Chapter 354: The True Lightbringer (Part I)
Egger's confession of his plan wasn't because he was a man of uncompromising honesty.
Aside from maintaining the relatively good mutual trust between himself and the Red Woman, there was another factor: after learning that this was no ordinary Valyrian steel sword, he wavered.
Since the original plan to sell it would likely fall through, what did it matter if he spoke of it?
As an object whose symbolic significance far outweighed its practical utility, Valyrian steel swords almost never circulated—they were as priceless as they were illiquid. If one were forced to estimate its worth, a conservative figure would be around twenty to thirty thousand gold dragons. At this critical juncture, selling it to Tywin for a fifty percent discount—ten thousand gold dragons—might seem like a small loss, but generally speaking, it would have been a win-win for both parties.
But a Dragonlord sword? How could its value be measured? The internal and external enchantments on Dark Sister were dozens of times more powerful than those on a common Valyrian steel blade. Did that mean the price should also be dozens of times higher?
No. Even the most uninitiated layman would know that with a magical item, as performance increases, the difficulty of crafting and its inherent value rise exponentially. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to set Dark Sister's price at ten million gold dragons!
However... much like the Wall itself, as the largest magical construct in the world of Ice and Fire, its value was simply incalculable. Yet, no one would ever pay money to buy ownership of it. What the Lannisters wanted was merely a common Valyrian steel weapon that wouldn't rust or dull with age to serve as a Great House Sword for prestige. The magical capabilities of dragonsteel were meaningless to Tywin, or to anyone who wasn't fighting the White Walkers.
And coincidentally, Egger was exactly the person currently preparing to fight the White Walkers.
He could accept underselling a common Valyrian steel sword worth hundreds of thousands for a mere ten thousand, but to sell Dark Sister for one percent of its true worth... the sheer wastefulness of such a transaction was so great that Egger would wake up from his own dreams cursing himself as a profligate son.
"Fine, I admit, this sword may indeed be extraordinary," Egger forced an explanation with a grimace. "But... I was thinking that if a large sum of money could be used to purchase armaments and equipment to improve the overall combat effectiveness of the Gift's army, wouldn't that be better than having one more sword that can kill an Other?"
Melisandre scoffed at Egger's reasoning. The Lightbringer, which countless followers of the Lord of Light had searched for so long without a trace, had finally been delivered to the Prince Who Was Promised, and the man involved wanted to sell it? It was a joke, and a poorly timed one at that!
Her gaze grew sharp. "And who would you buy from?"
The question was short, but it struck the heart of the matter. Egger was instantly speechless.
In a world with backward productivity, what is lacked is not money, but commodities.
In the most peaceful of times, a hedge knight would only need ten gold dragons to buy weapons, a mount, and armor from head to toe, wrapping himself and his horse like a tin can to decently participate in tourneys or seek employment.
But if a heavyweight like Tywin Lannister suddenly had a whim to immediately purchase equipment to arm a thousand-man Lannisport City Watch, would ten thousand gold dragons be enough?
Far from it. Even a hundred thousand would be a stretch. Because no supplier or blacksmith could provide that much equipment at once. Once someone starts buying in bulk, the price of similar goods skyrockets, quickly climbing to prohibitive levels.
In reality, lords everywhere use the peaceful years when prices are low to continuously purchase weapons and armor in advance, stockpiling their armories for war.
Now, war fires were raging everywhere. In this Great War sparked by the Baratheon internal strife, no one in the Seven Kingdoms remained uninvolved. Not to mention the houses currently locked in fierce combat; even those not currently fighting were awaiting someone's return, sleeping in their armor and keeping their spears ready... Not only were the armories guaranteed to be empty, but most blacksmiths and technicians capable of making new equipment had likely been conscripted by their lords to provide custom service and maintenance for the army for free.
Surely, some would ask: what about across the Narrow Sea?
Thanks to the Freedom Fighter Daenerys Targaryen stirring things up in Slaver's Bay and the Red Temple's widespread promotion of doomsday theories, the city-states and towns of Essos, whether they had abolished slavery or not, were all feeling a sense of crisis. Everyone was sharpening their blades and preparing for war on the principle of being prepared.
In the current state of global conflict, Egger realized he really... might not be able to buy armaments even if he had the money. He could only rely on the Gift to rush production with all its might, working on both cold and thermal weapons, arming as many as possible.
"Fine, I suppose I might not be able to buy much in the way of military supplies." Egger frankly admitted his lack of foresight. After all, it was a thought that had popped up in an instant; it was only natural for there to be flaws. "But Queenscrown is developing special weapons specifically to deal with wights and White Walkers. That costs money too."
"Exactly how much money do you lack?" the Red Woman questioned sharply.
How much money do I lack?
After Egger calmed down and thought for a while, he quickly reached a conclusion that surprised even himself: although the Night's Watch was heavily in debt, they actually weren't short on cash at the moment.
The cost of building warships at Westwatch-by-the-Bridge and the food consumption of the Gift and the Wall—these two major expenses were borne by the North and the Iron Bank, respectively. The expenses of the Night's Watch Southern Branch in searching for saltpeter mines and researching soil-based nitre production were handled by Nina and the Industrial Park through self-sufficiency.
This meant that, at this stage, the only places Egger needed to spend money were in Queenscrown: the wages of hundreds of Night's Watch Logistics Department employees, and the procurement of various tools and daily necessities that could not be produced in the Gift—totaling one thousand gold dragons a month. The compensation for smelting, casting, and forging experts needed for researching cannons and bombs, as well as the material costs of trial and error—this had currently reached two thousand gold dragons a month and was about to hit three thousand as the scale expanded and procedures were refined.
An expenditure of nearly four thousand gold dragons a month... it sounded like money flowing out like water, but it must be remembered that Tyrion had just approved a loan for the Night's Watch: forty thousand gold dragons, in cash.
It didn't just solve the urgent need; it could last a while.
It was the same as buying armaments: climbing the tech tree in reality, especially in a world with backward productivity and scarce resources, the biggest problem faced wasn't a lack of money, but a lack of personnel, prerequisite basic technology, and materials.
Personnel-wise, Egger had a team centered on the Alchemists, supplemented by talent discovered within the Night's Watch industry itself, and bolstered by confidants gained through recruitment and education. It was barely enough. Basic technology? With everyone working together to tackle the problems, it was mostly settled. But materials were more troublesome: the charcoal needed for gunpowder was self-burned; the sulfur was dug up from Dragonstone; the nitre was temporarily collected by the Night's Watch Wandering Crows using knives to scrape it from toilets, stables, and paddocks across the land. The casings for the bombs and the barrels for the cannons were even more complex: the materials had to be mined, smelted, and mixed themselves; the designs had to be improved by themselves; the molds had to be shaped and carved by themselves...
It was like a hardcore gathering game with no top-up system or built-in shop: aside from some common tools and experienced master craftsmen, there wasn't much that could be settled simply by spending money.
True technological progress can certainly be accelerated by investing large sums of capital, but the most obvious difference from mobile games is that the required time cannot be indefinitely shortened through pay-to-win or cheating.
The Research Institute's current lack of scale and scarcity of experience were fixed problems. Spending over two thousand gold dragons a month was already a figure approaching the limit. Even if Egger forcibly increased the allocation, the researchers wouldn't have many channels to consume it, other than eating better, wearing better clothes, or receiving more bonuses.
In a word: although the Night's Watch currently had a massive deficit, they would definitely not run out of money before the Great War began. The Song of Ice and Fire was about to play; staying alive until the end of the song was the primary objective. What was the point of rushing to stuff a warehouse with gold coins?
"I know the Night's Watch currently owes many foreign debts, but now is not the time to consider how to repay them! Benerro, the High Priest of the Red Temple in Volantis, is raising funds for the Night's Watch from the faithful. The pressure to repay debts after the war will not be as great as you imagine." Seeing Egger lost in thought, Melisandre softened her tone. "In any case, Lightbringer must be held by you personally. There is no room for negotiation!"
So, the Red Woman hadn't asked how much money he lacked because she had preternaturally sensed the financial state of the Watch, but because she had other sources of funding! He wondered how many Red God followers there were in Volantis, what social strata they generally belonged to, and if they were wealthy.
Egger muttered to himself, but he still reluctantly nodded in agreement: "Alright, you don't need to emphasize it further. I promise I will not sell this sword."
The promise was made, but Dark Sister, as a sword, only had utility if it was plunged into the body of an Other... and that meant the wielder had to get a chance for a 1-on-1 duel with an Other or even the Night King to exercise its power as a bane.
Egger had always acted as a warrior and hero in the eyes of the public, which had a massive positive effect on boosting and maintaining morale. As the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, he really couldn't bring himself to tell Melisandre: having experienced a life-and-death struggle with an Other, he truly did not want to go back to hand-to-hand combat with those ghostly things... especially not the Night King.
Was this cowardice? Of course it was. But Egger didn't feel any shame: following one's heart is not a crime. A true warrior is not one without fear, but one who can overcome it.
If he were truly forced into a position where he had to duel the Night King, he wondered if R'hllor, who might have chosen him as a proxy, would bless him? Egger thought this, feeling uneasy all over. For Egger, who was used to controlling situations and preferred to keep everything under control, handing his fate over to another... even if it were a god, was an unacceptable option.
Having secured the promise, Melisandre breathed a sigh of relief and continued her long-winded, trivial reminders in a gentler tone. Egger's thoughts, however, drifted elsewhere: a common Valyrian steel sword could kill an Other, and the Dragonlord sword contained dozens of times the same magical energy. Didn't that mean—even if Dark Sister were broken into dozens of pieces, each piece could independently kill an Other?
Egger hadn't forgotten he was a transmigrator. How could he live in this world for over four years and yet let his thinking become so limited? Dark Sister was a sword, but who said the holder had to use it in the form of a sword?
"Lady Melisandre, my apologies." Egger raised his hand to interrupt the witch again. "Permit me to interject. I want to ask: if I were to melt this sword and recast it into dozens of small pieces, would those small pieces still retain the ability to kill White Walkers?"
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