When Kal raised this question, how could Tyrion, with his intelligence and with the kingdom's recent circumstances, fail to grasp the meaning hidden behind it?
But when it came to the White Walkers lurking in wait, what could he do?
He was only a mortal.
He could only deal with this matter by mortal means.
"Merely waiting for them to come to us is no solution. My suggestion is to take the initiative and send an expedition beyond the Wall to investigate."
"We can join forces with the free folk there. Their familiarity with the lands beyond the Wall would reduce our losses in the course of the search. Only by learning what those White Walkers are doing can we decide upon our next course."
At Tyrion's suggestion, Kal narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at his queen, who appeared especially lovely in the sunlight.
"Your suggestion is sound. With the strength the Wall now possesses, we truly do have the power to act first."
"So long as we deny the enemy what he wants, then we are doing the right thing."
"If the enemy wishes to huddle in hiding and face this war in a passive manner, then we may as well shatter that illusion."
"The whole race of White Walkers, together with so vast an army of wights—I do not believe they can truly vanish among the mountains beyond the Wall without leaving the slightest trace."
As Kal spoke, his gaze gradually turned stern, and the corners of his mouth curled faintly upward.
"Then should we send word to the Wall at once and have Lord Commander Benjen Stark and the others make ready?" Tyrion asked after Kal gave his approval.
Kal thought for a moment, then shook his head slightly. His fingers tapped lightly against the armrest of his chair before he turned to Sansa and said, "Lord Eddard Stark has returned to the North, and for the past two years he has been overseeing the North's affairs. Let Lord Eddard preside over this matter. With him there, it will be far easier to coordinate all matters throughout the North."
"Robb Stark and the others have also achieved much in their year beyond the Wall. Aside from some frictions at the beginning, the free folk and the Northmen have, under Lord Eddard's mediation, blended together quite well afterward."
"I think this matter would be better left in Lord Eddard's hands."
"…No, I may as well make the journey myself. Very well, it is settled."
By the end of it, Kal felt it still was not quite proper, and simply decided it would be better if he went himself.
As for the king wishing to go to the Wall in person, Tyrion was not overly surprised. He merely nodded in silence.
Ever since his coronation, the affairs of the Wall had indeed consumed a great part of the Seven Kingdoms' energy, and during this past year Kal had often traveled to the North.
By now, the small council had already grown used to it.
Even so, Tyrion glanced at Sansa and then offered a word of counsel.
"If you mean to launch another expedition, I would advise that you not go beyond the Wall yourself this time. The Grand Maester says the queen will likely give birth in about three months. If you are by her side, it will be much safer."
For a realm, it was not only the king who mattered.
Its continuation mattered just as much, and the stability of its heir was the most important matter of all.
Why had Robert Baratheon and Tywin Lannister once clashed so fiercely?
Aside from the stain upon Robert's honor, was not the heart of it the matter of the heir?
That was a red line that simply could not be crossed, and the final bottom line from which there could be no retreat.
For House Lannister to play such games—for Robert not to have every last one of them beheaded had truly been mercy enough.
Kal pressed his lips together, looked at Sansa, and nodded.
"Do not worry. I have kept my eye on this at all times."
This was naturally not something Kal would overlook. In the game world, those descendants of his could not be counted as truly whole people.
At bottom, they were only lines of code. They could not grow up, nor could they speak.
Kal could not even bring them out of that world.
So in his heart, Kal truly could not regard the descendants born in that world as his children, even those he had with Erevi.
But in the real world, things were entirely different.
The child in Sansa's womb was, in the truest sense, the first descendant he would have across two lifetimes. It was the continuation of a life bound to him by blood and flesh.
He valued it more than anyone.
And thinking of that, Kal could not help but think of Erevi, whom he had not seen again since leaving that world, and of Margaery Tyrell, who had originally remained at Casterly Rock, but whom Kal had brought to King's Landing a year after the marriage so that she might live there as well.
It seemed Erevi had lately become pregnant too, and as for Margaery, the Grand Maester had reported that she had been pregnant for at least three months.
Three at once. Even Kal could not help scratching his head.
'I wonder whether this counts as answering the kingdom's call, beginning with myself.'
The thought made Kal mutter inwardly to himself.
Ever since his coronation, he truly had been pushing population growth, for it would be the most important foundation of his future rule over Westeros.
At the same time, it was also preparation for war.
"Very well, let us leave the matter there for now."
Kal waved a hand, driving the idle thoughts from his mind and returning to the business at hand.
His gaze turned serious as he looked once more at Tyrion.
"As for the matter I raised before, concerning the capital's relocation, it is not merely that I wish to indulge myself."
"The first reason is that, after several hundred years of growth, King's Landing truly can no longer bear the duties a capital city ought to bear."
"The Targaryens' planning for King's Landing was too shortsighted. If we continue to treat this place as the political center of the Seven Kingdoms, some of my later plans will be hindered."
"As for the second reason, beyond all that, I mean to turn King's Landing into a purely industrial and economic city, one that will drive the kingdom's most basic development."
"It is connected in all directions and enjoys an excellent location. It holds a natural advantage where economic growth is concerned."
"And after several hundred years of Targaryen rule, together with its political weight as the capital, it already possesses a solid foundation in agriculture, trade, and industry alike."
"With such natural advantages, we need only make a slight move, and it will develop with the current."
"At the same time, once the war is over, the Seven Kingdoms will be able to recover their strength with the greatest possible speed."
"If we plan ahead and carry these things out with purpose, we can avoid many unnecessary setbacks, and the kingdom's rise will be plain to see."
"After all, the economic foundation determines the superstructure, and the superstructure in turn acts upon the economic foundation."
"That is a fact of mutual dependence. But if these plans are to be carried out, relocating the capital is unavoidable, and it must be done."
"Only thus can we avoid the many hidden dangers involved, whether the threat of war or anything else."
Tyrion, who had thought the matter already past, was caught wholly off guard when he suddenly heard Kal explain his true thoughts and plans for moving the capital. He opened his mouth in shock and could not close it for a long while.
He had never thought of such a matter, nor had he ever looked upon it from so far-seeing a vantage.
For only by standing high enough, and by looking more than a hundred years ahead, could one begin to perceive such things.
"The economic foundation determines the superstructure?"
Tyrion repeated Kal's words blankly, as though enlightenment had been poured straight into his mind, and his eyes gradually brightened.
Seeing that he had grasped the heart of the matter, Kal finally nodded in satisfaction.
"The economic foundation means the totality of the relations of production determined by the productive forces at a given stage of a society's development. As for the superstructure, it is the ideology built upon a given economic foundation, together with the institutions, organizations, and facilities corresponding to it."
"So without money, what kingdom can you build? How will you provide defense, education, or anything else?"
"Tyrion, broaden your vision a little. As rulers, we must have our own awareness, rather than simply exploit without end."
"Do you know why I no longer use Aegon's calendar?"
"It is because I want you to understand that history turns a new page at this moment, and that we shall drive it forward and become its forerunners."
Kal did not mind beginning with Tyrion when it came to instilling some more advanced ideas and knowledge.
This world had spent thousands of years—perhaps even tens of thousands—standing still.
As for such a plainly unreasonable state of affairs, Kal wished to see what exactly it was that had been holding back the progress of this cart.
And so, with strength enough in his hands, he did not mind becoming a ghost drifting above Westeros—and even above this whole world of ice and fire.
As time passed, Tyrion asked Kal many questions.
And Kal, in terms Tyrion could understand, gradually set forth some of his thoughts.
Time slipped away, and the sun slowly slanted westward.
When Tyrion finally walked out of Maegor's Holdfast, dazed and heavy-headed, yet with his mind clearer than ever, he looked at the familiar Red Keep before him and felt, somehow, that something was different.
He could not say what it was. It simply felt out of place.
With that confusion weighing on him, he lowered his head and buried himself once more in his work.
…
"Your Grace, what were you speaking of with the Hand?"
At the noon meal, Sansa rested a hand upon her great belly and looked at Kal with curiosity.
Tyrion had come to see Kal early that morning, and the two had spoken for nearly half the day. By the latter half, it had even become Kal speaking alone while Tyrion nodded mechanically and now and again asked a question.
It had seemed less like a private meeting between king and Hand concerning the affairs of the realm than a lesson in which a teacher instructed his student.
At Sansa's question, Kal reached out and stroked her soft, thick auburn hair.
"We were speaking of certain truths that only he could understand."
"And what are they?"
Sansa grew even more curious.
"A man has many needs in his life, but broadly speaking, they may all be gathered into five kinds."
Kal set down the cutlery, raised his right hand with his palm outward, and held up five fingers as he looked at Sansa.
"First, physiological needs. Second, the need for safety. Third, the need for love and belonging. Fourth, the need for esteem. And last—and most important of all—the need for self-actualization."
With each one he named, Kal lowered a finger.
"You may picture these five levels as an inverted funnel, rising from the lowest to the highest, all the way to the need for self-actualization at the top."
"And as for a dwarf who suffered every manner of humiliation from childhood, who has seen the many faces of the world, yet still keeps a compassionate heart concerned for those at the very bottom—after losing everything, he needs a goal that can rouse him again and make him aware of the worth of his life."
"Just that?" Sansa listened blankly to these words and could not quite make sense of them, nor did she fully understand.
Kal nodded, smiling. "Of course. If you cannot quite understand it, then simply think of it as Tyrion having found his own will and purpose in life."
"And with those things in his heart, if he truly builds all that he has resolved to believe in, then he will serve the kingdom with all loyalty."
Now Sansa understood. Her eyes lit with sudden realization, along with a trace of admiration.
"You are amazing!"
"Of course I am," Kal said with a laugh.
The noon meal did not last long. After spending the whole morning with Sansa, she grew weary after eating, as pregnant women do, and after a short rest returned to her chambers under the care of her handmaids and the protection of Brienne of Tarth.
Kal, meanwhile, took the chance to turn and make his way to another tower within the Red Keep.
It bore a pleasant name: the Maidenvault.
The Maidenvault was a long, narrow keep with a slate roof, standing behind the sept, with two tall carved doors.
It was there that Baelor the First had once confined his sisters, for he believed that if he did not see them, he would not be tempted and fall into lust.
Kal, however, had not come because he too had imprisoned someone there.
He had no need to restrain his own lusts, nor was there anything that could truly tempt him.
He had come because the place had become Erevi's domain—a new witch's tower, distinct from the Tower of the Hand.
Kal stepped inside and walked on. Before long, he came to a broad yet enclosed chamber at the tower's summit.
The room was brightly lit. The decorations about it were no longer the sumptuous furnishings and adornments it had once possessed, but all manner of things piled in disordered heaps.
"How goes the experiment? I heard you say before that there had already been some results."
The moment Kal entered the room, he saw Erevi bent over something before a massive stone stele three meters high and two wide.
As he drew near, Kal saw the crooked, winding runes carved into the stone.
At a glance, they looked somewhat like the runes upon the bronze armor worn by Bronze Yohn, and even more like the heavy gold arm-ring on Tormund Giantsbane's arm, etched with the runes of the First Men.
Of course, the reason they looked so alike was that those two things—and many others bearing similar runes—had been piled about this room in no small number.
At Kal's question, Erevi did not turn her head. She continued her work, a carving knife held steady in her hand.
After cutting the final stroke, Erevi blew away the stone dust and finally lifted her head.
"These ancient words your so-called First Men used do indeed contain magic, and they are better suited to being carved into stone and other objects than written into books or on scrolls."
"They fit this world's magic well. So long as their principles are understood, that is enough."
"So using them to make roadstones has proved easier than I imagined."