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After sharing a rich and pleasant lunch with House Tyrell, Robb and Margaery spent the afternoon enjoying the pleasures of her bedchamber.
Perhaps because the Starks and Tyrells had formally confirmed their union that day, Margaery was even bolder with Robb than before, leaving him thoroughly relaxed and satisfied.
At that moment, he deeply understood an old saying from his previous life: a man could drown his ambition in pleasure.
In his previous life, he had been no more than an ordinary office worker. In this life, he had already reached the point of ruling the realm by day and resting with a beauty in his arms by night.
But Robb knew Westeros hid enormous dangers. He would not let himself drown in pleasure.
After steeling himself and refusing Margaery's renewed challenge, despite her flushed cheeks and bright eyes, Robb let her clumsy hands help him straighten his clothes and left Highgarden's inner castle.
When Robb returned with the Wolfguard from the inner castle to the west-gate harbor camp, Theon came forward with Ramsay close behind him.
"Robb, that boy Gendry seems very gifted at smithing. I showed him the Valyrian steel dagger that Highgarden's smiths could do nothing with, and he just said he can reforge it today.
"It was dull sitting in his tent, so I left Asha and some men to guard outside and came here to wait for you."
Theon, already used to his present luxury, wore new and splendid clothes whenever it was not wartime. When he reached Bloodwind, he spoke with a smile.
"Oh? I meant to give him enough time to try. I did not expect him to reforge it so quickly."
Surprise crossed Robb's face. As he answered Theon, he rolled off Bloodwind's back.
"That is why I said he has talent. But you made such a fine smith into a charging cavalryman?
"If he gets himself killed in battle, would that not waste his gift for forging?"
Theon clearly admired Gendry. For once, though he usually disliked meddling, he voiced his view to Robb.
"That is the path he chose for himself. Besides, perhaps his talent for battle is even stronger than his talent for forging. After all, the blood flowing in him..."
"Hm? What flows in him? You always like to stop halfway through a sentence. It is maddening.
"Forget it. If you do not want to say it, asking again will be useless. Come on. I will go with you to Gendry's smithing tent."
When Robb's words stopped abruptly, Theon complained in irritation, then lowered his head and walked toward Gendry's tent in the camp.
Ramsay, who had been listening silently at the side, had a strange look flicker in his eyes. Without showing anything, he followed Theon like a loyal dog.
"Wyl, bring Malora Hightower to Gendry's tent. And have Crey bring the moonstone he has been keeping."
"Yes, Your Grace."
Robb watched Theon and Ramsay's backs. Without turning his head, he gave Wyl the order and walked on.
Like Margaery, Gendry had arrived at Highgarden the previous day, but he had not come from Partridge Hall along the Ocean Road. He had sailed from Lannisport.
On the day the battle for Highgarden ended, after seeing Highgarden's smiths prove useless, Robb had urgently ordered Gendry to come.
After Malora Hightower confirmed his earlier guess about Valyrian steel disrupting magic, Robb had decided to make Bloodwind a set of equipment that could defend against mental enchantment.
As for the raw Valyrian steel, it was the dragonbone dagger Littlefinger had used to frame Tyrion.
Robb believed Gendry might be able to reforge Valyrian steel because his former master in King's Landing, Tobho Mott, had loudly claimed he knew the spells and methods for forging and reforging Valyrian steel.
As Robb and the others approached Gendry's smithing tent, rhythmic metal strikes could be heard from within.
The unusually broad tent was guarded on all sides by many of Theon's ironborn retainers. When they saw Theon and Robb arriving together, they saluted respectfully and opened the tent.
Robb had specifically asked House Tyrell to prepare Gendry's smithing tent. Inside was everything from a great furnace with bellows to high-purity charcoal and forging tools.
"Your Grace. King Theon."
Seeing Robb and the others enter, Gendry, bare-chested and covered in bronze muscle, set the heavy hammer in his hand on the anvil before him and saluted respectfully.
"Good. Gendry, you have worked hard. But Asha, what is happening here?"
Robb first nodded to Gendry, then turned toward the corner of the tent. Asha was directing two ironborn as they put several corpses into sacks.
"Your Grace, the smith boy asked me to come in before and told me reforging Valyrian steel required a blood sacrifice. So I found several prisoners Lord Crey had sentenced to death and brought them here."
Asha immediately bowed and answered respectfully.
"No, Your Grace. What I said was that I needed fresh blood. But after Lady Asha brought these prisoners here, she simply cut their throats. I had no time to stop her."
As soon as Asha finished, the honest Gendry anxiously explained the truth to Robb.
"It is fine. They were only condemned prisoners. What I want to know is whether their blood worked."
Robb waved a hand and asked the question that concerned him most.
"Yes, Your Grace. Only..."
Gendry nodded, then hesitated as he looked at the others in the tent.
"Everyone but Theon, leave. If Wyl and Crey arrive, have them report outside."
The method of reforging Valyrian steel was clearly a secret. Seeing Gendry's concern, Robb gave the order.
"As you command, Your Grace."
Everyone, Asha included, saluted Robb and left the tent. Only Theon remained, smiling because he had been given special treatment.
"Forgive me, Your Grace. It is not that I want to keep the reforging method secret.
"It is because this technique was not taught to me by Master Tobho.
"I stole it."
Once everyone else had left, Gendry lowered his head in shame and spoke to Robb and Theon.
Only then did Robb understand that Gendry was not trying to hoard the technique. That was what worried him.
That was understandable. Westerosi law was very lenient toward nobles, but extremely harsh toward commoners.
Gendry's theft of a craft technique could be judged as theft. Punishments for theft differed across the Seven Kingdoms. At the harshest, he could be hanged; at the lightest, he would lose a hand.
Of course, thieves had another choice: put on the black and join the Night's Watch. Given the frequency of theft in Westeros, thieves were among the main sources of men for Castle Black.
"Gendry, in the name of the king, I pardon your theft of the technique. Now return to the matter. Tell me about the Valyrian steel."
Robb smiled and spoke to the honest, open young man.
"Tch. I thought you were going to say something serious. It is only that?"
Theon rolled his eyes from the side and mocked him without mercy. In Theon's eyes, Gendry's matter was barely worth calling a problem.
Hearing Robb, Gendry immediately raised his head and nodded to him gratefully. Then he turned and opened the lid of the furnace behind him.
As soon as the lid opened, a wave of heat rushed out and made the tent noticeably hotter.
The orange-red fire that suddenly appeared made Theon turn his head away by instinct. Robb, however, used his ice-crystal eyes to observe it carefully as if nothing were wrong.
Inside the blazing furnace, high-purity charcoal burned red. A small crucible sat within it, and inside the crucible was Valyrian steel melted into liquid.
Once the furnace was open, Gendry seemed to loosen up as well. He began explaining to Robb without pause.
"Your Grace, Valyrian steel is extremely hard to melt. Even high-purity charcoal with fire-aiding materials added is not enough.
"Master Tobho said he guessed finished Valyrian steel was protected by magic spells, which made it so special.
"Therefore, the first step of reforging is to use a blood magic spell to break the original magical protection."
"Wait. That is not right. Did you not just say you stole the reforging technique? How has it become something Master Tobho told you?"
Theon suddenly interrupted Gendry.
"I was only an ordinary apprentice, so Master Tobho would not have taught me. But when he drank himself senseless, he often pulled me aside and talked endlessly.
"One time, he seemed to have suffered some insult at the smiths' guild. After he became drunk, he kept shouting that he had indeed been boasting and did not truly know how to forge Valyrian steel. But the reforging technique was something he had learned in Qohor at great cost.
"Then he brought out the forging notes he had treasured from those years and said he would likely never have a chance to reforge Valyrian steel in this life, so he could only review the notes occasionally to keep the skill from fading.
"That was when I secretly memorized Master Tobho's forging notes."
"So that is how it happened. Gendry, since the Valyrian steel has already melted, then that blood magic spell is indeed effective.
"Come. Use your blood magic spell on the ice sword in my hand."
Unlike Theon, who liked hearing gossip, Robb's attention sharply fixed on the blood magic spell. He stretched out his left hand and condensed an ice-crystal longsword.
"Yes."
Gendry nodded, grabbed a handful from the large basin of thick fresh blood beside him, and smeared it over the ice-crystal sword in Robb's hand. Then he began chanting spells no one understood.
After Gendry finished, the tent fell silent except for the crackling of the furnace. Yet the ice-crystal sword in Robb's left hand showed no change beyond being dirtied with blood.
"Perhaps this blood magic spell only works on Valyrian steel."
Robb had thought that if the spell could break magic in general, it would have considerable value. Looking at the unchanged ice-crystal sword, he made an uncertain guess.
"Perhaps, Your Grace. I have already made the molds. Shall I begin reforging now?"
"Begin."
With Robb's permission, Gendry set the molds he had just forged on the anvil. Then he took the pot from the furnace with tongs and began pouring the molten Valyrian steel into the molds.
Valyrian steel, carrying countless tiny burning sparks, flowed along the grooves and into rows of little molds the size of fingertips.
Gendry then repeated the blood spell process, casting the spell over each mold.
Finally, after a hissing quench, the dragonbone dagger had become seven pairs of ear studs, one large pair and six small pairs.
Looking at the seven pairs of studs Gendry set on the long table, Robb suddenly swung the ice-crystal sword in his left hand at them.
When the ice-crystal blade touched several studs, it snapped into pieces and quickly dissolved into the air, exactly as it had when it struck Lord Randyll's Heartsbane.
"It is indeed a magic-breaking effect. Gendry, I fear your blood magic spell only suppresses and restores the special power of Valyrian steel."
After watching the seven pairs of magic-breaking studs, Robb spoke to Gendry while thinking carefully.
Under Robb's direction, Gendry tested the second blood magic spell. As expected, it did not add any magic-breaking effect to a new weapon.
"Theon, Gendry, each of you take one stud. They can protect you from mental magic."
"Thanks, Robb."
"Your Grace, I do not need one."
Hearing Robb, Theon picked a stud without ceremony. Gendry was forced by Robb to accept one as well.
Robb gave Gendry a stud as payment for the reforging. As for why he gave one to Theon...
"Heh. Theon, come here. I will pierce your ear for you."
"What? No, no need. I think I might not need the stud after all."
Hearing Robb, Theon immediately tried to refuse, but how could he resist Robb's immense strength? Robb forcibly used a small ice needle he condensed to pierce a hole through Theon's left ear.
"Your Grace, I have brought Lord Crey and Malora Hightower."
Just as Theon, looking deeply aggrieved, put on the stud, Wyl's report came from outside the tent.
"Come in."
Robb answered, and Wyl led Crey and Malora into the tent.
"Your Grace, these past few days I have been thinking. When you shape your ice techniques, you do not seem to need spoken runes to resonate with the rune structure.
"So may I feel the rune energy in your body?"
As soon as she entered, Malora, dark circles beneath her eyes, anxiously asked Robb.
"I will consider it. First, however, I need you to do a small thing for me."
Robb nodded to Malora, then turned to Crey.
"Crey, give her the moonstone you have been keeping."
Crey did not ask much. He obeyed Robb's order and handed Malora the moonstone, now only the size of a pea.
"Use your charm on him."
"Ha? Me?"
Seeing Robb point at him, Theon's face went blank. His ear still hurt.
Malora was rather obedient. The moment Robb finished, she raised the moonstone in her right hand toward Theon and began chanting.
In Robb's sight, as Malora's spell ended, a ball of deep blue light suddenly shot from the moonstone toward Theon's head.
Then, just like the ice-crystal sword before, it abruptly dissolved in midair.
From Theon's point of view, he saw only the deep blue light flare in Malora's hand. Then he looked down at himself. Nothing seemed to have happened.
"No effect? Hmm. Is it the Valyrian steel?"
After casting the charm, Malora found that no mysterious connection had formed with the target. She stopped and turned to ask Robb.
"Yes. It seems you truly did not lie to me about Valyrian steel."
"I did not lie about the other information either. But from the look of this, you used blood magic to reforge Valyrian steel?"
Malora's occult knowledge was indeed broad. After a quick glance around, she guessed roughly what Robb and the others had done.
"More or less. Is there a problem?"
"I would rather study necromancy than touch blood magic. Believe me, those who study blood magic cannot escape the gods' punishment in the end."
When speaking of blood magic, Malora did not use a formal occult term. Her tone was heavy as she advised Robb.
Robb immediately gave her a strange look. "Hm? Do you not call yourself a maester of the Citadel? And yet you believe in gods?"
Looking at Robb's surprise, Malora answered without avoiding the question.
"I do not represent the Citadel. But from what I know, the Citadel works to build a world without occult arts because it does not want Westeros to suffer Valyria's fate as well.
"Several centuries ago, archmaesters of the Citadel guessed that Valyria's destruction may have come because they wantonly used evil blood magic, angered the gods, and brought the Doom down on themselves."
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