Unfolding on all fronts

The North, Sea Dragon Point, House Flint Castle.

By the time Eddard withdrew his perception and returned to the castle bedroom in the real world, it was nearly morning. After stretching a little, he climbed straight out of bed, threw on some clothes, and left the bedroom.

Hearing the noise, his Head Lady-in-Waiting, Aiju, emerged from the bedroom next door. When she saw him, she hurriedly asked why he was not getting more rest. Eddard replied that he had matters to attend to and hurried toward the Great Tower.

After entering the room, Eddard opened the window with practiced ease. As a bright shaft of sunlight from the sea's horizon shone through the tower window, a new day began.

Eddard had a great deal to do today. The mining incident had prevented many of his plans from proceeding normally and had also affected construction progress to some extent. With the year's final harvest approaching, many farmers were busy preparing to bring in their grain, so Eddard had little time left.

Thanks to the ten-year-long summer, most of the land on the Sea Dragon Point Peninsula could be planted for three consecutive harvests. Despite these unusual conditions, local agriculture was largely constrained by the pesticides, fertilizers, seeds, and farming tools of this era, so wheat yields were only around one hundred kilograms per mu.

The earlier protection and care had gone well throughout this period, so Eddard estimated that this season's wheat yield should reach the usual level. For now, the issue that most deserved his attention was how to improve next season's yield and seed quality.

Although no one knew whether it would snow this year, most commoners in the North had grown accustomed to gathering firewood and winter provisions at year's end to ensure they would not go hungry or cold when the snow came.

Eddard had installed bookshelves specifically for storing documents in his Great Tower archive. Agriculture, industry, military affairs, handicrafts, education, and magic-he had written down every piece of information he remembered. He had written certain key documents and techniques in Chinese, while some of the other material was written in this world's Common Tongue.

At last, on the shelf devoted to agriculture, Eddard found the "Outline of Composting Techniques" and "Methods for Collecting Human and Animal Waste" that he had written earlier. There were also some notes he had written on agricultural techniques.

When Eddard had worked in modern society on Blue Star in his previous life, he had tried many trades that could earn him money. Construction, fertilizer, warehouse management, food processing, plant cultivation and animal husbandry, medical supplies-he had worked in practically all these industries. Most of this knowledge came from that period. Some of it had already been put into practice, while some remained purely theoretical.

Today, Eddard planned to conduct a catalysis experiment on seeds and an experiment in Primordial Bodies manifestation. Last night's experiences in the Dream World had given him a different understanding of and insight into his perceptive abilities.

At that moment, if someone had approached Eddard and examined his body closely, they would have noticed that an invisible force field seemed to emanate around him. Red, golden, and blue light intertwined and consumed one another within some unknown region.

There was also Eddard's left wrist. The hard, diamond-shaped protrusion on it was giving off a faint red glow, while the slight bump between his brows also seemed to flicker with tiny points of light.

These were signs of the Primordial Bodies lodged within Eddard's body. They parasitized his body like tumors. They could infest through his perception or manifest through special rituals, and the best medium for this was dragonglass.

For now, however, Eddard had no time to experiment with these Primordial Bodies.

He first had to make arrangements for certain matters in his domain, the most important of which involved the documents he had prepared beforehand. These documents were not confidential to begin with, so Eddard simply took them out, intending to hand them all over to Maester Albert to study and teach. The Citadel also had maesters who specialized in agricultural research. Although the Citadel had some very unpleasant failings, its scholarly atmosphere was quite good. Many maesters who genuinely loved learning, knew how to learn, and wanted to learn could still leave their own mark on the path of scholarly research.

After gathering the documents, Eddard headed toward the dining room on the ground floor. On his way downstairs, he encountered Ralf "Eel" and Bran "Housecat." The moment they saw him, their instinct was to hurry away, but once they remembered their positions, they stood awkwardly where they were.

Both men had been affected by Eddard's perception. Perhaps because they possessed an innate talent as skinchangers, both had awakened supernatural powers to varying degrees after coming under his influence. Those powers even bore some resemblance to Eddard's Golden Eye.

"Come along! Neither of you has had breakfast yet, have you?"

"Y-yes, Lord Eddard!"

Hearing Eddard's words, the two answered in unison. Their syllables and pronunciation were almost identical, as though they had practiced many times.

Their feelings were extremely complicated at that moment. As they descended the stairs, the scenes around them kept changing in their eyes, as though they were inside a distorted dream.

"You both did very well this time. After breakfast, come to the hall with me for a meeting. I have tasks for you, and while we're at it, I'll help you resolve the problems you've been having lately."

"Y-yes, thank you, Lord Edd-"

"Uh..."

Ralf "Eel" instinctively nodded his agreement at Eddard's words, but Bran "Housecat" did not answer. Instead, he looked at Eddard's back in some surprise, as though something had occurred to him.

As that feeling grew stronger, Bran "Housecat" hurriedly tried the ability he had developed through his usual practice, focusing his attention on Eddard. Yet when he saw certain sights, he was so frightened that he nearly collapsed onto the floor.

At that moment, Eddard resembled a twisted creature composed of countless strange objects, even more terrifying than the visions Bran had seen before. Moreover, Bran "Housecat" discovered that the castle stairs beneath his feet also seemed to be the bodily tissue of some monster. Stepping on that strange substance made of roots and flesh made him feel as though he were walking on thin ice.

Startled, Bran "Housecat" hurriedly withdrew his gaze. Soon, the surrounding scene gradually returned to normal, as though nothing had happened.

This staircase he walked so often felt endless to Bran "Housecat," but it was all his imagination. After another few minutes, the three arrived near the dining room together.

After placing his documents on the chair beside him, Eddard began eating the breakfast his Head Lady-in-Waiting, Aiju, had prepared. Looking at the sausages and fried eggs on his plate, he suddenly felt as though he were back on Blue Star. Only, the sausages and eggs he had eaten back then had been fairly ordinary ingredients, unlike the food here, which was almost entirely natural and free of pollution.

Breakfast soon ended. During the meal, Eddard's subordinates in the castle entered the dining room one after another to eat. Once breakfast was over, he called everyone into the council hall.

At the long table, Eddard first handed all the documents to Maester Albert, then ordered him to read out and explain their entire contents. After a little over half an hour, Eddard was rewarded with a whole tableful of dropped jaws.

Among them was Maester Albert, who had presented the documents. Although he was not quite sure where Eddard's knowledge had come from, if all of it was the result of Eddard's independent research, then Eddard might very well earn a red-gold maester's chain.

At the Citadel in Westeros, if a maester gained the Conclave's recognition in a particular field, he qualified to forge a chain of the metal corresponding to that discipline. Chains of various metals and alloys represented the knowledge and learning a maester possessed in particular fields. Those maesters who attained the rank of archmaester possessed the corresponding metal masks and staffs.

Eddard, however, paid no attention to Maester Albert's excited expression. Once everyone had recovered, he spoke directly:

"Feces do not represent filth. On the contrary, to a certain extent, they can even give us abundant harvests. There is another point I want everyone to remember: I am not asking you to pour feces directly onto crops, but to make fertilizer using a method similar to fermenting ale."

In this medieval-like world, people relieved themselves wherever they pleased. The situation was even worse in King's Landing, capital of the Seven Kingdoms. Many maesters' writings referred to this prosperous place as "a city on a dung heap."

If such conditions persisted, an epidemic could easily break out. The worst epidemics in the history of the Seven Kingdoms had even rewritten the kingdom's history and caused enormous casualties. Eddard did not want that. Although he now had magic to protect him, if everyone died, perhaps there would be no one left to make delicious food and convenient tools for him.

Thus, once the workshops in the outer town were completed, Eddard intended to build several new public toilets. Urine would also be collected separately. People in this world had long known that urine could remove stains, but no one knew it could also be used as fertilizer.

Agricultural techniques were also extremely backward in many parts of Westeros. In certain broad river bends, farmers would generally scatter wheat seeds on the riverbanks, then drive sheep over them to trample the seeds into the soil. After that, they did nothing more and simply waited to reap the wheat.

The North had extensive wastelands, and most farming employed slash-and-burn methods. After clearing a suitable patch of uncultivated ground, farmers set it alight, then used the land to grow wheat.

The sparsely populated wilds of the North could also be used for grazing, which was another principal means of survival there. Once the soil's fertility was exhausted, these people moved to the next place.

Eddard felt that the main reason this world's agricultural techniques lagged behind was its abnormal climate. In certain southern regions especially, commoners could obtain large amounts of grain without any need for intensive cultivation.

But the North was different. Eddard had to ensure that this land produced as much grain for him as possible. Otherwise, there would be no way to sustain further construction in his domain. His magical powers had only just begun to show promise, and there was still a long road ahead before they could be fully applied to industry and agriculture.

Soon, Eddard had assigned everyone's work. Maester Albert and the tax collector, Beris, would coordinate matters, taking responsibility for teaching this knowledge to the farmers on Eddard's farm before gradually spreading it farther afield.

Rickard "Scar" and his eldest son, Brandon "Big Bear," would oversee construction progress. Once the workshop district was completed, Eddard's men would move on to building the public toilets and composting facilities.

Next came the training of Captain of the Guards Arthur Stone's troops. After experiencing the battle at the mine, Thin Pigeon had been promoted by Eddard to serve as Arthur's deputy, specifically responsible for the guards' logistical management. To begin with, Eddard wanted to recruit and train a force of around one hundred men.

After everyone received their orders and left, Eddard kept Maester Albert, Bran "Housecat," and Ralf "Eel" behind. Maester Albert thought little of it, but Ralf "Eel" and Bran looked rather uneasy.

"I imagine you're all curious why I've kept you here?"

Eddard's gaze swept back and forth across their three faces before finally settling on Maester Albert. Hearing the hint of another meaning in Eddard's words, Maester Albert's heart gave an inexplicable jolt, as though something momentous was about to happen.

"Lord Eddard, are... are you... that... uh..."

The words emerged from Bran "Housecat's" mouth with some difficulty. He desperately wanted to find an adjective to describe the Eddard he saw, but after searching his mind for a long while, he found nothing.

"Heh, very good, Bran. It seems you've already found the threshold. All that remains is to prepare to open the door to a new world."

"A new world? What does that mean?"

Maester Albert asked in some puzzlement. Ralf "Eel," beside him, said nothing, but his trembling body had already betrayed him.

"Why don't we begin like this? What I want to know is, in your eyes, what is magic?"

After hearing Maester Albert's question, Eddard did not answer directly. Instead, he posed a question to the three of them.