***Seventh Bonus Chapter of the Week***
Dreadfort Castle
POV of Domeric Bolton
After three weeks of travel, Domeric and his men finally reached Dreadfort.
The first thing he noticed upon coming back home was the increased amount of ambient magic in the atmosphere.
He had no doubt it was the work of Leaf and Ash whom he'd left in charge of the Godswood.
Once they returned to the castle, his people gawked when they saw him, Varko, Raksa, and Walton riding huge direwolves while another direwolf walking with them.
He made saddles for their direwolves after they arrived at Last Hearth and purchased some saddle materials to prevent suspicion. So, they could ride them easily now, like any other mount.
The castle folk already knew Grim but seeing five huge direwolves side by side was something so majestic that they couldn't forget for a while.
Well, he couldn't blame them. After all his direwolves were alchemy creations and bigger than the adult direwolves at the True North. Not the mention they were faster, stronger, more durable, and agile than normal direwolf. Basically, they were war machines that wore the skin of direwolves. But they didn't need to know that. To the others, they were just big, majestic direwolves and that was a good thing.
After his aunt hugged him for a while, he met her with the golden color direwolf and told her that from now on the direwolf would be her companion and her protector.
She turned her head to him with lightning speed and there was an expression on her face saying, 'Are you serious?'.
'No, I am Domeric, not Sirius.' He wanted to say to her, but he doubted anyone in this world understood that joke. Maybe after he resurrected Sirius, that joke would appear in this world too. Hehe, that would be hilarious to see.
So, he just nodded to his aunt and said. "I didn't name her yet. Thought that you want to name her yourself."
"Thank you. I will name her 'Bethany', the same as my sister's, your mother's name. She will remind me of my sister and you every time I look at it." She said with a radiant smile on her face. Maybe even more radiant than the shiny fur of Bethany at the moment.
So, a memorial name then. Truthfully it was way better than what he expected from his aunt. He thought she would name her something like 'shiny' or 'gold'. On the other hand, that stupid Walton named his direwolf with the name of "Muddy". What a waste. He should name him just like the others. Anyway, what's done is done.
His aunt held a large feast for him to return home from his expedition safely.
Once the short feast ended, he went to the giants and talked with them about a suitable habitat for them. And after a few hours, he gave them a good amount of land in the Lonely Hills along with a steady supply of food until they were able to set themselves up in their new home.
Suffice it to say that he had to create armor for them soon enough.
After all, despite being 14 feet tall, they were still vulnerable to arrows and spears. And he didn't want them to die so cheaply when he eventually took them to war.
Wearing a Frost Steel armor that was imbued with Featherweight Charm would definitely keep them safe from such things as well as allow them to move around without any difficulty.
He would also commission some large swords, war hammers, and shields for them. Just thinking about what kind of damage they could do on a battlefield gave him goosebumps.
Yup, he definitely had to create some magical armor and war hammers for them.
The other thing that came to his notice was the fact that the blacksmiths had gotten used to the blast furnace as well as the water wheel powered hammer. And because of the constant supply of good quality steel, they were now able to mass produce swords, shields, armor, and spears for the Roman-style legion that he was about to train in the near future.
He had now enough armor and weapons to equip an army of 6000 men easily. That was a bit of a bummer because he didn't even have that many soldiers in his army at the moment.
So, it was decided that most of his blacksmiths would now start creating equipment that would benefit the farmers and other smallfolk. As well as steel materials required for ongoing and planned constructions on his lands.
And any weapon and armor made by them would be sold to the other houses of Westeros and Essos. He could also use them as a gift to other lords to improve his relationship with them and gain some favors from them. After all, these were scarcer and more valuable in the North than in Southern lands.
The greatest thing about this was that the armor they created was not only sturdier than the ones created by other blacksmiths, but they also took far less time to be made thanks to the water wheel hammers. This wouldn't stop him from selling those things at an expensive price, but he had no doubt that he could easily create another industry focused solely on smithing in his domain.
But for now, he needed to start creating the army that he would need to protect his prospering domain.
'After all the wealth you can't protect, doesn't truly belong to you, does it?'
He knew this fact very well and that was the reason why he was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible in this world at the moment. Otherwise, why wouldn't he use his magic and hide his identity as a wizard from most of the people?
Because he wasn't strong enough. If he used his magical powers, he could win against a small army, but could he win against a 100.000 men army? Not so likely. And even if he won in some way, he would lose his loyal men, his land was razed down during the battle and he had to start over.
No. That wasn't a smart thing to do. If the king and lords of houses saw him as a threat, they would do everything to kill him and loot his land.
No, he had to wait and bide his time. In time, he would show his land's strength to other lords piece by piece while improving his relationships with them. So, they wouldn't see him as a threat but as a strong ally.
He didn't wish to conquer more lands at the moment anyway. More lands meant more resources but also meant more land that he had to develop and make prosperous. And he didn't need that kind of workload at the moment.
For now, he needed to develop his land to make it his capital city and his logistic headquarters in the future. With a modern city in his hand... in the future... when the time is right... anything would be possible, right?
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Ch.47: Shocking News from the Wall
Ch.48: New Lands for Giants
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