Chapter 223: On the Wind
Egger had been forewarned about the mountain clans' excessive hospitality toward guests, so he wasn't overly surprised. Out of respect for local customs and simple politeness, he and Jaime followed the advice they had been given and allowed two young women who visited late at night to stay, sharing their beds and blankets... By the standards of the clansmen, they were considered beauties. However, the two men of the Night's Watch weren't close enough to engage in a four-person encounter without psychological barriers. Thus, warming the bed remained strictly literal.
After bidding farewell to the Flint clan, Egger visited the Wull clan to the west, near the Bay of Ice. The terms settled with Old Flint had proven to be a classic agreement where both sides were satisfied, so not a single condition was changed. Egger successfully negotiated a deal for the most populous clan in the North to settle in the Gift.
With the promise of two castles and steady meals, Egger had secured two major mountain clans—nearly three thousand new residents—for the Gift. Their inclusion gave Egger confidence in the feasibility of his plan. In fact, he now had to consider the opposite problem: overextending himself. If he failed to control the number of outside reinforcements and they moved to the Wall only for him to find he couldn't feed them, the situation would turn farcical.
There were sixteen habitable castles along the Wall. The ideal scenario would be for each to be garrisoned, which meant reaching similar agreements with fourteen more clans. It was impossible for Egger to negotiate them all personally—not only was time a factor, but as Chief Logistics Officer, he shouldn't waste his energy on such repetitive work. Having confirmed that these terms were enough to sway the mountain clans, he decided to stop going himself and delegated the task to his subordinates.
Egger selected five clear-headed soldiers from his retinue. After briefing them on the terms and details, he sent them south to find other nearby clans under the escort of guides and warriors provided by the Wulls. He, Jaime, and the rest returned to Castle Black.
He could bring in reinforcements, but he first had to return to ensure two things: first, that Mormont would accept the terms he had negotiated; and second, that the reinforcements arrived before the Wildlings officially launched their assault.
...
After a brief explanation of the events, Mormont nodded his approval of Egger's plan. The Night's Watch had no choice now; as long as they could hold off the Wildlings, forget sixteen abandoned forts—it would be negotiable even if the clansmen wanted to move into Castle Black itself.
Once Egger finished reporting his gains, the Old Bear briefed him on the latest status of the Wall's defenses and some good news: the Wildlings stationed outside Castle Black had begun to leave one after another, clearly moving to execute the Mance's attack plan mentioned by Ygritte. Although King Stannis had taken most of his forces south, he had sent a dozen fast warships to support Eastwatch. With this maritime assistance, the smuggling route through the Bay of Seals was effectively severed.
Now, the Night's Watch only needed to intercept the two groups attempting to climb the Wall and traverse the Gorge. If successful, they could keep the Wildlings pinned north of the Wall and achieve a total victory in the largest Wildling invasion in a millennium.
Following his talk with the Lord Commander regarding the allocation of the sixteen forts and the settlement of the new residents, Egger received a letter from the Night's Watch industries in King's Landing. In it, Nina reported on the recent operations of the city and the business.
After Renly's sudden death and Stannis's bloodless reclamation of the Iron Throne, the King had pushed forward major reforms in King's Landing—suppressing the Faith of the Seven, spreading the worship of the Lord of Light, and simultaneously cleaning up the immoral industries. The Night's Watch industries, being a prominent target, were inevitably affected. Not only was the printing of the Seven-Pointed Star and erotica forced to stop, but the brothel Egger had cheaply acquired from Littlefinger was also forced to close.
The benefit of not putting all one's eggs in one basket became immediately apparent during this upheaval. Fortunately, the business did not rely solely on those few ventures. While affected, other lines—including dragonglass, cosmetics, and clothing—not only quickly returned to normal but actually expanded. After Nina reassigned the displaced prostitutes to work in the logistics department's restaurants and inns to continue intelligence gathering and secured orders for other legal printed materials, the negative impact of Stannis taking the throne was minimized and swiftly neutralized.
Furthermore, the fellow who had improved the lipsticks and soaps had actually succeeded in turning wildfire into a solid, as Egger had requested. By adding a series of raw materials, the liquid wildfire was blended into a paste-like state. Besides the change in physical properties, Nina reported a change in its chemical nature: its stability and ignition point were greatly increased. It removed the defect of accidental combustion from disturbance, and it was now so stable that even boiling water could not ignite it.
Although they hadn't managed to cook up a liquid explosive as hoped, wildfire was essentially a light oil, and one couldn't expect it to become dynamite just by adding a few ingredients. While solidified wildfire could no longer explode, its stickiness and burning effect remained far superior to ordinary lamp oil or pitch. These characteristics meant a crucial shift: solidified wildfire was now a superior incendiary weapon—better than napalm—that could be transported on a large scale!
Finally, at the end of the letter, Egger learned a piece of news he hadn't been able to clarify through hearsay alone at the Wall: to punish several houses in the Crownlands for supporting Renly's betrayal, Stannis had imposed severe penalties. These included arresting key family members for treason, forcing the provision of hostages, and confiscating property and fiefs to redistribute to loyalists.
Naturally, property included investments in the Night's Watch industries.
The shares held by several major investors, including House Buckwell, were confiscated by Stannis in the name of the Iron Throne. The new King then immediately returned these shares to the Night's Watch industries as a gesture of support for the Watch. Egger used to have to hand over more than half of his monthly income to his backers behind the scenes. But now, with the Crownland houses picking the wrong side and falling from grace, many of the original big bosses had been struck down by Stannis. Now, nearly eighty percent of the business's income was entirely at Egger's disposal. The Night's Watch industries had once been everyone's cash cow; now, it belonged to him alone!
While Stannis had not yet unified the Seven Kingdoms, the business was limited to the Crownlands and the Riverlands. Yet even those two regions could provide Egger with a disposable profit of over a thousand gold dragons a month. With such wealth, feeding clansmen with minimal requirements was incredibly easy.
With ample funding, the Gift repopulation plan could be implemented boldly. However, Egger soon realized a new problem: the failed speculation of the Crownland nobles would lead to their decline, but the vacancies they left behind would never be filled by people without backgrounds like Nina or himself. A group of houses loyal to Stannis would soon rise in King's Landing. During this vacuum, the Night's Watch industries might reign supreme in the city's business world, but once the new nobles gained control of resources, competition and suppression would inevitably follow.
At this juncture, the best long-term strategy with the highest return would be to invest early in winning over and flattering those newly ascended loyalist houses—quickly bringing the Narrow Sea lords who supported Stannis into the fold to build a new interest group. It was the best choice for the future of the business. However, right now, Egger happened to be at a critical moment where he needed money most.
Should he prioritize the development of the Night's Watch industries, or immediately funnel the profits north to feed the Wall and irrigate his grand plan? Put simply: should he play the long game, or kill the goose to get the golden egg?
This should have been an easy choice, but Egger was forced to pick the latter. The ability of the Night's Watch to hold the line at the Wall was the foundation of the whole game. If he held massive profits but failed to do his duty, choosing instead to play politics and social climb in King's Landing... if the Wall fell, even if he escaped alive, he would likely lose his head when the rigid King Stannis came looking for accountability.
Egger stood on the wind, and at the crossroads between making more money and doing big things, the gale blew him onto the latter path.
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