In early November, Su Qin exchanged for an item refreshed by the system!
It was a mill blueprint! There was also a notification!
[Waterwheel mill (blue): can be built beside a flowing river, using the current to turn the waterwheel! A rotating shaft transmits kinetic energy into the mill. Grinding speed varies with the speed of the current. Internal wooden and iron components must be replaced every five years. Exchange price: 100 gold] [Notification: December will be the last month the system provides the host with a shop before the cultural transformation. After the host completes Gulltown's cultural transformation and officially unlocks the faith system, the system will resume refreshing the shop]
Su Qin sighed.
But inwardly, he still thanked the system, though he had no idea whether it could sense it!
The things the system provided were always just right! It certainly possessed an internal intelligence, but Su Qin could not yet guess its ultimate purpose!
After exchanging for the mill blueprint, Su Qin continued preparing designs for brick kilns in the Gull Territory. Buying bricks cost too much!
One morning, Su Qin summoned Gery, his master of works.
Gery hurried from the large smithy to the castle study. He had been studying the [Arrow Tower Fortress]! This was a fortress blueprint Su Qin had drawn up over the past few months! A single arrow tower occupied 400 square meters! It was a small fort!
It would be useful later!
Gery knocked, and Su Qin answered immediately.
"The door isn't locked. Come in."
Opening the door, he saw Su Qin drinking tea, with Yira attending him at his side. She turned to look at Gery.
Su Qin looked at him and said, "Gery, sit down. I called you here because I have some questions."
Gery immediately sat opposite Su Qin. The desk was enormous!
Su Qin slowly set down his cup. The drink was brewed from a Westerosi plant and was far inferior to tea!
Su Qin was vigorously encouraging the people to drink boiled water! Using alcohol to quench their thirst was too expensive!
Looking at Gery, Su Qin began asking:
"Gery, do you have any brick-firing techniques? Buying bricks all the time costs too much!"
Gery looked at Su Qin. The baron's dark circles were terrible!
After some thought, he said, "My lord, we know how to fire bricks in a chamber kiln!"
Su Qin felt somewhat pleased. He nodded and asked, "What's the output like?"
That was an easy question for Gery. "About thirty thousand bricks per firing, my lord."
"How long does a firing take?" This question was crucial.
"My lord, about a month!"
Su Qin nodded.
"When you go back, draw me a set of kiln plans. I need to see what it looks like."
Gery immediately replied, "Yes, my lord!"
Su Qin also asked when Gery would finish understanding the Arrow Tower Fortress.
Gery gave him a date: by the end of December, he would have thoroughly worked out the walls!
After finishing his questions, Su Qin sent him back to continue his research.
Sitting in his chair, Su Qin felt somewhat downcast. Chamber kilns produced too little!
Higher output would also require a tremendous amount of labor!
And more kilns would have to be built!
But building six kilometers of stone-block road alone would cost 3,000 gold, and he currently had only 700 left. Accounting for the 1,000 borrowed from his wife's family, and with essential funds such as wages untouchable, he was actually 300 gold in debt!
Six kilometers required three million stone blocks of 0.016 cubic meters each! A hundred kilns could fire them in just one month!
But the entire production chain, from digging clay to finishing the firing, required at least several thousand workers! How could he afford that!
They could hardly stop farming!
It could only be postponed! He needed to design a new kiln! Once Gery gave him the chamber kiln plans, he could consider it further!
After thinking it over, Su Qin took Yira and some maids for a stroll in the manor gardens, then went hunting that afternoon. He was lucky and caught a wild boar!
There were quite a few herds of wild boars stealing corn!
Meanwhile, outside distant Runestone Castle, a woman wearing a silver mask entered through the castle's rear gate.
Delia was writing to the marchioness of Ironoaks, asking her to pay closer attention to [Ninestars]. Ninestars-the territory's name-lay within the Vale of Arryn! The local House Templeton supported House Arryn! Most of its inhabitants were of Andal blood!
Though the possibility was currently slim, they still needed to guard against a sudden move by their political enemies!
Ninestars bordered Ironoaks!
On Runestone Castle's second floor, the silver tailor-a rank-climbed the steps, preparing to report some matters to the Crone in her room!
She soon reached the door of the Crone's sewing room!
The silver tailor knocked. Delia immediately put away the letter to Elys and called, "Come in."
The silver tailor glanced at the two guards by the door! She unfastened the sword at her waist and handed it to a guard!
The silver tailor was reporting some news to Delia: Jon had already sent an earl to operate in Braavos, and he was even waiting constantly outside the House of Black and White for someone.
The chief tailor stationed in Braavos wanted Delia to warn the Dragon Party nobles in the Vale not to go out for the time being!
As she spoke, screams suddenly rang out outside the door!
Delia felt a slight heat against her chest. Su Qin had said the Golden Dragon Necklace could warn of danger-it was a magical item summoned earlier and given to Delia for protection!
Delia immediately realized there was an assassin and glared at the silver tailor. Though the silver tailors had been trained by the family at Etching Keep since childhood and were very unlikely to betray them, it was not impossible.
Delia immediately rose and ran toward the window to call for help!
She reached it safely and shouted, "Assassin! Assassin!"
Hearing her, a gardener in the garden below the castle immediately ran to alert the household guards.
Meanwhile, inside the room.
After hearing the screams at the door, the silver tailor glanced at Delia and immediately picked up a bench several dozen centimeters long!
Anyone entering this room had to surrender their weapons!
She immediately turned and grappled with the assassin who had already entered! The assassin wore a maid's uniform. Who knew when she had infiltrated the castle, or how long she had been hiding! Damn it, her face was unmistakably that of Delia's personal maid!
How could someone who had lived with Delia since childhood betray her!
The assassin exchanged blows with the silver tailor without expression! The wooden bench did help somewhat. They traded more than a dozen moves, and the silver tailor was clearly well trained!
But soon, a powerful slash from the assassin shattered the bench. A short blade plunged into the silver tailor's chest, then slowly withdrew!
A pool of blood began spreading across the floor!
After dealing with the silver tailor, the assassin moved to rush over and kill Delia.
On the floor, the silver tailor spat blood and used the last of her strength to seize the assassin's leg with her right hand.
The assassin remained expressionless!
She immediately sliced through the silver tailor's wrist with her short blade. The silver tailor gave only a muffled grunt before fainting from the pain!
Her wrist was severed outright, and blood kept spurting from the major artery of her right hand!
It was horrifying!
The assassin slowly approached Delia. Turning around, Delia saw her coming with an expressionless face! Delia felt very close to the god of death!
The assassin immediately rounded the bed and slashed at Delia beside the window.
As she charged, she said, "I'm nothing to no one!"
It was the slogan of a certain god's followers!
Delia finally realized where the assassin had come from!
The House of Black and White, the Many-Faced God!
Assassinating a core figure of ducal standing like her required an advance payment of at least 100,000 gold coins! The other half had to be paid after success!
Jon Arryn! You really were willing to pay! This was at least 200,000 gold!
Despair began filling Delia's heart! Followers of the Many-Faced God never failed!
But she also began to hate Jon!
That was several years of the Vale of Arryn's income! Who knew how many soldiers it could hire for an open battlefield!
After hearing the assassin's words, Delia closed her eyes in despair!
She thought of her father and mother, her dead aunt and elder brother, her younger brother, her fiancé, and those dreams!
Just then, Delia felt intense heat against her chest, but for someone with Targaryen blood like her, that temperature could not hurt her!
At the very instant the assassin thrust her blade forward!
Golden light erupted like a waterfall from the dragon-eye gems of the Golden Dragon Necklace on Delia's chest! A yellow barrier formed around Delia, spanning one meter! It protected her completely!
The Golden Dragon Necklace floated up from Delia's neck. She stared entranced at the gift her fiancé had given her!
She had thought her fiancé's words were nothing but nonsense meant to win her heart. Magical defensive items had long since vanished from this world!
She stared blankly at the necklace, the barrier, and the battle outside!
The assassin never even considered retreating and slashed straight at the defensive barrier! His own recoil hurled him to the ground, but he immediately scrambled up and fought the household guards arriving behind him!
Delia stared blankly at the dragon-shaped necklace floating before her chest. The two gems in its eyes were emitting yellow light!
After losing dozens of armored household guards, the brave guards successfully killed the assassin! Not one retreated!
To protect their master to the death was these guards' oath!
Delia was soon safe.
Then Delia saw the dragon-shaped necklace floating before her chest. Its main body was a golden dragon, and it began breaking into several pieces from horn to tail! The yellow dragon-eye gems vanished! Only the gold chain remained, hanging alone around her neck!
Losing her composure, Delia dropped to the floor, still shaken!
Those around her dared not approach! They had seen the golden ring of light!
It had to be some kind of protective magic!
Delia sat blankly on the floor. Before long, Earl hurried in with the countess.
Seeing her daughter unharmed, the countess immediately ran over and embraced her! She began to cry! The reasons behind those tears were a mixture of many feelings!
They had nearly been separated by death! For some parents, outliving their children was among the cruelest things in the world!
Especially since her eldest son had died only a few months earlier. Losing another child might make her collapse!
News of the assassination attempt soon reached Su Qin. Upon hearing it, he immediately mounted the finest warhorse and raced toward Runestone!
That very evening, two ravens carrying letters bearing House Royce's seal flew toward King's Landing and the North!
House Arryn, you!
You have gone too far!