章 138: Chapter 138 - Artican's Kingdom 02.
[Chapter Size: 3300 Words.]
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Thrid Person POV
Westeros, 296 AC.
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It was still early morning, while Jon was already in an important meeting in the senate, having been discussing with all his ministers for a few hours about his next plans for Artica.
"So we have no activities from our enemies to the north..." Jon commented, looking at the pile of reports.
"The dead haven't made any major moves other than bringing a few hundred men to kill tribes and add them to their army," Ducken, clad in his armor as the commander of Artica's army, said with a firm tone.
"Alright... but we have a large group of Free Folk gathering..." Jon spoke while looking at other reports.
"Yes, my king. Our scouts left the wall a few fights ago to investigate the situation and found Mance's camp, the man who all outside the walls of Artica claim to be the king beyond the walls..." Brynden said.
"What nonsense." Thor scoffed.
"Anyway, we'll deal with them if they try to harm us," Jon declared as the others nodded.
Mance seemed to be gathering a group of more than 100,000 warriors, but Jon did not see him as a threat when his army was full of equipment and resources, believing that the Articans could destroy any army in the world.
"Even so... I don't want anyone in Artica to be harmed by a group, so I want them watched and their movements monitored," Jon advised while the ministers nodded in agreement.
Jon turned back to Thor, who stood looking at him with a serious tone. "How are we doing with the sand we brought from the tournament?" Jon asked.
"We're working with it in the furnaces and starting to manufacture glass, as you requested," Thor replied. Jon nodded, listening.
"I want a new batch of glass for my personal stock, how are the new structures I requested, I saw that they are ready externally," Jon said, and the dwarf nodded.
"The king's greenhouse and the king's furnace are ready for use, we managed to build them in half a year, they are just as you laid out in the project," he said.
"That's great, I'll be looking at it as soon as I leave here," Jon spoke with a satisfied tone.
"How is the sacred grove?" Jon asked Seraphine, Minister of Magic and Arcane Affairs as Wargs.
"We are doing very well, spending most of the day playing in the sacred groves and taking care of our children," she spoke with a satisfied tone, "We also help here and there, always teaching about our gods to children who come every day to hear about them in the sacred grove and we receive many people too." Jon nodded to that.
His gaze fell straight on the Minister of Justice and Law, Kiera. "How are activities in the city, is the project for a guard working perfectly?" Jon asked.
Kiera nodded. "We have 3,000 men coming out of army training, patrolling the city and we are executing according to our code of laws," Jon heard this and nodded.
"How is the crime rate?" Jon asked her.
"We've had some problems with fights, murders, and rape with some new members who joined in these last moons," Kiera said.
Jon knew that even Artica could not avoid some cases of infiltration, after all, they are people, fights can happen, especially with dwarves, but Jon would never take lightly any crime involving taking someone's life and rape, especially for the people who are constantly entering the walls, after all, they still believe they are living as in the tribes.
"We are going to impose severe punishments, our people need nothing that leads them to such actions, for rapes, we will castrate them and put them to forced labor or expel them from Artica, for murders, there is no choice but the death penalty," Jon warned while the others nodded with his reasoning.
"We have a few hundred prisoners of war caught in Reach, a high-ranking noble and a spy from Dorne, disguised as a bard, put all of them to work in the mines and gravel today," Jon said, he still gave some not so bad conditions, they would have a house outside the city, a bed, and food, with Artican guards watching them to ensure they don't do any foolishness.
"It will be done, My king," Kiera responded.
Jon looked at Gavron this time, the Minister of Finance and Treasury. "How are we doing in gold coins?" He asked as the man broke into a smug smile.
"We are doing very well, our miners really know how to quickly extract the gold with the tunnels created by the dwarves... we have more than 20 million gold coins, my king," he said as Jon nodded, doubting that any other house in Westeros would have more money, but this was just something extracted from their lands, soon, they would be doing a lot of trade, since Essos was still their next commercial point.
"And you, my minister? How are things?" Jon asked the giant, Haran, Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
"Stocks full to trade it for your next trip, Artican King," he said with his characteristic tone for his size as Jon nodded.
"Now that we are here, we should talk a little about the south of the wall..." Jon began to speak as all the men there paid full attention to him. Even those who had not yet spoken were waiting to see the final decisions with Westeros.
"As I said, sand, horses, iron, steel, books, and teachers were essential resources that we needed at this time and we got them with this trip, but in the end, we entered a battle against Westeros and they bled for it, I don't think they will do nothing about it, but I believe that after seeing us destroy nearly 400 of their ships, they understood that we are not an easy force to mess with, and they feared us for it, I even believe they sought peace after a failed retaliation attempt, after all, no army from the south will survive in the north," Jon said.
"Why squander resources in this way then, these men from the south of the wall think??" Gavron asked, bewildered.
"Because they are too proud..." Ducken responded, knowing the people of the north, but also knowing that to the south of the Neck, they are even worse.
"All of Westeros is waiting for a response from the king, if he does not launch an attack, they will see that the king's position is weakened," Jon replied with a firm tone without smiling. "But it was the hateful ones who sought this, ever since we arrived in Westeros we have been thrown into schemes, that's why..." He finally would give the verdict he had already decided.
"We will no longer trade with the Reach, since they canceled all our supply of horses and animals," Jon said, after all, he had seen the meetings of the nobles, which was not a great surprise after everything that happened.
"After we spent the other of our coffers with them, my king?" Junly, the Minister of Commerce, exclaimed with some dissatisfaction and anger towards those southerners.
"There is nothing to be done, I already knew this would happen as soon as we decided to give them an answer in Oldtown, but that doesn't mean we won't charge them in the future," Jon said with a somber tone as the others nodded, if their king would campaign south in search of justice for trade, he would certainly succeed and take everything that belongs to him.
"However..." Jon began to speak again. "I want Darius to go back to Dorne, I warned Prince Doran, we will send Articans, and if they were harmed, we will attack Dorne as our enemy," Jon said. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Darius nodded.
"I want you to leave with us from Artica and go straight to Dorne, while we are visiting the cities on the west coast of Essos," Jon said and the minister nodded.
They continued talking more about their plans, Westeros was no longer a trading partner for Jon, while he even planned to create trade with the west, the Vale of Arryn, and the north itself, but after the battle, things would not be so easily resolved. Dorne would still be his trading partner as long as they continued to fulfill Jon's orders.
"Now that we are done with the trade agenda, let's go to what interests me most after I returned home..." Jon turned his gaze to other last ministers, Aemon and Brynden, who were responsible for the academy, citizenship, and information north of the wall.
"Are our educators from Dorne adapting well to the city?" Jon asked while Aemon nodded, being responsible for the accommodations of everyone.
"Everyone arrived enchanted with the city, my king," Aemon opened a happy smile as he continued. "And they are no less excited about their current life, they are living in lots built near the university and library and started teaching 2 moons ago teaching children and all are progressing very well, your goal of creating an educated nation is really functional my king, but we still have some problems... some teachers do not have our quality of teaching or the one you seek for the kingdom," he said and Jon nodded.
"Put them with the classes of teachers I've trained over the last few years, have them achieve excellence and reward them too. I want you and Seraphine to meet Archmaester Marwyn; he might be useful for the city and place him in the best position you deem," Jon said and turned back to Brynden.
"Now we have hundreds of thousands of books. I want you to transcribe laws that we can make Artica use the library efficiently now that we have books and pass it to the senate for approval so that Kiera can execute it," Jon spoke as the structure of Artica functioned.
Ministers and even representatives of the senate, who were chosen by the population to occupy each of the limited seats, wrote laws, they were placed on agendas while being approved or not, Jon had sovereign power over all this, being able to choose to interfere or not, but he preferred to leave it as is, for the king of Artica not to have so much power, preventing a tyrant from appearing in the future, Jon was also working on other things, but would only reveal them after his first children were born.
Brynden nodded. "That will be done. Will you begin your plan about the Judiciaries, my king?" He suddenly asked as Jon shook his head.
"Not yet... first, I want to do a few things, then we will implement that, but I want a batch of competent judges that will take a few years to emerge, so I need to work on a few more points about Artican ethics," Jon was developing something important, which would be used to create domes where there would be trials with qualified judges to resolve crimes in Artica more fairly and not needing Kiera to judge everything personally, the population might be above 100,000 people, but it will pass a million in a few decades, so a more solid structure is needed for the city to function.
They continued discussing countless subjects, men, giant, dwarf, and a child of the forest continued talking about Artica, this dome formed of a king and 10 ministers, was something similar to what Jon saw in King's Landing, but with a strong difference, here they seriously talked about the future of the kingdom, there was no personal interest, no exchange of favors or pride, anger, or envy, everyone just had the goal of making Artica be what it was born to be.
After that, Jon was alone as he dismissed everyone, unlike the king of Westeros, he worked entirely for the growth of Artica and to keep it prosperous.
He picked up an interesting paper where Brynden had put the population of Artica.
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Dwarves: 27000 (13 thousand children) There was a growth of 3 thousand children since he left.
Humans: 193500 (95 thousand children.) There was a growth of 10 thousand Freefolk entering the kingdom and 15 thousand children since he left.
Giants: 7600 (2.5 thousand children) There was a growth of 200 free giants entering the kingdom and a growth of 500 children since he left.
Children of the forest: 700 (650 children) There was a growth of 200 children since he left.
Direwolves: 1200. There was a growth of 200 pups since he left.
Normal wolves: 5600. There was a growth of 1100 pups since he left.
Bears: 1500. There was a growth of 100 cubs since he left.
Shadow cats: 1420 There was a growth of 120 cubs since he left.
Mammoths: 510 There was a growth of 10 calves since he left.
Birds: 10000
Horses: 3740. Jon brought more than 3000 horses from the Reach and there were 140 foals since he left.
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Military power, army currently composed of:
Dwarves: 8000
Humans: 35000 (1800 Wargs, all have birds and are mounted on shadow cats or bears)
Giants: 3150
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Kingdom's resources/military/commercial:
Ships: 600 (400 carracks and 200 galleons.)
Dragon glass arrows: 8 million.
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There was a note saying about the growth of all the data from all the numbers since Jon left, feeling satisfied with the growth of the kingdom, dwarves had not grown beyond the more than 7 thousand dwarf women giving birth to 3 thousand new babies, after all, there were no dwarves outside of Artica to join them. The same could be said of the children of the forest, who only reproduced, there were no more beyond the wall to join, but their growth was much greater in some years than the last thousands of years, stopping the race from being extinct and giving hope to them.
But for the others, like the humans who are easily found in the north, there was an increase of 10,000, although there were some issues that his Minister of Justice and Law had to deal with, the majority of the Free Folk entered Artica with good intentions and Jon could not fail to save them, as this was the will of his gods.
The giants had an increase of 200, which might not seem like much, but considering that the race is also nearly extinct, it was good to find 200 new ones coming to Artica on their own, they were also beginning to increase their population with marriages starting to occur.
There were other data like the literacy rate of the population, iron, and military equipment, but Jon did not need that now, however, the addition of 400 more ships was something very good, after all, Jon saw the number of ships now in the harbor when he arrived, with the dwarves working severely to increase the fleet at the naval construction bases on the canal side, Jon would still have a fleet of thousands of ships with his unlimited capacity to create trees more powerful than Ironwood.
Setting that aside, he decided to go out, after all, he had to organize the batches of iron brought for the creation of weapons in Eldenmetal in the forge district. He headed out while taking Ghost with some royal guards and left that side of the forest heading to his destination.
The first thing he had admitted since he saw it yesterday atop Eragon, were the king's greenhouse and the king's furnace, two huge structures just for Jon to work in, these were his own personal workshops, where he would put his projects into practice and construction. One had a large glass ball on the roof to let in sunlight, over 50 meters high and 200 meters wide and long, where he would work on plants and alchemy.
The other, 50x300x300, being larger due to the high temperatures not far from the king's greenhouse, it would house a dragon by the entrance made to the side, since Jon designed it for the creation of Valyrian steel, and he needed Eragon for this, he would try it with him for the first time to see if he would succeed during his current stay.
Jon did not go to these places now, expecting to do so in the coming weeks, while his time was spent organizing the resources that came from the south, being tons and tons of iron and steel to start the production of new armors and Artican metal.
He returned to his castle and greeted his wives affectionately as they rested, but Jon did not stay long for his furnace in the castle working through the rest of the night while also taking his Valyrian steel that he had picked up in Oldtown and started to melt it to produce some interesting things.
He finally took a bath and went to bed, while the next day, he was reading some things in his chair when Arya entered, with Jon breaking into a smile as soon as she emerged from the doors.
"Arya, I was looking for you..." Jon said.
"Jon!? I was going to the arena, but Seryna told me you needed to talk to me," she said with a curious look.
"Don't talk so loud, I'm trying to sleep!" a voice came from the bed, while Ygritte was under the covers.
"You seem surprised I called you here... after all, you're turning 12 years old today," Jon said, maintaining a smile.
"You remembered..." she said, becoming a bit shy.
"How could I not remember? I do this every year," Jon said teasingly. "Come, I want to give you something precious," Jon said, starting to rise and moving to the side of the bed where Ygritte was the only one still lying down.
Arya followed Jon curiously as she saw him take out a box, opening it to reveal two swords in a large format. "This is..." Her eyes sparkled at the sight of the swords. "Valyrian steel," she murmured.
"Yes... I must say it was easier to manipulate than I imagined, so I created two new swords for myself, replacing my old ones. You see the design... blades like these are produced in Yi-Ti, with soldiers called Samurai wielding them," Jon said, touching the two swords, before closing the box.
"Wait... you said you're going to replace yours?!" she exclaimed, stunned. "And Darksister?!" she asked.
"Well... here... this is your gift," Jon pulled out a second box and placed it in front of Arya as the girl was floored, wondering what could be inside, if it really was what she imagined. Then, with her small trembling feminine hands, she unlocked the locks and began to open it with Jon watching everything with a smile.
In the closed box, there was another rectangular box with glass on the front. It was the container for a sword, Darksister, the sword of one of the heroines Arya most respected, Visenya Targaryen, was inside.
"Jon, I'm not dreaming, am I??" she said, trembling and stuttering.
"It's your sword now, Arya. Look at the sword, I've engraved some names with magic on it. They can't be removed unless the whole sword is melted, and one of them is yours to indicate that it belongs to you until you pass it on or until your death," Jon said, and she widened her eyes as she read.
"VISENYA TARGARYEN, DAEMON TARGARYEN, BRYNDEN RIVERS, JON ÁRTICA, and my name, ARYA STARK..." She murmured in disbelief, as she looked at each name engraved on the sword, having received the greatest gift she could have asked for from anyone.
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