NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 29: 29
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186 AC
Harrenhal
Aerion Targaryen
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Almost two weeks to travel to Harrenhal using the King's road when traveling with the 'convoy' Daenerys and I brought along. Almost all of our family minus the King and Queen as they stayed behind in Kingslanding. There is also the tag along of Lords and ladies who are traveling back home and decided to stick close to us as we traveled. I was annoyed at first but once people started splitting off when we left the King's road to head directly to Harrenhal it got better.
Still, it felt like we were traveling with an entire town's worth of people, and it's not entirely wrong to say that either. Lots of people are moving to Harrenhal to settle in or outside of the castle in the town that will be built. The old 'town' outside of Harrenhal could hardly be called such and will be getting completely demolished to not take up space.
I may have space in abundance but I don't want an inefficient thrown-together town to be the center for what I will have built outside my walls. It will be rebuilt in a grid pattern with proper drainage so I never have to worry about the smells, it will also help with sickness. I am planning long-term but eventually, there will be a much smaller wall running outside the town connecting onto the much bigger walls of Harrenhal with an entrance into Harrenhal.
Sports 'stadiums' and a massive tourney ground will also be built but my gold will be tied up in the repairs for quite a while. I have plans in the works to start releasing more goods onto the market but I have to take it slow. Some of the things I plan to release are going to have some serious competitors angered so I am stepping on all the toes slowly. I don't need a massive gathering of schemers all targeting me at once to pull off some horrible act against me.
They would be fools to target me or the family within my arms reach but the ones who are not or when I turn my back they could go after someone I care about. Which is why I waited so long on some items, with Harrenhal a lot of my worries are put at ease. I will slowly be building up more 'troops' to man the castle but even with the bare minimum and two dragons, we are beyond safe.
What really matters for me as far as men defending Harrenhal is loyalty and that is what I search for. I would rather one loyal man manning my defense than ten 'opportunistic' ones.
"It's so big, how are you ever going to keep it all cleaned?" Shiera pips up from a horse beside me with her head craned back looking up at the massive curtain wall.
"Would you believe me if I said there were so many bats I had to hire more men to protect the five hundred-plus servants running around cleaning?" Shiera's jaw drops as she looks over at me.
"You hired that many servants just to clean?" She shakes her head in disbelief but I only point at the massive stone behemoth.
"You can't see it because the walls block everything out but there is even more inside, it's not just the massive towers. I should have hired even more than I did but I got a good thing going right now and their progress is fast and service is cheap." The 'servants' that are cleaning this place up are getting paid a decent amount but their real payment will be residence.
I really will need to build up the population of the new unnamed town and to start with that I need a lot of people. People make more people but not quickly enough for my designs, I need tens of thousands to move here slowly over the next five to ten years.
"I did hear you once say the kitchen here is so large it's an entire building that can rival most great halls in other castles. But I don't understand honestly, why did you want something this large?" Narha speaks up from a 'safe' distance away from me as she knows a dragon holds a grudge and I will be coming for what I am owed.
"He needs to have a big castle to fit all the children we will have." Daenerys jokes from the side as we approach the gatehouse with men waiting outside hoisting up a Targaryen banner.
"She is not entirely wrong..." I sure hope she was not kidding about emulating the Good Queen Alysanne because I will need quite a few kids to run this place in the future.
The gate was opened in advance as it is hard to miss the two dragons flying overhead and it lets us ride straight in. The entrance is more of a tunnel through a mountain with how thick the walls are, on either side of the 'tunnel' is murder holes ready to fight off invaders. The tunnel-like entrance is big enough to even let a mammoth walk through with spare headroom for it.
Making it through the smell of burning fills the air almost like an ominous reminder of what happened here. They are burning a lot of old and deteriorated things from the towers that have not been used in many years. I asked them to empty the towers for the most part, as I need them I will fill them and it will be a slow project.
"Harrenhal will take me a lifetime to truly get it where I want to get it, if not even part of my children's lifetimes as well. But when it's done it will be worth all the effort, I can't wait to see it become a reality." I never understood my first father and why he always was in his 'workshop' but now I think I get it, it's almost spiritual to have something to tinker on.
I commissioned painters to do a 'before' painting from many different points of view and when I am an old man I will be able to look back on them. I honestly don't know when I will be an old man with my Superhuman Vitality but I still will have something to look forward to at that time.
"Will you leave the names of the towers as they are?" I shake my head hearing Mya's question.
"I won't, but I am still undecided on what to call them." It will get depressing to call them 'dread' and 'widow' so I plan on renaming all five of them eventually.
"Which one are we living in?" Shiera asks and I point to the Kingspyre tower, melted like a candle at the top from Balerion's flames.
"The biggest for now, they cleaned the bulk of the tower already and it's been maintained the best over the years. The Widow tower is the closest to being fully repaired and will be under construction first but once it's done everyone will be moved into there. The Kingspyre is the most damaged even if its bottom half is the one that's seen the most use since the burning of Balerion. Because of how bad the damage is it will be the last to be repaired and it won't be started for years." I let out a sigh seeing the dragons descending into the walled of Godswood, one of the most private spots where no one will bother them for the most part.
"Well, let's go check it out then!" Shiera eagerly heads to the stable to dismount and we all follow after as I take in the sights.
It looks entirely different from the trips I have taken here before, seeing how this time it's actually 'mine'. I see more and more things to add to the checklist to get fixed and improved and it seems to grow longer by the minute. But momma did not raise a quitter and I already got my gold literally flowing into this place so I will see it through. It will be worth it in the end, when the fruits of my labors will stand the test of time for my descendants.
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"This is big." For the hundredth time today, I have heard that and honestly it never gets old.
Harren the Black may have had his problems but I can respect the go-getter attitude of 'make it bigger' that he obviously lived by. This is not even a room designed for the Head of the castle to stay in but it's gigantic. Two floors for one private room is what this is, and I really like it.
"The bottom is going to be for lounging and 'work' and up the stairs is the bedroom and bathing or anything of that nature. They already have an exact match of the feathered bed we had in Kingslanding up there and prepared." I look around the room with Danny following behind me hand in hand. "We are not even at the top of the tower but I feel bad for the messenger boy who will have to run up and down all day bringing me stuff." She snorts and pulls me toward the window.
"You will work someone to death with all the ravens you get." We look out the window at the hive-like network of people running around doing stuff.
"So now that we have made it here and we are alone, how does it feel to be the Lady of Harrenhal?" She leans on my shoulder and I wrap my arm around her back and grip her hip.
"It feels like a lot of work is ahead of us." She doesn't seem all that affected by the mountain of work ahead of each of us now that the ball is rolling, and I am glad for it.
I was worried she would end up regretting having supported my decision to take the biggest 'home improvement' castle in Westeros. But she is carrying on the momentum we built up getting ready for this to finally happen. Lots of duties will be thrust upon her, like running the day-to-day stuff in the castle that is expected of the 'Lady'.
I don't see how women are both looked down on and also given the shit work in the castle but it's not my responsibility to worry about it. Danny seems fine with it even after seeing the workload ahead of her, if anything she looked excited. I will be missing her help in my own work but I can hire someone if I end up falling behind. Aunt Elaena who was the 'unofficial' master of coin put in her 'unofficial' resignation and traveled here with us.
She will be helping me as she has before with the paperwork and keeping track of the gold. I have said it once and I will say it again she is freaky good with numbers, almost a calculator in her brain or something. I think I saw Daeron cry when we left but his eyes were aimed at Elaena who gave him a lifted and defiant chin in return. I feel bad for my brother but I will be needing my aunt and he didn't even respect her enough to break tradition and name her mistress of coin officially.
A mistake he will come to regret when he is lost trying to find an able replacement, but maybe his wife can step in as she is also decent at that kind of thing.
"Want to try out the new bed?" She asks with a tempting tone and I smile before picking her up in a bridal carry.