"The book we printed?" Aegon's eyelids twitched, and he immediately thought of something—the only things that could be so popular with soldiers must be some kind of unsavory, illustrated material. He walked towards the tent, and as he got closer, he quickly heard the conversation between the stall owner and the soldiers.
"Are you robbing people? This tattered thing, you want ten silver stags?"
"Robbing people? What is this thing, open your eyes and look carefully, this is a book!" The stall owner was not intimidated by the soldiers in front of him. He flipped through the book in his hand, shouting back loudly while showing the content. Those who could get the news and come here—to do business next to the military camp—were not ordinary people with no connections. Not to mention that the nobles of the Six Kingdoms and the King were gathered here, these small soldiers wouldn't dare to cause trouble: "How many pages are in here? How much ink does it take for so many drawings... Can you tell me! A few months ago, your entire year's military pay couldn't buy a book this thick, do you understand? This one alone cost me five silver stags to get, and then transporting it from King's Landing to this place, how much does that cost? Buy it or not, there's only this much stock!"
"Take it, don't let me see you again!"
"How much better it would have been to do this earlier, how much effort you made me waste!"
...
Many soldiers paid and bought things, taking their brothers who were joining the fun back to their respective camps and tents. The crowd finally thinned out. Aegon walked to the stall and casually looked around.
Amazing, this was a new thing unprecedented in Westeros: a bookstall. There were five or six different books of varying thickness and covers on the stall, including books whose content could be guessed from the titles, such as 'Stories of Noble Ladies' and 'The Romantic History of Young Aegon'... Among them was prominently displayed 'The Fantastic Adventure Journey of the Night's Watch', the outline of which Aegon had written. He wasn't in King's Landing, yet his industries and businesses were flourishing, with goods even following him to the battlefield. This feeling was truly quite strange.
Aegon calculated the time and quickly realized something was wrong: according to the planned production capacity of the paper mill and printing press, the order for the seven-pointed star scripture from the church should not have been completed yet. How could these books appear on the market so quickly? Either Tyrion had built several production lines at an astonishing speed and immediately started production... or—that guy had seen a business opportunity, decisively postponed the production of existing orders, and first printed these easy-to-sell books to entertain the idle army suppressing the rebellion in the Vale, making money from these soldiers!
Tyrion, that guy, is truly a genius! Even I didn't discover this business opportunity!
What made him unsure how to react was that among these books, the one he was most proud of... the 'Adventure Journey' book telling 'his own story' had the worst sales, with a thick stack of over a dozen copies left; whereas a pile of small yellow books that he didn't even consider worthy of his 'attention' were almost completely sold out. The most expensive one, yet the best-selling, was something called 'King's Landing Beauties Illustrated'. When he opened it, the content almost made Aegon's eyes pop out.
Every page in this book had a drawing of a woman posing provocatively. This wasn't unusual, but what was amazing was that on the back of the drawing, there was information about the woman's name, age, origin, and where to find her. It was a thick book, almost listing the addresses of every brothel in King's Landing and information about one or more of their featured ladies... Instead of 'Beauties Illustrated', it should have been called 'King's Landing Driving Guide'. Who knows where Tyrion got this inspiration!
It's no wonder so many soldiers bought this thick, mostly illustrated behemoth, even with a price tag of ten silver stags—there were few words, making it easy to read, and the information inside was super practical. With this thing, anyone could pretend to be an experienced driver. This was the perfect product; the 'Adventure Journey' book that he had high hopes for could never compete with it in sales!
Wait, isn't this 'erotic transaction location yellow pages' an advertisement for these places? If it were me, I would definitely charge the owners of these establishments for advertising!
Thinking further—if even I could think of a way to make money, how could Tyrion miss it? God knows how many businesses the Night's Watch Industry has expanded into and how much money it has made in the month since I left!
...
"If you're not buying, don't look!" The stall owner impatiently snatched the Driving Guide from Aegon's hand. Looking up, he saw his black clothes and suddenly remembered something, his expression immediately becoming hesitant: "Uh... are you perhaps the Chief Logistics Officer, Lord Aige?"
Aegon was about to reply, but a familiar male voice called his name not far behind him. Turning around, he saw Lord Buckwell, with whom he had become quite familiar these past few days.
Although the other party had never shown contempt or arrogance, he was after all an Lord. According to the laws of Westeros, his status was immeasurably higher than that of Aegon, a member of the Night's Watch. As a person, one should not take politeness for granted. Aegon dared not be negligent, left the stall, and walked a few steps to meet him: "Good morning, Lord. Does the King still have plans to attack the Bloody Gate today?"
The old Lord in front of him was qualified to attend Robert's war council, hence Aegon's question.
"Probably not. Your Majesty also realized that the Bloody Gate is a tough nut to crack and decided to focus the attack on the castles of the rebellious families located outside the Vale of Arryn first. Tomorrow, half of the army here will split off to tackle those slightly easier bones to chew." The old Lord gave a brief introduction, then tilted his body and introduced a distinguished guest behind him to the Quartermaster of the Night's Watch: "This is Miss Margaery Tyrell. She read your story and is very eager to meet you. She didn't find you at your tent... Luckily, your clothes are quite noticeable."
Aegon was surprised and only then noticed another young girl behind the old Lord.
"Miss Margaery, you are even more beautiful than the legends say! Please allow me to apologize for my wandering around."
"You are too kind. It has also been my long-held dream to meet an adventurer like you, Lord Aegon Westerling." The girl replied gently and politely: "If you are not busy, could you tell me your story? Reading it in a book is, after all, different from hearing a real person tell it."
(She read that 'Adventure Journey' book.) Aegon immediately understood what was going on: "It would be my honor."
...
He had met his match. When it came to saying the right thing to the right person, who could compete with the girl in front of him, the daughter of Mace Tyrell, the sister of The Knight of Flowers, known as the 'Highgarden Rose', the most cunning girl in Westeros?
This beautiful girl in front of him, with soft brown curls and bright doe-like eyes, was about the same age as Nina. Her eyes also sparkled with the same admiration and adoration as Arya or Nina, but Aegon knew—this 'Little Rose', who was personally taught by Queen of Thorns, Lady Olenna Redwyne, and was determined to rely on her marriage to bring her family back into the center of power, could never be anyone's fangirl, let alone a member of the Night's Watch like himself, whose status was special and who could not participate in the noble game at all.
In terms of hidden depths and cunning, if he was self-taught, then this seemingly 'innocent' girl in front of him had been immersed in it since childhood, a professional... Their strengths were not on the same level at all. His only advantage was that he understood her far better than she imagined.
How could such a high-status girl come to the battlefield? Aegon was a little puzzled, but soon felt relieved—since even he could see that this rebellion suppression war, where the Six Kingdoms were gathered, was a good opportunity to build connections, how could those keen politicians not smell it? This Little Rose in front of him must have come with a specific purpose. As for why she came to find him, that would depend on his careful responses and analyzing the information in her words.
—