"The The New Gift?"
When King Jaehaerys heard Danniella mention the The New Gift, he couldn't help but think of his beloved Queen Alysanne. Queen Alysanne had made great efforts to ensure the Night's Watch could live better lives.
However, only a few decades had passed, and her efforts were gradually being neglected.
The beautiful, wise, lively, and benevolent Alysanne had earned widespread praise throughout the Seven Kingdoms through her personal example. Queen Alysanne had made invaluable contributions to King Jaehaerys's ability to usher in decades of prosperity.
"That's right, even Deep Lake Keep, which Alysanne poured her heart into building, is said to be nearing abandonment. The Night's Watch lives a hard life; the land was granted to them back then in hopes of improving their lives."
"If the Hightower Family can manage that place well, it will be a way for them to atone for their mistakes."
"Then let them manage Crown Town and the The New Gift! Coincidentally, there's also a tower there where Alysanne once rested. Perhaps this is the gods' arrangement. It seems the Hightower Family does have some connection to towers."
"Merciful Majesty, The Wall is incredibly harsh and cold. We men are not afraid, but wouldn't the women and children of the Hightower Family, accustomed to Oldtown's warm climate, simply perish there?"
Although Earl Hightower was relieved to have saved his life, he still risked boldly pleading with King Jaehaerys for the sake of his family's women and children.
"I beg Your Majesty, please let them stay!"
King Jaehaerys remained unmoved.
"It's best for a family to be reunited. Without your protection, they wouldn't necessarily live well even if they stayed."
"Don't worry. I will send all of your Hightower Family descendants to be reunited with you. The Maesters who serve noble families and the clergy of the Seven Gods Church are all knowledgeable people. With all of you working together, you can surely sow a bountiful harvest even in the barren lands of the North."
"Your Majesty…"
Earl Hightower still wanted to argue further, but King Jaehaerys was already tired of wasting more words on him.
"Enough! Take the Hightower Family members away. Let them rest well for a day, then depart North tomorrow. Take advantage of the long summer to stock up on more food; Winter in the North is far more terrifying than in Oldtown."
The Royal Guard immediately escorted the Hightower Family members away. At this point, almost no one in the Throne Room was interested in them anymore.
Their minds were now entirely focused on how to purge the Hightower spies lurking within their family territories. At the same time, they were also plotting how to obtain more sales quotas for the new paper.
As for a Hightower Family that had already fallen from grace, why would they still care?!
With the downfall of the Hightower Family, a vigorous campaign to purge Hightower Family bloodline "spies" began throughout the Seven Kingdoms.
However, because King Jaehaerys had already given the order that all these people were to be sent to Crown Town, no one dared to harm them.
Because Danniella had almost swallowed the entire accumulated wealth of the Hightower Family over the years, she sent five large carriages of living supplies and fur clothing when they set off.
With these supplies, they could at least settle down easily in Crown Town. This wasn't Danniella's compassion overflowing, because she was well aware of what the true enemy Beyond the Wall was.
From Aegon I's time to Jaehaerys's period, the total number of Night's Watch at The Wall remained around ten thousand. Under their suppression, the wildlings Beyond the Wall dared not commit any transgressions.
However, in the original history, with the arrival of the first Winter after the Dance of the Dragons, the villagers on The Gift migrated South in large numbers and hardly ever returned. This led to The Gift becoming almost uncultivated.
Consequently, the number of Night's Watch began to decline continuously. Yet, none of the subsequent kings paid attention to the living conditions of the Night's Watch. So much so that by the beginning of Game of Thrones, the total number of Night's Watch was only about a thousand.
Their combat effectiveness was even worse, as almost all of them were former criminals like thieves. Night's Watch members from proper knightly backgrounds were extremely rare. And very few people in the Seven Kingdoms would take pride in becoming a Night's Watch member anymore.
Although the Hightower Family had lost Oldtown, and all their overseas assets were seized by Danniella, as King Jaehaerys said, the Hightower Family had many scattered bloodlines. With them, even the barren The New Gift would surely be well developed.
Moreover, with the Hightower Family's intellect, once they established themselves there, they would surely actively engage in foreign trade, and perhaps bring a breath of spring to the cold North!
The efficiency of the various families was still very high. The Hightower Family had just set off, and every day, many scholars and monks from the Hightower Family bloodline, and even married daughters, were sent to join the Hightower Family's Northward procession.
And all these people brought a lot of supplies when they came, which made the originally five-carriage procession grow larger and larger.
Watching the Hightower Family depart, Danniella let out a long sigh of relief.
"I've finally removed this biggest hidden danger that caused the Dance of the Dragons. Will history change because of this?!"
Over the next few days, besides accompanying King Jaehaerys in handling state affairs, Danniella spent almost all her time at Orn's blacksmith shop.
The iron blocks collected from Weirwood Square had already been transported back. After Master Orn's meticulous processing, the steel forged from these iron blocks indeed possessed the characteristics of Valyrian steel.
"Princess, look, this sword, from its appearance and sharpness, is no different from a valyrian steel sword, but I always feel it lacks a certain spiritual essence."
Master Orn carefully studied the forged steel sword.
However, Danniella could clearly perceive the magic gained from the blood sacrifice slowly dissipating from this steel sword.
"You're right. This sword doesn't possess the immortality of Valyrian steel."
Upon hearing this, Master Orn felt a sudden enlightenment.
"Immortality?! Ha, I know!"
"No wonder dragon bones must be added when forging new Valyrian steel. Now that you mention it, I finally understand what's going on."
"No wonder Princess, you also brought back so many huge beast bones?"
To prevent the bones from being discovered as remnants of sea dragons, Danniella had the dragons dismantle them all when they were transported out of Oldtown. So others couldn't tell what kind of fierce beast's bones they were.
"So, I don't know what kind of magical species these beast bones belong to. From their size, only dragons and Whale are possible. In the past, dragon bones were all black. Although Whale bones are white, I've never seen any like this, resembling white jade."
Danniella did not say much about Master Orn's probing. And seeing that Danniella had no intention of revealing anything, Master Orn also stopped talking.
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