10 Chapter 10

Hunting enough food to keep them fed on their way to Saltpans, they arrived to find a welcoming party waiting for them. Thanks to the messenger sent on ahead, there were already a few people waiting to sell them scrap iron.

But Chad had also attracted the attention of House Cox, the ruling family of Saltpans. They were a noble house of landed knights from the Riverlands, with Ser Quincy Cox being the Knight of Saltpans.

Since Chad's party were marching on foot except for himself, it was a simple matter for scouts to accurately predict his approach. Certainly enough time for House Cox to assemble a few guards and meet him as he arrived.

It was not every day you had the child of a Lord Paramount marching a small army through your lands, and Ser Quincy Cox thought it prudent to meet with him.

"Greeting, my Lord. Bread and salt?" Ser Quincy offered, while not being able to take his eyes off Retribution.

The massive Warhammer was simply too eye-catching, but Chad was not quite ready to start preaching in the Faith of the Seven territories to explain its creation to any that asked. Let them think whatever they needed to explain why a child held a hammer twice his size.

Before the Red Wedding, no one would risk breaking Guest Rights, a sacred rule in all religions practised in Westeros, and even beyond the Wall.

Once Guest Rights had been offered and accepted, both guests and hosts were protected from harm by one another for the length of the stay. It was easy to see why Ser Quincy had led with the custom, as it would protect his town from being raided.

Although he was way down the social hierarchy compared to Chad, Ser Quincy was part of the Riverlands, not the North. He answered to Hoster Tully and would do whatever benefited his liege over the risk of offending Chad.

Hell, since Chad had yet to reach his majority and take up his lands of Moat Calin, the landed knight might even try to capture Chad to return him to his father! But the chances of that happening were practically non-existent.

Not only would the man not know of Chad going rogue, but without Tully ordering him to do so, Ser Quincy would not have either the balls or the manpower to even dream about it.

Still, better to be safe than sorry, so Chad was only too happy to comply by tearing a chunk of bread off before sprinkling it with salt and eating it. Once the small ceremony was over, and pleasantries exchanged, they got down to business.

"As you may have heard from Widow's Ford, I require iron. Other than that, I need food, and sailors with experience on the Narrow Sea." Chad said, gauging Ser Quincy's reaction.

"Those that have iron to spare have already gathered, and we have plenty of grain. I can also put the word out for any interested sailers, though I don't think there will be many. Few come down the river this far and prefer to stay in Maidenpool if they do. I'm sorry, but I simply must know about your weapon, how are you able to carry such a thing?"

"You're not the first to ask, but I'm afraid I made an oath not to reveal any of its secrets until the creator is ready to do so on his own. Though I can tell you that there are strict requirements to own arms and armour from the maker. When he goes public, I will make sure you are notified if you wish." Chad replied, trying to appease the man with some bullshit.

From there it turned into a Q&A with Ser Quincy Cox trying to get answers out of him about the 'mysterious blacksmith', Chad's movements, and his future plans.

Though Chad kept making stuff up, his answers started to sound fake, even to him. After a while, he could only stress that he was on a tight schedule and was expected to meet up with a fleet in the Bay of Crabs to ferry him and his men to Maidenpool before heading back to the North.

Though he tried to be polite, Quincy Cox grilled him as much as possible before taking the blatant hint to leave Chad to his business. The allure of such top quality armour and the ridiculous weapon wielded by a child was simply too much for the knight to not question him extensively.

Thanks to the help of House Cox, Chad bought enough iron to make enough sets of armour for a hundred men. Slowly but surely, he was covering his Knights in indestructible armour, but he was only a quarter there and hadn't even started on the weapons yet.

Although Saltpans had never been an important trading port, ships do call there from time to time. There are shops, inns and alehouses by the harbour, as well as a Sept and a stable. If they were given a City Charter, they would have seen a massive boost in their economy.

Thanks to this, they were quickly able to buy food enough to last them a month, and the wagons and horses to cart it. It also made moving the iron seem more believable since Chad couldn't magically melt it down into ingots for his men to carry.

Though all of his purchases did mean he had to activate his 'Pouch of Gold' item card. But that was a simple process, the hard part was making sure his Knights didn't kill themselves trying to steal it, their oaths would see that as a betrayal.

Five hours later, Chad and his merry band were once again on the road heading south-east, though now they had wagons of food and iron to bog them down in the muddy paths.

They also had four new travelling companions. They were the only ones out of twenty men that didn't find it weird a group of people meeting up with a fleet of ships needed experienced sailors.

It took a week for them to get to where the river opened up into the Bay of Crabs. It would have been faster, but the roads were in a deplorable condition since there were no more towns on this side of the river other than Quiet Isle, a monastery.

The landscape was only dotted with farms, and the dirt tracks between them were not meant for merchants. How the farmers got their crops to town without losing their minds at the road's poor condition was a mystery.

During their travels, Chad had been preaching to his new sailors. At first, he planned to hide his magic from them, but that would just make things annoying when he crafted a hundred sets of armour, repaired wagon wheels, or lifted them out of the mud with a wave of his hand.

There was also the fact that he would be pulling ships out of thin air once they got to a decent location to do so. It had been a bit of a battle to get them on his side since sailors were notoriously superstitious, but after swearing that his Gods could protect them at sea, they were on board.

The Faith of the Seven didn't offer much for sailors, so magical assurances in exchange for an oath and a full-time job from a noble was an easy sell.

When it came time summon a ship, it also meant that he needed to call one of his Companions since there was no individual card for their equipment and items.

Although it was annoying, it was also probably necessary soon anyway. When Chad had been walking around Saltpans, the women there were not grotesque like the few in the Clans he happened to see.

This had kickstarted 'The Unworthy' flaw, and it had only been building up over the week of travel. He was only nine years old, but already Chad was as horny as a dog with two dicks.

Thankfully, when designing his Companions, he had made them unable to get pregnant. Not only would they be top tier beauties, but there would be no chance of a Ramsay Snow plaguing him fifteen years later after a bit of sexy time now.

Although his Knights Templar had already sworn a life bound oath, Chad thought it prudent to continue the 'Old Gods working through Weirwood trees' excuse for great displays of power.

Just because his men were bound by oaths that killed them if they betrayed him, it wouldn't stop them from gossiping like women over an ale or ten. As such, he used one of the cuttings he had taken from the tree in the Vale and poured magic into it.

The cutting planted in the ground absorbed it greedily and started to grow at a visible rate. Once it was two metres tall and the trunk was as thick as an adults leg, he stopped, satisfied it would now be able to grow on its own.

After a brief sermon to the Old Gods, they would now have something else to gossip about, and Chad would hopefully only be seen as an instrument of the Gods will. It was time for the next step in making his men true believers.

Gathering everyone on the bank of the river, he stealthily activating one of his Braavosi Companion cards. Mela Phassos appeared out of nowhere with a horse beside her and a large Swan ship splashing down in the bay behind her.

She was wearing slightly rusted and dinted plate armour, had a rapier strapped to her side, a Dragonbone Bow Horse Bow over her shoulder, and leaning on a massive Great Sword made of Valyrian steel.

This was another loophole in the CYOA, as it only asked for a weapon of your choice made of Valyrian steel. There was no way Mela was going to be able to swing a great sword around proficiently, but if it was melted down, two rapiers could easily be crafted from it with some magical metal left over.

Mela was an olive-skinned gorgeous woman that stood one and a half metres tall with a slim build. Thanks to her small size, she was never going to be as strong as a man, so Chad made her proficient in Water Dancing.

The water dance is a refined form of fencing with a slender blade, a swift and deadly style that focuses on speed, balance and grace. Since he had designed all of his Companions to be petite hotties, this style of fighting was perfect for them, especially with the 'Quick as a Snake' perk.

"My Lord!" Cried out the woman in feverish reverence while kneeling, her priceless Valyrian steel weapon clattering to the ground forgotten.

Chad had missed brainwashed minions, taking away his ability to create more of them had seriously hampered his methods. Otherwise, he would still be in Winterfell implementing his schemes for his future rule.

"Welcome, Mela. It warms my heart that the Old Gods have delivered you to me."