Guardian Suit

When Victor returned to the podium in the middle of the hall everybody quieted down. All the incredible weapons made the nobles and military enthusiasts very excited, but they knew that the end of today's presentation and the final item was nearing. One large glass box standing upright was placed next to Victor which he circled a few times building up the tension.

"Today I showed you the pinnacle of weapons you can buy right now, except for the very few weapons that will only be available at the later auctions. But cloud steel can not only be used to forge weapons and destroy things, but also to create armor which is light but at the same time has a very high defense. You can imagine that an armor uses significantly more steel than any weapon could ever use.

The price of low-grade weapons is already quite high for most people, let alone high-grade weapons. This armor right next to me is the only high-grade armor made from cloud steel and represents the pinnacle defensive armor of the Known World. I can promise anyone of you that if you wear this armor on the battlefield no one will be able to injure you if you don't stand still and let him attack you several times at the same place. My Lords let me present you with the ultimate armor of Westeros and Essos, the Guardian Suit."

When Victor finished his introduction, he slowly pulled the red fabric from the glass case and showed a beautiful looking armor with red elements all over it. The armor didn't seem bulky, but the characteristic veins of the cloud steel could be seen everywhere. The sheer number of veins already showcased just how much high-quality steel was used for this armor. Most noble lords were already drooling when seeing this masterpiece.

Many noble lords would never really use a weapon on the battlefield as not everyone was like Randyll Tarly and wanted to be a commander in a real war. But at some point, most of them would need to be on or somewhere near the battlefield. And anybody that faced war knew that there is always a small possibility to suffer injury, whether by an arrow or an ambush or any kind of accident.

Having such a Guardian Suit would pretty much guarantee their life while still being able to gather military merits on the battlefield when the time comes. Even if they were never to use such an armor during their lifetime, they could hand down this armor within the family.

Victor could see the greed and desire for the Guardian Suit in the eyes of many very rich nobles.

"This piece of armory is, as you can already imagine, very expensive and honestly using this amount of high-quality cloud steel on weapons would be way more efficient and more beneficial for House Di Natale. This will make the future production very rare, which means there won't be many of those armors in the future.

This armor will be given as a wedding gift to Rhaegar Targaryen and Elia Martell. The armor is made with the dimensions provided to us that will fit Rhaegar very well. We will of course offer the same service to anyone that wins such an armor during the yearly auction of the Athenaeum club."

The lights in many eyes suddenly dimmed when they learned they had no chance to obtain this armor and nobody would argue with Victor Di Natale on his own family property, let alone try to steal something from the crown prince of Westeros. Everybody already guessed that this armor wouldn't be up to sale today anyways, as not even high-grade cloud steel weapons could be obtained, let alone if some had so much money and resources available to just purchase something so expensive.

Most people were already silently calculating how many low-grade cloud steel weapons they could buy and where to sell them after in higher prices. Some military lords were planning on purchasing low-grade steel weapons but not for a business operation, but to equip their personal guard with them. A small elite force might be able to do a lot of damage in small scale skirmishes or even on a real battlefield in certain situations.

Probably the only person in the whole hall not thinking about low-grade weapons was the only wielder and owner of a high-grade weapon yet, Randyll Tarly. Only after witnessing the power and sharpness of a high-grade cloud steel sword and feeling the advantage in battle could you truly understand it's value.

When used only in a single fight there is not much of a disadvantage even against Valyrian steel swords. Randyll could understand this very well as House Tarly was an owner of an ancestral Valyrien sword. Over the years many people tried to bid for their sword or other Valyrien steel swords and no matter how ridiculous the price, nobody ever sold in the last few decades.

Of course, you cannot neglect a certain aspect of honor and fame when trying to acquire such a weapon, but purely from a fighting aspect there isn't much difference between those two swords, apart from their durability. But even this point Randyll wasn't so sure of, as he couldn't really imagine their ancestral sword to easily take many full-strength blows with high-grade cloud steel swords and not having any damage as a result.

He knew the selling price would be very high in the future, as auctions between many rich people tend to raise the price a lot, especially if the supply of this good is very low and the practical use very high. But he didn't know the cost price of those weapons. If he imagined a small-scale elite unit of House Di Natale, who already owned the most elite soldiers of the Known World when it comes to small scale skirmishes, being fully equipped with something roughly equal to Valyrian steel swords, he truly felt something like fear for the first time. How would he ever beat them without outnumbering them at least 1 to 10?