The Mountain of Ice and Fire

Night. Clegane Keep. Dining hall.

Gregor put down his chopsticks and gave a small, satisfied burp.

Chopsticks!

This world didn't have chopsticks. Nobles used gilded silver knives, forks, and spoons. In remote and backward places, poor people directly grabbed handfuls of rice to eat.

Gregor had whittled himself a pair of chopsticks for personal use.

In the dining hall with dozens of people, the clinking of cups, plates, knives, and forks created a cacophony, and Gregor was the only one using chopsticks in addition to his knife and fork.

Gregor, Sweetmouth Ralph, Dunsen, Polliver, Notebook, Julie, Thomas Mann, Maester Hallis, and a middle-aged woman sat at one table. Sixty cavalrymen sat at the long tables next to them. Outside the dining hall, the craftsmen building the sept and the servants sat at another table.

In the past twenty days, many changes had taken place at Clegane Keep.

The first was the recruitment of mine-soldiers. Mine-soldiers were Clegane's cavalry. But Gregor insisted on calling this troop mine-soldiers because these people were cavalrymen when they rode horses, and they had to mine when they dismounted.

Apart from the eleven mine-soldiers who were his subjects, the remaining forty-nine mine-soldiers came from freemen in Lannisport and miners from the Silver Hills mountain mines.

Currently, Gregor hadn't sent these sixty mine-soldiers to mine, but was training their combat skills.

Clegane's mine-soldiers were soldiers on horseback and civilians on foot.

After establishing this mine-soldier troop, Gregor also lured, coaxed, and coerced hundreds of freemen laborers from Lannisport. This group was divided into two batches: one went to the nearby Silver Hills to quarry stone, log timber, and burn tiles, preparing building materials for the construction of Clegane's village; the other group of master builders was building the sept to the west of Clegane Keep.

The sept was connected through a large gate opened in the walls of Clegane Keep.

The sept was built neither too big nor too small, of medium scale, completely incomparable to the septs in Casterly Rock and Lannisport, but it was a complete sept structure.

In a few more days, the sept would have its ridge beam installed and the roof covered.

The Faith of the Seven was a good thing, able to give hope to those without hope; to give those without friends to confide in a place to pour out their hearts; and also to give courage to those without courage; and loyalty to those without loyalty. Having subjects and warriors swear allegiance before the Seven Gods was a method Gregor liked very much.

Whether in Earth's civilization or in this magical world, rituals were very important, and the underlying principles were the same. Wedding banquets, graduation parties, and official issuance of certificates in Earth's civilization were all forms of ritual. People's spiritual world needed this.

The Sept of the Seven was a place for people to conduct spiritual rituals.

After the sept was built, the work of the laborers who collected stone, felled trees, and fired roof tiles in the mountains would be almost finished.

Gregor didn't send anyone to supervise the workers in the mountains.

First, he gave the workers generous wages.

Second, he had the workers swear before the statues of the Seven Gods to work hard before they went to work in the mountains.

Third, he set a deadline for the foreman. If the task of collecting building materials wasn't completed within the specified time, he would cut off the foreman's hands and feet.

If the foreman dared to run away with the workers, he would hunt them down and kill their families.

The thousand gold dragons Gregor obtained from the Chariot family was his first pot of gold.

Building a spacious and tidy Clegane village for eleven families to live in and a sept of moderate size would cost more than two hundred gold dragons.

Raising a troop of sixty mine-soldiers, which would expand, purchasing top-quality armor, longswords, javelins, spears, shields, bows and arrows, warhorses, short knives, steel spikes, daggers, and many other things for these people in Lannisport, Gregor paid six hundred gold dragons in one go.

The weapons, armor, and warhorses he bought were the best on the market.

In his gold coin box now, there were only a pitiful twenty or so gold dragons left.

A mine-soldier's monthly salary was one gold dragon. This salary was very high for ordinary soldiers, three times the pay of other ordinary soldiers. In a month, Gregor would have to pay at least sixty gold dragons in wages to his soldiers.

And the soldiers' usual food, clothing, shelter, and transportation all cost money.

In just twenty days, establishing a small mine-soldier troop, building an ordinary sept, and mining some building materials, Gregor felt the pressure increasing day by day.

Gregor now deeply understood the proverb 'You don't know the price of oil and rice until you're in charge of the household'.

A thousand gold dragons were like a pebble thrown into a pond, quickly disappearing without a trace after creating a few ripples.

Once the stonemasons finished quarrying the stone pit designated by Gregor and transported the stone blocks, Gregor would lead his mine-soldiers to start from the stone pit and dig diagonally into the Chariot family's gold mine, extracting gold belonging to the Chariot family.

Most of the Silver Hills belonged to the Silverhall Chariot family, which was just too damn...enviable.

There were still ten days until the first month's wages were to be paid, but Gregor didn't have that much money. He was temporarily unable to pay the wages.

But there were still ten days.

For a super rogue, if there was no road ahead of the mountain, then climb directly over it.

First, he had to settle the family of Alan Chariot, who was sent over by Addam Chariot today.

Alan Chariot's woman was sitting at the same table as Gregor and the others.

Alan Chariot was a knight. His wife was qualified to sit with Gregor and the others. And his seven-year-old son sat with his grandparents at the craftsmen's table outside.

"Lady Alan, do you know how your husband Alan Chariot died?" Gregor said.

Everyone at the table stared at the knight's wife.

The woman opposite him lowered her head and said nothing.

"The strangler your husband used to poison me, the poison mixed in the golden wine, was more expensive than gold, diamonds, emeralds, and agates. Only the Chariots of Silverhall could afford it. Your husband couldn't afford it."

The woman slowly raised her head, a very young woman with decent looks. Her large eyes were filled with tears.

"Your husband's plan to poison me failed. The Chariots of Silverhall, in order to shirk responsibility and give an explanation to Lord Tywin of Casterly Rock, arrested your entire family and sent you here to atone for your sins. Lady, are you afraid of death?"

The woman shook her head very firmly.

"What about your son?"

Tears immediately flowed from the woman's eyes, revealing despair in her gaze.

"Lord, spare my son. I am willing to do...anything for you. I can taste poison for you, wash you, make your bed, clean the room. I am willing to be your personal servant," the woman said, tears flowing silently. She tried hard to control her emotions, but her body was still trembling slightly.

The Mountain's reputation for raping and killing women was well-known, enough to stop children from crying at night.

"Alright, I won't kill your young son. I will take in your whole family, restore your status as freemen, and welcome your whole family to become members of Clegane's village."

"Thank you, Lord!" The woman got up, knelt down, and kowtowed, making loud thumping sounds. After only three kowtows, blood flowed from her forehead.

This was the power of a demon. Being slightly kind to others would reap multiple times the gratitude.

"Lady, I have something I need you to do tonight," Gregor said.

"Yes, Lord!" Fear flashed in the woman's eyes, but then her expression became firm.