Chapter 21

After you gleefully continue your work for a total of two Days, you decide to take some time for yourself, so as to see if your efforts brought with them the desired results, for while you can feel the World through your Creations, you can't quite tell if the increase in Living Conditions did anything for your House. That's why you didn't want to continue your work despite all the fun you find in creating them, for if your work didn't actually help your Family because of some misunderstanding or the like, you would have wasted time that could have been spent more efficiently if you continued, and you do quite like being as efficient as possible in such matters.

Simply because giving away an Advantage requires having one in the first place, and should a Situation truly require you to give up on a part of your Subject's Loyalty, you would like to have your Hands as full as they can get, for you're sure your Subjects wouldn't appreciate how you would deal with a Rebellion. Which in the end could breed even more problems, but this time out of nothing, and you aren't willing to give any Adversary that might come forth anything but Steel, which as you had learned in your previous Life requires more than your own Strength.

And you thought that there would be many that could see themselves as Followers of a genuine Saint, but you can't trust the People with developing that kind of Belief on their own, so you will have to know as much as possible. You're aware that your Family and Nobles in general aren't too well liked, at least as long as the Sheep don't need a place to hide, and so you have to make sure that everyone can draw the Connection.

You learned that being known as a Demon isn't very helpful when fighting a Campaign against truly capable Enemies, and you're actually a bit surprised how good that Idea of yours is working. Though for all you know, the Gods truly had their Hands in your Appearance on this World, for who else could have given you your new Life. You're of course more interested in the here and now, and don't particularly care about your past, but with how smoothly your Plan of becoming a Saint is going, you wonder if the Gods didn't intervene once more in your Life.

The hard Road is easy, and the easy Road is hard could be used to describe your Life at the moment rather well, for you found yourself in a Situation in which the creation of Wealth is nearly effortless, and you're living a Life most could only dream of. But then you have to deal with all the small stuff that's doing its best to lead you into insanity and madness one of those Days.

If only the Gods had put some effort into creating your new Mind, your Life would be perfect, not that you would enjoy it, but you would prefer having to struggle in gathering Resources and Strength over having to struggle gathering your Thoughts each Day of your Life. And seeing as you already dislike having to deal with minor problems that you had no Hand in creating, doing so while you also have to collect your Thoughts all the time just doesn't bring you much in the way of enjoyment.

You find yourself wandering around Lannisport while thinking on how the Gods could have left you some Instructions with what they want done, but then decide to focus your Mind on the matters of the Physical Plane of Existence once more. For as long as your Plans still work out, you can survive having to avoid certain Topics for your mental stability, for the time being. Though the actual effect your Spirits have on the Season is of course limited, seeing as they only affect the Magical Snow that's falling nearly constantly, the little additional warmth they provide seems to make that Fact fly by unnoticed.

And you're pleased to see that your People are happily ignoring the remaining Snow without a single Complaint to hear, and were you a bit more naive you would just continue with your work, so as to further improve upon the Situation. But you have Decades of Experience, and that everything goes as great as it does can only mean that your efforts had already achieved all they could reasonably do. Now with the results of your work confirmed, the next step is naturally to not work yourself, but instead use their Happiness to encourage some proper Trade.

For the Trade is the first thing the Winter kills whenever it shows up so very much uninvited, and as such it has to be brought back as soon as possible, so you sell some Gems, and then you buy a few Houses, which you sell to your Guild on the cheap, and then begin to buy whatever Stone you can get your Hands on and supplement it with your own, to fill up seventy Percent of the Guilds vast Storage Capacities, it's time to build and spread Wealth like never before, and you think you have the right Project already in Mind.

Seeing as the Winters of your Home can take Years to subside it will allow for a Project that would surely be disrupted by anyone with a decent Head on their Shoulders, and while you could do it yourself if it came down to it, there is very little reason to not use the nearly worthless Wealth instead. And isn't the construction of a new outer Wall for your Family's Capital quite perfect to focus your Mind on a new and enjoyable Task, that gets Gold, Silver, and Copper alike flowing through the City once more?

In Fact, with the little heat provided and so much of the Snow gone the City has more than enough Wood to let the Woodcutters supply your Endeavour for at least a Year without much of a problem, so nothing important would actually be disrupted. And while you have all the Hands you could ever need you naturally know that projecting the Strength of your House outside the Rock itself would be very risky at best, and so decide to write a Message to your Father on his little Companion's Back so that he can intercept any News to the King that does get out, or cancel your efforts, though you don't believe that all that Frustration you can feel from your Cub means that the Lord of the Rock has much Love left for the King.