Chapter 46: Epilogue(Karna's POV)
Years passed and many things happened. I work hard to develop all these lands that I received. The reason why I accepted to get all the slave bay cities was that I wanted a challenge. The cities there relied completely on the slave trade to make ends meet.
One may think that slave bay has great economical potential with its near central position on the map, like the Middle East back on Earth that god much wealth, because of its essential position in the middle ages because of the spice and silk routes that pass there.
But that's not the case with Slave Bay at all, they are far from being a location that connects three continents. Sea trade was only used to enter the bay, to buy slaves, as Slave Bay is not a necessary ship stop, it's a visit that can easily be avoided.
Besides these cities are not Qarth, which controls a strait that is a key passage for west-east and north-south sea trade, and can easily tax the ships that passed there. Qarth was really the Constantinople of ASOIAF. Land trade from east-west does not pass through the slave bay, in fact, it passes through the much wealthier Sarnori Kingdom.
A trading route that passes by land through slave bay is not much of a sellable route, because it needs to pass all over the red waste, which besides the poor quarteene cities do not have much to offer, besides an unnecessarily hard route to the east.
The situation of Slave Bay was less bad than the one Daenerys found in ASOIAF. There is still some olive growing, which is barely enough to sustain the cities' own use. There is still cedar in the Island of Cedar, if the cut cedar is replanted, this resource will not be lost. There were two cities on the island Velos and Ghozai.
Both cities were very different, mostly because the ghiscari freeman on Ghozai at the times of the Valyrian Empire, were forbidden from being a part of the cedar trade, so they ended up becoming slave sellers and the business was left for the valyrian city of Velos. Now that the restriction was no longer in place Ghozai was growing and becoming a fierce competitor of Velos, but I keep the situation at a controllable level to avoid a 'trade war' between the cities.
There was little cedar left near Meeren, Yunkai, and Astapor, and I had to forbid the cutting of it, to avoid the desertification process from going even faster. This process started because Valyria in the Ghiscari Wars burned a lot of forests and plantations, making the soil red and dry.
To make it worst the ghiscari do not even bother to stop their deforestation, so the region was close to becoming a desert.
I had to burn money to change the overall economical situation, thankfully Anga's treasury was very full, and was able to lend money to the local cities.
I trained and contracted the woodcutter to grow more trees, as they got more money from growing trees than cutting them.
Combining the new trees, with newly constructed irrigation channels that helped to irrigate these new trees and the olive plantations, and the use of a fourth field rotation, I was able to turn the cities into a great food producer and an exporter of olive oil.
Besides, with the freeing of slaves that I implemented, where the previous slave owners had to pay financial compensation to their slaves, as they used their main power for free.
The compensation was mainly with land, real estate, and material, the slaves were able to put themselves in the economy as freemen, with their own businesses. Exslave blacksmiths now joined other own workshops and homes, for example.
I also spend a lot developing the coopering industry to produce high-quality cooper, or simple cooper with little lead, first because the ghiscari hills are rich in the metal, second because of all the pipes I had to build.
Ceramic pipes are better filters than copper, but it is much easier to break, harder to transport and so on. As my consumption of copper in construction gradually decreased with the finalization of the construction projects, I started releasing some of the ideas I got from Earth of beautiful bronze art pieces, which allowed the birth of a market for these artistic bronze pieces.
Most were hair ornaments, making use of the intense exports of jewels like musgravite, red beryl, and 'alexandrite' from Ghardaq's mines. Alexandrite in this world has another name, which is sky piece. There is a valyrian road connecting Meereen and Ghardaq, where Meeren slaves used to be exported to Ghardaq.
In other to help the Bhorash, a rising valyrian city, growth, the valyrian freehold forbid the Meereen to be involved in the reselling of Ghardaq super rare jewel. So caravans used to travel long distances to export this jewel to Bhorash, which resell them again. Now, this law was no longer in place.
It seems that the Great Sheepherder also told the Lhazareen to swear fealty to me, so now the Lhazareen were part of my kingdom, the enormous wool trade from Lhazareen to Anga that started soon after, was how I was a great help to initially boost slave bay economy.
The desert-like land of Slave Bay has a clay-rich horizon below all the sand. This clay is the raw material used in all the brick walls of all the bay cities. The region near Yunkai and Meeren is rich in yellow clay, while Astapor is rich in red clay with also a few mines of fire clay, a clay used to produce some heat-resistant products used in metal manufacturing.
Meeren, which walls and structures had a brick of many different colors, have some ball and belonite clay mines. I stimulated the ceramic building, but did not try to compete with the eastern ceramic that has its social status deeply cemented, I introduced a new product artistic ceramic tiles.
With some propaganda, they quickly became a success. The product cemented the reputation of Slave Bay ceramic, allowing the expansion to other areas like pottery, which we could sell much cheaper than in the far east one.
I keep the Fighting Pits ongoing, but I also added nonlethal competitions, and people only enter fights for their life if they wanted. I also added other types of competition, making it basically the Olympic Games of Meeren.
Yunkai does not need much of my input as it was basically a less Lys with a lower reputation. Astapor was the problem the city was too far from the other two, and have nothing much valuable, besides its clay.
I also thought of renaming the bay to the Bay of Bronze, Tiles, and Olive, but the name would be too long. So I went with a simpler name. Now the Bay would be known as the Bay of Summer, about its warm climate. My idea is not much creative, but it sounds ok, and it's simple.
I would finish up all the projects that I started, and gradually hand over the crown to her, but I would, of course, keep myself available, if she needs any help. The population, the Surya faith, and my councilors pressured me to proclaim myself King, I relented because why not. So I was crowned Karna Mell I, King of Anga, Lhazar, Ghardaq, the Bay of Summer, and Ifequevron.
Besides work. Delonne, my eldest daughter, had dated the fourth prince of Chroyane, and they are now married. My second son dated a princess from Ifequevron and they are now engaged. I never ordered them to have political marriages, but they are already having them on their own. My four youngest sons were already teenagers but they did not start dating yet. My four youngest daughters are already dating princes from all over the Rhoyne.
I love being king and seeing the project I work hard to implement start showing results, but I'm starting to feel a bit tired out of this routine. I wanted to pass more time with my wife... I already talked about this with my heir, and we reached an agreement.
When the economy of slave bay was stable I started to build the backbone of the education system of my new territories. With all the educated manpower that I invested in Anga, with good salaries was not much hard to get teachers to start the backbone of the education system of the newly conquered areas. It would take a while for the new territories to reach the level of literacy of Anga.
So after some more years, I was able to leave a perfectly functional and economically stable kingdom to Delonne. She gradually was able to take over more responsibilities. When she finally could administer the Kingdom on her own, I was glad that I could finally enjoy my retirement. When I relaxed I could feel the world around me change.
Suddenly I was in a different place with a crown flying above me, swords strangely seem to kneel(if this even makes sense) to me, and there was a strange filling of prosperity, victory, and male fertility in the air. A small sun also flew in the air above the crown but it was very small compared to the massive sun in front of me.
"I guess there is a long time since we don't see each other. Hello, son. And welcome to God's city. "Surya said to me.
"Hello, god father. May I ask, why I am here?"I said.
"You finally were able to relax and complete your ascension to godhood. It was the last step you need to take, as you had already become one with the universe; reached the limit of power to a demigod; your wife someway ended up blessing you with immortality, and defeated fourteen gods; which divine energy partially spread when you cut them; and ended up stimulating your evolution into a god. You were unconsciously holding it back. "Surya said.
"My fight against the fourteen gods happens with your awareness?"I asked suspiciously.
"These gods wanted to bully a demigod, that was actually much stronger than them, and give you the final push you needed to become a god. Would you have liked for me to save you?"Surya asked.
"No, you had a far point."I said.
"Besides one of the divinities you awaken is related to Kingship, so as you broke your mortal shackles, all your no longer have them, so all your descendants now have the potential to become gods, no matter how diluted my blood in them become.
Besides all afterlife are connected to God's city, including the rhoynars one, your mother-in-law would allow you to visit your relatives whenever you want to."Surya explained.
That's how I became Karna, the God of Kings, Warriors, Prosperity, Victory, and Male Fertility.
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