A trade agreement with the Ironborn

The North, Sea Dragon Point Peninsula, Flint's Finger, Crystal's Scar Castle.

Throughout the journey, the members of the Iron Islands delegation seemed to have lost their souls. What they had seen today was simply too shocking for them. The houses and lampposts built from Dragonglass alone were enough to leave them stunned for a long time.

Yet even now, they had not truly seen those miraculous machines that could run without external force. Sometimes Bruce even felt a sense of unreality, as though he were dreaming.

But all that changed completely when he saw the enormous brown bear. Never in his life had Bruce seen such a huge brown bear. Only after it sniffed him, and he smelled the rank stench coming off its body, did he realize he was not dreaming.

"Awooo..."

Before Bruce could recover from his shock, he encountered an even stranger sight: he actually saw the meaning "follow me" in a wolf's eyes. As the wolf, as enormous as a bison, appeared, an old man in gray robes emerged behind it. He was Beris, Eddard's diplomat.

As time passed, Beris's abilities had distinguished him among Eddard's subordinates. For some reason, however, he had never been particularly interested in magic, so Eddard had not insisted that he learn it. Among Eddard's people, Beris was also the only one who had not undergone modification.

Eddard had not excluded Beris because of this. He still trusted him greatly and had entrusted all diplomatic affairs and tax work to him. As one of the few literate people in the territory, Beris had also been assigned to teach at the academy.

"Honored guests, please do not be afraid. These are pets kept by Lord Eddard. As long as you bear no hostility toward Lord Eddard, they will not harm anyone."

Hearing Beris's words, the members of the Iron Islands delegation silently breathed sighs of relief. It was their first time seeing animals of this size, and they could hardly help feeling some fear.

As more giant creatures appeared, the envoys from the Iron Islands gradually grew accustomed to them. Under Beris's guidance, they soon reached the castle's Council Hall, where Eddard had long been waiting for them.

After everyone had introduced themselves, Eddard invited the envoys from the three lordly houses of the Iron Islands to take their seats. Once the four men sat down, they stated their respective identities and houses.

"Welcome to Crystal's Scar. I am Edd Flint, the current lord of House Flint. Since you have come here, that means you have all met Masse T. Now, what do you hope to obtain from me, or rather, what can you offer?"

After hearing Eddard's words, the envoys of the three houses exchanged glances. In the end, Yoren Harlaw, the "Silver Axe," whose faction was the strongest, spoke first.

"Greetings, honored Lord Eddard. Our Lord Rodrik of Harlor Island is very interested in your miraculous machine. Having witnessed the beauty and prosperity of Crystal's Scar, I believe our cooperation could go even further. As long as the price is right, our House Harlor can purchase more products."

"Lord Eddard, Blacktyde offers the same terms. Our iron ore and silver ore can also be traded, and our house's longships will handle transportation. You need not worry about shipping at all. What we want are machines. I heard those things can help us transport ore."

After hearing the Silver Axe's offer, Bruce Blacktyde immediately followed with his own, while the representative of House Farwynd remained silent.

Their branch of House Farwynd at Sealskin Point owned only a few rocky islets, and their influence did not even compare to that of their relatives on Lonely Light. All Sealskin Point had worth offering were coral and sealskins. This time, however, Alan Farwynd, the "Sea Lion," had brought some bargaining chips he considered quite good. Alan himself was on very good terms with the slave trader Masse T. Whenever the Sea Lion led his men to raid the Summer Isles, he often went to Masse T to sell his plunder, so Masse T had privately told him a great deal.

Seeing everyone turn their gaze toward him, Alan Farwynd, the Sea Lion, hurriedly addressed Eddard:

"Lord Eddard, I may have something that interests you. Our House Farwynd of Sealskin Point is equally sincere in wishing to cooperate with you, and we can do even more. Lord Masse T has already discussed this matter with us. I hope you will give me this opportunity."

"Oh! Very good! Since you are all sincere about cooperating with us, let us discuss the machines first!"

Eddard nodded in satisfaction after hearing the three men's replies. He then negotiated with them over the prices of cement, glassware, Ice Silk, and steam engines.

Recently, the wizards serving Eddard had been researching how to produce suitable kaolin to advance their research into porcelain. Porcelain had not yet appeared in this world, and Eddard believed that once they developed such exquisite wares here, they would certainly bring him handsome returns.

Over this period, Eddard had classified the rune wizards who had already mastered their powers, assigning them to various departments in the town center according to their abilities. Officials in the construction and commerce departments welcomed these wizards warmly, and their arrival had also considerably lightened the workload of Ralf, the "Eel."

The bloodline wizards at the Magic Academy still needed a period of strengthening and research before they could use their powers more perfectly. These wizards would join Eddard's magical industrialization efforts.

The two magical professions Eddard had developed were not particularly effective in battle, but they were highly useful in industrial development. The bloodline wizards in particular would bring major changes to certain aspects of Eddard's work once they emerged.

After the two sides reached a preliminary agreement to cooperate, Eddard invited the Iron Islands envoys to lunch. At the banquet, these envoys from the Iron Islands all used glass tableware from Eddard's Alchemy Workshop. After seeing Eddard use chopsticks, they also realized that many iron and silver utensils could indeed leave the dining table early. This would allow them to save large quantities of metal goods each year, reducing certain unnecessary wear and consumption.

Although glass products in the Seven Kingdoms were relatively expensive and extremely costly to produce, Alys Rivers, the Dragonglass Spider Mother serving Eddard, could produce enormous quantities of defective Dragonglass. The Dragonglass glass made by processing this material was somewhat harder than ordinary glass and also dissipated heat relatively well. It was another of Eddard's main export products.

Demon bloodlines had a considerable effect on animals, but little effect on plants. This was precisely why Eddard's crop improvement experiments had produced no results at all.

At present, the range of crops Eddard could grow remained rather limited, and the food problem still existed. Later on, Eddard also intended to build glass greenhouses in Farm Town. Not only would this allow crops to grow rapidly, it could even ensure that the Sea Dragon Point Peninsula had enough vegetables and fruit when the winter snows arrived.

After everyone finished lunch, Eddard led the envoys to tour the Alchemy Workshop. By now, the Alchemy Workshop in the outer city had become Eddard's purse.

Several more factory buildings had been added to the original Alchemy Workshop, with separate areas designated for the smelting plant, cement plant, Dragonglass glass factory, silk factory, and machine factory. Each factory occupied roughly the area of two football fields. Although the factories had not yet reached that scale, planning ahead was much better than having no plan at all.

After lunch, everyone walked together toward the Alchemy Workshop. Along the way, Eddard also explained the streetlights' functions and costs. Since the lighting devices inside the streetlights used Fire Dragonglass, Eddard described the crystals inside as a special kind of mineral.

The high construction and maintenance costs Eddard quoted immediately scared off the members of the Iron Islands delegation. They could hardly imagine how a single special crystal pillar like this could cost over ten thousand gold dragons. Although they all suspected Eddard was inflating the price, such strange lighting devices that could shine at night had never appeared anywhere in the Seven Kingdoms.

While the envoys from the Iron Islands were still pondering the lampposts, they arrived at the machine factory. The unusual construction of the surrounding walls and Dragonglass railings gave these factory buildings a strange beauty.

"All right, what you see now is our steam engine. I have named it Water Dragon No. 2. This model performs better than the earlier prototype, weighs nearly a third less, and is also easier to assemble than before."

As Eddard introduced it, the new steam engine, Water Dragon No. 2, came into view. With continuous improvements in metallurgical techniques, the quality of Eddard's steel was steadily improving. Under the rune wizards' manipulation in particular, the quality of many complex components had also improved considerably.

The recently developed Lesser Demon Type 3 Steel, in particular, had been an enormous help to Eddard in manufacturing machinery thanks to its light weight and toughness. When this special steel was combined with a Valyrian steel coating, the results were even better than words could describe.

However, each batch of this steel consumed one Dragonglass Lesser Demon, preventing Eddard from producing it on a large scale. Dragonglass Lesser Demons had now become Eddard's most important biological resource. These frightening-looking monsters could not only be used as slaves, but the mucus their bodies secreted could also be used to make many things.

At present, none of the wizards serving Eddard had sufficient ability to summon Lesser Demons. The Valyrian steel coating process was also extremely mentally taxing. Thus, Eddard still had to perform all of this himself. Given time, wizards who could summon demons as Eddard did might appear, but for now, Eddard had to personally coat most of Crystal's Scar's machines.

"Lord Eddard, can this thing move like a siege engine? If it could truly be converted into a siege engine, no castle could withstand its attacks!"

Theon Blacktyde of Blacktyde suddenly spoke after seeing how the steam engine worked. Clearly, the first thing this fellow thought of when he saw the machine was still something to do with war.

"No, Theon, you're wrong. This thing should go on a longship. No, not a longship-a large sailing ship! With a machine like this and the enormous hull of a large sailing ship, we could build a fortress at sea. Smaller warships would be knocked over and capsized outright!"

Just as Eddard was about to explain, a voice reached everyone's ears. They turned to look and discovered that the speaker was actually Bruce Blacktyde. His theory made even Eddard see him in a new light. Eddard had truly not expected someone like this to emerge among the Ironborn.

"Bruce, is it? Your idea is very good. In fact, we have been researching this all along. Later on, we may even be able to build steam-powered vehicles like horse-drawn carriages. For now, however, we can only use these things to assist our work, such as hauling mine carts, pumping water, cutting, and grinding."

Eddard then demonstrated some of the steam engine's auxiliary components before everyone. These attachments had to be custom-made and were not sold together with the steam engine. Once the price and intended applications had been agreed upon, Eddard would manufacture suitable attachments.

Afterward, Eddard specifically recommended a three-piece set consisting of a water pump, a cement water tower, and steam-engine water filtration equipment to the men from the Iron Islands. Freshwater resources were extremely scarce in the Iron Islands, and Eddard had developed this water-storage system specifically for that purpose. The pump and cement water tower stored the freshwater already available.

While the steam engine was in use, it could also produce freshwater and power by boiling seawater. Eddard's Valyrian steel coating truly lived up to its nature as a magical material. Its corrosion resistance was exceptionally good, perfectly solving the problem of seawater corroding the boiler.

After hearing Eddard's introduction, the envoys from the three houses showed keen interest in this machinery set. The final agreed price was two thousand gold dragons. Certain subsequent maintenance and repair tasks would be handled by House Flint's technicians, with fees charged separately.

After this, the Iron Islands envoys toured and studied the other factories in the Alchemy Workshop. This visit gave them a complete understanding of Eddard's industrial system, and they also understood why he could manufacture so many steel machines: it was entirely because he possessed a complete production system.