"...which had been lost in the depths of the deep dark ocean for more than two decades? That must be the question running through everyone's mind out there right about now," Robb murmured as he watched Jon demolish the veritable feast of dishes in front of him as if he hadn't eaten in days, which made sense considering the kind of food one gets on a long sea journey.
The sun had almost set outside the window, and the servants were going around lighting the torches in the Iron brackets, bringing a little light to the Mansion, the same one that Robb and the other Northerners had been staying in after reaching the capital.
And both of them had only arrived here about half an hour ago, as before then they had been stuck back at the port, dealing with all the commotion created because of the gifts.
Even after the King and the other Nobles had left for the city, Jon had been kept busy with the heavy task of unloading all of his ships and dealing with the numerous merchants who were interested in his goods.
Counted among these were not only the ones who were present during the spectacle but also new ones who were constantly scrambling towards the port after they heard the rumours running through the city.
Sadly, as Jon's brother, Robb had not been given much of a choice, and had been forcibly enlisted to help provide free labour.
So for more than five hours, they had been stuck doing mind-numbing work back at the port, and it was only after everything had been cleanly sorted away that they were able to make it back.
And even after all this, Robb counted himself among the fortunate, as unlike him, that fellow Jon called the Advisor, was still busy back at the port settling the sailors and arranging guards for the warehouses they had borrowed to store their goods.
"As I explained to Robert and the others, I was just lucky enough to come across a fisherman who had a habit of picking up trinkets he found at the shore, and then selling them in the nearby market. I just happened to be passing through there and accidentally noticed the Baratheon symbol on those two momentos," Jon answered with a shrug as he took a refreshing sip of ice-cold water that felt heavenly in the summer heat of King's Landing.
The ice in the mug came from a cool box that Jon had a habit of carrying around with him. It was made of wood and insulated with the help of a generous amount of straw. With the source of ice being the frozen lakes of the North.
It was one of the perks of having a friend who can fly and carry several kilograms over large distances.
"As if anyone is going to believe such a ridiculous coincidence just happened to occur when you were passing through Stormlands," Robb snorted with a roll of his eyes, "If such a farmer ever even existed, then he would have for sure gone to his Lord before going to sell it in a small market, after all, there are few out men out there, even amongst commoners, who do not recognise the stag of Baratheons."
"What other choice do they have other than to believe me?" Jon asked with a smirk, "After all, they can't very well come to the conclusion that a giant Kraken just happened to be helpful enough to pick up the artefacts from the depths of the ocean and present them to me at my request."
Robb was left speechless at that, as he could not argue with that logic: "What if they just think that you fooled the king with imitations?"
"That would be even more abusrd," Jon said with a snort, "After all, the two in question had been dead since before we were even born, and the only people who were close enough to them to remember the details of their personal symbols would be their children, and I do no think anyone would believe that any of those Baratheon brothers would help me in scamming the King,"
"Fine, your excuses are all very solid, and no one will doubt you," Robb answered with a sigh, shaking his head and admitting his defeat, "But then what about those mirrors? Why did I never know until now that you had established a factory for making those things?"
"Ah, that," Jon said while scratching his head, looking a little embarrassed, "Well, you could say I forgot about it, haha,"
"You forgot about it?" Robb asked with a raised eyebrow, "How does one even forget something like that?"
"You see, it was all a spur-of-the-moment thing," Jon explained with a shrug, "I happened to be passing through Myr, one time and seeing that it was the only place in the world where Far-eyes are created, I got curious, and sent Gan(Rat) to the secret hideouts where the production of various glass products takes place. And then one thing led to another, and I stayed there for a whole month and stole all the secret recipes that they had guarded for centuries," he answered with a sheepish chuckle, as if he had done something mischievous.
"I gathered as much," Robb nodded, looking completely unbothered by the unprovoked heist, "But what I do not understand is why those mirrors from your side are so much clearer and bigger than the ones Myr usually exports. Because I think the masters in that city would have already been laughing in their sleep and sending their men door to door of every rich person in the world to sell them if they had something like that under their arses."
"Oh, that was simply something my men happened to stumble upon while researching," Jon replied with a wave of his hand as if it was no big deal, "I just 'borrowed' a few talented slaves from the Myr who were being exploited, and took them away to work for me with good benifits and as it turns out when you throw good money at talented people, you can get good results very fast,"
"Really? Was it really so simple?" Robb asked with a sceptical look on his face, as it was hard for him to imagine that something which Myr had not been able to achieve in some centuries was created just because some slaves had been treated well.
"Of course," Jon replied with a confident nod, while thinking, 'There's nothing that can't be achieved with a little help of some otherworldly knowledge I had previously seen in a 10-minute DIY YouTube video regarding mirror construction,'
But of course, Jon had only sprinkled some knowledge about a few ingridients and some specific temprature here and there and the rest was really the hard work of those talented craftsmen, "But it took them more than three months, a few thousand defected products, and almost 200,000 gold to achieve it, so it wasn't exactly easy," Jon sighed tiredly as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders.
"Don't even try to pretend to be poor in front of me," Robb said with a snort, "That is a very ugly look on someone who earned more than half of that two hundred thousand investment in a single day."
And wasn't that the truth, because the heir of the North had seen it with his own eyes how those greedy Merchants had jumped over each other to grab on to the limited stock of the 100 small mirrors stored in Jon's ship.
Each of them had then been sold for at least a thousand gold dragons, and two wealthier ones had even placed hefty orders of more than a few dozen at once, and still, they were not satisfied and wanted to pay in advance to prebook the spots for future goods.
Robb had never seen something like that in his entire life; never known that earning gold could be so easy. 'All my ancestors must have been fools to have kept the North poor for so long,'
Taking a deep breath, Robb exhaled all his complicated thoughts and asked the most important question, the one that must have been on the mind of every player in the Capital, "So what was it all for? Why did you spend so much?"
Before, Robb had some faint idea of where Jon could have been going with his farce at the port, but after he saw all the things that happened at the port, he was no longer so sure, as everything had become complicated for him to make sense of it on his own.
Thankfully, though Jon was his brother, and he could simply ask him directly instead of frustratedly ruminating over it again and again, like the others must be doing at this moment.
Jon stayed silent for a few moments to gather his thoughts before he answered with a question, "Do you remember the news I told you a few months ago, about how the situation had changed beyond the wall?"
Robb immediately sat up straight and asked seriously, "The army of the dead?"
"Aye," Jon nodded with a deep look in his eyes, "They are moving even faster than I had anticipated, and according to recent intelligence sent by Mance Rayder, two more of those stubborn wildling villages who refused to move, with a combined population of 500, had disappeared overnight, shrinking further the space for the living."
Robb did not quite know how to feel after hearing this news, and it was especially difficult for him to hear about this king of the wildlings and how he was gathering his men in unimaginable numbers just beyond the Wall.
Even if it was to save the world, the heir of the North couldn't bring himself to muster up any sympathy for those wildlings, as not only was there was too much bad blood there, but he also knew for sure that no matter how Jon put it, there was no way for him to be sure that the Wildlings would ever willingly leave when this was all over, and that the survivors would not just attack the nearby lord to try and occupy their lands.
In fact, he was quite certain that they would not even wait for the so-called final war, and would just start raiding indiscriminately the moment they came inside.
But Jon's argument of 'There would be no land left to contest if we lost the war to the dead' was too solid for him to argue against, so Robb could only reluctantly compromise.
It was not all bad, though, because at least Jon had agreed with him that no wildling would be let through until they had a much, much larger army on their side to control them all. But for that to happen, they would need to gather not only all the Lords and their armies in the North, but also convince those from the other Kingdom that the threat was real.
Which, according to Jon, was almost impossible at the moment, as in times of peace, most men, especially Nobles, liked to bury their heads in the sand until the threat was almost at their doors, so they would have to go for a much simpler option...to use the authority of the King.
As no matter what kind of man he was, Robert was still the one who ruled the Seven Kingdoms, and had the power to command all the Lords to bring their men for war, if he was ever to be convinced that the army of the dead was real.
But Robb did not think that Jon needed to go this far just to make the King have a favourable impression of him, "It doesn't seem worth it..."
Besides, from the very beginning, Robb had been under the impression that Jon was not too fond of Robert, even if he acted the way he did in front of everyone today.
"As I told you before, the situation has changed faster than I anticipated," Jon said in a deep voice, as he stood up and went towards the window looked at the darkness slowly swallowing the sun on the horizon, "So we no longer have the leisure to take it slow and let things fall in place... we need to be proactive and take control of situation if we want to ready in time."
"Could it be..." Robb asked in a whisper before an excited look suddenly appeared on his face, and he jumped up to ask, "Are you finally going for it? Are you at last ready to throw in your gauntlet?"
Ever since Robb had learned the truth of Jon's heritage, he had been begging him to go for the throne, to throw in the gauntlet using his name... even if it meant starting a war, because as far as he was concerned, it was inevitable anyway considering that it was only a matter of time before the truth behind the King's children came out, so they might as well seize the initiative.
And besides, he could not think of a person who was more suited for ruling than his own brother, because one only needed to see the positive changes he had brought in the North in just a few years with his 'suggestions', so there was never any concern of him leading the Kingdom to ruin in the first place.
But alas, Jon had never agreed to it, always saying that there was no more thankless job in the world than being a king, and that it would be too limiting, and that he would not be able to travel the world, see the scenaries, sail the world's ocean, and such nonsense... but now, 'Perhaps he finally had a change of heart,'
"Maybe," Jon answered ambiguously as he turned his head sideways to smile at him, "But that is all too far into the future; we need to take it slow for now."
"How slow?" Robb asked with narrowed eyes.
"How does the Master of Coin sound for a start?"
///
Alms for a storyteller, good ser?A single coin keeps the fire burning.Become a great benefactor today, and get some magical benefits on the black market... *Wink*Wink*