Chapter 136: Breaking the Curse

For Arthur, there were simply too many things to do next.

Previously, in order to force Robb to return to the western Riverlands to fight, Tywin had ordered his men to carry out a scorched-earth policy on the territories of Pinkmaiden, Wayfarer's Rest, and Riverrun, located on both banks of the upper Red Fork.

This left the vast majority of farmers in these three places without homes, and even less food to survive the winter; Riverrun was better off, as their lord Edmure's castle had not been breached, and he still had some grain to provide relief to these displaced farmers.

The commoners of the two earldoms, Pinkmaiden and Wayfarer's Rest, were quite unfortunate, as their lords had lost their own homes and could not spare the effort to look after them.

Therefore, upon hearing that there was a new king in Harrenhal who was distributing food for free, about fifty or sixty thousand displaced farmers traveled one after another toward the Gods Eye area, heading for Harrenhal and Harrentown.

This wave of people was already on the road.

From another direction, a large number of farmers also arrived at Harrenhal from the east side of the Gods Eye.

The Eastern Alliance had previously collected a large amount of military grain by issuing IOUs; now that the situation had stabilized slightly, the village chiefs had brought the IOUs and wagon trains to demand the grain.

For the farmers coming from the east, Arthur could only dismiss a portion of them with Gold Dragons, while for the rest, he promised to exchange the IOUs for grain arriving from The Vale, Pentos, Volantis, and other places.

The farmers from the west were much more troublesome; although they did not immediately demand wagon after wagon of grain, they only required enough to eat their fill every day.

But the pressure of feeding tens of thousands of people was still immense.

If each person ate two meals a day, consuming one jin of grain, the daily consumption would be tens of thousands of jin of grain.

Patrick had only brought eighty wagons of grain from The Reach, and Willis had also brought ten ships of grain from Gulltown; the two batches of grain combined were only enough to last about a month.

Therefore, before the farmers from the west arrived in large numbers, Arthur had more grain sent from The Twins, Maidenpool, and other places.

But this was not enough; it could only allow the farmers from the west to eat for a period of time, and once the lords of the Riverlands were unwilling to provide grain for the new Riverlands King, a food crisis would arrive again.

Thus, establishing a stable channel for obtaining grain from the outside became a necessity.

Willis had once suggested buying grain from Pentos, and since Stannis had blockaded Blackwater Bay, trade across the Narrow Sea had plummeted, leaving some merchants in Essos with large quantities of goods waiting to be sold.

And since the farmers of the Riverlands were crying out for food, Arthur decided to use Maidenpool to establish a new trade route; although this would cause the captains of the Narrow Sea to spend more time at sea, it would at least provide the governors and wealthy merchants of Pentos with customers, so they would no longer have to worry about their goods being stuck in their hands.

Because he needed to persuade his father, Lord Wyman Manderly, to send troops south to retake Moat Cailin so that the Northmen returning home would have a path to take, Willis had already left.

Consequently, Lord William Mooton was responsible for establishing this trade route; he was timid and cautious by nature, but he was quite capable at managing his territory and operating Maidenpool Town, making him the most suitable candidate Arthur could find for this role.

In addition, the problem of housing for the farmers coming from the west had to be solved.

Their villages had been burned, and since the large-scale withdrawal of the Westerlands Army from the Riverlands, the farmers who had originally fled to the north bank of the Red Fork, the Crownlands, and The Reach were gradually returning, so the displaced farmers could not be settled in empty villages.

Fortunately, the Riverlands had plenty of trees—beech, poplar, willow, locust, and so on; with wood, they could build wooden houses relatively quickly, which would still be enough to get through this winter.

The food and housing problems of the displaced farmers could generally be solved; as for manpower, besides the farmers themselves who could work, there were also the soldiers of the Westerlands captured in several major battles.

These professional soldiers, who had been fed until they were tall and sturdy by Taiwen Laoye, were not as meticulous as the farmers when it came to work, but they had much more strength, making them most suitable for tasks like carrying logs, chopping trees, and digging pits.

The old Maester Tothmudd in Harrenhal and Qyburn were responsible for directing the construction of new dwellings for the displaced farmers, with the site located on the plains north of Harrentown.

To satisfy Qyburn, Arthur also used the name of the Riverlands King to have the Citadel in Oldtown restore his status as a Maester and return his Maester's chain.

Although this would certainly have no effect, Arthur still went through the motions, letting Qyburn know that he still remembered this matter.

Besides these, there was one more thing that required the attention of the new Riverlands King.

The Brotherhood Without Banners seemed to have run into some trouble.

Composed of blacksmiths, carpenters, farmers, hunters, the King's Landing Law Enforcement Team, and other members, the Brotherhood's style of conduct had gradually changed.

They began to attack some villages that had provided services to the Westerlands Army and hanged the villagers who had worked for the Westerners, even though the villagers had been forced to do so by the Western soldiers.

This made life miserable for the farmers and village chiefs who had just begun to settle down.

Therefore, Arthur had Innes Frey, Tristan Rivers, and others who were leading troops to retake Willow Wood find the leaders of the Brotherhood; he wanted to know if Lord Beric and the others were still leading this grassroots organization that protected the farmers, and if not, the Riverlands King would have to have a talk with the new leaders of the Brotherhood.

At the very least, he could not let them run wild in the Riverlands; if they wanted to kill people from the Lion house, please go play in the Westerlands.

The farmers of the Riverlands were already pitiful enough; their lords had poor combat effectiveness, allowing their homes to be ravaged by the enemy, and now that they had finally managed to survive until the war had come to a temporary halt, they still had to endure the bullying of the Brotherhood.

The Riverlands King felt he should restrain the Brotherhood Without Banners and let them return to the right path.

This was a matter outside of Harrenhal; inside the castle, there were also some things that bothered Arthur.

Because more than thirty thousand farmers had already moved into the castle, and they had no awareness of not defecating or urinating everywhere, the smell of the entire castle was rapidly approaching that of King's Landing.

A stench of excrement and urine that could be smelled by the naked nose.

Even while walking around the castle, one might have a basin of urine poured on their head, and if one wasn't careful with their eyes, they might step on a pile of feces—the fresh, steaming kind.

So Arthur had Qyburn find time to design a relatively complete drainage and sewage system to make the castle a bit more hygienic.

Of course, he also issued an order in the name of the "administrator" of Harrenhal, telling everyone to go to the latrines to defecate and urinate—dozens of temporary latrines were built a little further outside the two city gates so that the smell would drift further away.

This group of people would also have wooden houses north of Harrentown; once the construction was mostly done, some people would move out, making Harrenhal a bit tidier.

Since he had received ten thousand Gold Dragons from The Reach and five wagons of gold from Golden Tooth, Arthur could pay off the debts he owed.

Outside Xieercun, Arthur had once borrowed more than two hundred Gold Dragons from Ma Ke, Raymond Darry, Karyl Vance, and others; now it was finally paid back, only the recipients had become Clement Piper, Lyman Darry, and others.

The Gold Dragons that had been snatched from Vargo Hoat by Amory Lorch were also recovered; Lady Whent's portion was returned to her, and the share that the Brave Companions were entitled to would be inherited by Locke Holt.

The down payments for the Qohor Mercenaries and the wages for the fallen mercenaries were also paid in full.

During the period when he was besieged by Tywin's main Westerlands force, Arthur had ordered the collection of all the grain from the refugees; now he had also paid those who were willing to take money.

There was another group of people who wanted grain, so the Riverlands King told them to wait until the merchant ships from the Narrow Sea arrived at Crab Bay before bringing up the matter.

Because the minor lords of the Riverlands were not very familiar with Arthur, and they only supported the new Riverlands King because the vast majority of the count-level nobles had supported the new king, Arthur distributed all the remaining gold in the style of Gold Dragons to the lower-level lords to win them over, letting them recruit strong farmers in their own territories to resist the potential attack of the Lion-Flower Alliance.

And the batch of gold brought from Golden Tooth could not circulate without being minted into coins, which would make the already chaotic market even more chaotic.

And the gold mine outside Golden Tooth could still produce some gold; Arthur was pondering whether he could build his own mint, design his own gold coins, and then mint this batch of gold into new gold coins to enter circulation in the towns of the Riverlands.

This matter would have to wait until the situation was completely stable; currently, the Lion house was actively preparing to march east to retake the Iron Throne and King's Landing, and to march into the Riverlands again to eliminate the "rebels," which made Arthur's idea of managing the Riverlands have to be postponed for a while.

The most important thing at the moment was to break the curse of Harrenhal.

Lady Whent did not have much time left to live, and she had already made it clear that the next owner of Harrenhal would be Sansa Stark; plus, Arthur himself wanted to marry Sansa, so both of them would be affected by this curse when the time came.

The Riverlands King was not sure whether his status as a king could eliminate the influence of this curse, but Sansa would definitely be affected.

This made the work of breaking the curse suddenly urgent.

Fortunately, Arthur still knew quite a bit about the magical powers of this world, so he had several ways to deal with it.

For any castle on the entire continent of Westeros, if it had magical effects, the source of that power must come from the Godswood and some miscellaneous minor sorcery.

Take Storm's End, for example; this castle, built by Brandon the Builder Stark on a sea cliff, has as its greatest magical effect the warding off of Shadow Magic.

To be specific, the shadow babies birthed by Melisandre cannot pass through the walls of Storm's End.

Therefore, in order to kill the Castellan Cortnay Penrose, she had to have the Onion Knight smuggle her beneath Storm's End to be able to cast her magic.

The source of the power of the magic at Storm's End is precisely the Weirwood in the Godswood within the castle.

But Stannis has already ordered the burning of the Godswood in Storm's End, so from now on, Storm's End will no longer be able to resist attacks from Shadow Magic.

Winterfell also has magic, and judging by the fact that its Godswood is the largest on the entire continent, the magical effect of the Stark family seat is super strong, strong enough to influence the entire North.

But the effect might be very weak.

As far as Arthur knows, one function of this magic array is to stabilize the North; specifically, if there is no living Stark in the castle (literally speaking), the entire North will invite misfortune: bandits will rise from the forests, Skin-peelers will gallop along the Kingsroad, lords will war against one another, and the peasantry will become brutal.

Although this might have nothing to do with the magical effect and is purely due to the North having no liege lord to suppress things, it does indeed invite misfortune.

The greatest magical structure in all of Westeros is the Wall, built by Brandon the Builder and the Children of the Forest working together.

This thing, three hundred miles (483 kilometers) long and seven hundred feet (213.36 meters) high, is likely the largest single structure in the entire world.

Its only effect is that the Others and Wights cannot pass through the ice wall of the Wall.

The Wight that Jon Snow killed when he saved Lord Commander Mormont only turned into a Wight after passing through the Wall, so it did not violate the law that the Wall blocks Wights.

The source of the Wall's power should come directly from the Old Gods.

In addition, there are some messy little sorceries that can also provide magical power.

For instance, the Night's Watch used to often mix human blood into the materials for casting the wall to obtain a certain kind of power.

After Harren the Black had his brother infiltrate the ranks of the Night's Watch and become Lord Commander, he learned this trick, so he also mixed a certain unspeakable blood into the walls when building Harrenhal.

This might be the source of the power of the curse of Harrenhal.

But considering there is also a super-large Weirwood in the castle, the only Heart Tree on the entire continent that survived being transplanted, this could also be the source of the curse's power.

If it is the latter, the solution is very simple: just transplant the Weirwood out.

Arthur has already thought of the transplant location: send it to the Isle of Faces.

That place is a forbidden land of the Old Gods, where Green Men, suspected to be the Children of the Forest, are still active to this day; planting it there is sure to be correct.

Although Arthur also dislikes the Old Gods and the Three-Eyed Raven, he still has to rely on the Old Gods and the Lord of Light and other manifest gods to resist the Cold God, as well as have the Old Gods maintain the magical effect of the Wall, so he cannot weaken the source of the Old Gods' power yet.

As for the Seven and other hidden gods, I'm afraid they haven't come out to be active for thousands of years; relying on their power to resist the Others and the Cold God is not as good as counting on Arthur himself to take dragon-glass weapons and stab the Wights to death one by one.

If the source of the curse's power is the former, then it is a bit difficult to handle.

The dumbest way is to replace all the bricks and stones of the entire Harrenhal with normal ones, but that would be worse than building another castle.

After thinking for a long time, he finally came up with another dumb way.

The practice of mixing human blood into city walls to obtain power comes from the Night's Watch; although the Night's Watch and the Old Gods are inextricably linked, it is unlikely that the Blood Witch arts come from the Old Gods who revere nature.

Legend has it that this Blood Witch art comes from the line of the First King of the North, whose tomb should be in the Great Barrow in Barrowton of the Dustin family.

If one were to scatter his ashes, it might really be possible to break this curse.

The First King was just one clan leader of the First Men; there were First Men kings stronger than him, such as Garth the Greenhand and the Storm King Duran the Godsgrief.

The eldest son of the Greenhand, Garth Gardener, was the founder of the Kingdom of the Reach.

One of the Greenhand's sons, with the title "Blood-Blade" or "Blood-Knife," is rumored to be the founding ancestor of the Stark family, Brandon the Builder.

There are even rumors that one of the Greenhand's grandsons was Lann the Clever, that dwarf suspected of being very wise and silver-tongued, the ancestor of the Lannisters.

There is no need to mention Duran; the title "Godsgrief" is not something one can get just casually.

Arthur also really wants to know what this Storm King actually did to make even the gods hate him, and yet they still couldn't do anything to Duran.

In short, breaking the First King is very simple; at worst, just let Alduin burn the Great Barrow completely, and that will settle it.

Alduin was summoned by Joffrey, and Joffrey is the King of the First Men, the Andals, and the Rhoynar; he has much more prestige than the First King, who was only a king of a portion of the First Men.

Arthur decided to find a time to first discuss the matter of Blood Magic with Qyburn, and then find a way to break the First King's curse.

PS: Seeking recommendation tickets and monthly tickets.

(End of this chapter)