offered many opinions throughout the planning phase, but each one he gave was incredibly useful. After thinking it over, Egger agreed. Thus, following a first name that sounded suspiciously like egg (given to him by the peasants who first captured him), Egger finally took control of his own surname.
West was a homophone for the direction, hinting at his origins from west of the Sunset Sea. Hopefully, this localized surname would compensate for the disadvantage of his slightly foreign appearance.
With the fields filled and the signatures signed, Egger took the seals from the bag Jakken had brought back. He pressed them into the ink pad already prepared on the desk and stamped the front of the bond with force. Tyrion's personal seal was standard—just his name—but Egger's seal bore the words 'Night's Watch Logistics Department'. Additionally, the outer edge of the seal featured a ring of jagged lines mimicking the battlements of a castle wall, making it highly striking and instantly recognizable.
The three men pressed their thumbprints at the bottom. Egger wrote a cipher in the blank space, covered it with a drop of molten sealing wax, and pressed it with the newly arrived wax seal... he gave it a quick blow to cool it. With that, the world's first valid Night's Watch Bond was complete.
...
This small piece of paper possessed three levels of anti-counterfeiting: Low, Medium, and High.
The Low-Level protection was the high-grade parchment itself, the content handwritten by Tyrion, and the signatures and seals. As the scam grew and more bonds were issued, this would be the easiest level to forge.
The Medium-Level protection was Egger's original Cipher-Wax seal. The wax was extremely adhesive and would bond tightly to the parchment once cooled. The Wall design on the seal was a basic deterrent, but the cipher underneath was actually Egger rewriting the borrower, date, and amount. It was a unique string of characters that would never repeat. The codebook existed only in Egger's mind; he was the only person in the world who could verify it. Even if a Westerosi managed to force open the wax or melt it, they wouldn't be able to deduce the code of one bond from the code of another. While it wasn't as reliable as a fingerprint, adding a difficult-to-forge mark at a low cost would deter many would-be counterfeiters.
As for the High-Level protection, that was the thumbprint itself. In this era of Westeros, forging a fingerprint was nearly impossible. If Egger were away from the office, his employees would only need to verify the thumbprint; it wouldn't matter if they couldn't read the code under the wax.
Finally, there was the ultimate safeguard: the internal sales ledger kept at the office. This was a world where magic and supernatural powers existed, after all. If someone somehow managed to forge a fingerprint and every other mark perfectly, they could at most claim one or two loans. It would be impossible for them to demand a massive sum of money that Egger had never actually borrowed.
As Jaime signaled his servant to drop a bag of gold on the desk, the first step of the scam Egger had brought to this world was officially taken.
After paying his hush money, Jaime seemed much more at ease. The tension in his face relaxed, and his tone lost its edge. After a few bits of idle chatter, he made an excuse to leave and departed the office with his retinue.
...
"You told me to fleece my own people, and there it is."
"Sigh. Your brother is naturally willing to support you, but he isn't my ideal target. Your family is simply too rich. Growing up in that environment, Jaime has no concept of money. As he said himself—he doesn't know what it feels like to be short of cash." Egger shook his head. "So, while he bought a bond because of you, he will never recommend it to the people around him. What I need is someone with a bit of a foundation but not wealthy enough to be indifferent to money—someone who comes for the returns and interest, and who will bring me more customers. I need 'the greedy,' not 'the donors.' Do you follow me?"
"I see. I ran into Jaime on my way back into the city and just dragged him along," Tyrion said, frowning as he realized the problem. "I didn't think it through."
"It's fine. Our capital just increased by two hundred gold dragons... forty-two thousand silver deers... two hundred ninety-four thousand copper stars. And it's the best kind—the kind we don't have to rush to pay back." Egger didn't want to criticize his benefactor and partner too much, so he cracked a dry joke only a mathematician could appreciate before changing the subject. "So, how did it go with the papermaking lad today?"
"Ah... first, let me say I'm impressed." A smile spread across Tyrion's thoughtful face. "You predicted it perfectly. The young man makes the paper by mashing the raw materials and soaking them in water."
"Excellent." Egger exhaled a long breath and narrowed his eyes, making a major decision. "The 1% monthly interest we discussed is too low. When you recruit people to buy bonds, increase it appropriately based on the situation. You decide the exact amount."
"Increase it even more? It's already 17% a year!"
"If we only wanted to keep the capital chain stable, 17% would be too high." Madoff scammed Americans for twenty years with a 10% return before he collapsed, Egger thought. "But the situation has changed. The birth of new paper is a certainty. As long as we operate correctly, the business we do next—the money we can make—will be far more than 17%."
"What are you two talking about!" Arya, who had been sitting there for ages, shouted in frustration. She understood every word the adults were saying, yet she couldn't understand the meaning at all.
The next part of the conversation shouldn't be heard by the girl. Egger employed a "head-pat" maneuver, ruffling her hair and smiling. "That's all for today. Go back with the guard who brought you. See you tomorrow."
"But it's still early! I have nothing to do if I go back!"
"You have nothing to do, but your Master is busy. Be good. Go back and look through the clothes you brought from Winterfell. Figure out how to dress up, and wear something prettier tomorrow. I'll tell you stories of survival in the wilderness."
"Ugh... fine." Egger was thinking about quickly closing the gap between himself and Arya, but wasn't Arya also thinking about behaving well in front of her new sword master? The man's gesture reminded her of her half-brother Jon. She pouted, looking sad for a moment, but eventually decided not to throw a fit. "I'm going back then. You have to tell more stories tomorrow, and the lesson can't be shorter than today's!"
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